by Nicola Marsh
He groaned and her gaze rose from his hard-on to meet his eyes and her wondrous expression stole his breath.
‘I have plans for you.’
‘What plans?’
Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she wrapped her hand around him and squeezed hard enough to make him jerk.
‘A night you’ll never forget.’
In an instant he covered her body with his, skin to delicious skin, his hardness fitting her softness. Taking a deep breath, he eased forward, nudging at her slick entrance, which promised to take him to heaven and back. He cupped her bottom with both hands and entered her in one smooth stroke. She gasped as he groaned at the sheer ecstasy of being inside her again. He moved slowly in and out, withdrawing and sinking deep again, his control on a knife edge.
She wrapped her legs around him, her soft panting moans urging him deeper, harder, faster, as he plunged into her again and again until he was spent, watching her breasts quiver with the impact of each thrust, his excitement mounting to excruciating levels.
‘Rhys…oh, yeah…’
They bucked wildly, spasms ripping through his body at the same time she tightened and convulsed around him. The world exploded and for the first time in his life he saw stars. It was the orgasm to end all orgasms and he owed it all to the woman lying beneath him.
Sex with her a month ago had been mind-blowing but what had just happened defied logic.
Then again, since she’d strutted into his life the way he’d behaved, how he felt, had been far from logical.
And deep down, in a place locked away for ever, he knew why tonight had been different.
They hadn’t had sex. They’d made love and mentally whispering the L word, let alone acknowledging it, sent a shudder of terror through him.
‘You okay?’ he asked softly, brushing a kiss against her lips.
She nodded, as dazed as him. ‘Wow.’
He chuckled, savouring the feeling of still being wrapped in her tight warmth. ‘Yeah, it was like that, wasn’t it?’
He rolled to one side, cradling her within his arms as they lay in silence, wrapped in their own thoughts. He was starting to worry when she finally spoke.
‘So, what do you do on a second date?’
Chapter Sixteen
RHYS’S mobile rang while Jade was filling the bath. He planned on joining her, but a glance at caller ID had him reaching for the phone.
‘Hey, bro, long time no hear. Starr and the kidlets keeping you busy?’
‘You said it.’
‘So what’s up?’
Callum’s weary sigh set his sibling antenna on edge. ‘Nothing. Just called to touch base. It’s been a while.’
‘Yeah, I’ve been busy too.’
Working the tours for the first time in two years, getting a handle on his guilt, denying his feelings for Jade. Real tiring stuff.
‘How’s Jade working out?’
‘Great.’
He kept any hint of emotion out of his voice and thankfully his brother was too tired to pick up on his forced cheery response.
‘I’m glad. With her lack of experience I had my reservations, but then I met her and I knew she was worth taking a risk on.’
‘Yeah, considering how great she’s been, Fred did me a favour in asking me to hire her. She’s a model employee.’
A nasty shiver scuttled across the back of his neck. Jade had been so antagonistic towards her parents, so gung-ho about doing this on her own, proving her independence, if she ever discovered the truth he knew she’d start doubting herself again.
‘Did you know he offered me a monetary incentive to hire her?’
Callum whistled low. ‘No way.’
‘Yeah. I didn’t take it, though. Being pushed into employing her was bad enough. Thankfully it’s worked out.’
Rhys rubbed the back of his neck. The truth behind her employee contract put him in a difficult position. As Jade’s—what? Friend? Lover? Something more?—he owed her the truth. At what cost? Ruining all she’d achieved?
He knew her. She’d ignore all the great work she’d done over the last few weeks and focus on the one small fact dear Daddy had pulled a few strings to get her the job in the first place.
‘Then what’s the problem?’
Apart from the fact he’d fallen for her, had to tell her the truth and risk undoing all the ground he’d made up over the last twenty-four hours?
‘No problem.’
Callum cleared his throat, a clear sign he was hedging around something. ‘Starr wants to know when you’re going to meet the twins.’
He stiffened, clutched the phone to his ear before deliberately rolling his shoulders out. ‘Soon.’
‘That’s what you’ve said since their birth.’
He heard the disappointment in his brother’s tone and, for a second, wished things were different. But he’d been this way for too long, had survived because of it, and changing habits of a lifetime was damn tough; not to mention downright scary.
He knew what would happen if he met the twins. He’d fall for their funny forthrightness, their exuberant boisterousness, the inbuilt ability all kids had to love and trust. He’d been like that once, hated how scarred and cynical he’d become.
Growing attached to the twins wouldn’t be a good idea and would only serve to strengthen the emotional ties to his brother, something he would’ve given anything for once but which now scared him beyond belief. The pain of losing Archie had devastated him; losing Callum too would be incomprehensible.
As he searched for the right words to ease the tension between them an image of Jade, lying in his arms last night, popped into his head.
He wanted more nights like the one they’d had last night. Many more. But she’d be leaving, heading back to Australia, and he didn’t believe in relationships, never mind long-distance ones.
