Dynasties:The Elliots, Books 7-12

by Various Authors

  He gulped in mouthfuls of salt air and steeled himself against the onslaught of desire.

  “I’ve missed you,” she whispered.

  A steel band tightened around his chest, and he thought it might explode. He cupped her face, kissing her sweet lips, absorbing her taste, reveling in her feel. “Oh, Amanda, this is so…”

  “Real?”

  He nodded.

  Her hair was tangled with wet sand, her makeup was smeared in a rainbow, and droplets of water trickled over her cheeks. But he’d never seen a more beautiful woman. Sensation washed over him with the beat of the waves. “I remember.”

  “Me, too. I remember you were wonderful.”

  “I remember you were beautiful.”

  Her hands tightened on his upper arms. “I want you. Right now.”

  He shook his head. “Not yet.” There was nothing he wanted more. And nothing would stop him, nothing could possibly come between them.

  But he had to make this last. He had to imprint her on his brain all over again. There’d be many long, lonely nights ahead, and he wanted hot memories to see him through.

  He was selfish, he knew. But he couldn’t help himself. He cupped her breast, feeling the press of her taut nipple against his palm.

  She moaned.

  “You like?” he asked.

  She nodded her head.

  He brushed a thumb across the crest, and her fingertips convulsed against him.

  Her response was fuel to his fire, and he let his hands and lips roam free, changing her breathing to gasps and pants, reveling in his ability to please her.

  He trailed his fingers up her thigh, finding the core of her heat, groaning aloud as he pressed into her softness. She welcomed him with a flex of her hips, and her mocha eyes went wide.

  “Oh, Daniel.”

  “I know.” He kissed her deeply. “I know. Just go with it.”

  She responded, running her fingers over his chest, finding his flat nipples, his navel, his abdomen, and sending shock waves straight through his body.

  Then her cool, small hands roamed farther, grasping him, stroking him, urging him.

  He shifted above her.

  “Now,” she asked again, tightening her grip.

  His only response was a guttural groan. He pushed her thighs apart, kissing her lips, her cheeks, her eyes as he pressed inside her inch by careful inch.

  She gasped his name.

  He almost shouted “I love you.” But that was a different time, a different place.

  “Amanda,” he gasped instead, surging into a rhythm as her hips rocked forward and her legs locked around his waist.

  He cupped her breast, and she gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin. Her head dropped back and she scrunched her eyes shut.

  The thunder rumbled and the waves crashed their furor. There could have been an armada of paparazzi moored in the bay and he couldn’t have cared less. She was his. After all these years, she was his once again.

  Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, and her breathing became ragged. He could feel her body arching against him, straining, struggling.

  He waited, waited, waited.

  “Daniel!” she cried, and he let himself go.

  The lightning melted the sky and the earth shook with the force of his release.

  When it was over, they lay gasping in each other’s arms. Daniel supported himself on his elbows, using his body heat to keep her warm.

  He kissed her forehead and lingered there, because he simply couldn’t resist. He knew they should get dressed and go up to the house to dry off, but he didn’t have it in him to let her out of his arms.

  She smiled, her eyes still closed. “I just love spontaneity.”

  His heart contracted on the word love. But that wasn’t what she meant. He brushed a lock of gritty hair from her check. “What makes you think I didn’t plan this?”

  Her eyes popped open. “You did not.”

  “Sure, I did.”

  “Daniel, this is not a plan you would make.”

  He nodded. “What’s more, you planned it, too.”

  “Dream on.”

  “Counselor, are you trying to tell me you didn’t plan to make love with me tonight?”

  “I didn’t know when, and I didn’t know how.”

  He shifted his weight and leaned on one elbow. “That’s still a plan.”

  She wiggled as cool air blew between their bodies and the slowing rain trickled over their hot skin. “No, that’s an idea.”

  “Semantics.”

  “Philosophy.”

  He chuckled. “Admit it, your philosophy’s not that much different than mine.”

  She shifted on his wrinkled coat, propping on her elbow, a gleam in her eye. “You think? Okay. Let’s talk philosophy. Tell me again why you want to be CEO?”

  He groped for his dress shirt, shook it out with one hand and draped it over her. “The corner office.”

  “You already have a corner office.”

  “Yeah, but this one’s on the twenty-third floor.”

  “Weak, Daniel. Very weak.”

  “You’re making more of this than actually exists.”

  She shook her head. “No, I’m not. Your father told you to fight for the CEO job.”

  “And I’m fighting because I want it. Not because somebody told me to want it.” But even as he made the argument, he felt a crack in it.

  Had he ever thought about becoming CEO before his father had issued the challenge? He’d jumped right in, along with his three siblings, but he’d never stopped to analyze the decision.

  Amanda continued to challenge him. “Tell me the last thing you aspired to that wasn’t suggested by someone else.”

  He focused on her earnest face. “Changing the employee manual.”

  Amanda made a negative buzzer sound. “That was my idea.”

  “Not specifically.”

  “But generally. You remember prom night?”

  He tucked his shirt closer around her. “In detail.”

  “You remember your adventure magazine plan?”

  “Of course.”

