by BETH KERY
What do you actually hope to gain by fooling around with the CEO of Durand? You’re going to end up disgraced and booted from the management recruitment process, all for a few good fucks?
A few incredible fucks, another voice in her head argued.
But it wasn’t just that. It wasn’t because Dylan had had her shaking with pleasure in a way she’d never experienced with another guy. It was him.
She craved to be with him up there in that lonely castle. She wasn’t sure what being with him again would be like, exactly, but she was so curious … so hungry to find out.
“You’re obsessed,” she muttered under her breath scathingly as she quickly mounted the steps to her and Kuvi’s cabin. Before she opened the screen door, she glanced back into the dark woods where the path lights couldn’t penetrate.
Was he back there already? Watching? Waiting? For the second time that night, her arms roughened with goose bumps. She’d never admit it to her kids, but these woods were eerie.
At night, the Durand estate seemed to transform into a different place.
Kuvi was half reclining on the couch in their seating area, drinking a Diet Coke and watching television. They chatted about the ups and downs of their first day with the kids for a few minutes before Alice went to her dresser and pulled out some fresh shorts and a top.
“I’m going to take a quick shower and go out for a bit,” she said, averting her eyes from Kuvi.
“Out? Where?” Kuvi asked, sitting up and looking interested.
“Just to …” Alice shrugged uncomfortably. “Meet someone.”
“Oh, I get it,” Kuvi said, grinning knowingly. “You’re meeting up with Thad.”
“No—”
“It’s okay,” Kuvi insisted, giving her a conspiratorial glance. “I see the way he looks at you. Your secret is safe. Not that you need to keep it a secret, of course. They’ve made it clear our time is our own after nine p.m.” She collapsed back on the sofa. “And God knows we deserve every minute of it, as hard as they work us.”
Alice opened her mouth to correct her roommate—she didn’t like telling Kuvi a lie, even if she hadn’t actually said anything. Kuvi had just assumed. In the end, she left Kuvi to watch Law & Order and hurried into the bathroom.
How could she be honest with Kuvi about something she wasn’t even fully admitting to herself? Besides, Kuvi would probably try to convince her that fooling around with Dylan Fall was extremely unwise. Alice didn’t need to hear that from an outside source. She already knew she was being impulsive and stupid. What’s worse, she was acting out of character.
All that knowledge didn’t stop her from walking out the cabin door at nine thirty sharp, her breath choppy from mounting excitement.
SEVEN
She immediately left behind the network of paths leading to the staff and team cabins and took the more remote trail to the stables. There were lampposts for the first hundred feet or so, but then they ran out. Alice realized nervously that no one would ride in the pitch darkness, so there wasn’t as great a need to light up this path.
She left the last lamppost behind and entered the shadows. A gust of wind off the lake made the tree branches creak as they swayed. She peered into the woods to the right of her. Had she just heard the crunch of footsteps on the earthen floor?
“Alice, it’s Dylan.”
He said it very quietly before he touched her back. She jumped, despite the fact that he’d warned her. He’d approached her silently from the left of the path, when she’d been straining to see his shadow to the right.
“Sorry,” Dylan said quietly, no doubt feeling her jump with his hand on her back. She looked up, squinting. She could barely make out his tall opaque shadow against the murky, sinuous, moving backdrop of the swaying tree branches. His hand moved across her back and transferred to her arm. His fingertips slid down the sensitive skin of her inner elbow. She shivered in anxiety, but a heavy, pleasurable feeling throbbed in her sex.
The forbidden tryst excited her. He did.
“Okay?” he asked, his hand enfolding hers.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Just follow me, then. There’s a trail that leads up to the house from one of the horse paths. I take it all the time to ride Kar Kalim, but you have to know it’s there to find it. It’s hidden. I’ll turn on a flashlight when we get on the trail. The foliage is thick there. No one will see us or the light.”
She didn’t reply. Something about his hushed tone, the dark night and the trees sighing and creaking around them seemed to emphasize the illicit quality of the whole thing. As she followed Dylan on the path, guided by his warm, firm hold on her hand, she felt as if they were committing a crime together, stealthily moving toward their target, two outlaws bound together by their secret plan. There was a wild, desperate sense of committing the outlandish, but also an intoxicating thrill to the whole thing.