Yet the thought of losing her ripped a hole the size of Davidson Glacier in his heart. A heart he’d already opened to a sassy, determined, beautiful woman. Why not go the whole hog and let his family in too? Face his fears. Become the man he was before grief and the pain of loss had slammed his emotional barriers firmly in place. Maybe he could schedule a visit to meet his niece and nephew shortly after Jade returned to Oz?
‘I’ll be there in the next few months.’
‘Uh-huh.’
He couldn’t blame Callum for his doubt. He deserved it. What kind of an idiot was he to deliberately stay away from the only family he valued because he was too damn scared?
‘I mean it this time, bro.’
Some of his conviction must’ve relayed to Callum for he could’ve sworn he heard his smile.
‘Great, I’ll tell Starr and the kids.’
That sealed it. His dedicated, responsible brother would never involve his kids unless he truly believed him.
‘Say hi to them for me. I’ll be in touch soon.’
‘Great. Bye.’
Feeling as if he’d shrugged off a few years’ worth of emotional baggage he’d been lugging around, he grinned, ready to join Jade in the bathroom.
As he turned his happiness evaporated. Jade stood in the doorway, wearing a towel and a frown. A big one.
‘Tell me you weren’t talking about me.’
Taking a step towards her, he held up his hands. ‘Listen—’
‘No!’
She paled, clutched at the doorframe, and he reached her side in two seconds flat.
‘I was going to tell you—’
‘No, no, no…’ she mumbled, shaking her head, slumped against the wall.
‘Jade, please, come sit down, let me explain—’
‘Don’t touch me!
She shoved him away when he tried to bundle her into his arms, her posture rigid, resistant, as he silently cursed for not telling her the truth sooner.
Helpless, he balled his hands into fists, thrust them into his pockets, waited until she looked at him, the depth of her pain slicing into whatever lingering doubts he might have ha
d about his feelings for her.
He wouldn’t feel this lousy if he didn’t love her, and the realisation threatened to send him running from the condo without looking back. He had form. That was what he’d always done.
But the glimmer of tears in her devastated eyes, the agonising twist to those lips he adored, guaranteed he’d ignore his first instinct and do something completely out of character this time.
He’d stay.
‘Listen to me. You’ve done a brilliant job, everything you’ve achieved has been you, one hundred per cent you. Not your interfering dad, you.’
Her bottom lip trembled and his precarious hold on not blurting out his feelings for her here and now seriously wobbled.
‘Don’t you get it? I never would’ve got the job if he hadn’t called in a favour. And you went along with it!’
Tears spilled down Jade’s cheeks, agony slicing her heart in two.
Everything she’d done over the last weeks, everything she’d achieved, meant nothing, pride in her new-found independence crumbling under the weight of discovery.
She hadn’t got the job on her own.
None of this was real.
Every blister, every splinter, every back spasm, had been relished as evidence of how far she’d come from her old life. Ironic, as this new life she’d striven for and made for herself was as much a sham as the old one.
The icing? The man she’d fallen for was in on it from the very beginning.
Swallowing the great wrenching sobs that threatened to spill out, she knuckled her eyes, wishing this were all a nightmare and when she woke up she’d be back in Rhys’s arms, secure in his bed, happier than she’d ever been.
Sadly, when she opened her eyes, the reality smacked her in the face all over again.
Rhys paced, stopping in front of her, reaching out to her, his hands falling uselessly to his sides when she deliberately stepped out of reach.
‘You have to believe me.’ Dragging a hand through his hair, he shook his head, his tortured expression surely matching hers. ‘Callum said you impressed the hell out of him at the screening interview. And don’t forget you did the same to me. I’m the CEO, I had the final say.’
‘Bull. You only hired me because you had to.’ She jabbed a finger in his direction, fury making her hand tremble. ‘What was it you said on the phone? He offered you money! Jeez—’
‘I never contemplated taking it—’
‘And what was this bloody favour he called in?’
Shaking her head, the tears sprayed like a sprinkler of misery. ‘What did you owe him?’
Sadness clouded his eyes. ‘Your dad helped send a few cruiseline referrals my way. In the business world, one good deed often leads to another, so when he called me up out of the blue, saying his only kid needed a job and it happened to coincide with a vacancy here, I took you on.’
‘I knew it was a crock, all of it.’
Swinging around, she caught a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror: wet, lank hair framing her tear-blotched face, eyes red-rimmed from crying, mouth mutinous. She looked like a woman who’d lost everything she believed in, again.
He laid a hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it off, swinging back to face him, on the attack.
‘I thought what I’d achieved was real and it’s worthless! All of it!’
Unfazed, he held his hands out to her, palm up. ‘Don’t you get it? Regardless of your dad calling in a favour I never would’ve hired you if I didn’t think you were capable.’
He lowered his voice, his earnestness reinforcing his words, words she wanted to believe but couldn’t. ‘And every single minute since, you’ve shone. You’ve risen to every challenge I set, you never gave up, you pushed harder and longer than any other employee I’ve ever had. With no experience!’
Going for broke, he pinned her with his most beseeching stare. ‘Honestly? I was extra critical of you right from the very start. Firstly, because I was resentful of having to hire you on the whim of your dad. Secondly, because I expected you to be an uptight princess slumming it for a while.’
