“I know what that’s like.”
He tipped his head to one side and narrowed his eyes. “Do you?”
She smiled, actually enjoying this quiet time with him. The talking, the sharing of old pains and secrets. She had never really talked about her father with anyone but Anna. But somehow, it seemed right now, to let Simon know that he wasn’t alone in his feelings about the past.
“My father had plans for me, too,” she said sadly. “And they didn’t have anything to do with what I wanted.”
He nodded again thoughtfully. “For me, I watched what happened with my dad and I learned.”
“What?” she prompted, her voice soft and low. “You learned what?”
His eyes narrowed as he watched her and Tula felt the heat of his stare slide into her bones.
“I learned to pay attention. To make rules and follow them. To never let anyone get the best of me. There’s no room in my life for chaos, Tula,” he said.
There was no subtext there and she knew it. He was saying flat out that there was no room in his life for her. She had figured that out for herself, of course. But somehow hearing him say it out loud left a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“I saw exactly what happens when a man loses focus,” Simon added. “My dad couldn’t concentrate on work he hated, so he didn’t pay attention. I never lose focus. I guess I did the same thing you did. Made my own choices in spite of the early training by my father.”
And those choices would keep them apart. He couldn’t have been any clearer. So why, she wondered, was he looking at her as if he wanted nothing more than to grab her and carry her up to his bed? Heat filled his eyes even as a chill colored his words. The man was a walking contradiction and Tula really wished she didn’t find that so darned attractive.
She shook her head as if to rid herself of that thought and asked, “What about your mother? Didn’t she have some impact on you, too?”
“No,” he said abruptly. “She died in a car wreck when I was four. Don’t remember her at all.”
“‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t sound like much,” she told him, “but I am.”
“Thanks.” He looked at her again and this time there was emotion glittering in his eyes. She just wished she could decipher it. Simon Bradley touched her in ways she had never experienced before. Even knowing that nothing was going to come of what was simmering between them couldn’t stop her from wishing things were different.
Wishing that just once in her life, someone would see her for who she was and want her.
“Tell me more about your father,” Simon said suddenly. “What’s he like?”
“Like you,” she blurted without thinking.
“Excuse me?”
Tula thought it a little weird that he could look so insulted without even knowing who her father was. “What I mean is, he’s a businessman, too. He practically lives in his office and can’t see anything in his life if it’s not on his profit-loss statements. He’s a workaholic and he likes it that way.”
He leaned back against a pillow tucked up to the wall. “And that’s how you see me?”
“Well, yeah.” Grateful to be off the subject of her own family, Tula said, “You’re a lot like him. Go to work early, come home late—”
“I’m home early today. Have been for the last few days.”
“True and I don’t know what to make of that.”
“I intrigue you?”
“You confuse me.”
“Even better.”
“No,” she said, inching back on the window seat to keep plenty of room between them. “It’s really not, Simon. I don’t need more confusion in my life and you’ve already made it pretty clear what you think about me.”
“That fight we had, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t mean a thing,” he told her and leaned forward.
“That’s not how you felt then,” she reminded him, trying not to notice that he was just within reach of her.
“As I remember it, you had plenty to say, too.”
“Okay, yes. I did. You made me mad.”
“Oh, trust me, you made that perfectly clear.”
“Good then. We both remember that argument.”
“That’s not all we remember,” he said, voice low, thick. He reached for her hand before she could pull back and rubbed his thumb across her palm.
Tula shivered. It wasn’t her fault, she thought frantically. It’s not like she chose to be this attracted to him. It was simple chemistry. A biological imperative. Simon touched her and she went up in flames.
But she could choose to step back from the fire.
“Simon…”
“Tula, we were good together.”
“In bed, sure, but—”
“Let’s just concentrate on the bed for right now, huh?”
Oh, that sounded really good, she silently admitted. That featherlight touch on her palm was already firing up every nerve ending in her body. She took a breath, held it, then released it on a sigh.
Oh, Tula, she thought wildly, you’re going to do it, aren’t you?
Even as that disappointed-in-herself sigh wound through her mind, Tula was leaning in toward Simon.
It was inevitable.
Her gaze locked with his as his mouth touched hers. A whispered groan slid from her throat at that first, gentle contact. And she realized just how much she’d missed him. Missed this. It didn’t seem to matter that they were constantly butting heads. He was right. For now, all she had to concentrate on was what she felt when she was with him. When she surrendered herself to the magic of his touch, his kiss.
No doubt, there would be plenty of time for regrets in the coming weeks and months. For right now there was only him.
As if a floodgate had been opened somewhere inside her, emotions churned, fast and furious throughout her system. She leaned in closer, allowing him to deepen the kiss. His arms closed around her, holding her tightly to his chest and suddenly, the wide window seat seemed too narrow. Too public.
He tumbled her to the floor, assuring that he landed on the hardwood and she was cushioned against his chest.
Her breath left her in a whoosh of sound. She lifted her head, looked down into his eyes and grinned. “You okay?”
