by Minx Malone
Tears sprang to her eyes as he pressed her hand against his heart.
“Say you’ll stay.”
She shook her head. “This is crazy. I have a life in Florida. I can’t just move.”
“You can if you want to. I know this seems like it’s happening really fast and I’m not saying we need to go out and buy rings tomorrow. I just want the chance to find out. Do you? Do you want me?”
His eyes stayed on hers as he waited for her answer. Elation rose in Ridley as her thoughts swirled in a million directions. She had a job and a life in Florida but she didn’t have this. A man who was willing to get on his knees before her and tell her he wanted her.
She grabbed his arms and pulled him up on the bed next to her. “I do want you.”
“So, you’ll stay?”
She grinned. “Yes. I’ll stay.”
He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him.
“Jackson! What are you doing?” She giggled when his lips trailed white-hot kisses down the side of her neck.
“Celebrating,” he replied.
She bucked off the bed when he gently nipped at her earlobe. His hot breath in her ear started a tickle that sped all the way down her spine and swirled between her thighs.
He eased himself up enough to pull his shirt over his head, and Ridley took the opportunity to run her hands over his well-developed pectorals and flat abdomen. She brazenly unsnapped his jeans and looked up into his eyes to see his reaction when she cupped him.
He cursed softly before snatching her hand away and roughly tugging the jeans off his body. He reached into the bedside table for a condom and quickly tore the wrapper. She took the package from him.
“Allow me.” She straddled him and softly stroked his length as though measuring the thickness. He shuddered when she lingered over the tip, brushing her thumb along the ridge before sheathing him with the protection.
She pushed his hands away when he reached for her and unhooked her bra herself. Flinging it to the floor, she cupped her own breasts and saw him fight for breath as he watched her stroke herself. When he reached for her panties, she chuckled softly as she eluded him.
“Uh uh. I’m in control here.”
She slipped out of them and dangled them from her pinky finger before letting them drop to the floor next to her bra. When she straddled him this time she was unprepared for the hard feel of him under her naked heat. She wanted to take it slow, make him want her, but she couldn’t deny herself any longer.
She gripped his length with her left hand, satisfied when she heard his cry, before she guided him inside her. The feel of him sliding along her sensitive flesh was so good that she paused for a moment, overwhelmed.
She heard the whimpers, barely realizing she made the sounds, as Jackson’s strong hands worked her hips against him, over and over until she thought she would burst. She felt the power she had over him that moment, the way his breath hitched when she stopped her frantic rocking motion. After a few tense moments she saw him bare his teeth in a grimace as he grabbed her hips and ground her against him.
She collapsed against him, exhausted from her wild ride, and surrendered herself to his desires. She wanted his lean body pressing against hers and she didn’t fight him as he flipped her over and sank into her in one thick thrust. She felt him moving against her deepest ache, and gripped his ass to pull him in farther.
He reached between them and stroked her in time with his thrusts. She couldn’t control her body’s reaction to Jackson’s fingers on her most intimate body parts. She couldn’t even cry out at the exquisite combination.
He seemed to have a thousand fingers, all caressing her all at once, inside and outside. Every muscle in her body clenched at the same time as she came, crying out his name.
“Ri, you don’t know what you do to me.”
He buried his face in her neck and his thrusts started coming harder. Faster. He twined their fingers together and held her down as he came. She bit his shoulder when his last thrust pressed her firmly into the bed. He jerked over her, his fingers gripping hers tightly as his body shook with the last contraction.
He collapsed on top of her and she wrapped him up in her arms. She didn’t ever want to let him go. The differences between them probably meant any relationship they tried to have wasn’t going to be easy. However, she would always have this moment; she would always have the memory of him inside her warm and sweet.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“YOU AREN’T GOING to like this.”
Raina looked up from her lounger and frowned at Sam. “You’re blocking my sun.”
“You don’t need to soak up rays. You have a natural tan.”
Sam moved until he was completely obscuring the sunlight. Raina turned her face in the opposite direction, determined to ignore him. The shoot had ended the prior day and she had a feeling the pictures weren’t going to be her best. It sucked to think she might have blown one of the biggest opportunities she’d ever had. Especially since she wasn’t sure why.
Liar.
Okay, she knew exactly why she hadn’t been able to concentrate. She’d been thinking about Ridley meeting the Alexanders. She’d been thinking about Nick.
“I’m not going away.” Sam’s voice cut into her thoughts again.
Finally she rolled over and glared at him.
“I have twisted my body into the most unnatural positions for the past three days. Do you know how hard it is to look sexy while wearing a thong bikini and kneeling on gritty sand? I need my sunlight. I’ve earned the right to lie here and ache in peace.”
Sam plopped down next to her lounge chair. “Your sister is on the cover of Sizzle and several other major tabloids.”
Raina lifted her head. “She’s on what?”
He didn’t answer just held up one of the magazines he held in his hand. She immediately recognized Ridley. She looked amazing and she was wearing one of the sexy little Narciso Rodriguez dresses that she’d picked up in Europe a few months ago.
