by R. S. Elliot
She glared back at me.
The sheer ire in her gaze was enough to make even the bravest men crumble. But I was beyond letting her get her way. She couldn’t stand there and tell me she had no other choice. If she didn’t believe in the policies of the company, then why force-feed them to others? Why work for the company at all?
“Lyndsey?” A woman’s voice wove through the clamor of the dance hall.
I lifted my gaze from her, noticing for the first time how close we stood to one another. The voice belonged to a young woman, likely the same age as Lyndsey, with striking red hair. She stood about a whole foot shorter than the man beside her. Both looked completely out of place in a simple fundraiser, too smartly dressed and worth way more than our usual clients.
“Aly, Zach.” Lyndsey slid a hand between us, gesturing back and forth for introductions. “This is the person in charge...apparently. Hunter Carson.”
“Hunter.” The man reached a hand forward, and I accepted without hesitation. If he really was interested in supporting the charity, we could use all the help we could get. “Nice to meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Have you?”
A tight cough erupted at my side. Lyndsey’s eyes narrowed to thin slivers, regarding the man before us like an insurgent stepping out of rank.
I, on the other hand, could not help the smile spreading across my face. She hadn’t known I was the man in charge of the charity, so that couldn’t have been the course of their conversation. Just what had Lyndsey told her friends about me? And why did it force such a bemusing blush to grace her cheeks?
“Why don’t we let the boys discuss business in peace?” the woman asked, visibly yanking Lyndsey away.
After several minutes of discussing the potential for charity work in both local and surrounding areas, along with a sizable donation, I no longer questioned Lyndsey’s motives for coming. In fact, there was plenty to celebrate, to the point that I put all my irritations to the side.
Almost all of them.
She still held me at arm’s length, still expected us to pretend like we didn’t care about one another. I couldn’t carry on like this for much longer. Every second around her stood as a constant reminder that no woman would ever make me feel the same way she did.
Not even Crystal.
I was screwed.
In time, my feelings would fade. Didn’t they always? But, for now, what did I do with them? I should be willing to move heaven and earth for the woman I cared about. Though there was a difference between fighting for someone and pushing them too far. I had to draw the line somewhere, and Lyndsey had made it clear she wanted our relationship to remain one of business only.
But even that wasn’t working anymore. It was all or nothing.
I found her outside, sitting at one of the benches facing the lake. Most of the guests remained inside, eating, and listening to music that was only a dull string of indiscernible melodies from out here. She didn’t even notice me approaching, no doubt lost in thoughts far more interesting than an event like this.
The breeze rippled through her straight blonde hair, tossing the strands in every erratic rhythm of the wind. Her face lifted upward to the pale sliver of moonlight descending over her, as if drawing energy from the stars above. She looked like some ancient earth goddess consulting the forest spirits for guidance.
She was wild, unexplored territory. An enigma I would never be able to wrap my head around. And I was foolish enough to want more.
“Your friends seem nice,” I said, using the only words I could think of to announce myself.
She jumped. Her wide eyes assessed me with suspicion, as if she assumed my presence there could only be the work of menace. “They are.”
I claimed a seat beside her on the bench. “They said you might be heading up the operation down here. Or at least be a point of contact.”
She raised a shoulder, no longer looking at me. All of her attention was on the water. “They mentioned it. I haven’t given them my final decision yet.”
“That would require quite a commitment, wouldn’t it?”
That got her attention, though it was not the reaction I’d intended. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I just thought you had no intention of staying here,” I explained. Because she hadn’t. Wasn’t that what she’d been saying from the beginning.
Wasn’t it what everyone expected? “Not long-term anyway.”
“Is that your opinion of me?” She leaned a chin into her palm, her arm propped up at the elbow against the table. “Or is it your sister’s?”
“God, Lyndsey. You told me you don’t do long-term.” Though she wasn’t entirely wrong.
“And a person can never change?”
I sucked in a breath, steadying myself to the possibilities of such a declaration. “Have you? Is that what you still want?”
“What I want doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters.” I moved closer to her. “That’s my whole point. You keep worrying about what everyone else wants, your parents, your cousins, and your grandmother. What do you want?”
“It isn’t that simple.” Her voice cracked.
An ache awakened, and I struggled with wanting to pull her into my arms. “Sometimes, the things we want come at too high a cost.”
“Then you don’t really want it, do you?”
She peered up into my face with a bittersweet longing. The torment there fed an unjustified hope within me, that she still cared, and still wanted this. Even if something I didn’t understand was still holding her back. She confessed nothing, and yet all the pain she’d harbored over the past few days reflected in her gaze like a mirror. I recognized all the same fears and needs I battled every minute apart from her in the eyes now illuminated by starlight.
“Of course, I do,” she whispered.
“Then you would fight for it, blood, tooth, and nail.” Against all reason, my hand rose to her cheek, trailing a finger along the line of her jaw. Her breasts pushed upward on a shallow breath, and her lips parted in surrender. The pad of my thumb glided over her lower lip. Old sensations merged with the new, and memories of her mouth over mine coaxed me into dangerous territory. “The way I’d fight for you, if you’d let me.”
