Filthy Rich

by Dawn Ryder

  She tapped her fingernail against the pristine tablecloth. “Touché,” she admitted. “Even if I think you’re a bit of a cad for voicing that thought.”

  “Cad?” He picked up the folded napkin and gave it a snap before laying it across his lap. “I call it persistent.”

  “Hmmm…” She battled the urge to let her lips curl up with enjoyment. “Stalkers are persistent too.”

  He tossed his head back, laughing. The column of his throat snagged her attention, and the desire to lick him flared to life.

  The doors behind them swished open. One waiter lit the candles on the table while two more delivered a starter to both Celeste and Nartan at precisely the same time. The waiters lifted the polished silver domes off the plates with a flourish before disappearing as quickly as they’d appeared.

  “Don’t I at least score points for originality?” he asked.

  Celeste picked up her fork and considered the plate in front of her for a long moment. “Only if I were interested in being the point of a game.”

  Nartan was considering her over the rim of his wineglass. “You think I’m playing, with you as the prize?” He was hiding behind a polished business demeanor, leaning back in the chair to give the illusion of being relaxed, but she could feel how sharp his attention was. The man was sizing her up.

  She lowered her fork. “I’m really not trying to be a bitch. The afternoon was amazing.”

  “But you’re still not sure what you think about me following you?” he clarified in a smooth tone that raised the hair on her nape in warning.

  “I’m not sure what I think about the fact that I had a hell of a lot of fun with you this afternoon and that I put this dress on with you in mind. Because it’s possible that you just hate getting the brush-off. You didn’t build all of this by being a pushover.”

  He raised one dark eyebrow. “You kissed me back. Whatever you want to label my appearance, make sure you allow for the fact that you’re right. I don’t get the brush-off very often, and if all I wanted was sex, I’d have gotten it somewhere else by now.”

  “Like I said, I’m not sure what I think.”

  She reached for her wineglass, which she regretted once she had it in her fingers. Dulling her wits wasn’t a wise course of action. She had dressed for him. She had kissed him back.

  And dreamed about him…

  She drew a slow sip of the dark liquid into her mouth before setting it aside. “The lodge is impressive.” It really was, and she could see how much care and excellence had gone into it. That kind of quality could only come from the top.

  He finished and sat back, his lips rising into a grin. “Thank you. Changing to a safe topic?”

  She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Forgive me. I thought you wanted to actually have a conversation with me.” She pushed her chair back and stood, disappointed beyond measure. “As I told you at the wedding, I’m not interested in hooking up with you.”

  His gaze slid down her body. “Then why are your nipples hard?”

  She stepped away from the table like it was on fire. “Screw you.” Her disappointment was transforming into full-out anger. Now he was just being a jerk—as if to live up to the worst of her expectations.

  “That is the main point of contention, isn’t it? You want to give in to me, but it clashes with your ideas of what good girls do. So you label me arrogant, when in fact, you don’t want to face your own reaction.”

  “Facing it and jumping you before the salad arrives are two different things.”

  “Bull.” He cut her off. “That’s just an excuse for not being daring enough to take what you want from life.”

  “I love cupcakes too, but I don’t grab one and shove the entire thing in my mouth the moment I get a craving for them. Ruins the experience.”

  His expression became carnal. There was a savage beauty to it that captivated her, hypnotized her.

  “I could handle you shoving me into your mouth.”

  She pushed her chair back and turned her back on him, but there was a soft click and the window she faced frosted. It brought her up short, and she turned to find Nartan dropping a small remote control into the breast pocket of his suit jacket.

  “You can’t control it any better than I can.” He stood up and came around the table. He had a prowl to the way he moved, something very uncivilized that sent fire to all of her logical decisions. Choice seemed to be nothing but ashes now. There was only stimulus and reaction. Honestly, she wasn’t sure who was pinned in the room with whom. He might be fire, but she wanted to consume him too. She took a breath and fought for a hold on her logic.

  “Just because I find you attractive doesn’t mean I’ll cut straight to the ‘get naked’ part.” She faced off with him, needing to make her point. Or stand her ground. Or something else that seemed impossible to name.

  Maybe she just needed…him.

  He’d stopped a couple of feet in front of her and looked like he was trying to decide what to do with her about-face. Hell, she was trying to decide what to do.

  They stared at each other, her heart accelerating, his eyes narrowing. Each of them becoming more aware of the other with every second.

  “You have to stop running at some point.” His voice had changed, deepening into something that struck her as genuine.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Nartan.” She tried to deliver her brush-off softly, kindly, because it wasn’t his fault he sent her sex drive into high gear.

  He gave her a shrug. “Maybe, maybe not because I’m guessing I’m the first man who’s kissed you since your divorce.”

  “Only because I want it that way.”

  She was such a liar.

  His eyes narrowed. “Really?” There was a soft, seductive tone to his voice that sent a shiver down her spine. She’d never been so conscious of her body and the craving to have his pressed against her.

  “I don’t want to talk about my past.” She took a step toward him.

