by HELEN HARDT
“Tell me about her,” I said.
“Do you really want to spend the evening talking about Nieves Romero?”
“No, not really. I’d like to learn more about you, but you’re incredibly tight-lipped about that. If I learn about your former girlfriend, maybe I’ll learn a little something about you.”
“She’s a cosmetologist. She does hair.”
“How did you meet her?”
“On a ride. Her bike was in the shop, and she was looking for someone to ride with, so I offered to let her ride bitch with me.”
“Wait a second. Ride bitch?”
“Ride on the back. That’s all it means.”
“It’s a little demeaning, don’t you think?”
“Lacey, for God’s sake. It’s just a term.” He smiled. “I’ll let you ride bitch with me whenever you want.”
“Yeah. No thanks.”
“You ever ride before?”
“Big no on that.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing. This weekend, we go riding.”
“That’s in two days.”
“Yeah. You got plans?”
I didn’t, but truthfully, getting on the back of a bike with Rock scared the hell out of me. So why did I want to do it so badly?
“Lace?”
“No. But I’m not riding with you.”
“Not here, that’s for sure. We’ll fly home.”
“Home?”
“Yeah. To Montana.”
“I can’t just pick up and fly to Montana in two days.”
“One day, actually. We’ll leave tomorrow evening. That way we’ll have all day Saturday to ride. We can stay at my place.”
I squirmed, my skin tingling all over. This was so unlike me…and I wanted it more than my next breath of air.
“You haven’t lived until you’ve ridden under the big sky.” He sighed. “Man, I miss it.”
“You haven’t been here that long, Rock.”
“No, but riding is like breathing to me. You’ll see what I mean.”
“You don’t think I’m actually considering this,” I said. Though I was.
In fact, I’d already decided.
I was going.
If I wanted to learn more about Rock Wolfe, Montana was the place to do it.
37
Rock
Lacey took a long sip of her sparkling water. Then, “Fine.”
“Fine what?”
“Fine, I’ll go to Montana with you.”
“Great. I can’t wait to get back to the fresh air of big sky country.” I took a drink of bourbon. “Man, this is good stuff. Expensive bourbon really is better than rotgut. Do you think pretty boy appreciated it after paying that big bill the other night?”
Lacey shook her head. “Can you be not an asshole for more than a few seconds at a time?”
“Not sure. Never tried.” True enough.
“What do you want from me, then?” she asked.
“Your company. Your tight little body for that great sex we have together.”
She huffed. “I’m serious. You can have any woman you want. Nieves just traveled halfway across the country to be with you, and she’s gorgeous.”
“She’s a pain in the ass.”
“And I’m not?”
“You have your moments,” I said. Didn’t matter. I hadn’t given a thought to any other woman since I’d laid eyes on Lacey Ward.
“Then why me, Rock?”
What could I say to that, except to be honest? A first for me, but why not?
“Because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I first laid eyes on you.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“Surprise you?” I asked.
She cleared her throat. “Yeah. More than a little.”
“Just telling the truth. We’ve had our share of good times in the short time we’ve known each other. You have to admit that.”
“I admit it. But we still don’t really know each other. Every time I ask you—”
“Stop.” I held up my hand. “I don’t get personal, Lacey. It’s not who I am.”
She finished off her sparkling water and stood. “You’ve made that clear. You’ve also made it clear that we don’t have a relationship. Sorry, Rock. That’s not enough for me. I enjoy sex as much as the next person, but I’m not looking for a fuck buddy.”
“Lace, sit down. Please.” The thought of her leaving tied my insides in knots. I had to resist. I had no other choice. There were things she didn’t know about me—would never know about me—and if she did, she’d run away as fast as she could.
If I were a better man, I’d let her run away.
But I was not a better man, unfortunately. I wanted her. I wanted to take her to Montana and show her the beauty of the outdoors.
I wanted to sleep with her in my own bed.
I wanted to wake up next to her and fry her some bacon and eggs in my cast-iron skillet, make her a pot of coffee.
I wanted to make love with her in front of my crackling fireplace, though that would have to wait since summer was nearly here.
I wanted to make her a pot of beef stew or barbeque steaks on my grill for her.
Take her hunting, show her how to pluck and skin a pheasant and then enjoy it together with my famous cognac cream sauce.
“You going to say anything?” she asked. “You asked me to sit.”
I itched to tell her everything racing through my mind, everything I wanted to share with her.
But I couldn’t. Just couldn’t.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s what I thought.”
“Please. Let’s have dinner. And go with me to Montana this weekend. I promise you’ll have an amazing time.”
“I’m not denying that our sex is great, Rock.”
I wasn’t talking about sex, actually. Surprising even to me. Words floated through my head, but somehow they never made it to my vocal cords.
“Yeah, our sex is great.”
“We can have sex here,” she said. “We don’t need Montana for that.”
I sighed. “I do. I want to go home. I want to…”
What the hell did I want?
Things I had no business wanting.