She sighed, something short of exasperation and tears. Her body tilted forward, drawn to me by the same inexplicable force compelling me to her. Though at the last second, she pulled away and removed my touch. “You should get inside to your girlfriend before she sees you with me.”
Not this time.
She didn’t get to dismiss me so easily again. “Let her see me. I’m done hiding how I feel from her, from you, and from myself. I can’t do it anymore.”
“Hunter, please…”
I stopped short of her lips, hovering there until absolutely certain she was ready. Her words fanned across my mouth as she spoke. Our breaths mingled into one, and it took all the strength within me not to kiss her.
I needed to hear it from her first. I needed her to admit she wanted me as badly as I needed her.
“You can’t tell me you don’t feel something between us.” My hand brushed the top of her knee, teasing the space where the edge of her dress met bare skin. I traced my thumb along the hem of her skirt, and she trembled with a need I knew all too well.
Her hand flew out to my shoulder. Whether she meant to steady herself or push me away, all plans left her in an instant. Instead, her fingers curled around my shirt, tugging me closer despite the protests in her words.
“We can’t,” she whispered, near breathless already.
“Why not?” I pressed a kiss against her neck. Her pulse thundered wildly against my lips. All the while, her grip on me tightened.
“Someone will see us.”
I grit my teeth, steeling myself against what she meant. It wasn’t just anyone she was worried about, but a specific someone. “Someone like Flynn?”
“I don’t care about Flynn like that,” she sa
id, half-shouting, half-gasping. “He’s just a friend.”
The knot in the center of my chest unravelled. So, she wasn’t dating Flynn. That didn’t mean she wasn’t dating someone else. “He’s not the man you’re seeing?”
“There’s no one, Hunter,” she whispered against my ear. Her hand slid down the front of my chest, coaxing every muscle to tense beneath her palms. My own grip on her tightened, shifting the edge of her skirt even higher. I was one flimsy thread away from making love to her right here in the open.
“There’s no one,” she repeated, dragging her lips along my jaw. “Only you.”
I couldn’t fight it anymore.
My mouth found hers, hungry and insatiable. This was not the soft, tender kiss from moments we shared in the past. It was not a request, nor was it a promise of comfort.
This was a reclamation of passion long-since denied. A passion I refused to ignore any longer.
Lyndsey pressed her body against me, releasing a soft sigh of surrender. Her hands dove into my hair, holding me in place as her lips joined mine in a plunder of unexplored pleasure. She tasted like whiskey and sugar, a pure blend of sweetness and sin.
One kiss would never be enough with Lyndsey. I wanted all of her.
Tonight.
Forever. Or however long she would let me.
My hand slipped beneath her dress, caressing the soft skin of her inner thigh. She quivered with anticipation, her entire body trembling with need. I stroked my knuckles along the sensitive space between her thighs. She was already wet and waiting for my touch. A soft moan escaped her throat, and my cock thrummed with an aching to be where my hand was.
I moved beneath her underwear and kneaded her tight nub with my thumb. She yanked her head back, gasping as our lips broke free.
“We’re not alone,” she whispered, and shifted her attention to the small scatterings of people on the deck. “Someone will see what we’re doing.”
“Then I will go slow.” I smiled, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “So long as you promise not to scream.”
One finger slid into the slick entrance of her womanhood. She sucked in a quick draw of breath, her breasts brushing against my chest in agonizing temptation. I couldn’t hold out for much longer. My cock was already primed to explode, and I hadn’t even spent a second inside her.
A second finger dipped between her wet folds, and I swallowed the moan cresting her lips with a kiss. I pleasured her with slow, maddening strokes that found a rhythm all their own. Her body tightened around my hand, her ecstasy mounting with every thrust. She was almost there, so close to a release we both needed to enjoy. How had I ever imagined my life without this woman? How did I ever think anyone else would take her place?
I needed her more than air, more than life.
She was already all those things to me and more. And there was no way I would ever let her go again without a fight.
She rose to the edge of her orgasm, tumbling over the precipice with a divine sweetness reserved only for a goddess of the earth. She was beautiful, absolute perfection. I laid a kiss against her temple, drawing her tightly against me.
Suddenly, she pulled back, peering across at me with a hooded gaze. I steadied myself for the protests, for the many excuses of why we could never be together. I didn’t want to hear them. Hearing how much of a mistake this had all been was the one thing I couldn’t handle again.
Though when she spoke, she took me completely by surprise.
“I need you. All of you. Now.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lyndsey
My body slammed back against the wall, Hunter’s large frame instantly falling over top of me.
His lips captured mine, hungry, unrestrained, possessive.
I couldn’t even deny it anymore. I was his. Completely and without a care for the consequences. I would sort it all out later. My feelings, the business, my future—everything came secondary to this.
“Lock the door,” I whispered against his mouth.
He reached across the small room and turned the lock.
Once it became clear our little endeavor under the mere blanket of darkness would easily be discovered without a more discreet location, we found a small waiting room attached to the dance hall. The room looked like something a bride would freshen up in before making her grand entrance into the ballroom. It was easily accessible from both the outside and the inside, which meant there was no reason to push past a hundred half-drunk partygoers and investors to reach our secluded little spot.
