by Amy Andrews
Heaven knew she’d probably still be in bed with Rick right now, instead of locked away in her office pretending to write so she wouldn’t go out there and beg him to finish what he’d started. And it wasn’t like she could just pretend he wasn’t here. His phone had rung at least a dozen times today, constantly reminding her he was just on the other side of her door.
She was either going to have to tell him to go home and make him obey or she was going to have to toss the rules out the window. Neither prospect appealed.
For one, she liked having him around. The company was good and she felt safer. Yes, she had an armed guard at her door but Rick grounded her just through his presence.
And secondly, she needed those rules.
It had been a long time since she’d been with a man and coming to New York had been about starting over. Meeting new people, having different experiences, not falling back on what had gone before. Not continually entwining herself with the Forresters and life on the West Coast. On paper, everything about Rick told her he was a backward step; a relic from her past best kept there.
But then he looked at her and he touched her and he was here for her and none of the rest seemed to matter. Wanting him seemed so right in the cocoon of her apartment with a madman stalking her and her world turned upside down. But she knew it was a recipe for disaster. Relationships formed in fraught situations weren’t real. It would all be over soon—God willing—and Rick’s “vacation” would be finished and he’d go back to LA and she’d be left feeling—what?
That didn’t even bear thinking about.
If she were a client, she’d counsel herself against doing what she was thinking of doing. She certainly would have warned her not to cross a sexual line as she and Rick had almost done this morning. But then doctors were often the worst patients, weren’t they?
A knock interrupted her reverie and she turned in time to see her office door opening.
“Sorry,” Rick said. “I don’t want to interrupt.”
“Considering your phone’s been virtually ringing non-stop, I think it’s a little late to apologize,” she said, sexual frustration making her snarky.
He blinked at her rudeness but didn’t call her on it. “Sorry ’bout that. There’s been some supply issues at the office. I’ve been trying to deal with it all day.”
Lucky you, Taylor thought uncharitably. She wished she had something pressing to keep her mind off what had happened earlier instead of rehashing it.
“Anyway, just letting you know that I’m going out for my jog.”
There was something so stiff and formal about his speech that Taylor wanted to cringe. The man was going jogging, for goodness’ sake, not delivering some official proclamation.
Suddenly everything seemed so messed up. And Taylor couldn’t bear it any more.
Why did he get to go out, leaving her, who had done nothing wrong, to skulk around inside like a prisoner? The weather was perfect. She had to get out.
“I’m coming with you,” she announced.
Rick blinked at her. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” he said.
“I’m going stir crazy, Rick. If I have to stay in this apartment for one moment longer there’s no telling what I might do.”
Rick didn’t seem to need her to draw him a diagram. The widening of his eyes told her that he fully understood the meaning of her desperate appeal. They were clearly both on the same track. But she could tell he was trying to put her safety first.
“You’re only supposed to be going out for absolute essentials.”
“I know,” she said. But if she didn’t get out now then she wasn’t going to let him out either. And that, as far as she was concerned, was the very definition of essential. “I’m going mad in here.”
Their gazes locked. Finally he nodded and she almost sagged in relief. They were on the same page. “Let me clear it with Mack.”
“Thank you,” she said sagging in relief. “Sorry about being such a … bitch just now.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “None of this is easy.”
She nodded as he disappeared. Wasn’t that the truth.
*
Taylor stepped outside her apartment block for the first time in days. The sky was infinitely blue and the sun beat down like lasers on her bare shoulders. She took a moment just to breathe in the air.
A pessimist might have been disheartened by her entourage. Mack and Tonka, conspicuous in their black suits, earpieces and mirrored glasses, flanked her at a discreet distance and she knew Rick was an anxious companion, but nothing was going to ruin her high of finally being in the great outdoors.
Her grouchiness was well and truly behind her. Not even Rick’s phone ringing put a dampener on her lifting of spirits.
“Do you smell that?” she asked Rick.
He frowned as he switched his phone off, looking nervous, as though she was about to say she smelled chloroform or gunpowder. “Smell what?”
“Sunshine,” she said and strode in the direction of the park.
*
Rick was as nervous as a teenager on a first date by the time they stopped on Bow Bridge. Mack and Tonka were mere feet away but he didn’t like being this out of control of Taylor’s safety; he didn’t like the unknown factors and he knew for damn sure that the security guys didn’t either.
They’d been accommodating, probably because Taylor had been so gracious over the last five days. But they clearly stuck out like sore thumbs, conspicuous by their size and their suits, drawing curious looks from passersby. And they were observant, their gazes constantly scanning for potential threats. Rick was picking up on their tension.
Not that he could blame them. There were people everywhere in the park today. Couples leaning on the famous bridge’s balustrading, admiring the view out over the lake. A dozen row boats paddling around under the bridge, some containing families, others lovers, all taking advantage of the sunshine. Several laughing children, running back and forth over the bridge engaged in some game, while yet more people took pictures of one of Central Park’s most recognizable landmarks. It was a security nightmare.