“We’re going to leave the path here. It’ll be uphill,” he said quietly at one point. She put out her foot, but paused, hesitating to leave the paved trail. The pressure of his hand on hers increased. She stepped, feeling soft cut grass beneath her canvas tennis shoes. Her tread was unobstructed by weeds. “It’s a horse trail,” he said in a low, hushed tone, and she knew he’d read her hesitation in leaving the known path behind.
“I don’t know how you’re doing it,” she whispered a moment later, referring to his silent navigation in the darkness. “It’s pitch black out here.”
“I’ve walked around at night for years out here,” she thought she heard him say.
“You mean when you come down to ride your horse at dawn?” she asked.
“Then. Other times, too. I walk when I can’t sleep,” came his low, rough voice in the darkness.
“And that’s a lot?” she whispered.
“That’s a lot.”
She swallowed thickly at something she heard in his tone, but couldn’t quite identify.
After walking on the soft ground for a few minutes, Dylan paused. She heard the sound of brushing leaves and the snap of a twig.
“Press up behind me,” he muttered. “Put your face up next to my back and follow me closely.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re at the woods that hide the path to the side of the house. I’m going to push aside the brush and branches, but you’re likely to get scratched if you go in without something blocking your face.”
“Okay,” she agreed, her heart pounding in her ears. He let go of her hand and she reached out, her fingers touching cotton. She made a sweeping motion with both hands, charting the territory of him. A sharp thrill went through her. She touched his wide back just beneath his shoulder blades. Her hands lowered down the taper to his waist. She gripped him.
“Step into me, Alice.”
She shut her eyes—she couldn’t see a damn thing, anyway—and pressed her cheek against his back. For a stretched second, he didn’t move. She was utterly blind, but he felt so solid and strong beneath her palms and her cheek. She inhaled, catching the scent of his freshly laundered shirt and just the hint of the spice of his aftershave. Without thinking, her hands slid around to the front of him, and she pressed her face fully to him, nose against his spine. She breathed him in … absorbed him. Sexual arousal swelled in her, warm and heady.
He’d gone very still at her touch. The chemistry between them was electric, and unprecedented in Alice’s experience.
He hissed her name into the darkness. He caressed the outer part of her hand where she clasped him. She pressed closer, her lower belly curving around his butt. He was wearing jeans. She could feel the pocket seams making an imprint against her skin, and beneath the denim, the dense muscle of his ass. Suddenly, he was gripping her hands, lifting her tight hold on him. A flash of embarrassment went through her.
He hadn’t wanted her to squeeze him that tight.
His body shifted against hers, and she was plastered against him again, this time to the front. A hand opened at her lower back
. His fingers moved beneath her chin. He applied pressure, and her face tilted up. His mouth seized hers, his kiss firm and warm and hungry … such a forbidden, sweet solace in the darkness.
Such a delicious drug. She thought she’d imagined the intoxication of his kiss, but if anything, she’d underplayed it. All of her anxieties about this madness in which she was willingly participating evaporated under Dylan’s molding, hungry lips.
She moaned softly as his tongue pierced her lips, and his kiss grew fiercer. Hotter. His hand slid down over her ass, cupping the curve. He urged her closer yet, pressing her fast against him. She felt a slight shock go through his body at their contact. It thrilled her, that she had the power to sexually charge him like he was igniting her … bringing her to life …
Revealing a part of her she didn’t know existed.
He ripped his mouth off her a moment later, his warm, ragged breath striking her heated cheeks.
“I don’t know what it is about you,” he said in a quiet rough voice. “You take me from zero to a hundred in a second flat.”
Alice opened her mouth to speak, but his fingers had found their way beneath her shorts and he was stroking the tender skin where her thigh and buttock met. He caressed the lower curve of her ass and she felt his cock leap against her. She firmed her hands on his shoulders and slid her body higher on him, going up on her tiptoes, her mouth seeking him out.
“Uh-uh.” He popped the ass cheek he’d been fondling with his palm. She made a little squeaking sound of surprise.
“If you keep it up, I’m going to have you right here in these woods,” he muttered.
