He started moving, but the sisters simply stood there, looking stunned.
“Come along, ladies,” he urged.
Finally, he got them moving towards the hotel bar and seated in a corner booth. He ordered waters all around, and leaned back against the luxurious upholstery, watching them with intense satisfaction, all of them silent for once as the shock of his announcement hit each of them.
Pepper was the first to snap out of her stupor. “Why didn’t you tell us?” she asked, her lips apparently numb with shock.
“I didn’t tell you because then you wouldn’t have had any fun. All three of you have earned your degrees. I wanted you to have fun tonight.”
Rayne shivered, her arms tightly crossed over her stomach. “What if we’d lost?”
“Then you still would have had a fun evening and you never would have been the wiser.”
Pepper opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. She looked at Rayne, then at Sloane, who was trembling slightly, still shocked at the amount of money that had been gambled over the past several hours. Pepper’s eyes narrowed.
“Wait. You just said all three of us graduated.”
Rayne looked at Pepper, then at Sloane, who looked up, surprised. Then all three of them turned to look at Josh.
“Yes, Sloane earned her business degree as well,” he announced.
Again, there was a long moment of stunned silence, then Pepper and Rayne screamed…and pounced on their oldest sister. The elegant atmosphere and sophistication of this corner of the bar was obliterated with the noise of the two youngest laughing and crying as they hugged Sloane, demanding answers one on top of the other.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Rayne demanded.
“Because I wanted the focus to be on you two. This is your special weekend,” she told them.
Rayne snorted in disgust and Pepper rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you’ve been going to school all this time and didn’t tell us! How could you be so sneaky?”
She laughed. “I wasn’t trying to be sneaky,” she admitted. “But we’ve all been working pretty hard, studying and going to classes. So both of you have been gone quite a bit lately. There were many nights that I’d be studying at the kitchen table, but you were both at your respective libraries until late so you never saw me.”
Again, Sloane missed the expression in Josh’s eyes, but Rayne didn’t. She caught it and wondered about it, and decided she’d pull Sloane to the side and ask about it later.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rayne caught sight of a man who was taller and…seemed more dangerous than the other patrons in the exclusive bar. And he was watching them.
Having dealt with other men’s intrusiveness over the years, she stared right back at him, daring him to invade their privacy even with his eyes. But he didn’t react like most would have. He didn’t look away in embarrassment. In fact, just the opposite. He locked eyes with her, almost as if he were trying to tell her something. When he lifted his dark eyebrow in question or…challenge? She wasn’t sure what he was attempting to convey, but she felt her heart begin to pound.
Turning away, she focused on her sisters, not sure if she was angry that her sister had accomplished something so wonderful while working a more than full time job, embarrassed that they’d been so self-absorbed that she and Pepper had gone on their merry way, earning their own degrees while it had taken her older sister seven years to finish hers, or intense pride that her sister had done something almost miraculous.
But the whole time she smiled and listened as Pepper questioned Sloane, Rayne was painfully aware of that man. He didn’t move and he didn’t even try to hide his curiosity. How rude! How arrogant! What a jerk, she thought.
Chapter 12
Sloane fought the urge to curl up in her leather chair and fall asleep. The low hum of the plane’s engines had always been the perfect background noise for her, luring her into a deep, dreamless sleep as they traveled across the globe.
But something was wrong. Rayne was sitting stiffly in her chair, staring blankly out the nearest window. Since the jet was flying above the thick clouds, Sloane knew that Rayne wasn’t looking at anything specific.
“Hey,” she said softly. When Rayne turned her head, Sloane saw the pain there and immediately jumped up from her chair. Taking the seat next to Rayne, Sloane took her sister’s hand. “What’s wrong?”
Rayne forced her lips to smile. “I’m just…nervous about leaving you and Pepper when I head to California,” she said. “It will be the first time that the three of us will be apart.”