She didn’t miss the opportunity to badger me.
“What do you want, Rock?”
I sighed. “You. I want you.”
“Meaning…?”
She wasn’t going to let this go.
I wasn’t falling in love. I couldn’t be. I didn’t have it in me. But I wanted something from this beautiful woman—something I couldn’t put into words.
“I want you to spend the weekend with me. In Montana. It’s perfect. Monday’s a holiday so we can make it a long weekend.”
“Memorial Day,” she said. “I usually volunteer with homeless veterans on Memorial Day.”
Could she be any more perfect? “What if I make a sizable donation to the organization to make up for the loss of you for one day?”
She smiled. “It’s not about money, Rock. It’s about doing something I believe in. I don’t have a lot of time to do volunteer work, so I do what I can, and I take it seriously.”
Beauty, brains, honesty, integrity, and selflessness.
If I had the capacity to love, I’d love Lacey Ward.
“All right,” I said. “We’ll come back on Sunday evening. That way you can—”
She reached across the table and laid her hand over mine. A bolt of lightning shot through me at her touch.
“I’ll find another way to help this year,” she said. “I’ll go with you for the long weekend.”
Elation filled me. I felt like a school boy who just found out the girl I had a crush on liked me back.
Ridiculous.
“You won’t regret it.”
“Call me or text me with the flight information,” she said. “I’ll have to pack tonight because I have a full day of appointments tomorrow.”
“What time is your last appointment?”
I asked.
She checked her phone. “Three thirty.”
“And how long will it take?”
“About forty-five minutes at most. Why?”
“Great. I’ll pick you up at your office at five to give you some cushion.”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to get a flight by tomorrow?”
“Very sure,” I said, winking. “We’ll be taking the Wolfe jet.”
Her eyes widened into circles. “What?”
“I’m the CEO of the company. All I need to do is make a call.”
“You can use the jet for personal business?”
“Of course. I’d bet my father took it all over the place, and I know Reid has used it to go to the Caribbean on more than one occasion.”
Her gorgeous lips dropped into an O.
I reached across the table and touched the bottom of her chin, closing her mouth. “Never flown in a private jet before?”
“Not once.”
“Well, tomorrow you can take that off your bucket list.”
“It wasn’t ever on my bucket list.”
“Oh? What is, then?”
She pinked up.
Interesting. She definitely had a bucket list, then.
“Come on, baby. Spill it.”
She closed her eyes and then opened them. “It’s silly, really.”
“Nah. Bucket lists aren’t silly.”
Her cheeks were fiery now. This was going to be good.
“Well…I’ve always wanted to go to a nudist place.”
This time my jaw dropped. “Really?”
“Yeah. Too weird for you?”
“Not at all. The idea is intriguing. I just wouldn’t have guessed that for you.”
“That’s because you don’t know me yet, just like I don’t know you.”
Oh, she was good. She found every tiny way to try to get information out of me. I wasn’t falling for it.
“I can probably arrange that nudist thing,” I said. Yeah, I’d be on that first thing in the morning.
If possible, she reddened even further. Fuck. She’d never been so enticing. My cock hardened right there at the table. I squirmed, adjusting myself.
When the waiter came to take our dinner orders, I said, “Wrap it up. We’re getting out of here.”
“What?” Lacey said.
“Sorry, baby,” I said, after the server left, “but I’m hard as a rock right now. I need to get you home. I’m going to eat you for dinner tonight.”
38
Lacey
He’d promised me a dinner. Told me he’d show me how a man was supposed to treat a date.
Instead, we ended up in his suite, our dinner in Styrofoam takeout containers. Rock called room service and had them bring up china, silverware, and a table complete with linens. He even had the server put our food out. Then he signed what I assumed was a huge tip and escorted him out the door.
Just as well we’d left the restaurant. I was still in my work clothes and I felt stiff and ridiculous.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of Rock. I missed his long hair, but now he looked like a male model walking the runway at an Armani fashion show. So unassumingly gorgeous. The man acted like he was nothing special, nothing spectacular.
But he was.
He’d already removed his suitcoat when we arrived, and now he loosened his tie and removed it, unbuttoning the first two buttons of his shirt.
“Get comfortable, Lace.”
My skin prickled, sending a racing tingle down my spine and straight to my pussy. Get comfortable. Comfortable would mean out of my work clothes. I stood and headed into the bathroom. Sure enough, a robe hung on the inside of the door. I quickly stripped and covered myself with the lush white robe. Then I pulled my hair out of its French roll, fluffed it with my fingers, and went back out.
Rock’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Wow.”
“You said get comfortable.”
“I did, didn’t I?” He smiled as he removed his shirt. He stood wearing only his suit trousers, and the bulge inside them was very apparent.
I couldn’t help a smile. “Our dinner will get cold.”
“It’s probably already cold. Take off that robe.”
I obeyed, untying it and letting it slip over my shoulders before it fell to the floor.
