She ruffled her hand through his hair and kissed his temple gently, “Thank you."
A groggy, “For what?” came at her, startling her so much that she jumped back with a shriek, only narrowly missing tumbling right off the bed by the fact that Aiden's hand reached out and grabbed her at just the right moment. As far as she could tell he hadn't even opened his eyes.
"We really need to get you a bigger bed."
He rolled over rubbing his eyes, then slowly opened them, reaching out for her and pulling her close.
"Though there is something to be said for the limited space."
After kissing her into a ripe state of passion he lowered his head, staring thoughtfully into her eyes. “Now what were you thanking me for?"
She closed her eyes, not sure how to respond. She didn't want him to know how deep her feelings were becoming.
"Today I guess. Among other things."
He occupied his mouth with the curve in her neck, which made it very difficult to think or finish her sentence.
"Standing on the bluff looking out at the ocean, listening to your ideas for that property, it was wonderful."
He propped himself up on one elbow, his fingers roaming aimlessly over her skin.
"I wanted you to see what I dreamed for it. I knew if anyone would understand, it would be you."
"It'll be beautiful."
Sadness swam across his eyes. She was getting used to seeing it now, but she still had no clue what it was about.
"It would be, but my ideas won't have a chance. In fact, I won't even present them."
Cassidy lifted her head to view him better, confused by that statement.
"Why not?"
His lips tensed. It wasn't the smile she was used to seeing, the carefree one. This was more of a terse expression. She grew concerned.
"My area is land purchase and bringing order out of transitional chaos when there's a take over. Brant's the creative one. He's in charge of landscaping and design."
"Your brother?"
He'd mentioned him briefly one afternoon, but he never talked about it again. In fact, he never discussed his family, period. She assumed it was because she wasn't going to be a part of his life anyway, so there was no need to discuss family. Right now, however, she began to think that assumption had been wrong. She tensed, waiting to hear the rest.
"Half brother. I don't have any full siblings. My mother isn't my father's wife. Never was."
She swallowed hard. Even in the pale moonlight, she saw the pain in his eyes as he made that admission.
"Your mom and dad weren't..."
"No, though I didn't really understand the implications of that until I was ten.” He released a long sigh, lay closer to her and pressed their bodies together. “You don't want to hear this. Let's spend our time more productively."
His wicked smile and tempting fingers almost had her saying yes, but he did this all the time. She was beginning to realize that whenever he began to open up to her, he always seduced her. Maybe in the big picture, getting to know him wasn't necessary, or even a good idea. Maybe it would only make her miss him more when he was gone, but damn it, she loved him, she wanted to know.
She pulled back and sat up, staring down at him with a tenderness that she felt deep in her soul.
"I do want to hear."
That was all she said. She waited, hoping it was enough. He looked at her a long time, but when he pulled her back down into his arms, she figured that was her answer.
Saddened by the missed opportunity, she just lay there. Aiden didn't try to have sex with her. He held her, his fingers stroking softly up and down her spine. Cassidy burrowed into him wishing she could get in deep enough to know all his secrets.
"Brant and I are only four months apart in age and we went to the same private school."
His voice startled her at first, but she held still, nearly holding her breath, not wanting to break the magic that was allowing him to open up to her.
"Hell, I had Christmas at my dad's, summer vacation. It was just like other divorced kids I knew, so it didn't seem all that strange to me, but apparently Brant saw a different side of it. He heard his mother's tears for days before I'd arrive. After I left she'd just pull away from everyone, sometimes for weeks at a time. He blamed me for taking his mother away from him. One day he was in an unusually foul mood and started harassing me. Got his other friends involved. They called my mother a whore."
He paused. She heard the emotion in his voice getting thicker as he went on and prayed he was just regaining composure.
"Anyway, we got in a horrible fight on school grounds."
She felt him shrug.
"I knocked out one of Brant's teeth. I'll never know all that went on but it was shortly after that when Mom and I moved to Italy, though I still spent every summer in Palos Verdes with my dad and his family. Funny really, because now I work for him and spend my summers with Mom."
Cassidy was quiet for a long time. He'd spoken that last part as if none of it mattered but she couldn't imagine the pain of that ten-year-old boy. She reached up and touched his cheek gingerly.
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about, beautiful. It is what it is. My mother still loves him. That's the sad part, I think. She's lonely. Oh, she has her friends in the village and Magda, her housekeeper, who lives with her, and of course, all her animals. Dogs, horses, goats, pigs, you name it, she's got it, but it's not the same as this.” He squeezed her tight. “Is it?"
Cassidy sighed. “No, it's not."
But then wasn't he planning to give this up in just over a week?
"So, and I don't mean to be dense, but I still don't understand why all this means you can't put in your ideas for the hotel."
He placed a kiss on the top of her head.
"It's just the way it is. I suppose my contributions are appreciated but it's hard to get past years of feeling like the outsider, the one who had to prove they belonged. I guess I just don't like to make waves."
