Seductive Memory

by Altonya Washington

  “Guess all the hard work was worth it. Those two single-handedly turned my grandfather’s entire family into members of the elite class.” His smile turned sardonic, the mood further sharpening his features.

  “Whatever the reason, she raised us better than anyone else could have,” he went on. “Whoever said the privileged were coldhearted never met her. Her heart was bigger than she was. In the end it was her downfall.”

  He shifted in his chair then, as though he were considering standing. Yet he remained seated. “When she loved, it was unconditionally, whether the target of her love deserved it or not.”

  “Your brother,” Paula guessed.

  “My grandmother wasn’t your average wealthy widow,” Linus resumed once they’d been served.

  There was a light garden salad set to the side of a small bowl of shrimp étouffée. The main course was a grilled fillet of salmon on a bed of mixed vegetables.

  “She lived very modestly—well below her means. She wasn’t doing it to teach the value of frugality. It’s just who she was.” The softness that had crept into his rich gaze hardened. “My brother wasn’t like that. According to him, what was the point of frugal living if you had the money to cover the bill?”

  Paula helped herself to the étouffée. “Guess your brother and grandmother had some heated talks over that difference of opinion.”

  “Yeah.” Linus cut into his salmon. “The differences turned into some major battles. It got ugly, but she never stopped trying to change his mind—or his habits. She was a smart woman but...blind to so much. She thought it was all a stage, something he’d outgrow. He never did.”

  “What didn’t he outgrow?”

  “Gambling. His messes got bigger and she kept digging him out—kept digging until she gave out.”

  Paula set down took her fork, which had been poised for a corner of the tender salmon, and reached for Linus’s hand. “I’m sorry, L.”

  He placed a hard kiss to the back of her hand. “I think she would’ve kept it up—kept bailing him out until she had nothing left to give.” Linus studied her hand as he spoke.

  Paula lifted her hand and smoothed her thumb across his cheek. “She left everything to you, remember? I think she would’ve left him to clean his own mess eventually.”

  “But why’d she have to die to do it, Paula?” With a relieved sigh, he returned to eating. “The night I...lost it with you, my brother came to warn me that you might take my money one day. The very next minute, he was asking for another bailout. Him coming there and tracking me down to encourage me to question your motives, while trying to run his same game on me...for a while I considered letting him. I tried to make myself see past his selfish entitled surface the way my gran did, but I...”

  Linus shook his head and attacked his food with more gusto. “I didn’t rip his head off though. I held my temper...’til I got back, anyway, and then...” He wolfed down more food.

  Paula ate as well, and the moment passed in easy silence for well over two minutes.

  “I guess that’s why I’m so determined to help Miranda Bormann,” she said finally. “Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish half of what I have. Forget about being anyone’s DA.”

  “I disagree,” Linus chimed in after swigging down his preferred beer. “I wasn’t surprised a bit when you got the seat. I always knew your confidence would take you places. I prayed what happened to us wouldn’t touch that.”

  “Thanks, L, but I’ve got Professor B to credit for a lot of my confidence.” She forked off another flaky morsel of the rapidly disappearing salmon and spoke around it.

  “Miranda Bormann was my law school professor, but I really got to know her during undergrad. I’d gotten work study in the law library and was there one day when she came in, harried and on her way to give a talk she hadn’t prepared for. The library kept copies of all her talks, and she was sure there’d be something in the archives she could use. She said it’d have to be something dated so the audience wouldn’t easily recall it was a repeat.” Paula smiled over the memory.

  “Anyway, after she gave me a rundown of the event and topic, I did a little creative searching and found something that worked. She was impressed and started tapping me to assist with locating materials for her classes. Then one day, she offered me a job. Work study was a requirement of my financial aid, so the arrangement stood.”

  Across the table, Linus smiled. He enjoyed the soft light that had crept into her eyes as she recalled happier days.