Sloane watched Rayne’s eyes and knew that her sister was lying. Well, mostly lying, she mentally amended. But why? What had happened that was bothering her so deeply? “Honey, you know that you can talk to me about anything, right?”
For a long moment, Rayne fought back the threatening tears and Sloane held her breath, wondering if Rayne would tell her what was wrong. But her sister’s strength won out and the tears abated. Rayne smiled and covered their clasped hands with her free hand. “I’m fine,” she whispered. “Sad about leaving. That’s all it is. I promise.”
Sloane didn’t believe her and, when she glanced over at Pepper, she suspected that their youngest sister didn’t agree either. “Fine,” she said to Rayne. “You’re not ready to talk, but know that I’m here for you, okay? No matter what’s going on, you can talk to me.”
Rayne’s chin trembled and she laid her head on Sloane’s shoulder. “Thanks!” But she remained silent. Whatever demons were troubling her, Rayne wasn’t ready to talk about them. Not just yet.
Sloane didn’t move, but her thoughts were going about a hundred miles an hour. What had happened over the past few days? Had someone said something to her over the long weekend? Had she lost the money she’d won? Instinctively, Sloane knew that it wasn’t just about traveling to another state. That might be part of it, but the three of them had talked and cried about their departures already.
No, something else was bothering her serious, strong sister. Sloane knew that she’d just have to wait it out. Rayne would talk when she’d mentally worked through the issue.
Chapter 13
“Okay, so tell Charlie to shift the funds towards the Annex issue and change the weighting,” Josh snapped.
Sloane smiled, writing down his instructions with efficient accuracy. Josh’s mind was constantly working, always sifting through the data that he knew and searching for more so that he could make an informed decision on where to move his clients’ money so it earned the best results. Over the years, Sloane had learned to interpret his generally curt instructions into more actionable directions.
“Are you laughing at me again?” he asked.
Sloane glanced up from her laptop, still smiling. “Yes,” she replied honestly. They’d been working in his penthouse today, needing to focus away from the office.
Josh leaned back against the soft suede of his sofa, clasping his hands behind his head. “Care to share the joke?”
“Nope,” she replied, closing her laptop and stuffing it into her bag. “Anything else?”
“Yes,” he told her and stood up. “Dinner.” Josh walked towards the kitchen as Sloane’s heart started pounding. Just watching him was doing strange things to her now. What had changed? Why couldn’t she just see Josh as her boss?
“Um…Josh, I need to…”
He didn’t bother to turn around when he interrupted her. “You need to come into the kitchen and talk to me while I cook dinner. You’re not going home to the empty cottage again.”
She stiffened, but he simply disappeared into the kitchen. “I’m fine,” she muttered to her lap, then sniffed softly.
“You’re not fine,” he countered.
Her head snapped up, seeing him standing in the open space between the great room and the kitchen, startled and more than slightly disconcerted. “I thought you were in the kitchen already,” she grumbled.
“I know. Come on, Sloane. I know that you skipped lunch and
you’re in such a foul mood that you’re going to go home to a dark cottage and not cook anything for dinner. So, you’re not leaving here until you eat something.”
And with those words, he disappeared into the kitchen.
For a long moment, Sloane just stood there by the matching suede sofas, glaring at the wide doorway between the living room and the kitchen. But in the end, she acknowledged that she was hungry. Starving, actually. And he was right, she didn’t want to go home to that dark house and be alone again.
But it was dangerous to stay here. Without her sisters’ chaos surrounding her, Sloane had too much time on her hands. Every night, she was alone with her own thoughts and every night, those thoughts turned to Josh. Without her sisters around to distract her, Sloane wasn’t able to hide her feelings. Not even from herself.
Plus, after their time in Monaco, there had been an extra level of tension between them. A tension that, if she was right, was pulling them down a dangerous path.
“Sloane!” he bellowed.
Sloane jumped and glared in his general direction. Unfortunately, the wall separating them didn’t allow him to see her glare. So instead, she walked towards the kitchen and stepped into the bright lights.