She squared her shoulders in outrage as he rushed on. ‘But you blew every preconception sky-high, with your dogged determination, your guts and your sheer bloody-minded perseverance.’
A small fragment of her heart cracked as he tilted her chin to stare into her eyes.
‘Quite simply, sweetheart, you’re the best.’
While her body remained rigid, some of her anger melted clean away. She valued his honesty and how it made her feel: as if the last few months weren’t a complete waste of time.
She had tried hard, had given her all, and to hear how much he appreciated it…well, it went some way to making up for his part in all this. Though he wasn’t directly the bad guy he’d known about it, she’d trusted him, had thought he was different, so a small part of her felt doubly betrayed.
‘I’m the best, huh? Really?’
‘Really.’
Rhys kissed Jade, a soft, tender kiss designed to soothe and distract and comfort, a kiss to reinforce every true word he’d just spoken.
His admiration for what she’d achieved knew no bounds and even now, when faced with what she’d see as treachery, she’d given him a fair hearing, was willing to listen despite how devastated she must be feeling.
When the kiss ended their lips clung, lingered, reluctant to break the bond that hovered between them, unsaid, despite the test he’d unwittingly just put them through.
‘Thanks for the pep talk.’
‘No pep talk.’ He smacked his chest. ‘Came right from here.’
‘But it doesn’t change what I have to do.’
She crossed to the window, her rigid posture scaring him. Seeing the bath sheet wrapped around her body, skimming her thighs, showed him exactly how far gone he was. He’d just kissed a semi-naked woman and all he’d thought about was assuaging her injured feelings.
‘Jade?’
She turned slowly, the resolute set to her chin, the determination in her eyes terrifying him.
‘I have to quit.’
‘What?’
He leaped as if a grizzly had bit his butt, stalked towards her, but stopped short of hauling her into his arms when she backed away.
‘This job was always about experience. I have that now. It’s time.’
Desperate, he clutched at straws. ‘But your employment contract—’
‘Was based on a flexible trial.’ She shook her head. ‘We both know where we stand.’
He didn’t get this, any of it. Sure, he understood her motivation. He hadn’t wanted a bar of Cartwright Corporation, hadn’t wanted a single thing from dear old Dad; discounting his thirst for affection as a kid. So, yeah, he understood the desire for independence, the need to prove herself, but the thought of her leaving now, when he’d just discovered his true feelings…he couldn’t let her go.
‘You can’t go.’
He grabbed her arms, held on tight, wishing he could never let go.
‘You can’t make me stay.’
Those five words didn’t slay him half as much as the bleakness in her voice.
She was right, he couldn’t. What right did he have?
Taking his silence as agreement, she shook off his hands. ‘I’ll finish the next fortnight of tours, but after that, I’m gone.’
A familiar ache clamped his heart, spread across his chest, numbing him, until he wondered if he was having a heart attack for real. But he dismissed the fleeting thought in an instant.
He knew this feeling, the same heartbreaking, gut-wrenching agony that had followed Archie’s death, Claudia’s death, the same helplessness that nothing he said or did could undo or change a thing.
He wanted to tell her everything. Hell, he wanted to beg her to stay. But he couldn’t find the right words, let alone force air past the tightness in his throat.
So he stood there, the ache in his chest spreading, insidious and devastating, as she clutched the towel to her chest, step
ped around him and padded across the floor.
He waited until he heard the bedroom door close before collapsing onto the couch, rubbing furiously at his aching chest.
It didn’t help. Nothing would, not this time.
He was through running.
Ironic, the only time he’d ever stood still long enough he’d fallen in love. With a woman determined to do what he’d been doing for a lifetime.
Spread her wings.
Prove her independence.
And run without looking back.
Chapter Seventeen
JADE hated goodbyes.
It wasn’t enough she had to leave a dream job; she had to farewell the man she loved too.
She’d tried hating Rhys after discovering his treachery, had summoned up every ounce of latent anger at his betrayal.
She’d opened up to him about doubting her own judgement when everything went pear-shaped in her life so felt doubly betrayed now, her confidence seriously shaken. Was her judgement so off that the guy she’d thought was different was in fact another bad judgement call on her part?
She’d trusted him, he’d let her down, like every other person she’d loved in her life.
Then the initial anger had faded and she’d been more realistic. Rhys might have lied to her at the start, but when it counted he’d come clean, still supportive of her, whereas her folks and Julian had expected her to accept whatever they dished her way and put up with it.
So much of what he’d said had rung true. While she’d harboured a dream when she’d first arrived, a small part of her had expected it to be easy, like everything else that had fallen into her lap her whole life. She had been a pampered society princess, who was now ashamed of giving up her ideals, her dreams, in exchange for a cushy ride down easy street.
She couldn’t blame him for thinking the same. But she could blame him for not telling her the truth, for letting her fall for him regardless.
She was through. Time to take her dream all the way: head back to Australia, enrol in university, gain her biology degree and start making a difference in the world, her way.
Besides, he didn’t love her back. For as much as she wanted to prove her independence and follow her dream, she would’ve given it all up in a heartbeat if Rhys loved her back.