  “The only ‘work’ I did was to get her coffee and our lunches, which were...spectacular. The woman knows her food. Hmph.” Paula’s smile grew wider. “She told me the thing was called work study, and she wanted me studying.”

  “So you got paid to study. Nice. Every student should be so lucky.” Linus drew another long gulp from his brew.

  “That was Professor B,” Paula said, toying with a flyaway curl from her upswept hair as she spoke. “By the time I was a student in her class, I’d already learned more than I ever could have from any book. It’s hard to unlearn a lifetime of being thought of as less. That kind of treatment takes a toll.”

  Paula’s expression was a pensive one as she studied the sublime night sky. “It makes you doubt yourself and accept the doubt because you’ve been told for years you’re worth nothing more. I was just an inner city girl from a broken home. My mom could claim one of at least twenty men as my father.”

  She left the table then, refusing to let the ideas take hold and direct her moods as they so easily could. “Professor B wouldn’t let me use any of that as an excuse—wouldn’t let me cower from what needed to be done and use self-doubt as the reason.”

  Linus left the table then too. He couldn’t stand the lonely figure she made as she looked out over the calm water. Taking her arm, he drew her back against him. Though the breeze claimed a pleasant warmth, her skin rose with gooseflesh just the same when his palms grazed her skin. Paula leaned into his mouth when it caressed her ear.

  “I never thought you were less, Paula. Not even when I was acting like a prick. I never believed that.”

  “I know that, Linus. I know it,” Paula repeated when she turned in his arms. “That’s why it took a minute for me to stop trying to make you snap out of whatever had come over you that night. I—it was like you were a different person.”

  Linus muttered something indecipherable and set his forehead against hers. Easing back, he kissed her there before letting his mouth trail her temple. The sensation was like velvet petals against her skin, and Paula leaned into his mouth again while smiling her approval.

  “I’ll never be able to tell you enough how sorry I am, Paula.”

  “I don’t really care about it right now.” With that, she stood on her toes to take his tempting mouth with hers. Gently, she outlined the shape of his lips. Soon after, she felt her feet leaving the sand.

  Linus had allowed her to pull on only a wrap she’d kept from her bag before he’d whisked her into a speedboat that carried them to the remote shore. The night had been pleasantly warm, but its slightly cooler temperature now continued to rouse the gooseflesh along her bare skin.

  Linus dragged her up against him, and her entire body flooded with microscopic chills. Instinctively, Paula curved her legs about his waist, her arms doing the same at his neck. Their kiss was scorchingly infectious, to the point where they were both moaning their appreciation by the time Linus began their trip to the tent.

  The doting crew had made themselves scarce by then. Paula scanned the area through half-lidded, arousal-drugged eyes. She managed to observe, while Linus devoured her neck, that the tent flaps had been drawn open. Soft, golden illumination poured from the interior, and she was curious to know what lay beyond.

  Alas, her curiosity had no chance of holding out against Linus’s prowess. Paula just managed to catch a glimpse of the interi
or that ran to a soothing color scheme of wood browns and beige; gold accents outlined the massive bed. Aside from an oversized linen-draped chair and end tables, the bed was the only furnishing.

  It was all they needed. Their frenzied kissing had resumed. Linus’s open shirt had tantalized Paula with an unobstructed view of his sinfully sculpted chest. She made fast work of shoving it to the ground. Losing interest in her surroundings, she was completely focused on Linus at work on her body.

  His tongue courted hers with a tormenting fervor—possessive, sultry, ruthless. Paula could barely summon the ability to engage. She was far more fixed on letting her mouth be taken by his skillful thrusts. The rotations swirled about her tongue before his lips suckled it. The strokes caressed her teeth and the roof and sides of her mouth before he withdrew, only to repeat the process.