  She traced a fingertip along the ridge of his bicep, and suddenly his body was awash in heat. “That was you, Daniel. That was all you.”

  He nodded, thinking she was proving his point rather than her own.

  “What happened to that?” she asked.

  What a crazy question. “Bryan happened to it. You happened to it.”

  “You ever think about where you’d be if you’d done it anyway?”

  Daniel shifted his gaze past the top of her head to the black cliffs and the faint lights of the mansion. “No,” he lied.

  “Never?”

  He shrugged. “What’s the point?”

  She curled into a sitting position, his shirt falling to her lap. “There’s every point. I wonder all the time what would have happened if I’d told Patrick to take a flying leap.”

  “A flying leap to where?”

  She flipped her damp hair back. “You know. Told him to bugger off. Gone to court over Bryan, and sent you off to Africa or the Middle East.”

  A chill formed deep inside Daniel. Gone to court?

  “Maybe he was bluffing.” She got a faraway look, and Daniel pushed into a sitting position.

  A sense of dread crept along his veins. “Bluffing how?”

  Amanda bit her lower lip, a bleak vulnerability coming into her eyes. “You think a judge would have taken a baby away from its mother? Even back then?”

  Daniel’s throat went dry. He shook his head, sure he couldn’t be hearing what he thought he was hearing. “Patrick threatened to take Bryan away from you?” he rasped.

  “Yeah…” Her brown eyes darkened. She squinted at Daniel. “You didn’t—”

  He shot to his feet and paced down the sand before pivoting on his heel and raking a hand through his wet hair. “My father threatened to take Bryan away from you?”

  She stood up. “It was
a long time ago. I thought you…”

  His hands tightened into fists as every muscle in his body clenched. “You thought I knew?”

  She nodded. Then she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. You’re right, there’s no point in discussing what-ifs.”

  Daniel forced himself to take three deep breaths. It wasn’t Amanda’s fault, nothing was Amanda’s fault. She’d been forced to marry him.

  This answered so many questions. All those years, she’d let herself be kept hostage for the sake of her children. It was a wonder she’d lasted as long as she did.

  In an instant, Daniel knew Amanda was right. Patrick was more insidious than he had ever imagined. What else had he done? How much manipulation went on in the Elliott family?

  Did Daniel want to become CEO?

  He had nothing against being CEO. But was being CEO where he wanted to put all his effort, all his energy, all his time?

  Not a question he could answer at the moment, and not one he had any intention of pondering while Amanda was shivering on a beach.

  He drew a cleansing breath and moved toward her. “I’m the one who’s sorry,” he said, gently drawing her into his embrace. “My father should not have done that. I had no idea you’d been blackmailed.”

  She shivered in his arms. “It was a long time ago.”

  He nodded against the top of her head, kissing her sand-gritty hair. “It was a long time ago.”

  She tipped her chin to look up at him. “Can we do spontaneity again sometime?”

  He stroked a hand over her hair. “Anytime, anyplace.”

  Her lips curved into a brilliant smile.

  Daniel gritted his teeth as he crossed the twenty-third floor to his father’s office at eight o’clock on Monday. He would have confronted him last night, but he didn’t want to do this in front of his mother.

  “Hello, Daniel,” Patrick’s secretary greeted.

  “I need to see him,” said Daniel. “Now.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

  “Take a good look at my expression. Now.”

  Mrs. Bitton pulled her glasses down the bridge of her nose. “Take a good look at my expression.”

  Normally, Mrs. Bitton intimidated the hell out of Daniel, but not today.

  “Pull him out,” said Daniel.

  An unexpected grin tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Bad idea.”

  “I really don’t give a damn what he’s doing.”

  “He’s at thirty-thousand feet over Texas.”

  Daniel paused. “When does he get in?”

  “He’ll be here at two. But he’s meeting with the art director.”

  “Rebook.”

  “Daniel—”

  “Look into my eyes, Mrs. Bitton.”

  She paused. “I can put it off until two-thirty.”

  Daniel gave her a sharp nod. “Good enough.”

  Amanda knew it was barely twelve hours since they’d left the beach. But Daniel had said anytime, anyplace. Plus, now that she’d wedged the door open a crack, she was determined to drag him out of his regimented little world.

  She paused at Nancy’s desk, holding up the bag of Buster Burgers. “Is he free?”

  Nancy’s eyes lit up and her lips curved into an amazed smile. She pressed her intercom button. “Mrs. Elliott to see you.”

  There was a silent pause. “Fine,” said Daniel, his voice abrupt.

  Amanda hesitated, but Nancy waved her toward the door. “Don’t worry about it. He’s having a tense morning. You’ll cheer him up.”

  Amanda headed across the outer office. She sure hoped she would. Slipping through the door, she flipped the lock behind her.

  Daniel glanced up from his desk.

  His eyes widened, and he drew back. “Amanda?”

  “Who were you expecting?”

  He shook his head and stood up. “Nobody. Nothing.” He rounded the wide, thankfully empty desk. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Good. I brought lunch.”

  He looked down at the bag, and his eyebrows shot up. “Buster Burgers?”

  “Ever tried one?”

  “Can’t say that I have.”