  He stepped forward, allowing her to flatten her hand against his chest. She shuddered, feeling the connection down to her toes.

  “Neither do I.” He locked gazes with her. “Tell me you dreamed about me pressing against your body the way I dreamed of touching every inch of you.”

  He cupped her chin, keeping their gazes locked. His blue orbs were full of hunger, the same sort of craving that had been gnawing at her since the wedding.

  “I…did.” Her lips went dry. She swept her tongue over them and watched his eyes narrow and his mouth thin with hunger.

  “Good.”

  He sealed her mouth beneath his. She almost pulled back but he followed, licking and sucking on her mouth as every inch of her body erupted into flames.

  It was so damn instantaneous.

  And he was everything she craved.

  The hard body she’d dreamed about was beneath her fingertips. She slid her hand up his chest and felt it vibrate with a growl. He slipped his hand around her neck to cup her nape and keep her mouth beneath his. But she wasn’t content to be kissed. She moved her hand all the way up and across the warm skin of his neck until she was able to thread her fingers through his hair. She wanted to hold him, control him, just as he was doing to her.

  The kiss was a battle, a meeting and merging of their mouths as well as a collision. He pressed her lips wide, his tongue boldly thrusting into her mouth. She closed her lips around it and sucked, needing to taste him, desperate for him. She pulled on his tie, loosening the knot and slipping her fingers inside his collar to touch his bare skin.

  She purred with satisfaction and felt the connection ripple all the way down to her toes.

  “Shit!”

  He groaned, pulling their mouths apart long enough to grant her a glimpse of his startled expression, but it melted away, leaving her facing a level of arousal she’d never se
en before. It was blunt and fierce and something inside her crackled with satisfaction.

  He cupped her shoulder and swept the straps of her dress down, instantly baring her breasts and binding her arms to her sides. Her room card went fluttering to the floor as she gasped.

  “I want to taste every single part of you…”

  He leaned over and closed his mouth around one puckered nipple, cupping the soft globe with a grip that was just shy of too aggressive. She gasped, her eyes opening wide as she arched back, offering her breast to him. An insane spike of need tore through her, sending her hips thrusting toward him. His mouth was hot around her nipple, but his cock was rigid behind the smooth wool of his pants. She twisted, trying to reach for him, but the straps of the dress held her arms at her sides.

  She must have made some sound of distress, because he lifted his head and tried to focus on her face. His eyes were dilated, sexual hunger making them bright. In some part of her brain, she was pleased to know she’d driven him just as insane as she was.

  Pleased? Hell, she was proud of herself. Delighted all the way to her core to know what she did to him.

  He chuckled, low and deep. “Enjoying the sight of what you do to me?”

  “Yes.”

  He reached down and grasped the hem of her dress, pulling it up and over her head. His gaze felt like a flame as it traveled along her length, his jaw clenching. “I like the view too.”

  She reached for the lapels of his jacket, pushing it back and forcing him to put his arms back as he struggled out of it.

  “Wait…” He grabbed the jacket before it fell to the floor and rummaged through the pocket for the remote. He was breathing heavily as he pressed another button and they heard the door lock.

  Somehow, she’d forgotten about the door. Embarrassment began to burn a hole through the desire. She glanced around, remembering where she was. She stepped back and wobbled in her heels.

  Nartan caught her, pulling her close and using his body to steady her. She lifted her head, intending to tell him that they had to stop, but he sealed her protest beneath his lips. She ended up melting and reaching for what she craved. She tore at his tie until she yanked it loose and threw it aside. He reached down and cupped her bottom, slipping his fingers beneath the edge of her lace panties.

  Need twisted violently through her clit.

  “I can smell how wet you are…” he growled. He gripped the back of her thighs and lifted her up, spreading her wide as he carried her and set her on a service table.

  She reached out and stroked his erection. He arched back with a groan, his teeth showing as his face became a tapestry of male need. He reached down and ripped open his waistband and fly, freeing his cock.

  The swollen organ fell into her hand. It was hard, covered in soft, hot skin. Her clit pulsed as she stroked him from base to tip with her fingers.

  “Not yet…” he ordered hoarsely. He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a condom. “You’re going to come with me.”

  He tore the packet open and looked down as he donned the latex. “Next time, I’m going to lick every inch of you before we get to the fuck.”

  He reached out and dipped his fingers beneath the small triangle of satin guarding her slit. “But you don’t want to wait any more than I do.”

  She let him push her back all the way until she was lying across the table. He pulled her last garment free and pressed into her body. The acute sense of arousal had made sure she was slick and wet. His cock slid easily between the lips of her slit to the entrance of her body, and the walls of her pussy protested.

  He gripped her hips and snarled something in Apache as he forced himself to ease forward. “You’re so tight.”

  “I don’t care.”

  She opened her eyes and locked gazes with him. She closed her legs around him, pulling him toward her.

  “Not yet…” he growled, holding back with only the tip of his cock inside her. He reached down, slipping the pad of his thumb against her clit and rubbing.

  She cried out, pleasure spiking through her.

  “That’s it… Open for me, Celeste.”