“What?”
“Come help me,” he ordered, waving the knife towards the peppers and onions on a separate cutting board. He was busy slicing up the chicken into thin pieces and he obviously wanted her to do the same with the red, yellow, and green peppers.
“You could have just asked,” she grumbled, walking over to the countertop and picking up the knife.
“I could have, but it wouldn’t have gotten you in here,” he countered. “Talk to me. What’s going on in your head?”
Sloane sighed and started slicing the red pepper into thin strips. “I just…I miss my sisters,” she told him, which was only half the truth. “We call each other almost every day, but it isn’t the same.”
“Are they doing okay? Their new jobs going well?”
She sliced and he sliced and Sloane relaxed. They’d cooked together hundreds of times over the years and this felt…good. Normal! Yes, it was a normal scene that they’d replayed over and over again. Josh liked to cook and she hated it. So they’d sort of developed a routine. Whenever she came to his place, which had changed over the past eight years, they’d work for several hours and then he’d cook dinner for them. They’d usually work for another few hours after dinner and then she’d head home to her sisters.
But tonight, there wasn’t any need to hurry home.
For some reason, that felt significant, although Sloane wasn’t willing to consider why.
“Tell me what they are up to,” he encouraged and put a wok on the stove, heating up the oil.
For the next twenty minutes, they talked about Rayne and Pepper, Wilma and Jefferson, and a few of the others in the company while Josh cooked. Sloane selected a bottle of wine and opened it, pouring each of them a glass, and perched on one of the counter stools.
It was just a normal evening. They’d done this hundreds of times, she told herself.
So, why did it feel so different?
They ate the delicious stir fry at the counter, the conversation never lagging, but by the end of the meal, when Sloane picked up their plates to rinse them and slide them into the dishwasher, Josh walked over to stand behind her. “Sloane, what’s really wrong?” he asked softly, his voice deep and husky. The sound sent shivers down over her body and she straightened stiffly, her back to him, as she fought her body’s reaction to that tone.
Closing her eyes, she braced her hands against the sink. “It’s different,” she murmured.
She felt him move closer. Felt his body heat warm her back.
“What’s different?” he asked, his voice huskier.
“This,” she whispered back, bowing her head in defeat. “Something changed in Monaco and now, everything feels different.”
He sighed and she felt his warm breath brush against her neck.
“Sloane.” He said her name as if it were a caress. Then she felt his strong hand on her back and lifted her head. Slowly, feeling as if she were dreaming again, she turned around. He was closer than she’d thought, but it wasn’t bad. In fact, she wanted him…closer.
“I feel it too,” he admitted. “But I don’t think that it’s only been since Monaco.” He put a hand on either side of her waist and…shifted so that there was barely an inch of space separating their bodies. “It’s been happening for a while now, hasn’t it?”
She held her breath for a long moment, staring at his chest. But Sloane hated cowardice, so she lifted her eyes to look at his face. “Yes,” she whispered in reply.
“Maybe it’s time we did something about it.”
She trembled and his hands tightened on her waist. “I don’t want to lose our friendship, Josh. You mean so much to me.”
Slowly, he leaned his head down and kissed the top of her head. “We won’t lose our friendship, Sloane. I won’t let that happen.” Then he kissed her cheek.
His lips were warm and soft and she closed her eyes, savoring the soft caresses, but wanting more. Turning her head slightly, ever so slightly, she blinked and…he kissed her lips. It was just a brief touch…too brief.
When had her hands moved to his shoulders? Before she could remember, he kissed her again, his lips brushing back and forth, coaxing her to participate. Sloane was all for participation, but she didn’t want brief, teasing kisses. This was Josh and she couldn’t count how many erotic dreams she’d had about this man. It was sort of a habit now, to fall asleep and dream about him making love to her.