“Relax,” Taylor said to him, her hands resting on the rail, her eyes closed, her face turned to the sky. “I promise I won’t linger. I’ll put everyone out of their misery soon and go back to the apartment and be a good girl. I just need a little bit longer, okay?”
He watched as she inhaled again, filling her lungs with sultry, summer air laden with sunshine and promise.
“It’s so beautiful here,” she said, her eyes fluttering open, snaring his gaze instantly.
Rick’s breath caught in his chest. She was beautiful. Her face was radiant, her blue eyes blazing with barely suppressed excitement at her freedom. She smiled at him and looked so young and carefree it was infectious.
“You look like a little kid.”
She laughed and even that was light and airy. “I feel like one. I feel like I’ve been given a get-out-of-jail-free card.” She leaned her elbows on the railing and looked down at the boats. “When this is all over, I’m never taking my freedom for granted ever again.” She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled again and he felt himself relax.
“I thought you’d be nervous, coming out.”
“If I hadn’t just spent five days caged up inside I probably would have been, but I’m not letting anything spoil this. Anyway, I don’t think anyone’s going to approach with Mack and Tonka so close, do you?”
Rick glanced at them. They did look menacing; even the kids chasing each other across the bridge were giving them a wide berth. “I wouldn’t like their chances if they did.” He grinned. “And they’ve got to get through me as well.”
Taylor laughed again and the sound wound around him like a sprite from the lake. She straightened, turning to face him, elbow on the railing, her hair swinging loosely around her bare shoulders. “You’re a good guy, Rick Forrester.”
Rick thought back to that morning. He hadn’t been good then. He
’d deliberately pushed her. He’d wanted her and he’d known she’d wanted him and he’d pushed her to act on it, to break her rules. It was probably why he was suddenly being hammered by their supply problem in LA. The universe was punishing him.
“About this morning—”
Taylor shook her head at him. “No. It’s fine. Forget it.”
“Forget it?” he mocked gently. “I broke rules one and three.”
Taylor shot him a half-smile. “So did I, if my memory serves me correctly.”
Rick grinned at her. “Is there some kind of punishment for that?”
She laughed this time. “I think we’re living it. It’s called self-denial.”
Rick let his eyes rove over her face. “Self-denial sucks. Or are you going to tell me it’s good for the psyche?”
She shook her head and her hair fell over one shoulder. He followed it down to where the end brushed the edge of her tank top.
“Well … self-denial, self-control, restraint—whatever you want to call it—are all important life skills. But yeah.” She grimaced. “They really are quite sucky from time to time.”
Rick was surprised by her unexpected frankness sprinkled with a dash of wry humor then he laughed. “Is that your professional medical opinion, Dr. Hayes?”
“Why, yes, Mr. Forrester, it is.”
He arched his eyebrow. “‘Sucky’ being a well-known psychiatric term?”
“Absolutely. ‘Sucky’ is a very apt term to describe a lot of mental illnesses.”
Rick laughed again. “I love how prim and proper you make that word sound.”
Then they were both laughing together, hard, standing in the middle of Bow Bridge, oblivious to the hundreds of people around them, to Mack and Tonka, in their own little bubble.
And it felt liberating to let go of all the worry and tension for a while and just enjoy himself. Soak up the sunshine and the beauty of the woman who was looking at him with big blue eyes, to let the worries of the past week go and live in the moment.
Taylor reached for his chest as their laughter began to settle, her hand curling into his shirt as she tried to catch her breath and steady herself. It brought them nearer and they’d already managed to move quite close.
Her palm felt hot against his chest and her eyes sparkled up at him as her bangs fell across one eye. He lifted a finger and swept them back, tucking them behind her ear before letting his finger trail across her jaw until he was cradling her chin. Her eyes grew serious and her lips parted.
“I wish I still didn’t want to kiss you so much,” he admitted huskily.
He watched as conflicting emotions flitted through her eyes and her hand stiffened against his chest as if to hold him back. It looked like she was about to dismiss him, push him away, and he prepared himself for rejection again. But then the conflict in her eyes faded and she seemed to relax into him, her palm a caress rather than a barrier.
“Yes … I wish I didn’t want you to kiss me too.”
Rick’s heart began a slow, loud drumming at her admission. He knew she’d been fighting their attraction hard and it couldn’t have been easy for her to say that. He grinned. “Sucky.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
His gaze drifted back to her mouth. “What are we going to do?”
Taylor shrugged as her fingertips lazily stroked his chest, streaking heat right down to his groin. Her gaze zeroed in on his mouth. “Ignoring it doesn’t seem to have worked.”
Her husky voice rasped like fine sandpaper over his skin, adding to the passion that was spreading through his veins like wildfire. “So maybe we don’t ignore it?” he suggested lightly.
Taylor had been skittish all along; if he rushed at this like a bull at a gate she might retreat again. He couldn’t bear that. Not now. Not after this morning. Not with his heart beating a wild tattoo, when he could sense that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
“Maybe we need to,” he lowered his head, his lips brushing her temple, “get it out of our systems?”