He winced, then smiled back. “I’m fine. And I’m about to be better.”
“Promises, promises…”
A wide smile dazzled his eyes and made her heartbeat jump into a gallop. His hands swept up and down her spine and paused long enough to give her behind a quick squeeze.
“I know a challenge when I hear one,” he said and lifted his head from the floor to kiss her again. Harder, deeper, his tongue swept past her defenses and tangled with hers in a sensual dance that stole her breath.
She cupped his face in her palms, loving the feel of his whiskers against her skin. She shivered as his arms tightened around her, holding her so closely she could feel the pounding of his heartbeat shuddering through her.
He rolled over, cradling her in his arms until she was on her back and his heavy weight pressed down on her. Tula sighed, loving the feel of him on top of her. She didn’t mind the hardness of the floor beneath her, because he was too busy making sure she felt nothing but pleasure.
He tore his mouth from hers, buried his face in the curve of her neck and nibbled at her throat, sending tiny jolts of sensation across her skin. Tula fought for breath and ran her hands up and down his broad back. His heavy muscles tensed and flexed beneath her fingertips and she smiled at the knowledge of how much her touch affected him.
Staring up at the beamed ceiling overhead, Tula lost herself in the flash of heat swamping her. His hands moved over her body with finesse and determination. He left trails of fire in his wake. She felt as though she were burning up from the inside and all she could think of was the need for even more flames.
His mouth moved over her skin, her throat, her jaw and up again to her mouth where he kissed her until she couldn’
t breathe, couldn’t think. Only sensation was left to her.
Then passion crashed down on them both in the same searing instant. Hands moved quickly, freeing buttons, undoing snaps and zippers and in seconds, they were naked, entwined tightly together on the living room floor.
Rain beat a counterpoint to the gasps and moans sounding out in the dimly lit room. From outside came the muffled heartbeat of the world. Cars whizzing past, wheels on wet streets sounding like steaks sizzling on a grill. Wind rattled the windowpanes and sighed beneath the eaves. From the nearby monitor came the quiet, steady breathing of the child upstairs in his bed.
And none of those sounds were enough to intrude on this moment. Around them, the world continued. But in that room, time stood still. There was only the two of them, Tula thought. Just she and Simon and for this one amazing instant she was going to forget about everything else. Stop trying to read the future, or hide from the past, long enough to enjoy the present.
Instead, she would lose herself in a pair of chocolate-brown eyes that saw too much and revealed too little.
“You’re thinking,” he accused, one corner of his mouth lifting into a half smile.
“Sorry,” she said, smoothing her fingertips across his jaw. “Don’t know how that happened.”
“Let’s just see what I can do about shutting down that busy brain of yours.”
“Think you’re up to the challenge?” she teased.
“Baby,” he assured her, “I’m very up for it.”
A surprised laugh shot from her throat and Tula sighed with happiness. Having a lover who could make her laugh at the most astonishing times, was really a gift. And maybe, she thought, there were even more layers to Simon Bradley than she had assumed. Maybe—
Then he began his quest to shut off her thoughts and he was more than successful. Tula groaned when his mouth came down on her breast. He licked and nibbled and she twisted beneath him, trying to take more of what he offered. Needing to feel all she could of him. Needing—just needing.
He suckled her and she gasped, arching into him, holding his head to her breast, as his mouth pulled at her breast. Her fingers speared through his thick, soft hair. She loved the feel of his mouth on her and thought frantically that she could happily spend the rest of her life like this.
He smiled against her skin. She felt the curve of his mouth against her breast and she knew he was aware of the effect he had on her. But she wasn’t interested in hiding it from him anyway. Why shouldn’t he know that he could splinter her body and shatter her soul with a kiss? A touch?
The wood floor beneath her bare back was cool, but the heat he built within her was more than a match for it. He lay between her thighs and she felt the tip of him prodding at her center. She wanted that invasion of body into body. Wanted to feel the slick slide of his heat into hers.
She lifted her hips in silent welcome, but he didn’t respond to her invitation. Instead, he rolled over, taking her with him until she was splayed atop him, staring down into those eyes that fascinated her so.
“The floor’s not real comfortable,” he told her, reaching up to cup her breasts in the palms of his hands. “Thought we’d just change position for awhile.”
“Change is good,” she said, straddling him, keeping her gaze fixed on his. Her hands moved over his sculpted chest. At her touch, he hissed in a breath.
Simon looked up at her and felt his mind blur. He’d been planning this seduction for days and now that it was here, his plans meant nothing. The only thing that mattered was her. The feel of her. The taste of her. The soft sighs that drifted from her throat at his touch.
Shadowy light played on her choppy blond hair and winked off the silver hoops in her ears. Her big blue eyes were glazed with the same passion claiming him. He kneaded her breasts with a firm, gentle touch and tweaked her hardened nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. He loved watching the play of emotion on her face as she hid nothing from him.