So instead of accepting the brief kisses, she lifted up onto her toes and, completely out of character, deepened the kiss. For a brief moment, Josh allowed her control. But that was it, just that moment. With strong hands, he pulled her against his hard chest and took control, nibbling her lower lip until she opened her mouth for him. That’s when she lost both control and sense of time. Her hands slid up his shoulders into his hair, her fingers tangling in those dark locks, then holding him in place when she thought he was going to pull away.
He didn’t. His mouth just moved from her lips to her neck, teasing the too-sensitive skin there. She gasped, pressing her body against his as she tilted her head back, giving him better access. Her hands tightened in his hair and she gasped when he found an extra sensitive spot just under her ear.
Suddenly, she felt his hands against her bare skin. She moaned with delight as his hands traced along the bare skin of her back, her waist. She trembled as his mouth moved back to hers and she felt frantic, needing to kiss him more and deeper, wanting to feel his hands on more of her skin. She was desperate, terrified that he might stop. Mindlessly, she shifted against him, unconsciously trying to absorb every touch, every sensation before he called a stop to this madness.
Josh couldn’t believe how good Sloane felt! She was almost as wild for him as he was for her and he couldn’t get enough of her. He hadn’t meant for things to go this far. He’d meant only to kiss her, to test the waters and see if she would pull away. But her hands were in his hair, touching his skin, and her touch drove him wild!
He scooped her up and placed her on the countertop. This brought her higher so that their heads were almost aligned. She was such a small thing, but every inch of her felt good against his throbbing body. He needed more, needed to…
Her blouse came up and over her head and he wasn’t sure how he’d gotten the buttons undone. “Sloane,” he growled, seeing her soft breasts encased in the delicate lace of her bra. It wasn’t the fanciest lingerie he’d ever seen, but somehow it was the prettiest.
And then it was gone! He deftly unclasped the bra and tossed it away. “You’re more beautiful than I imagined,” he groaned, leaning down to take a nipple into his mouth. Her hiss made him want to howl, but the lure of her nipple, the aching need to feel that taut peak in his mouth taunted him. He felt her legs wrap around his waist and he lost control. Liftin
g her up into his arms, he kissed her again while carrying her to his bedroom. With her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, he couldn’t think properly. He’d fantasized about this too many times and the reality was so much more intense!
Kicking the door to his bedroom closed, he laid her on the bed. For a long moment, he continued to kiss her, feeling her body shift against his and it was all he could do to pull back long enough to ask, “Are you sure about this?”
Sloane looked up into his eyes, the green was almost luminescent in the soft light. “Yes!” she whispered back, her fingers still in his hair. He couldn’t hold back after that one word. It was all the permission he needed and his mouth moved back to hers. Kissing her for a long time, he reveled in this moment, enjoying the sensations of finally having Sloane in his arms, in his bed!
That’s when he felt her soft hands against the bare skin of his neck and it wasn’t enough. Pulling away, he ripped his shirt open, scattering buttons across the floor, and reached for her, placing her hands on his bare chest. “Touch me, Sloane!” he groaned, then moved back to her neck, exploring every inch of her skin and finding more places that made her tremble and gasp. But his favorite place was her breasts. She was so slender and her breasts were barely a handful. Just perfect, he thought and kissed the peaks, taking them into his mouth and sucking, teasing, nibbling gently until he knew what she liked the best. He moved to the other breast and enjoyed her reactions from his ministrations there too.
He needed more. His hands moved to the zipper on the side of her skirt and tugged it down, then pushed her skirt off, down over her legs. He should probably drape her wool skirt over a chair or something because he knew that she took extremely good care of her clothes, but he could barely breathe, much less care for her clothes. She was naked except for a prim pair of white, cotton panties. And beautiful!
He tried to pull those tantalizing panties down, but in his urgency, he ripped them off instead. Then she was naked. Completely naked and all his!
The Tycoon's Baby Revelation (The Abbot Sisters Book 1) Page 9