Taylor shut her eyes, her other hand coming up to curl into his shirt.
“That seems reasonable.”
“Sensible, even,” he murmured as he nuzzled along her hairline.
She clutched his shirt and made a noise at the back of her throat that almost brought Rick to his knees. Her perfume filled his senses, making him dizzy. Or maybe it was just hormones and the sunshine in her hair. Either way he slid his hand to her hip, settling her fully against him.
“Right,” she said. “We’re both adults. We’re both single.”
“Right. So we should stop fighting it,” he said, his lips caressing her ear.
She gasped. “Right.”
He waited for her to say something else but nothing was forthcoming. He looked down at her and frowned. Her eyes were closed, her expression dreamy. “Right? What does that mean?”
Her eyelids fluttered open and their gazes locked. Hers was soft and his breath stopped in his chest. She raised herself on her tiptoes, slid both palms up his chest and linked them behind his neck.
“It means shut up and kiss me.”
Her lips were touching his and then opening before his brain caught up with the messages from his body. He kissed her back. Wholeheartedly. His hand pushing into her hair, cradling her head, angling it so he could go deeper, kiss her harder.
She whimpered against his mouth and it was such a desperate, needy little noise he wanted to push her up against the railing and take her here and now.
The urge was so strong, so frightening, he tore himself away.
“Rick?” she asked, her mouth swollen with his kiss, her gaze bewildered.
“Not here,” he said, glancing around them. Looking at Mack and Tonka, who couldn’t afford them any privacy even if they wanted to. And they both looked like they really, really wanted to.
“Right,” she said again.
He was pleased to see she was breathing as hard as he was. And still talking in one word sentences.
“Let’s go back to the apartment,” she said.
Rick grinned despite himself. Six words. That was better. “I thought you said earlier you wanted an ice-cream cone on the way back.”
She touched her fingers to her mouth. “Now I only want you.”
He grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Eleven
If Taylor had been thinking straight she might have been embarrassed by their attempt at breaking the land speed record back to her apartment. If she were, she definitely wouldn’t be heading for her bedroom with Rick either. But she wasn’t thinking straight.
Luckily Mack and Tonka were too discreet to mention the rather brisk pace she and Rick had set. Considering their firm usually provided protection for politicians and rock stars, Taylor figured their behavior was probably fairly tame by comparison.
But it was about to get wild.
When the door shut on her protection, Rick wasted no time in scooping her up and heading to the bedroom. She yelped a little in surprise then laughed as she looped her hands around his neck and held on tight.
“My hero,” she sighed, her heart fluttering at his blond good looks and the strength of him.
“More where that came from,” he said, dropping his head to press a quick, hard kiss on her mouth, not missing a single step. It was cocky and masterful all at once and Taylor’s stomach went into freefall.
They reached her bed and Rick placed her gently on her feet. Their torsos were melded and Taylor didn’t know how much longer she could stand this heat between them without bursting into flames.
He ploughed a hand into her hair, his fingers massaging her scalp and the tension got a little worse. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, his eyes feasting so remorselessly on her mouth, her lips felt like brands, ready to sear him with a scorching possession.
Taylor had never been surer of anything. “Yes.”
But it obviously wasn’t enough for Rick. He tipped her head back until she was lookin
g him straight in the eye. “Really sure?” he demanded. “I don’t want you to wake up tomorrow and regret this. I’m too old to play that game. You need to be certain.”
“I’m certain,” she said, her voice tremulous with desire, her insides melting from the lust glowing in his eyes.
“Promise me,” he murmured, his gaze burning a path down her throat, scorching the peaks of her taut nipples.
“I promise. I promise I want you right here, right now, in my bed and for however long you’re in New York. And I can, most definitely, promise you, I won’t ever regret it.”
After that she didn’t wait for him to take the initiative. She was sick of talking, sick of denying herself, sick of pretending not to feel the things she felt. She reached up and kissed him, snaking her arms around his neck, dragging his head down, swallowing his satisfied moan, giving him one of her own. Rejoicing in the slide of their lips and how well they fit together. Enjoying the fresh clean smell of him and the minty thrust of his tongue. Meeting it with her own, twisting her head to keep up with the pace as he kissed her.
It was intoxicating. Maddening. All consuming.
She was lost in a vortex of sensation and she never wanted to come out the other end.
Taylor didn’t even register that she was falling until the mattress caught her and Rick’s body joined hers, pushing her into the soft down of the comforter. She moaned into his mouth as he linked his hands with hers and raised them above her head, trapping them up there as he ground himself against her.
He felt good and hard. And she wanted more. She wanted to feel his skin on hers. She wanted to feel him inside her, possessing her the way he used to, driving everything else from her mind, everything other than what he was doing with his lips and his hands and his body.
Abruptly, his mouth left hers and she whimpered in protest.
“Shh,” he said, his lips at her neck, his hands still holding hers captive. “It’s okay. I’m just going to explore.”
And then he licked right down the center of her throat and lapped at the hollow at its base and a hot jolt rocked her body.
