by Lynda Chance
She waited with baited breath for him to touch her as a loud sound much like rushing water filled her eardrums.
Six years. It had been six years since he’d kissed her. Every day had been an agonizing wait.
One large hand reached down and lifted her chin, his splayed fingers grazing her neck as if her skin belonged to him. His eyes were hot on hers and his voice roughened, “You know what this is about. You figured me out a couple of years ago, didn’t you?”
Her heart pounding, she knew there was no reason to deny it. “Yes,” she said as she swallowed.
As one hand held her to him with his intractable grip, he dug into his front pocket with the other, while his eyes held hers with blazing focus. Pulling his hand from his pocket, he lifted a small, plastic square between them. He showed it to her, almost in challenge, with a false negligence that didn’t deceive her in the least. As her eyes snapped away from his and she stared at the small object, she felt her face bloom with heat as the condom came into bold focus.
A hot, pulsing ache built in the pit of her stomach as her gaze clashed sharply with his once again. His eyes were intent, compelling, heated, and her tummy flipped wildly as his attention remained one hundred percent absorbed on her face.
Her breath caught in her throat at the look of determined intensity cast like stone on his features. A raw, sexual sizzle filled the air between them as his eyes narrowed and his mouth bracketed in lines of determination. “Just for the record, I’ve been a saint with you. I’m still being a saint with you—”
She cut him off, exhaled a shallow pant, angry that he’d made them wait so long. “Don’t be. It’s getting old. I’m tired of you being so careful—”
With no more prompting, his mouth dropped. His lips landed on hers and his hand slid from her chin to graze through her hair. His fingers clenched, fisting her hair as electricity arced between them. Her lips were forced apart with the motion and as his tongue shot inside, Courtney felt a great wave of relief as if she’d finally come home.
His torso pressing against hers, his arm came off the wall from behind her and wrapped around her waist in a merciless hold. His tongue swirled around hers, and with lights dancing in her head, Courtney vaguely realized that this kiss wasn’t anything like the kiss he’d given her six years before.
This kiss held possession, a dominant force, unquestionable ownership.
Pure, sexual intent.
Heady delight pulsing through her veins, she lifted her chin a notch and kissed him back with everything she had. At the sound of his low growl, she wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes, dying to feel every inch of him against her. Hunger, immediate and sharp, slid down her spine and coalesced into a fever pitch of burning need between her thighs. Her breasts ached where they pressed against him, her nipples becoming sharp little points of arousal.
His chest vibrated with a sound of impatience as he released her and with quick, impatient movements, he put the condom package between his teeth and held it there while his hands slid to the fastening of her pants and he began to work on her button and zipper. She swallowed hard and with a feeling not unlike shock, her hands fell to his biceps as she looked down between them where he was pushing her pants down her hips, carrying her panties with them.
Her mind whirling, her emotions in upheaval, somewhere thinking in the back of her mind that there was supposed to have been a quiet dinner with candlelight, she glanced up and found his eyes glued to the white skin he’d bared. His face became tinged with red as a tic began pulsing in his cheek and any thought of romance fled her brain as her body began screaming in need.
He lifted a large, masculine foot and with the sole of his shoe, forced the crotch of her pants and panties down to the floor. “Kick ‘em off,” he hissed through his clenched teeth, the condom still between them, and through a roar in her ears, Courtney tried to comply. She got tangled in her shoes and clothes, and with a noise much like a pained animal might make, Nick reached down and with scant subtlety but a lot of speed, he pulled her shoes and pants away and tossed them aside.
He held her at arms’ length, the condom still between his teeth, and it was with a feeling of stunned anticipation and surprise at the speed of things, that Courtney stared back at him while trying to regulate her breathing.
He took the condom from his mouth and braced the hand he held it with to support her back while with the other, he claimed her naked hip between his fingers and squeezed. She swallowed hard as her body jerked beneath his touch.
He stared down where her naked thighs came together and the sound he made was animalistic in nature. “I have another question, but understand me when I say that if I get the wrong answer, I’m going to leave here and go commit first-degree murder, you got me?”
Her breath caught in her throat as she knew intuitively what his question would be.
A wave of anger rose up and blended with the hot tide of desire she was feeling. How freaking dare he expect her to still be untouched? Mad at herself in that moment for retaining her virginity, mad at him for expecting it, her spine stiffened.
As he lifted his face and stared into her eyes, she wondered if she should let him off the hook. Did he deserve the truth? Did he deserve to know that she was still a virgin? Why had she waited for him, anyway? He certainly hadn’t been abstinent for the last six years, although she had no firm proof of that as she’d never seen him bring a woman to his mother’s house during the time she’d lived there or when she’d been home visiting. Not even once.
Furthermore, she’d never heard his mother or any of his siblings refer to a woman in conjunction with Nick. Not ever.
She’d even searched his name on the Internet, trying to find information on him. Thank God, she’d come up dry every time. She’d found tons of business accolades, tons of information on the corporation, but much to her relief, not a single picture of Nick with a woman or even a reference to a woman at all.