  He rubbed as his cock slipped deeper.

  “Now,” she insisted.

  He gritted his teeth and surged forward, stretching her body as he impaled her. It ached, but at the same time, an intense wave of satisfaction washed through her. It was deeper, more intimate than she recalled, and she arched to take his next thrust, and the next and the next.

  The blood was roaring in her ears, her heart pounding so hard that it felt like her chest couldn’t hold it.

  None of that mattered. All she cared about was lifting her hips for him, making sure she was straining toward him so that her clit received the maximum amount of pressure. She was racing toward the peak, and all that mattered was the climax she felt building deep inside her. Somehow, she’d forgotten how incredible the pleasure was. Every thrust sent a cry past her lips as she moved closer and closer to the moment of release. Reason melted away as instinct controlled her.

  When it came, she felt like she was being ripped apart. The pleasure started as spasms in her core. She felt the crown of his cock lodging deep inside her and her body clenched around it, trying to milk it as ripple after ripple of ecstasy rolled through her.

  “Look at me…” he commanded. He pinned her beneath his body, even locking her arms above her head. “Let me see.”

  Her eyelids were heavy, but she lifted them and felt like the last layer of personal space between them was ripped away. He commanded the rhythm completely, surging into her with motions that made her breasts bounce and the table jerk.

  He was just big enough to stretch her to the limit, and it satisfied some deep instinct to feel his balls slapping against her bottom. He was growing harder, thicker as he bared his teeth and snarled. The muscles in his neck corded as he tightened his grip on her wrists.

  “God damn it… Mine…mine…mine…” he growled as he drove into her.

  She wanted to close her eyes but held them open as his face contorted in ecstasy. She watched it bite into his expression, stealing every last bit of composure and laying him bare. She purred with satisfaction a moment before her body erupted into a second round of rapture. It was deeper, tighter, and harder than the first release. She lost the battle to keep her eyes open and arched as sensation ruled her completely.

  When it was finished, she felt like she’d been dropped onto the table. Every muscle felt strained and she was coated in perspiration. Her heart thumped so hard she thought it would burst. Nartan stroked her cheek and laid a line of tiny kisses across her bare torso. He cupped her breasts, massaging them before he pushed up and withdrew from her.

  Something buzzed and she opened her eyes to see what it was.

  “No rest for the owner…”

  Nartan stepped back, grabbing a towel from the end of the table and wiping the condom away with an efficient motion. He closed his fly and handed her a towel before withdrawing a cell phone from his pants pocket. He read a text message before frowning and pushing a button.

  “Take care of him.”

  Someone on the other end of the line was arguing.

  “I pay you to deal with this sort of thing.”

  There was another round of arguing before Nartan snorted. “I’ll be right there.”

  He dropped the phone and started buttoning his shirt as she sat up and used the towel to dry herself, feeling unbelievably exposed.

  “I have a health inspector down in the galley being a dick and demanding to see the owner since he heard I’m here.”

  He offered her her dress before he turned and retrieved his tie. He was pulling it around his neck as he made his way toward the door.

  “I’ve got to go deal with the guy. He shut my kitchen down saying I’ve got illegally harvested salmon. Asshole.”

&n
bsp; He’d already mentally withdrawn from her, his mind back on business. Celeste pulled her dress on and leaned over to pick up her room card as he unlocked the doors and left.

  She felt sick.

  It was everything she’d expected, but that didn’t mean the experience was worth it. She stood for a long moment, letting the sting burn through her.

  She should have remembered.

  Should have forced herself to recall the place where men like Nartan put the women they fucked.

  And that’s all it had been to him.

  A fuck.

  So she couldn’t let it mean anything else to her.

  Just a check mark on the to-be-dealt-with list.

  She grabbed her wrap and headed back toward her room. The majestic view held little appeal as she did the walk of shame past the staff, who knew exactly what their boss had been doing. She tore her dress off the moment she turned the bolt on her room door and then dropped the dress into the trash can, feeling filthy and cheap.

  Stupid…so stupid!

  She refused to cry. Absolutely forbade the tears welling up in her eyes to drop down her cheeks. She settled for getting into the shower and scrubbing her skin until every last trace of Nartan was gone.

  ***

  Her cell phone was buzzing when she finally emerged from the shower. The mirror was completely obscured and steam swirled around in a lazy cloud. She picked up the phone, frowning when she read the caller ID.

  “What are you doing calling me on your honeymoon?” Celeste admonished Sabra. “Your new husband’s image is taking a major hit right now.”

  And it was far too tempting an opportunity to unload. Celeste bit her lower lip, sealing in the emotions that were trying to spill out of her. She might have made a colossal mistake, but that didn’t mean she was going to top it by being a lousy friend. Only Nartan seemed to be able to strip away her standards. There was no way she was going to spill her guts while her best friend was on her honeymoon.

  Sabra laughed on the other end of the line. “Hmmm, I might tell him that,” she purred. “I just wanted to make sure everything is measuring up. Can’t have my best friend disappointed on a trip I arranged.”