‘It’s been driving me nuts knowing what you’ve been wearing underneath all those dresses and proper business suits.’
Her hands trembled as she fought with the zipper of his dress pants. He swore when her fingers glided over his erection, so she went back and did it again. This time she slid her hand inside the opening of his boxers.
His head dropped, and her toes squeezed. He was hot and stiff, way too much for her hand.
She pumped him once, all the way from his base to his blunt tip. ‘It’s your own fault,’ she whispered boldly. ‘You’re the one who picked it out.’
‘You’re the one whose nipples got hard wearing it.’ He pinched one through the cup to prove his point. ‘Did it turn you on? Did it make you wet?’
She groaned as his hand stroked down her belly. She knew what was coming, but she bit her lip all the same when that hot hand pushed right between her legs. The material of the G-string was wider to cover her there, but it was no match for a determined intruder. He kneed her legs apart and his fingers slid along her grooves.
Her body rocked when two of them found her opening and slid right in. ‘Alex!’
She was wet and plump, and they burrowed deep. She moaned when they curled and rubbed a trigger point deep inside her.
‘Are you ready for me, baby?’
She swirled her thumb over the head of his erection, and his hips thrust.
‘Hurry,’ she whispered.
He stopped teasing her. His fingers left her body abruptly, but he stopped only to shrug out of his shirt and throw it to the floor. She helped by pushing down his pants. They dropped to his thighs, and he was suddenly more exposed than she was.
His erection pointed at her, thick and at attention.
She inhaled deeply when he caught her by the waist and lifted her. He didn’t bother to strip her. Instead, he stretched the G-string aside to get at her. His weight pressed her into the wall, pinning her from shoulder to hips.
And then he was slowly, inexorably boring into her.
Elena moaned as she took him. He could be so overwhelming. So dominating.
And she loved it.
She wound her legs around his hips and locked her ankles. It had only been one night, but it seemed like for ever since he’d been inside her. He began to pump and her body clutched at him, not wanting to lose him again.
‘Ooooh,’ she cooed.
The lengths to which he pushed her body were indescribable. He drew more out of her than any other man ever had, and her fascination with him wasn’t waning. What had been promised in lingering looks out in the woods had come to life.
If anything, it was growing more powerful.
Free. Wild. And ferocious.
He hitched her up higher against the wall and her fingers bit into his shoulders. Leaning forward, he latched onto her breast, lace and all. His tongue swept over her extended nipple, making it perk up ever tighter. Between the lace and his suckling, she could hardly stand it.
Her fingers dove into his hair and clutched at his scalp.
His mouth refused to let her go.
Elena fought the tide running through her. It was too soon. She was rushing too fast.
But there was nothing she could do as pleasure spiked inside her. Her moan filled the room and her head rolled against the wall.
When she opened her eyes, she found the wolf watching her. His grey eyes were lively and sparking. His thrusts became measured and deep. Lodged as he was inside her, he kept a steady caress against the nub of nerve endings at her core.
The nub that was about to shoot pleasure through her all over again.
Lunging off the wall, Elena kissed him fiercely. The impetus forced him to take a step back and support her weight on his own as he thrust up into her.
She wasn’t going alone this time. She wanted to take care of him. The need to protect was all-consuming.
Their mouths tangled and she worked her hand between their heaving bodies. When she cupped him, he jerked.
The thrust rammed into her, and she let out a cry.
They banged into the wall again as he reached past her to brace himself. His breaths were harsh in her ear as she caressed and petted him. In the end, all it took was a soft squeeze from her fingertips to send him over the precipice. His body gave in to hers, shuddering and spurting.
She buried her face in the crook of his neck as a second climax caught her. With a whimper, she let it sweep her along. This thing between them was only growing more potent. Like a drug, its hold was seductive and mind-bending.
It made her forget some things and overlook others.
Until all she saw was how good they were together.
She was dazed when she opened her eyes. Looking into his, she saw the same foggy glaze. The fact that the hold was mutual was the only reason she wasn’t panicking. It had them both in its grip.
After long moments, he lowered her until her feet were on the floor. Somehow his hands were fisted in her hair.
He combed it out, smoothing the tangles. ‘Cut your hair. Is the woman insane?’
Elena straightened her underclothes, which were now sticky and damp. ‘No, but I believe we qualify.’
One day. They’d gone one day without making love. How could it have built back up to such a fever pitch? They’d only just met each other, but their bodies couldn’t stand to be apart.
She stroked his chest. She couldn’t stop touching him. ‘Playing dress-up to playing doctor,’ she joked, half out of breath. ‘What are we going to play next?’
A muscle worked in his temple, but then he was gathering her up and lifting her into his arms. ‘House.’
She held on tight as they headed for the door.
* * *
Without discussing it, they fell into a routine. Alex wanted Elena to move up to the main house, but she insisted on working down by the lake. Once evening fell, though, she made her way to the manor. There, they ate together and talked. They found entertainment in books, the in-home theatre, the pool, and the putting green. Eventually, they always wound up in bed.