That didn’t mean we couldn’t still be discovered or that no one had witnessed our moment of weakness outside on the benches. It was a reckless move led by feelings and desires that overcame my better judgment. But I would not apologize for one moment spent in Hunter’s arms.
Not anymore.
My palms glided up the front of his chest, wanting to feel more of his body pressed into mine. His skin was flush against me, hot and burning with a passion only he ignited. My fingers trembled as they worked the buttons of his shirt. This was far from my first time, and yet, I felt completely lost. I’d never been with a man like Hunter, one I cared about enough to risk everything for.
Making love to him meant potentially losing my job, losing my inheritance, and ultimately my grandmother’s home.
Was it worth it?
Was one night of explosive bliss worth giving up everything I never knew I wanted? I didn’t need a billion dollars to make me happy. I would be just as happy finding my own way working odd jobs to support a trip backpacking through South America.
And yet, losing my family home, the one I deemed a burden only weeks ago, would be my biggest regret.
Hunter was worth it. He was worth every bit of the risk. Though, it didn’t make giving in any easier.
His shirtsleeves parted before me, and I tugged them down over his arms. The man was pure temptation, made solely for the pleasure of women. And he was all mine. I scraped my fingernails lightly along the taut sinew of his arms. His muscles twitched beneath my touch, revealing their muscular definition. The man had lifted me into his arms like I weighed nothing at all. He was built like a freaking linebacker, and yet, he’d only ever been gentle with me.
Even now, his hands trailed over my skin with a feather-light caress, driving me mad with the numbing sensation. His lips moved to my throat. Every kiss awakened a new pulse of pleasure, pulling deep between my thighs until the tension grew just short of torture. I rocked my hips forward, pressing my sensitive sex against his rock-hard erection. A bolt of sheer electric warmth shattered through me.
My God, he felt wonderful.
I needed him. Needed all of him. But the ravenous beast from only moments before subsided to a man content to make me wait. It was payback, I supposed, for all those times I’d pushed him away. I deserved this delay in gratification.
And I would gladly play his game.
Hunter kissed the space where my jawline met the sensitive spot beneath my ear. A shiver of heat spiraled through my body, setting my skin alight like the soft kiss of sunlight. One hand traced along the edge of my dress, teasing the swell of my breasts at the top. His other skimmed beneath my sleeve with his lips, following its trail as he tugged it down my arms.
The cool air grazed my exposed nipple, tightening it to a soft peak at the center of my breasts. His mouth closed over me, the hot, wet sensation rippling through my core. He ravaged my body with his lips, sucking and circling the tender bud with each flick of his tongue.
I moaned, unable to suppress the bubbling of feelings within me. I bucked into him. A low grumble vibrated past his lips. His hands clamped over my hips, holding me in place.
“Patience.” His words feathered across my breast, eliciting a whole new string of titillating bliss.
“Hunter, please.” I barely recognized the sound of my own voice. I’d never wanted anyone so badly in my whole life. I’d always been the one in control. I’d always been the one to take what I wanted. Only no
w, I’d given Hunter the reins, allowed him to take charge. It was both erotic and liberating, if not completely terrifying.
He rocked into me, the firmness of his erection pressing into me through our clothes. I writhed beneath him, still trapped between his body and the wall, still yearning for him to end this madness.
“Tell me,” he whispered against my cheek. “Tell me what you want.”
“You know what I want.” My words were a breathless sigh.
How could he not know?
“I want to hear it from you,” he said, his hands already raising my dress over my hips. He clenched the sides of my underwear in his fists. “I need to hear that you want this.”
“Dammit, Hunter.” I groaned. “Yes. I need you inside me. Now.”
Within seconds, my underwear joined his on the floor along with his pants and whatever garments I’d removed. He stood naked before me. The perfect male specimen. Not even in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined a man more gorgeous than the one in front of me. What made it better was this was no dream at all, no contrived fantasy resigned for the secret recesses of my mind.
This was real.
He was real.
And it felt infinitely better than anything I’d ever experienced.
He removed a condom from his coat pocket and slid it over his erection. A small part of me crumbled thinking about it. He hadn’t known I would be here. He couldn’t have known we’d end up like this. Then why keep it handy?
Had he planned on using it with Crystal instead?
I tried not to think about it. He’d already said he didn’t care about her. He was only seeing her because I had pushed him into it.
Hadn’t that been what I’d told him to do, after all?
His large hands encircled my waist. Our mouths joined together again, entwined in an embrace that promised more than a lifetime of riches ever could. One moment beneath his touch, one kiss, and all the fears holding me back dissipated.
It didn’t matter what had happened between us, or with anyone else. From here on out, he was mine.
His hand moved beneath my knee, pulling my leg up to wrap around his hip. The tip of his erection circled my entrance, and I bit my lip to hold back the scream surfacing there. He entered me in one swift stroke. A blinding pleasure ricocheted through me instantly, sending fissures of electric delight across my body in tiny webs of silk and heat.