If Nick had slept with anyone else, he’d been very scrupulous to keep any information of that nature from getting to her. He would never want to hurt her that way; Courtney was as sure of that as she was that they were at a new point in their relationship.
As he continued to watch her without speaking, it seemed as if he were afraid of what her answer to his question might be. She licked her lips and prompted, “Okay, what?”
His eyes turned into gleaming slits of warning. “You know what I want to know.”
She took a stabilizing breath and tried to stall. “Do I?”
His nostrils flared and she knew it was taking effort to control his temper. “You’re mine. Only mine. I know it, and you know it, and now I want to hear you say it.”
Arrogant ass. How could she love him so much? Was she wrong to be taking this out on him? Maybe it was her fault. She could have easily ridded herself of her virginity if she’d wanted to. She was just irked that he’d waited so damn long to finally be with her. The wait had been beyond ridiculous. They could have been together every time he’d come to Florida. Every time she’d come to St. Louis for holidays. She wouldn’t have turned him down and furthermore, he had to have known that. She paused only a moment more and then replied in a purposely off-handed way, “I’m yours.”
Her flippant answer set off a look of danger about him. His brows creased into a pissed-off frown as his hand slid from her naked hip to the vee between her thighs where he cupped her with a forceful grip. “Now’s not the time to fuck with me, baby.”
Courtney gasped as heat coiled through her bloodstream. No man had ever touched her there. Another stroke of anger lit her blood at the thought. The son-of-a-bitch had kept her so innocent she’d never been touched there. Maybe it wasn’t his entire fault, but in that moment, Courtney didn’t care; she was blaming him. With that thought, her feelings splintered disparately. She was furious; she was also so turned-on she could hardly stand up without her knees caving underneath her.
With a surfeit of emotion, she lifted
her hands and wrapped them around his jaw line. Surging to her tiptoes, she pushed her torso forward and put her lips on his. She kissed him with every ounce of emotion she was feeling, and within seconds, he was groaning and stabbing his tongue between her lips. His hand was a hot, molten grip of demanding need as he grasped her intimately; her legs trembled as she fell into their kiss and began experiencing a kind of desire that she’d only gotten a hint at when she’d touched herself while fantasizing about him.
He kissed her long, hard, deep, as if she belonged to him and to him alone. Her legs began to shake as he gripped her bare behind with strong fingers. She felt the sharp edge of the plastic he still held in his hand rasp against her buttocks; it created a tactile sensation that sent her spinning even further into the depths of desire.
His breathing became ragged as he pulled his mouth away from hers. Still gripping her with one hand at her front and the other behind, he opened his eyes and stared down at her. He inhaled sharply and said, “I need the truth.”
Swallowing hard, she shook her head, remaining stubborn, denying him an answer.
His eyes blazed and his words held a sharp edge. “Courtney. There’s a more immediate problem than my goddamn ego here. If you don’t tell me the truth, I might make the wrong assumption and not take the kind of care I should.” His eyes held hers as his control seemed to slip a notch and he rasped, “You understand me, baby? I’m half-fucking crazed already; if there’s a chance I might hurt you, you better fucking tell me right now.”
His meaning hit her all at once.
It was probably ridiculous, but as she realized that Nick was fueled with enough testosterone to stop a moving train and that he was impatient on top of it, her face paled and she stared back without speaking, a sudden feminine fear holding her in its grip.
His hands clenched as he prompted her for an answer. “I need something here. Give me something to go on.”
She took a deep breath and held his eyes and made a decision because in essence, not only did she despise pain of any kind, she could only lose her virginity once, and even if she and Nick were standing up inside a closet, she wanted it to be special between them. “Be careful,” she whispered.
He stared at her for the count of two seconds before his eyes closed and he leaned in toward her. He placed his lips gently on her forehead, and there was no other way that Courtney could describe it. He kissed her in benediction.
It was as if a switch had been flipped inside of him. Gone was the sexually aggressive man of moments ago; in his place was Nick, as he’d been on her eighteenth birthday.
With a gentle movement, taking her by the hand, he led her from the closet and into her bedroom. He started for the bed, but then with a quick turn, he swept her up into his arms and carried her out of the room, down the hall and into his suite of rooms.
He was just about to drop her to the bed when they heard pounding on the door in the vestibule adjacent to the elevator. The noise was loud and cacophonous as it resonated through the air and Nick’s hold on Courtney tightened immediately. They both looked in the direction of the door and then they heard Garrett’s voice. “Nick! What the fuck? Are you in there or not?”
Courtney felt Nick’s body tense as his head came down to her ear and he said under his breath, “Not a word. Don’t move a muscle. I’m not letting him in.”
Realizing that she was half-naked and that Garrett had to know they were inside the apartment, she started squirming, wanting out of Nick’s arms.
His hands clenched as if he wasn’t going to let her go until Garrett changed gears by shouting, “Courtney! I know you’re in there. I need to talk to you. Come open the door, damn it.”
Nick growled, low in his throat.
“Let me down,” she hissed at Nick and with a low rumble of anger, he loosened his arms. She didn’t wait another second. She raced back to her room and then to her closet and pulled on the jeans and panties that Nick had taken from her not five minutes before.