Alex was still guarded, but he was letting her closer. Knowing even that tiny bit of his troubled background explained a lot. He’d been betrayed so many times. Very few people earned his trust, yet she was seeing cracks in that steely exterior. Flashes of humour. Moments of warmth. He was protective of her as they walked the trails and any sign of her scrimping drove him nuts.
Yet they still communicated best without words. The sex was hot, intimate and addictive. The more he touched her, the less Elena believed the stories about him.
Or his guilt.
She was trying not to let her personal feelings cloud the facts, but it was hard to understand how he could have fallen in with his grandfather. Her father could be charming, but Alex was smart.
Too smart to be lured into their scheme.
Yet he was driven unlike anyone she’d ever known. Hungry for power and control. Money could buy both.
* * *
It was late one night when she sat in bed with her shoulders propped against the headboard and her new laptop balanced upon her bent knees. Her fingers moved over the keyboard as she browsed the Internet. Night had fallen and the wind outside was howling. She’d stopped working long ago. She wasn’t searching for economic models or trends. She had a more personal topic on her mind.
One Alex Wolfe, with an ‘e’.
Her teeth worried her lower lip as she looked at old articles from Page Six of the New York Post. Ax, as they liked to call him, hadn’t lived up to the social awkwardness of most software geeks before his incarceration. In fact, he’d looked a little too comfortable on the social scene.
Her jaw tightened as she looked at a picture of him with a leggy blonde. She read the caption underneath. Barbie was an actress who’d been in two consecutive blockbusters but had planned on going artsy. Too bad that hadn’t worked out.
Jabbing the back button, Elena chose a different link.
And found hi
m with a vivacious redhead. Her heart squeezed.
Both of the people in the photograph were stunning. Impeccably groomed and confident. Used to the upper-crust world in which they lived.
Stomach turning, she backed out of that site, too.
She wasn’t competing with these women. That wasn’t the way things were between her and Alex. She was not jealous.
Her gaze fell on a newer article written on the day he’d left prison. Everything inside her went quiet. In the shot, the sun was glinting off his sunglasses as he walked to the awaiting car. The building at his back looked dull and rigid. With his tailored suit and spiky hair, he appeared arrogant and unapologetic, yet she saw the muscle clenched in his jaw – the one that said he was holding everything in tightly.
Darn it.
She pulled back her hand, which had unconsciously reached out to trace that tell-tale sign. She shouldn’t know him that well. They weren’t having a relationship.
In her mind, that was being disloyal to everyone she knew … everything she was fighting for …
In her body and her soul, though, she knew she couldn’t fight the truth much longer. She didn’t sleep with just anybody.
‘Do you need Leonard to get you some more raspberry body lotion?’ Alex called.
‘I can just use …’
‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ he said as he came out of the bathroom.
He switched off the light and the only illumination left in the room came from the bedside table.
Oh, yes, Elena thought as she watched him through her eyelashes. They might not be a couple, but they had a routine.
She watched as he closed the bedroom door. He only did that when she was with him. Her gaze ran over his back from his wide shoulders to his narrowed waist. He wore black silk pyjama bottoms and nothing else.
Tonight, she wore one of the nighties he’d bought for her. The pale-yellow one.
His gaze was soft as he walked to the bed. ‘That laptop still working OK for you?’
She hurried to switch pages on her browser.
‘I love it. It’s so fast.’ The mattress dipped as he took his place in bed beside her. ‘Thank you again.’
‘You’re welcome.’ He kissed her temple, and his lips moved down to the shell of her ear as he reached out to confiscate her machine. ‘But no computers in bed.’
‘You’re one to talk.’ She arched her neck, but just before her eyes closed she saw something.
‘Wait.’
She grabbed the computer and raised the screen so she could see it better.
A random click had landed her on another story related to him, only this one was about business.
Wolfe Pack’s stock was down twenty per cent.
‘Your company,’ she murmured as she scanned the article.
He stretched out beside her, propping himself up on an elbow. ‘The stock has taken a beating.’
But not because he’d been released from prison. She frowned as she came to the writer’s conclusion. Investors were nervous because he hadn’t returned to day-to-day activities. He was the mastermind who powered the company. Without him, people were worried about innovation and sustainability.
‘They want you back at work.’
‘I am at work. I’ve been teleconferencing with my people every day. Outsiders just don’t know that.’
‘Should they?’
He ran his fingertip down her arm, giving her shivers. ‘It’s my company.’
‘You did go public.’
‘Because the SEC made me.’
She was seeing some of the stubbornness that had gotten him where he was today. Top of the world and on the wrong side of a federal jury.
‘Is there a way you could appease them?’ She couldn’t help but think of all the people who’d lost money investing with Wolfe Financial due to fraudulent reporting. Wolfe Pack, on the contrary, was a healthy company whose stock price was suffering not from market pressures but because of speculation.
She knew, because she’d run the numbers.
He’d told her he’d made his money honestly. From what she could deduce, he was telling the truth. That company was clean.
She grimaced as a possible solution came to mind. ‘Much as it pains me, could you do an interview or something?’