  She dropped the bag on his desk. “They’re to die for.”

  His glance strayed past her. “You locked the door?”

  She sidled up to him. “I locked the door.” She ran her fingertips down his silver silk tie. “You did say anytime, anyplace.”

  His jaw dropped, and his hands closed over hers, stilling them. “Amanda.”

  She grinned. “This is anytime. This is anyplace. And I’m here for spontaneity.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  She shook her head and freed her hands, going to work on the knot of his tie.

  “Are you nuts?”

  “No.”

  “What if somebody—”

  “Have a little faith in Nancy.”

  “But—”

  She ran her tongue around the rim of her lips and gazed deeply into his blue eyes. “I’ve been wanting to do you on the desktop since the first time you walked into my office.”

  His jaw worked, but no sound came out.

  She pulled off his tie and started on his buttons.

  “You want burgers first?” she asked, leaning forward to give him a hot, wet kiss on the chest. “Or you want me?”

  He made a sound that was half groan, half curse and his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He kissed her hair, murmuring her name over and over.

  “We can be quick,” she assured him, kicking off her shoes. “I’m alfresco under this skirt.”

  He dipped his head to kiss her mouth.

  She opened wide, and liquid desire poured through her system. She pushed his shirt out of the way, reveling in the feel of his hot skin against her fingertips.

  He held her close, while one hand snaked its way up her thigh.

  He groaned when he reached her bare buttocks. Then he turned her and lifted her onto the desk, pushing her skirt out of the way without breaking their kiss.

  He slipped his hands over her thighs, sensitizing her skin. Then he reached around to caress her bottom.

  “What you do to me,” he murmured as he massaged and kneaded, making her squirm against the smooth wood.

  “What you do back,” she breathed, burying her face in his neck, inhaling his scent.

  “But I’m a little busy right now.” His fingertips danced their way between her legs, tickling, teasing, tantalizing. “And I’m not sure this is the time or place—”

  “Don’t mess with me.” She scrunched forward, urging his explorations to go further.

  “Like you’re not messing with me?”

  “It’s for your own good,” she gasped, reaching down to press his hand into her.

  He disentangled himself, but then dropped to his knees. “My own good?” He feathered light kisses along her inner thigh.

  She sank back on her elbows. “Okay, this part’s for my own good.” Her muscles started to melt.

  He chuckled against her, and moved higher, higher still, and then his voice vibrated on her tender flesh. “I think there’s a company rule against this.”

  “Don’t you dare stop.”

  “Maybe even two.”

  “Daniel.”

  He chuckled again, and then he kissed her, hard and deep, and a little bit of heaven zapped right down into Snap. She sucked in gulps of air, gripping the edge of the desk as he nearly drove her out of her mind.

  She was soaring, flying, cresting…

  Then she realized what he was doing, and she jerked away.

  “What?” He looked up.

  “Uh-uh.” She sat up straight, latched on to his shoulders and pulled.

  “You done?” he asked, slowly rising.

  “Hardly.” She went after the button on his slacks.

  He grabbed her hand to stop her.

  But she stroked him through the fabric and he groaned, grasping the edge of the desk with
his free hand.

  “You’re mine, Daniel,” she vowed.

  “I can’t…” He gritted his teeth, and the hand stopping her relaxed.

  She popped the button. His zipper slid down easily, and her hand contacted searing hot flesh.

  “Amanda—”

  “Do me on the desktop, Daniel,” she purred.

  “You’re out of your—”

  She squeezed. “Now.”

  He swore.

  She pressed forward, bringing him against her, guiding him inside her.

  He swore again, but it sounded like a prayer, and he gathered her to him with a groan of surrender.

  He slipped his hands right under her bottom, holding her in place while his body thrust, and his muscles bunched beneath his suit jacket, turning to tempered steel.

  He whispered of how she looked, how she felt, how she tasted. She reveled in his words, his touch, his scent.

  She lost track of time as the tension mounted and the room spun around. She frantically kissed his mouth, tangling with his tongue. His fingers dug into her as he groaned her name and jerked harder and harder against her.

  Sensation radiated out like fireworks, and she slipped off the edge of the world, her body contracting over and over and over again.

  When their heartbeats finally slowed, his hands were tangled in her hair. He gently kissed her temple, stroking his knuckles down her cheek.

  “I’m beginning to love spontaneity,” he breathed.

  “You give a whole new meaning to the word,” she admitted.

  His chest puffed against her.

  “Burger?” she asked.

  Daniel laughed deep in his throat, and his arms contracted around her. “There’s a bathroom through that door.” He pointed. “If you want to freshen up.”

  She kissed his mouth. “Yeah.”

  He kissed her back. “Okay.”

  She kissed him again. “Hope you like cola.”

  He kissed her. “Sure.”

  She kissed him, and this time they lingered. “I guess we don’t have time to do it again, huh?” she asked.

  “Not and eat the burgers.”

  “You don’t want to miss the burgers.”

  He stepped back, and she slid off the desk.

  While she washed, and combed her hair, she could hear Daniel unpacking their lunch.

  On the way back through the office, she scooped his tie from where it dangled over the back of a guest chair and looped it around her neck.