“Maybe that’s where I want it,” she breathed out.
“No. Not again,” he said, his lips brushing against hers as he spoke quietly, but firmly. “I’ll have you next in my bed. I’m going to learn you tonight. I’m going to find all the sweet spots on your beautiful body,” he promised darkly, biting gently at her lower lip. “I want to see your face so I know when I’ve found them. I want to watch you coming.”
He grabbed her wrists gently and drew her hands off his shoulders. His little speech had left Alice mute. He’d made his decision. It would be foolish to argue. He turned around, one hand behind him touching her lower back, urging her behind him. Alice blinked, willing the wild surge of lust that had gone through her at his words to fade so that she could attend to the task.
“Stay close,” he said.
She put her hands against his back and followed him blindly into the thick brush, holding her breath because she was trusting him so completely in the darkness.
She’d made her decision, too, and it was firm … although she couldn’t comprehend precisely why.
THEY left the woods on a side lawn that sloped to the castle. He led her around the back to the terrace, where they entered using the same French doors Dylan had led her out of to join the party. Had that just been last night? she wondered in amazement as she watched Dylan key in a password to an electronic security system once they were inside. He took her hand and led her through the sophisticated media room.
It seemed impossible that a little over twenty-four hours ago, her heart had been pounding at the unfamiliar, unexpected touch of his fingertips on her bare skin, and now she was hastening after him as he led her to bed. The house was hushed and sparsely lit as she followed him into the great hall, hurrying to keep up with his long stride.
“Is there anyone else here in the house?” she asked.
“No. Louise, Marie, and Carlos—the groundskeeper—are day staff.”
In the great hall, the stunning crystal chandelier had been set to a very dim setting. She stared up at it, the exquisitely cut shards of glass blurring slightly in her vision.
“Dylan,” she said in a strangled voice.
He glanced back at her face and came to a halt. He turned to her, stepping closer, and brushed his knuckles against her cheek softly.
“What?” he asked tensely.
She struggled to find words for what she was experiencing. He lowered his head.
“Do you want to change your mind?”
“No. It’s not that.”
“Then what is it, little girl?” he murmured. She shivered when he called her that. Alice was tall for a woman, and strong, even if she didn’t feel large next to Dylan. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“It’s just …” She swallowed thickly, because she’d just inhaled his scent, and his nearness was making her unformed thoughts even less substantial. “It’s all so strange,” she whispered, reaching up to touch him beneath the sleeve of his T-shirt. His skin was smooth and thick, his biceps hard as a stone.
“You think it’s strange? That I want you?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. But it was more than that, and she thought Dylan suspected that, too. Her attraction to him was just as unprecedented and … charged.
He leaned over slightly and met her stare. “I wish I could help clear things up for you. It’s not normal operating procedure for me, either. I’ve never slept with an employee of Durand. I could get in trouble for doing this. I could be censured. Maybe I ought to be fired.”
“You’re the boss,” she whispered.
She searched his face. He looked very grim. Why was he doing this? Why was he taking a risk like this, for her?
And yet, she had the strangest feeling he did understand her disoriented bewilderment, even shared in it to some degree. She recalled vividly that startled look on his usually controlled expression when that powerful charge of lust had sparked between them at her interview. He, too, was swept away by something he hadn’t expected and didn’t fully comprehend. There was something bigger than her going on, something bigger than him.
He looked so beautiful to her in that moment, his rugged face cast in shadow and the golden glow from the chandelier, his dark eyes gleaming as he stared at her with a strange mixture of watchfulness and unguarded heat. She placed her hands on his chest and pressed, the solidity of him, the sheer male strength, grounding her.
“You can help me,” she said, her voice firmer. “Take me to bed, like you said. Make me forget everything else.”
His face went hard. He ran his knuckles along her jaw. “I don’t want you to forget me, Alice.”
Her eyes widened in slight surprise at his fierceness. “As if I’d ever forget you.” She thought she could lighten his somber mood with a smile and her hands stroking his chest, but it didn’t work.
“I want to ask you something important before we go any further,” he said.
“Okay.”
“You had it pretty rough growing up.”
“It was no picnic,” she agreed dubiously.