  It was Paula withdrawing next, breaking away in an effort to communicate to him that she needed a moment. Linus wasn’t in the mood to oblige and launched his next assault on her ear. His activities there were just as overwhelming and ruthless. She barely felt them moving as he closed the space to the stunning bed and she shivered the moment her bare skin contacted the suede, maple-brown comforter.

  Linus stopped Paula from making the effort to tug herself from her bikini. Smoothly, he claimed her wrists, anchoring them above her head while his teeth snagged one of the frail ties that secured her top, ruining it. One tug and the garment loosened at her chest.

  “Dammit, L—”

  “Shh.” He nudged aside the material. “Just wear the wrap when we leave.”

  “The crew will know what we’ve been doing,” she hissed.

  “Do you think they wouldn’t know anyway?” He chuckled.

  Paula wanted to laugh too, but she gasped instead. Linus’s gifted tongue had encircled a pouting nipple, licking it until it glistened before he treated it to an achingly sweet suckle. Her body bowed beneath his. She braced at his hold on her wrists, only to feel it grow firm. She was where he wanted her, and it was where he intended to keep her—for the time being at least.

  His quiet moans brought Paula almost as much pleasure as what he was doing to her breasts. She couldn’t imagine that such devouring was as enjoyable as actually being devoured, but Linus seemed as powerfully satisfied as she was, if the sounds vibrating from his throat were any example.

  The next sound Paula uttered was a sob. Linus abandoned her well-tended breasts. His tongue swept their undersides before trailing her rib cage and navel. He released her wrists, but she was too drunk with passion to move them straightaway. Her fingers curved into the comforter as his curved around the ties of her bikini bottom. She winced in expectation of hearing the fabric rip, but Linus surprised her by dutifully pulling the strings to relieve her of the material. Paula clutched at the tangled comforter then. The tip of Linus’s nose charted a leisurely course across her waxed mound before his tongue feathered across her clit, seconds prior to his lips treating it to a light suckle.

  Linus cradled her hips lightly, and then he was trading the embrace for a more secure one about her thighs. He took her with his tongue, and her body bowed once again. Linus withdrew momentarily to nibble at the powder-soft folds of her sex and soothe the spot beneath his nose. Then the series of thrusts and nibbles resumed.

  The sequence continued, driving Paula more and more insane with need. When he stopped altogether, he took her mouth before she could utter one word in protest. His shirt was already a distant memory, and she sought to sentence his pants to the same fate.

  Instead of stopping her, Linus assisted, shoving down the material as he kicked out of the leather sandals he’d worn with lightweight sweats. He reached up to knock aside a few of the pillows bunched along the head of the bed and retrieved a stash of condoms.

  “Planning to keep me up all night?” she asked.

  “All night—and then all morning,” he clarified.

  It sounded like heaven to Paula. Her heart pounded fiercely as she watched him tear into one of the foil packets. Paula used the momentary distraction to her advantage. Shoving Linus to his back, she took the open packet and proceeded to apply their protection.

  Linus was poised to put Paula on her back again and tried to press the issue when she resisted. He was mad to have her, but relented when she begged in the nicest way as she settled over him, sheathing his sex inside hers.

  “I like the way you beg,” he said.

  “Don’t get used to it,” she purred.

  “I’m pretty sure I have a few things I could make you beg for.”

  “You’re putting your life in serious jeopardy if you try.” Her last few words were a gasp as she succumbed to sensations that spider-webbed beneath her skin until she was trembling with desire and the preliminary rumbles of orgasm.

  Her body turned to syrup, and she would’ve been wilting over Linus had he not taken charge. Cupping her waist, his hold was secure even as it guided her up and down his wide, dark length. Linus squeezed his eyes shut as the rumbles of his own orgasm began to take shape. Paula’s body was plump and ripe for his taking. She was everything he wanted and always had been. Still, it was her strength, boldness and intelligence that truly beckoned. Those were the elements that lasted.

  “I love you,” he said.

  “I know you do.”