She squirmed out of his arms, propping herself up on one elbow until she could look down into his incredibly deep blue eyes. Oh, she was going to miss those eyes. She shook her head, getting it back on track.
"Do you enjoy what you do now?"
He pulled a strand of her hair away from her face and stared at it as if the answer was written there, then finally admitted, “Not particularly, but it's the job I have. I get to participate, be a part of my father's company in a real everyday way. There were a great many years where I wasn't so sure I would. I'm grateful for what I get and it means the world to my mother."
"Grateful?” She sat the rest of the way up. “Grateful!"
Aiden laughed.
"I appreciate you outrage, darling, but it really isn't necessary. I've had thirty plus years to deal with and accept my reality. I've made peace with it."
He moved his fingers over her lips, smiling tenderly at her.
"Shhh. It's not a big deal, beautiful."
"But you're talented. Look at my garden. And what about all those sketches you did for the wedding gardens?"
Aiden wrestled her back into submission with a few long, wet kisses that left her dizzy, but her heart ached for the pain he shared with her. He folded her into his arms and she wished she could think of some way to help, but he wasn't playing with her for keeps. She had very few options.
"I love my father, darling. Though I don't at all approve of how he's treated the women in his life, he's always been good to me. I like being able to work with him, but his whole family, his real family, also works for the Grand hotels. My half-sister, Stephanie, runs the Grand in San Francisco. I have a couple of cousins who travel the globe sizing up potential sights for new properties. Even my father's wife is on the board. Seriously, there are more Grands than I can count. I'm just one illegitimate kid who doesn't really belong, and if I raise too much of a commotion, someone might realize that. I'm happy, Cass. Leave it at that."
She snuggled agains
t him, quiet for a while, thinking about everything he said and reminding herself that she wasn't his wife, or even his girlfriend, so she really had no right to tell him what she thought of his so-called family, but she didn't like them one bit. She was even considering finding another place of employment. She was so mad.
She tried to calm herself and just absorb Aiden's warmth. She had so few nights ahead when she'd have him lying beside her. She remembered her decision to not spend it fighting. Still, her heart ached for this incredible man who nobody really saw and no one really appreciated.
* * * *
Aiden was busy sketching another view of the wedding garden that would never be considered. It was a complete waste of time because he knew that despite Cassidy's conviction that he should show them to his father, no one would ever see them.
While he considered the sketch in front of him, Cassidy slipped inside the door.
"I'm not staying.” She held up a hand before he could speak. “Glasses?"
He quickly took them off and shoved them in a desk drawer.
"No."
He stood up, nervously running his hands along his pant legs. She bust out laughing. He figured it served him right after all the times he'd laughed at her self conscious idiosyncrasies. Still, he knew how to immediately silence her. He closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms, but only for as long as it took him to come up beside her and take her in his arms placing a kiss to her forehead.
"It isn't funny."
She looked up at him, obviously trying hard to control the giggles that still threatened.
"No, but it is funny that I have to wear them for reading myself, but I've refused to ever since you moved in on me."
God, she made him smile more than he had in a lifetime. He was so close to telling her everything he felt, but held himself back. Emotionally he needed to start bringing closure to this relationship, and he wasn't doing a very good job of it.
"Okay. Maybe it's a little bit funny.” He hugged her even closer. “So, why are you here?"
"I missed you."
She pushed out of his arms and moved to his desk propping her oh so tempting ass on the edge. She gave him a wicked smile before spreading open her thighs to give him the quickest flash of sweet pink folds. He went instantly hard. Nothing—certainly not common sense—could have stopped him from dropping to his knees before her.
"Open them, Cass."
She smiled sweetly and slowly opened to him. He grabbed her ass and pulled her to the desk edge, burying his mouth against her, pushing his tongue inside. He was a quick study, and by now he knew exactly where and how to lick her, when to graze her clit with his teeth, when to suck and drive her over the edge of ecstasy.
He'd never known a woman's body as well as he knew hers. He was ashamed to admit that he'd never wanted to. With Cassidy, every nuance fascinated him.
"Mmm, Aiden, stop."
He smiled up at her.
"Why gorgeous? You don't want to come?"
She giggled, and he flicked his tongue over her clit.
"You didn't lock the door."
She was right, but no one ever came back here. He nipped her inner thigh, making her squeal and tug his hair.
"Sweetheart, you're so close that I'll have you over the edge before I could get up lock it and come back."
He pushed a finger inside her.
"Mmm. Okay, okay."
Good Lord, she was the sexiest woman he'd ever known. He sucked her clit, worked her with his finger, and in moments had her biting back a scream out of what modesty she had left.
* * * *
Cassidy was beginning to wonder if having sex fed off itself. It seemed to her, the more of Aiden she had, the more she wanted. Even now, sitting on his desk, exposed to him, eagerly waiting him freeing himself from his pants so he could fuck her, she knew the second he finished, she'd want him again.
"I'll never get enough of you."
He sheathed himself and pressed his hard cock at her opening and paused.
"I feel the same, beautiful."
"Just fuck me!"
He laughed, “You're impatient."