He stared at me, and his gaze hardened my nipples. They stuck out like ripe berries, yearning for his touch. Meanwhile, I throbbed between my legs.
“I can see why you want to visit a nude beach,” he said. “You seem very comfortable naked.”
My body wasn’t nearly as beautiful as I imagined Nieves’s to be, but right now, the way he was looking at me, I felt like Helen of Troy herself.
He slid one lone finger over the apple of my cheek, down my neck, and over my shoulder. “So beautiful.”
I reached forward and touched his shoulder as well. “You are too.”
He smiled. “No one’s called me that before.”
“Beautiful? Then anyone who’s seen that chest is blind. It’s beautiful. You are beautiful, Rock Wolfe.”
“God, Lace.” He grabbed me and smashed our mouths together.
I opened, letting him in, surrendering to the passion of his kiss, the raw need in his groan as he devoured my mouth.
He tasted of the crisp bourbon he’d drunk at the restaurant. Bourbon and spice and the unique flavor that was Rock Wolfe.
Our tongues tangled and dueled, our moans answered each other. His cock poked into my belly, and I reached down to cup the hard bulge.
I wanted him.
Not just his body but all of him.
All of Rock Wolfe.
I knew next to nothing about this man, but emotion bubbled in me—emotion that was foreign to me.
Love.
I was falling in love.
God, I was headed for heartbreak. This man was a closed book. He shared his body with me but nothing else. How could I love him? It made no sense, but love him I did. I knew it as I knew the most basic tenets of life.
I love you, Rock Wolfe.
How I longed to break the kiss, panting, and admit those feelings. Fear, though, prevented that. Fear of rejection. He wouldn’t say it back. He didn’t feel it. If we didn’t have a relationship, he certainly wasn’t falling in love.
Could I do this? Could I spend the weekend with a man who wanted me but would never give me his heart?
As he continued to kiss me with such force and passion, I realized I already knew the answer.
Yes.
Yes, I could.
When this ended—and it inevitably would—I’d be devastated.
But until then, I’d enjoy what I could have of Rock Wolfe. His body. His attention. His warm mouth on mine.
He pushed his cock into my belly and his leg between mine. I ground into his hard thigh, my clit pounding in time with my rapid heartbeat.
He broke the kiss, and we both inhaled heavily.
“Damn, Lace. I could kiss you forever.”
I shivered, my nipples hard and aching. He was caught up in the moment. That was all. He didn’t mean he literally wanted to kiss me forever.
How I wished it were true, though! How I wished he could love me.
Before I could think much more, he turned me around, yanked the robe off me, freed his cock, and pushed it into me.
This was how he’d taken me that first day in my office. Hard and fast and from behind. I’d been slick as aloe then, and I’d bet I was even wetter now. I couldn’t get enough of Rock, of his raw maleness, of his massive cock.
“You’re so tight, baby. So fucking tight. You’ve got the sweetest pussy on earth.”
His words made me hotter. They weren’t the words I longed to hear, but they spurred me on anyway, and soon I was jumping into orgasm.
“Rock!” I pushed backward, trying to force him farther and farther into me, so deep into me that we became one.
“That’s it, baby. Come all over my hard cock. Come all over me.
” He plunged into me again and again.
Again and again and again.
Until he jammed into me one last time, groaning. “Lacey, my God!”
When I pulled out after he finished, I held back the whimper that threatened. I pasted a smile on my face and turned to face him. “Hungry? We’d better eat before the food gets any colder.”
“Hungry for you, baby.”
I let out a little laugh that was supposed to sound nonchalant but instead sounded forced. “There’s plenty of time for that. Let’s eat.”
“You okay?”
“Fine. I’m fine.” And I was. Sort of. He hadn’t promised me anything past this weekend.
I was okay with that.
I had to be.
39
Rock
No one had heard from my sister since she left dinner that night with Lacey and me. When Reid mentioned it at work the next morning, my skin went cold.
“Let’s find her then,” I said to him. “We’ve got Daddy’s resources. Put the best PIs on her tail.”
“Already done,” Reid said. “I called it in this morning. Nothing so far.”
I nodded, my heart racing. I loved my little sister. Protecting her was what had sent my life down the shithole. I’d do it again, though. I only wished I’d been more successful the first time.
I wouldn’t fail my baby sister again.
“I was planning to go to Montana for the weekend,” I said, “but I’ll cancel. Riley’s more important.”
“No need to do that,” Reid said. “There’s nothing either of us can do. We’ve got the best people on it.”
“We need to be on it.”
“I get it, Rock. She’s my little sister too. But we’re doing all we can. Go on your trip. You need to pack all your stuff up and ship it back here anyway.”
He was right about that, though packing wasn’t what this weekend was about. This weekend was about taking Lacey on a ride she’d never forget, no pun intended.
But my sister trumped that.
“I don’t feel right going away right now. We need to find her.”
“We will, but you have to understand.” He paused a moment. “This isn’t the first time Riley has taken off.”