“She’s not going to like this.” Raina sat up and took the magazine.
Sam pointed at the cover. “It’s not a bad picture. It could have been worse.”
“Leggy’s Sister Lands A Rich Hottie,” Raina read out loud. “So much for keeping a low profile. I’m surprised they didn’t think it was me.”
“If it wasn’t well publicized that you’re here in the Bahamas for the S.I. shoot, then they probably would have thought so.”
Raina flopped back down with an exaggerated sigh. “She is not only going to hate the fact that her face is plastered on a cheap tabloid, but she’ll definitely object to the implication that she’s a gold digger. Personally, I don’t care but she will.”
“That’s because you are a gold digger.”
“What good is gold if you don’t dig for it? It’s not like the men I’m dating are with me for my charming personality.” She rolled her eyes and reached a hand over to her beach bag. She rummaged around for a while until she found her cell phone. Then she typed out a quick text.
“Okay, consider that your good deed for the day. I’ve warned her so she won’t freak out if someone mentions the pictures. Now, go away.”
Sam got up. “You know you love me.”
“That was never in question,” she replied.
* * * * *
RIDLEY GROANED AS she read the text message.
Tabloid pictures?
She was downstairs reading a book. Not that she remembered anything she’d read so far. It had mainly been a distraction. Something to keep her mind off the fact that Raina was due back home the next day.
One more day and then she’d have to leave.
“It’s not like you’ll be in a foreign country.”
It was silly to feel like she was losing something when she’d only be one street over. This was a good thing. Once she was at Raina’s house, she could put in a full-sized garden in the backyard. Raina had always loved flowers, too, even if she hadn’t the slightest clue ho
w to take care of them.
It would be a fun project and her first official design job under her new business. A business that she would own all by herself. A few months ago she might have turned it down just because she didn’t want her first job to come from her sister but Jackson’s words had stayed with her.
That’s what people who care about you do. They help you.
She wasn’t measuring her success in dollar signs anymore and she definitely wasn’t trying to do everything on her own. Having the support of family and friends wasn’t something to be ashamed of. If she’d learned that lesson a little earlier she could have saved herself a lot of trouble.
Plus, it would be good for her and Jackson to get back to normal. When she wasn’t hiding out at his house and worrying about being stalked. They’d gotten together under very unusual circumstances and if they were ever going to have a chance they needed to see how their relationship fared under normal conditions.
Either way, it was time for her to stop living in a fantasy world and get back to reality.
She put down her book and walked up the stairs. Jackson had offered her the use of his laptop many times but she’d never had any reason to need it. She could access her email and read any news stories that interested her on her phone. Tabloid pictures, however, she needed a laptop to view. If she was going to see tacky pictures of herself, she might as well get the full picture.
“Jackson? Are you here?” She stuck her head in his office and looked around. He’d been working a lot more lately, bringing things home from the office to review. She hadn’t been back with him to watch a recording session yet, something she regretted.
She sat in his office chair and flipped open the lid of the laptop. It powered on immediately and she clicked on the Guest icon. A few minutes later, she had the pictures up on the screen.
Leggy’s Sister Lands A Rich Hottie!
Ridley skimmed the article. It was a typical tabloid article, big on insinuations and thin on facts. Somehow they managed to make it seem like both she and her sister were opportunistic sluts. Great.
The pictures themselves weren’t that bad. One was taken outside Sweeties as they’d entered. Jackson had his arm around her and one hand up as if to ward off the photographers. She’d had her head down but she was peeking up at Jackson with a little smile on her face.
It was probably the happiest she’d looked in a long time.
“Well, I’m glad Raina warned me but I’m not going to let a stupid tabloid ruin my day.” She surfed the web for a little while, reading random news articles and looking at trailers for a few movies that had just come out.
“Maybe Raina and I will go to a movie when she comes back.” She could at least write down the names of the ones that looked interesting. Then she could look up the show times for the coming weekend.
She looked around for a pad of paper and a pencil but there was nothing on the desk top. After the first time she’d cleaned in here, Jackson had really been trying to keep it neat. His version of neat appeared to be shoving everything that used to be on the top of the desk into the drawers. She pulled out the closest drawer and rifled through the papers and folders in her way, lifting them one by one so she could see if there were any pencils or pens beneath.
DAVID RANDALL FINEMORE
RIDLEY ANNE WELLS
Ridley stopped and pulled out the two manila envelopes. She opened the one labeled with her name first. Her mouth fell open as she scanned the documents inside. It looked like a criminal background check along with personal information about her family, her friends and what she’d accomplished in college. There was even a copy of her driver’s license photo from Florida.
“He had me investigated,” she whispered. Disappointment crashed through her as she stuffed the pages back into the folder. With trembling fingers she opened the other envelope. This time she flipped straight to the picture.
“David.”