Sixty seconds later, she opened the front door, sans shoes, and let a clearly pissed-off Garrett inside.
Nick stood at the sideboard in the dining room pouring a drink, and Courtney couldn’t believe he was letting his agitation show by mixing a cocktail in the middle of the afternoon. As far as she knew, he never drank during the day, unless absolutely forced to because of business reasons, and certainly not on a normal Thursday afternoon. But she’d been gone a while. Who knew?
“Hey,” she greeted as Garrett strolled inside and looked first to her and then to his brother with a suspicious glint in his eye.
“What the fuck’s going on?” he asked as he continued to look between the two of them.
Courtney was guiltily aware that her hair was wild and her color was heightened. She glanced at Nick who was grimacing as he swallowed a hefty drink of his bourbon. He made no attempt to answer his brother; he didn’t even glance in his direction.
“Nothing,” Courtney answered Garrett as neutrally as possible. “I was unpacking in the closet and didn’t hear you. Where’s my hug?”
With another quizzical glance in Nick’s direction, Garrett took her in his arms and embraced her. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” she said, looking up at him.
“We’re all proud of you, you know,” his deep voice resonated through the room.
Pleasure infiltrated her at his compliment. “I know. Thanks.”
As he ruffled her hair and let her go, she surreptitiously glanced at Nick who was wearing a full-blown scowl as he watched them.
Courtney stepped back as Garrett turned his attention to Nick again. “Why are you drinking? It’s two o’clock.”
“Who are you? My mother?” Nick sneered.
Garrett narrowed his eyes and put his hands on his hips. Ignoring Nick’s sarcastic quip, he questioned his brother in pulsing anger, “What the hell’s going on with you, Nick? You trying to get to Courtney first? I told you. I get her. I’ve been telling you that for the last six months.”
Courtney sucked in a breath, confusion coloring her expression. Get her? What the hell?
Nick slammed his glass down on the glass-topped sideboard and finally turned to fully face his brother, his eyes lighting with rage. “And I told you there’s no fucking way she’s going globetrotting with you. It. Isn’t. Fucking. Happening.”
Globetrotting? Courtney was sure she was missing something. Trying to understand the sudden dynamics in the room, she looked between the two men.
“You’re not her goddamn keeper, Nick. She’s a full-grown woman now and she can make her own decisions,” Garrett shot back.
Courtney had had about enough. “What’s going on here? One of you better start explaining. And quit talking as if I’m not standing in the same room.”
The brothers continued to glare at each other and then began talking to her at once.
“I want you for Acquisitions,” Garret announced.
“You’re going to work in Restructuring,” Nick shot out, looking directly at her and pinpointing her with his gaze.
Garrett turned and blasted Nick with a look of disbelief. “You have more than enough people in Restructuring. I’m going to build the fucking holding company with or without The Rule Corporation backing me and Courtney’s coming with me.”
“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Nick fumed.
Garrett’s voice deepened and the control Courtney heard in it was almost chilling. Where had she ever gotten the idea that this man was more approachable than his brothers? “I’m goddamn sick and tired of my brothers telling me what I can and can’t do. It’s time to start making some real money and I know exactly how to do it. If you and Damian want in on it, fine, but if not, I’ll do it myself, and I’m taking Courtney with me.”
“Jesus Christ, Garrett, you don’t think we’re making real money?” Nick bellowed in disbelief.
“It’s time to expand, Nick. Structural leverage, that’s what it’s all about. We can make a shit-fuck ton
of cash.”
The two men stared each other down while Courtney tried to get a grip. Dissension in the family was not a good thing.
At Nick’s continued silence, Garrett began to state his case. “It’ll be straightforward. We form an investment LLC. We fund it, open subsidiaries—”
Nick cut him off in a tone that dripped impatience. “I know how a holding company works, Garrett. But there’s a problem you’re not considering. Damian and I don’t like debt of any kind and you know it.”
When Garrett narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, Courtney glanced at Nick. As the silence continued to pulse between the two men, she took a deep breath and said what she was thinking, “Yeah, but the risk would be minimal. It’s an amazing idea.”
Nick turned to her with an expression she couldn’t read, but she never floundered, continuing, “You ought to at least consider it, Nick. Like Garrett said, you could buy the investments through an array of LLCs. You’d actually only have to contribute a small, fixed percentage to each, and you’d draw up an operating agreement that would allow other investors to buy in.” As the two brothers listened, their attention fixed on her, Courtney continued, “If the remainder of the debt for each investment was financed through secured, non-recourse loans, then your actual risk would be negligible.”
As Courtney’s words came to a halt, Nick appeared pole-axed while Garrett broke out into a huge grin and said to her, “Told you that MBA would be a good thing.” Then he turned to Nick. “And I told you; she’s mine.”
When the last two words left Garrett’s lips, Nick turned to his brother with fury in his eyes. “She’s not yours and you best not ever say that again.”
A long moment of heated silence filled the room as the two brothers stared at each other.
“What the fuck, Nick?” Garrett hissed.
“Was it your idea for her to stay the extra two years in Florida?” Nick asked hotly.