His expression turned turbulent. ‘I’m not letting those mongrels inside the gate.’
‘No, no. Not the paparazzi. I was thinking of a business reporter. Surely you know a respectable one.’ She thought of all the beautiful women in the photos and had to steel her resolve. ‘Are you friendly with any of them?’
He cupped her face and ran his thumb over her chin. ‘They’re all cut from the same cloth, baby. The interview would start out fine, but eventually the questions would drift towards the scandal and my stay at Otisville.’
He practically spit out the last words, and she laid her hand on his chest. He was stretched out casually beside her, but his muscles were clenched.
‘I’m sorry I mentioned it.’ She hadn’t meant to upset him. ‘You run your company the way you think best.’
He sighed. ‘Actually, my COO wants me to come in, even if it’s just for show.’
Come in? As in to the city?
‘He thinks that alone would settle some rumours.’
Wind rattled the windows, and a chill washed through her.
Return to the real world? She hadn’t considered that as an option. Not this early.
Which really wasn’t so early after all. It had been weeks.
Her fingers went numb when he drew the laptop from her grip. He powered it down and set it aside. The chill in her bones got worse and she pulled up the covers. They’d been isolated from everything here on the estate, and protected.
They had been playing house.
She’d buried her head in the sand and hadn’t had to face the difficult questions or tough decisions. She wasn’t ready for that yet. She wasn’t prepared for the real world to break in.
‘Are you going to go?’ The words dragged through her throat like barbed wire. He wasn’t hiding out for the same reasons she was. If anything, he was defiant towards the people who wanted to pry into his life. She knew he’d come here to regroup but, based on this article, he could go back and thumb his nose at everyone. His time had been served. He could do whatever he wanted.
So why had he stayed?
He settled his hand wide across her belly. It felt warmer than the computer, and much more personal. The thin satin was like a second layer of skin.
‘I haven’t finished what I set out to do yet.’
Was that what all the programming was about? Whenever she wandered up to the manor during the day to borrow a book or grab a snack, he was typing all that mysterious computer code and consulting his notebooks. Did he have some big upgrade, some wave-it-in-their-face advances he wanted to spring on all his detractors?
‘Your company needs you now,’ she said, meeting his steady gaze. She fought the shudder that threatened to rack her body. She knew what she had to say, but it didn’t come easily. ‘You should go back, Alex.’
His eyes narrowed.
She licked her dry lips. ‘For your people and for Wolfe Financial. It needs you, too.’
His fingers curled against her. ‘My grandfather’s company can go under for all I care.’
The tightness in his body said otherwise.
‘The Board meeting is in two days,’ she pressed.
‘They don’t want me there.’
She closed her eyes and resignation settled inside her chest, heavy and immovable. ‘If you’re innocent like you say, the investors do. They need someone who can straighten out the mess.’
His slate-coloured eyes took on the chill in the air and tension suddenly snapped. ‘If I’m innocent.’
She lay beside him, feeling small and vulnerable.
He swore. ‘Are you going to make me say it?’
Her hands fisted in the covers. ‘I don’t think anyone can make you
do anything.’
His hand set like a rock on her belly, but he didn’t pull it back. ‘I shouldn’t have to, not to you.’
‘I need to hear it.’ She held her ground, but the honesty made her throat feel thick. ‘I need to look you in the eyes as you say it.’
A howl cut through the room, and the sliding glass door rattled as the wind buffeted it. Inside, the silence was just as deafening.
‘I did nothing wrong.’ His eyes were fiery and, as belligerent as his voice was, it cracked.
That one weakness, that one true sign of character …
It cracked the shell around Elena’s heart, and she melted. She believed him, and not just because she wanted to. She could see the pain in his eyes and hear the anger of injustice in his words.
She rolled towards him, cupped his face and snuggled close. Stretching out her legs, she slid under the covers until her body was pressed tight against his. So strong. So defiant. So hurt.
‘Then go help them,’ she whispered. Go help himself.
His hand fisted in her hair. Neither said it out loud, but they both knew it was time to make some big decisions. They’d been living in a fantasy world here, shutting away everyone and everything. It was idyllic, but it couldn’t last. He wasn’t a man who could be held down long. He needed to go out there into the world and reclaim his rightful place.
His pride would allow no less.
She needed to face the world, too, although she’d prefer to do it in a much quieter manner.
She could do that, though, if he left.
Her grip on him tightened when the realisation hit. When he left, the entourage outside would follow him. She could slip away and they’d be none the wiser.
Her heart broke, splintered really, at the thought of letting him go.
He pulled her down to cradle her against his chest. ‘Is it time?’
She pressed her lips together, not wanting to answer, but knowing she had to. ‘I think it is.’
His chest rose as he took a deep breath. ‘All right – but if I’m going, you’re coming with me.’
* * *
Alex stared out of the windows, over the head of a marble wolf, towards the front lawn. Time was quickly running out, and with each second he could feel himself closing in on himself. The weather outside had calmed to the point where it was eerie.
Solace in Scandal Page 16