She scanned the criminal background check, sickened as she read the list of infractions. She closed the file and didn’t even bother to put the papers back into the desk. She left it all out on the top of the desk. Except for her file, which she tucked under her arm.
Part of her could understand why Jackson had done it but it still hurt that he hadn’t just asked her anything he wanted to know. He’d probably just wanted assurance that she wasn’t dangerous if she was going to be staying in his house but she couldn’t deny it felt like a violation. Much more so than it had with David.
Mainly because she hadn’t loved him.
“I love him. And he has a security file on me.” She chuckled bitterly. Why couldn’t it ever just be simple? Meet a guy. Fall in love. Live happily ever after. Instead, she got identity fraud, hateful brothers and a background check.
She walked out of the office and went down the hall to Jackson’s room. He stood next to the window gazing out.
“I don’t believe you. There has to be an explanation.” He put a hand to his forehead. “You have proof?”
Proof of what? Ridley wondered. She moved further into the room until Jackson looked up.
“I guess I should have learned my lesson about eavesdropping by now.”
* * * * *
RIDLEY STOOD IN the doorway watching him. When he turned to look at her, she held up an envelope. Jackson’s heart dropped. His brother’s voice in his ear suddenly seemed very small.
“Nick, I’ll call you back.” He hung up the phone, his brother’s voice cutting off abruptly.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
“That’s comforting because it looks a lot like you violated my privacy and did a background check on me. I’m so relieved.”
Jackson flinched. “I didn’t ask him to do a background check on you. Nick pulled your file mainly so we could find out about David.”
“I understand that part, Jackson.” She shook her head slowly. “You really don’t get it do you? I’m not mad that you have the information. I’m upset you didn’t tell me about it.”
Fury, white and hot, lanced through him. He crossed the room and got right in her face. The fact that she could be angry with him for breaking trust after what his brother had just told him was the epitome of hypocrisy.
“I can’t believe you’re lecturing me about honesty after what you did. How could you do it?” he stammered. “How could you steal from me?”
Ridley shoved him in the chest. He grunted and fell back a step. “I would never steal from you. Or anyone,” she fumed.
He yanked out his phone and pulled up his email. Elliott had told him he’d email over the bank information he’d found. When he found the email, he scrolled to the bottom and held it out to her. She took the phone and stared at it.
“But this is my bank account. This is not possible.” Ridley shook her head back and forth slowly. “I didn’t do this. It has to be the person who tried to kill me. I haven’t stolen anything.”
“What happened?” He smoothed her hair back from her face. “Did someone threaten you? If you needed money you know you could have just asked me.”
“I don’t understand any of this.” She grasped his arms. “Jackson, I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“We don’t have time to wait. Eli and Nick are on their way and knowing Nick, he’s out for blood. He knows I won’t press charges against you but that doesn’t mean he won’t go to the authorities with everything else he found.”
“You won’t press charges,” she whispered.
“No. I can’t see you hurt. Even after everything you’ve done. The lies. The theft. As angry as I am, I can’t see you in prison.”
“That’s because you know I wouldn’t do this,” she pleaded. She grasped his face. “Look at me, Jackson. You know I wouldn’t do this. You know me.”
“I don’t know anything,” he yelled. “Clearly, I don’t know anything because up until a few minutes ago I knew I was in love with you.”
Ridley stilled. “Don’t say that. Not now.”
<
br /> He leaned his forehead against hers, his heart racing from his impromptu confession. “I definitely would have preferred to tell you that another way.”
“You don’t love me.” She held a hand over his mouth when he started to protest. “You just feel responsible for me. The truth is that you and I, we just got caught up in the magic. You were there for me during one of the most intense times in my life and I’ll never forget that. But it’s time for us to stop fooling ourselves.”
They both turned at the sound of an engine. He walked to the window and cursed. “They’re here. They must have called me while they were on the road.”
She was crying and the sight ripped at his heart. He looked down. It wouldn’t surprise him to see a gaping hole in his chest.
“What am I supposed to do?”
Jackson pulled out his wallet and peeled off a few bills. It was ridiculous, trying to give her money when she’d already taken so much from him. Fifty thousand to be exact. But he couldn’t just send her out there with nothing. He tried to hand it to her but she yanked her hand back.
“I don’t want your money!” Ridley spat.
“Just take it. You need to go. Hide out. Eli said the FBI has a whole case file on you. This is so much bigger than the money you took from me.”
“I’m going to prove I didn’t do this. And after I do, I never want to see you again.” She said it with such sad finality that it hurt to hear it.
As time stretched between them, a litany of things hung in the air unsaid. He wanted to rage at her, punish her, make her hurt the way he was hurting. He also wanted to tell her that he was worried about her. Worst of all, he wanted to tell her that he didn’t care about the money.
He wanted to beg her to stay.
Jackson shook his head. “You know what the most pathetic part is? I would have just given you the money if you’d asked. I loved you that much. I would have given you anything.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “You can’t give me the one thing I need right now. Your trust.”