"I'm horny. I want it now! Fuck, Aiden, I'm so turned on."
He kissed her. A hot open mouth, wet, devouring kiss that set her soul ablaze. She was so on fire. She felt crazy and impulsive. He slid into her, grabbed her ass and pulled her hard onto his straining cock.
He reached up and tore the buttons from her blouse as he groped at her breasts and quickly unfastened her bra. She pulled her feet up onto the desk for leverage, allowing her to meet his thrusts with more force.
His groans of pleasure, mixed with her own exposed state, brought her right back to that wild teen she used to be. She imagined them at her bedroom window, faceless neighbors watching them as they fucked.
"Aiden, fuck me harder!"
He growled at her and came at her faster and harder, his thumb abrading her clit. She felt herself right on the edge, knowing she was going to scream out when she went over.
"Oh God, Aiden, I'm so fucking hot, I'd do anything right now."
She dropped her head back, waiting to come.
"Anything, Cassidy?"
Aiden froze, Cassidy's eyes flew open as she brought her head back up to meet the heated gleam of Garrison.
"How about letting me join you?"
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Chapter Nine
Cassidy went instantly numb.
"Oh my God. I'm so fired."
Aiden pulled out, shoved himself haphazardly back into his pants and stood protectively in front of her. She lowered her legs and yanked her shirt close in front, but there were no buttons left to close. Still tingling and intoxicated from Aiden's sexual assault, the idea made the quickly cooling flame sizzle back to life.
"You're most certainly not fired. This is my damn hotel. Garrison, let's go outside and let Cassidy dress."
"We've shared women before, Aiden. Why not Cassidy? You know I'm attracted to her. Apparently, so are you."
Garrison's smirk and lazy once over of her body in the old days would have sent her scrambling for the nearest exit. But right at this moment, despite the nerves trying to take over, she grabbed Aiden's hand and tugged lightly until he looked at her.
"Is that true?"
"I'm not sharing you."
His possessive growl went straight to her heart.
"Why not?"
"Cassidy!"
She wasn't sure who was more shocked, him or herself, but one step after the other she was easing herself down a path she knew she'd never walk with anyone else, and it intrigued her.
Garrison came closer and brushed his hand through her hair. His touch didn't do to her what Aiden's did, but it was definitely better than nice.
"See? She's intrigued, and apparently a lot less reserved than I ever gave her credit for."
His eyes scanned her face and dipped into the opening of her shirt. He slowly moved his hand and pulled back one side, exposing one breast.
"I've never, I mean, I don't know how..."
Aiden slapped Garrison's hand away and tugged her shirt closed again.
"It doesn't matter. You are not having sex with Garrison. Or any other man for that matter."
She had no response. On the one hand, his sudden show of possessiveness and, dare she say, jealousy, was exhilarating. On the other, he was leaving her in barely a week and had no right to tell her what she could or could not do or with whom.
She let Charlie do that. She wasn't about to ever let another man have free reign over her life.
"I want to."
She slid off the desk. She looked first at Garrison, then pressed her palms against Aiden's warm chest.
"I want to know what it's like to have two men's hands on my body, two mouths running over my skin. I want to know and I trust you enough to try."
"Cass, partaking in a ménage a trois is not something to take lightly. It can be very physically and emotion
ally overwhelming."
Garrison's fingers where twirling in her hair and gliding along her neck. Aiden had pressed his hands over hers, their combined scent intoxicating. These were two big beautiful men and this was a situation that she would never find herself in again.
"I trust you."
Garrison moved closer behind her. She felt his erection press against her from behind.
"Aiden, I want to. I want you both. Please, you're leaving in a week. Leave me with this."
She was trembling. Her nerves were gaining on her, and if someone didn't touch her soon, she might not be able to go through with it.
Aiden slid his hand through her hair, pushing away Garrison's hand and curving around her neck. He pulled her close and kissed her soundly until she melted.
"For you.” He searched her eyes. “But only if you are certain."
In a strange, twisted way, she had never felt more loved in her life.
"I'm certain."
At least she hoped she was.
"Not here though, and not at your house either.” Aiden tugged her around behind him. “We'll go to your place. And we'll go together."
Garrison moved towards the door.
"Perfectly acceptable, although if we expect to get out of the hotel without scandal, something should be done about Cassidy's breasts. They are exposed again."
Garrison's sense of humor seemed lost on Aiden as he placed his jacket around her. Cassidy wondered for a second if she was getting in over her head, but as they left the hotel, she figured that ship had already sailed.
The ride to Garrison's house was mostly silent. Aiden sat in the back with Cassidy. She loved that he held her hand the entire time, his thumb softly moving back and forth.
When they arrived, she was immediately impressed by the old, well maintained home on the beach. She heard the ocean waves rolling onto the shore as they walked to the front door. Once inside, she took quick notice of the interior. Deep purples and black seemed to dominate, the furnishing lush. She felt suddenly out of her element, but when Aiden kissed her, then swept her from her feet, she forgot everything else.
The Seduction of Cassidy Flint Page 10