His nostrils flared slightly, and she saw the hard gleam in his eye. “Were you … safe there? In Little Paradise?”
“Safe?”
He nodded, his expression grim.
“No, of course not,” she said with a disbelieving bark of laughter. What was he getting at? She noticed his intensity deepen and sighed. “My mother cooked and sold meth. Do you know what that entails? Our mobile home stunk of chemicals. We were constantly at risk of fire or an explosion. I slept with the windows open in my bedroom, even in subzero temperatures, so that I could get decent ventilation from the toxic air. Thank God for electric blankets. Whenever Sissy was in jail—or once, prison for two years straight—my uncle Al was in charge, both of me and my mom’s ‘business.’ That wasn’t bad, though. Al was better than Sissy. Uncle Al did a better job than Sissy in keeping his brothers and their degenerate friends and customers away from me. But Sissy wasn’t in jail the majority of the time. Unfortunately.”
“What about your father?”
“Dead.” She was accomplished at this particular lie.
“How many brothers did your mom have?” Dylan asked.
“Seven. My mom was the only girl. I only knew five of her brothers, though. Chuck was in prison for as long as I can remember. Rourke died of a drug overdose when he was twenty-four.
Why are you asking me about this now?”
“Were you hurt? In any way?”
“What?”
He closed his eyes briefly and looked away, although he continued to stroke her shoulders and upper arms. She had the strangest impression he was trying to soothe her. It helped. A little, anyway, although it didn’t lessen her bewilderment.
“I’m sorry,” he said starkly after a moment. “I’m only asking because I know what it can be like for a child in a rough neighborhood. A rough family.” He met her stare. “You’re always straightforward with me, so I’ll be the same with you. I’ll want to bind you sometimes during sex, Alice. Tie you up while I make love to you. Give you pleasure. Challenge you, a little. I’m not talking about anything serious, if you don’t want it. And it’ll always be up to you. I’m just trying to be up front about it, because I don’t want to hold your wrists or something while we’re in the thick of things, and have it be … bad for you.”
Her mouth dropped open as understanding permeated. This was a first for her. She wasn’t intimidated necessarily by what he’d said. She wasn’t a sexual libertine, by any means, but she was okay with people doing whatever felt right to them, as long as no one got hurt and it was consensual. In theory, it seemed fine anyway, but she was ignorant as far as practice. She suddenly felt like a bumbling foreigner in a strange land.
Which, face it, you feel like most of the time around Dylan.
She thought of his dominant, confident manner of touching and handling her in the stables. He’d moved her around not roughly, but knowingly. She’d loved it. It took a few seconds for what he was really getting at to register. Her lungs came unstuck. She exhaled heavily.
“You’re worried I’ve been abused?” she asked shakily.
She saw the muscle in his jaw flicker with tension.
“Have you been?”
She shook her head. “Not sexually. Is that what you’re asking?”
His hands tightened on her arms. “In any way,” he bit out.
She snorted. “No. But I think a mental health professional might have a different definition for abuse than I do. For the most part, I was ignored. I was perfectly fine. Everyone just thought I was Sissy’s weird, nerdy little girl. I had my own room, which I guarded like a fortress. While I was at school, I booby-trapped it from intruders. My room used to be Sissy’s room and was the best in the trailer. I took it over while she was in jail once, and installed the dead bolts myself. I was twelve when she came back. She made the loudest fuss you’ve ever heard when I refused to get out of that room, but eventually she gave up. Uncle Al thought it was funny, even if he did hate her yowling. I’d set her stuff up nicely in the room that used to be mine, and it was just easier for her to crash in there, and let it all go. After a while, I think she actually forgot the big bedroom used to be hers. Meth puts a few holes in the brain,” Alice recalled, laughing bitterly until she noticed Dylan’s sober expression. She sighed. “The answer is no. I didn’t consider myself abused. I don’t,” she emphasized when there was no relent to his boring stare. “Sissy was meaner than my uncles, especially when she was high or sick, which was most of the time. I avoided all of them, although Uncle Al could be okay at times. But the back of their hand came a lot easier to the Reeds than using words to ask for what they wanted. The Reeds are fluent in sign language.” She jokingly gestured flicking her hand in a smacking gesture.