Her eager response to lovemaking only fed the fires inside him, pushing at him to take more, to give more. Her hips were rocking instinctively and his own body was hard and tight.
He set his hands at her hips and lifted her high enough off him that he could position himself to slide inside her. She closed her eyes, tipped her head back and, taking control of the situation, slowly, inch by inch, took him inside. She settled herself over him with a deliberately slow slide that was both tantalizing and exasperating. He tried to hurry her, to push himself into her harder, deeper, but the tiny, curvy woman was in control now, whether he liked it or not.
“You’re just going to have to lay there and take it,” she said, a sly, purely female smile on her lips.
His eyes crossed as she finally settled on top of him, with his body sheathed completely inside hers. She was tight and damp and so damn hot he couldn’t think of anything but the sensations crashing down on him.
She moved, just a slight wiggle of her hips, but that small action shot through him with the force of a nine-point earthquake. He felt the world tremble. Or at least his corner of it. And he wanted more. Didn’t matter why he’d seduced her, he assured himself. All that mattered now was what they created together. The impossible heat. The incredible friction of two bodies moving as one toward a climax that would be, he knew, richer and more all-encompassing than anything else he’d ever known.
He didn’t care who Tula was. Didn’t want to re member that he was, in effect, setting her up to be used as a weapon against her own father. What he wanted to concentrate on now was how well they meshed. How their bodies joined so easily it was as if they were two pieces in the same puzzle.
She moved on him again, her hips rocking, taking him in and releasing him in a slow rhythm that built steadily into a pace that stole his breath and the last of his thoughts.
She arched her back, pushing her breasts higher. Her hands were on his chest, bracing herself as she rode him with a frenzied, honest passion that shook him to the core. Hands at her hips, he stared up into her eyes as she moved, and he was caught by the light glittering in those blue depths.
He felt swept up by both passion and emotion and just for that one, staggering moment, Simon forgot about everything else but Tula. She cried out his name as her release claimed her and a single heartbeat later, his body joined hers.
Blindly, Simon reached for her, pulling her down to his chest where he could cradle her close. Where, for a few brief seconds, he could forget that he had maneuvered her into this and instead pretend that what they had just shared was real.
Eleven
It had changed nothing.
And everything.
Two days later, Tula was still trying to understand the shift in her and Simon’s relationship. If she could even call it that. Connected by a child, they were two people currently sharing a bed. Did that actually constitute a “relationship”?
Simon was kind and funny and warm and so attentive in bed, she’d hardly had any sleep at all the last two nights. Which, of course, she wasn’t exactly complaining about. But was there anything else in his heart for her? Was it just desire? Was it expediency, since she was right there in his house and would be until she decided to hand over custody of Nathan?
She’d given herself to the man she loved with no assurances at all that he would care for her in return. Yes, she loved him. And it was too late now to change that.
How could she have let this happen? Hadn’t she made a vow to herself not to take that last slippery step into love? But how could she possibly have avoided it? she asked herself. Simon was so much more than she had originally thought him to be. She had seen glimpses of his caring nature that he fought to bury so deeply. She had watched him with his son and been touched by the gentleness he showed Nathan. She had laughed with Simon, fought with him and made love with him in every possible way.
She couldn’t avoid the simple truth any longer. She was in love with a man who was only in lust.
“This can’t end well.”
“That’s the spirit,” Anna cheered sarcastically.
Tula just looked at her friend and shook her head. “How you can expect me to be optimistic about this is beyond me. Anna, he doesn’t love me.”
“You don’t know that.”
A snort of laughter shot from her throat. “He hasn’t said it. Hasn’t shown any signs of admitting it. I think that’s a good clue.”
“All that means is that he’s a man,” Anna said, her gaze locked on the mural she was painting. “Sweetie, none of them ever want to admit to being in love. For some bizarre reason, the male brain deliberately will jump in the opposite direction the first time the word ‘love’ is used. They’re just naturally skittish.”
Tula laughed out loud. The baby on her hip enjoyed the sound and gurgled happily. She planted a quick kiss on his forehead before answering her friend.
“Simon? Skittish?” Shaking her head, she imagined the man in her mind and the idea of him being nervous about anything seemed even more ludicrous. “He’s a force of nature, Anna. He sets down rules and expects everyone else to abide by them. And they do.”
“You don’t,” she pointed out.
“No, but I’m different.”
“He doesn’t even expect you to do what he says, does he?”
“Not anymore,” Tula assured her. “He knows better.”
“Uh-huh.” Anna maneuvered her paintbrush across the wall and still kept the conversation going. “So he’s broken his own rule when it comes to you.”
She thought about that for a second. “I suppose, but only because I made fun of his stupid schedule.”
“How did he react?”
“He was all insulted,” Tula told her with a laugh. Then she remembered. “But he started changing up his schedule. Coming home early, skipping meetings…”
“Hmm,” Anna mused.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Tula protested, but her mind was working.
Have Baby, Need Billionaire Page 12