  She laughed as she said the words, and Linus realized she thought he was teasing or basing his emotion on the pleasure she brought him. He gave himself over to her quickly then, groaning deeply when he erupted inside the condom. Paula responded with a shuddering gasp and desperately squeezed his throbbing erection to absorb the vibrations of his release. She’d been in the grips of her own climax when Linus entered his. Now, those sensations were overpowering her at an intense, impossible rate. She was still shuddering when he put her on her back.

  “I love you.”

  He repeated the phrase in a way that cut through the haze of erotic bliss. Paula understood then. He hadn’t meant the words as a lighthearted reference to their sexual activity. She was sorry she’d indicated that he had.

  “I love you, Linus. I—”

  He didn’t give her the chance for more words, which were going to be ones of apology over misunderstanding him. He was kissing her again, deeply, searchingly, absorbingly.

  Paula moaned twice in rapid succession when she felt his shaft transform from its state of semi-hardness to its rigid, thrusting power. He cursed with vicious suddenness and withdrew. Quickly, he applied a fresh condom and returned to glove himself to the hilt inside her. The act replayed itself many times over that night and into the morning.

  * * *

  Linus woke with a sigh. He’d recalled the rain ushering them into sleep as they dozed off well after dawn that morning. He wasn’t sure how long they’d slept or if they’d slept the day away. The light streaming into the tent was strangely dim. Then he heard the distinctive patter against the outer fabric. More rain. The realization had his eyelids drooping closed again in preparation for another long snooze.

  Paula was still unconscious next to him. She slept on her stomach, her lovely face half-hidden in a pillow. She looked both sated and depleted. Linus’s dimpled smile firmed. He was quite proud of the role he had played in making that happen. The rain patter intensified slightly, and he was moving to cage Paula beneath him, his plan to rejoin her in sleep, when he heard another distinctive sound.

  The crew had been instructed—warned, really—not to disturb them once they were inside the tent. As his friends were busy with their own interests, Linus was sure it wasn’t them. Given that, all else was secondary. His vibrating phone silenced, only to resume seconds later. Why hadn’t he thought to put the damn thing on silent? It hadn’t been much of a bother, that’s why. Paula’s had been the aggravation, which was why he’d insisted on her leaving her bag behind when they’d left the boat.

  With a sigh, he grab
bed his sweats from the wide rug on his side of the enormous bed. The vibrating had stopped again and had not resumed. Linus checked the screen and felt his heart lurch when he saw who had called. He’d asked Estella not to bother contacting him unless she’d found something. Evidently she had.

  The phone buzzed, that time to indicate a voice message. Linus glanced back to see that Paula was still sleeping and activated the message. As he listened, his relaxed state of the past several hours mutated into one that had him brushing a lingering kiss on Paula’s back and then leaving the bed to get dressed.

  Chapter 12

  Linus had the speedboat cart him back to the villa. He celebrated the fact that he wouldn’t have to interrupt his partners from more enjoyable activities when he found Eli and Tig in the main sitting area. The long, low coffee table there was covered in laser-printed photos and other documents. Tig was the first to notice Linus entering.

  “Ah! Just the man we wanted to see,” Tig called.

  Linus caught the slightly less than playful chord in Tig’s words. He flicked a curious glance toward the cluttered white-topped table.

  “Just got off the phone with Este,” he said instead of inquiring about the state of the table. “I had a feeling and asked her to check on something for me. It, um...” Linus made his way deeper into the room. “It was just a feeling. I didn’t plan on her to find anything when I asked her to look.”

  Eli and Tig shared a quick look. They knew better than most that Linus’s “feelings” were like gold. The man had a perception that was unmatched.

  “What do you know?” Eli asked.

  “I asked her to find all that she could on Miranda Bormann.”

  “And?” Eli probed.

  Linus smirked. “Something simple, really. Right before our eyes the whole time. I just didn’t think to ask. That dossier Paula drew up had everything except info on the woman herself.”