by Lisa Childs
She sprawled across his chest, where she attacked the buttons on his shirt, pulling them free so she could part the material and push it from his shoulders. He caught her wrists in his hands, and she expected him to slow her down as he had that first time.
But his need must have matched hers, because he moved his hands from her wrists to her hips, and he pulled up her dress and pulled aside her panties. Then he unzipped his pants and released his cock. Within seconds he had it sheathed in latex and then inside her.
She gasped as he filled her.
“Too fast?” he asked. “Aren’t you ready?”
“I am always ready for you,” she assured him, arching and shifting—taking him deeper inside her. She’d never reacted to anyone the way she had him. While she’d enjoyed sex, she had never come as easily or as powerfully as she did with him.
“I couldn’t wait,” he said, his voice gruff with passion. “I had to be inside you. It feels like it’s been so long. Too long...”
It had been too long; she’d felt so empty the past few days, so hollow inside. He filled her. Thrusting his hips, he drove deeper and deeper.
He moved his hand between their bodies and stroked his thumb over her clit.
She pushed against him, meeting his thrusts with her hips. Grinding against him and shifting, she desperately sought release from the pressure building inside her.
He shoved the straps of her dress from her shoulders and pushed it down her body, freeing her breasts. Then he lowered his head and kissed them, closing his lips around one taut nipple.
Pleasure arced from where his mouth touched to her to where his cock filled her. And finally that pressure broke, and she came, screaming his name.
He caught her scream in his mouth, kissing her deeply. Then his body tensed and shuddered as he found his release, too. Sweat beaded on his brow, which he pressed against hers. “Oh my God,” he murmured. “Every damn time I think it can’t have been that good, can’t have been that intense...”
She smiled with understanding. “And yet, it is even better—even more intense.”
Too intense.
Too addicting.
How was she going to leave him this time? Because she knew she should...before she told him anything. She didn’t want to ruin the magic of this experience with honesty. Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
Maybe it was best to end this now—without ever telling him the truth, and then really never see him again.
He must have sensed that she was about to run because he lifted her from the bed and carried her into the bathroom. “Let’s clean up together,” he said.
So that she didn’t take off when his back was turned like she had last time? He knew her much better than he thought he did. He knew her too well.
He also knew exactly how to touch her and kiss her so that the pressure was building inside her again, the passion burning hotter than the warm water that washed over their naked bodies. His fingers trailed over every inch of her skin, followed by his lips.
Once again he had made her his main course. After washing the soap from their bodies, he carried her back to the bed and dropped her onto the tangled sheets. Then he followed her down, and he made love to her with his mouth, teasing her clit with the tip of his tongue.
She shifted against the mattress, desperate for release. His hands covered her breasts, molding them—stroking the nipples with his palms. She arched against his mouth and came, shuddering against him.
So much pleasure...
She wanted to share it with him. But he wouldn’t let her push him back onto the mattress. Instead he slid inside her, and wrapping her legs over his shoulders, he drove deeper and deeper. She shouldn’t have been able to come again so soon, but she loved the way he filled her, the way he felt moving inside her—touching her so deeply and not just physically but also intimately.
So she came again.
Then he shuddered and collapsed against her.
She lost her breath at his weight. But he rolled quickly to his side, bringing her with him.
“I’m not going to let you go,” he warned her. “Not again.”
She smiled at the thought. The impossible thought.
He would fall asleep. And when he did, she would slip away. She had to, before she had to tell him the truth and he got angry with her. Or worse yet, began to hate her.
She didn’t want him to hate her. She wanted him to love her. And that scared her even more than the thought of telling him the truth. That scared her into feeling like her mother, desperate for the love of a man.
So desperate that she might lose herself completely. No. She had to leave once he fell asleep. And she had to stay away from him.
She’d already lost her heart to him. She couldn’t lose anything else.
* * *
She was gone.
He woke alone. Even before he opened his eyes, he knew she had left. The bed was cold. And he felt empty and more alone than he could ever remember feeling.
He’d thought it before, but this time he was fairly certain that he wouldn’t see her again. When he’d admitted in Le Bar that he’d needed her, her eyes had widened with something that had seemed like panic to him. Or maybe that had just been a projection of what he’d felt when he realized that he needed her.
He hadn’t needed anyone since he’d started working, started supporting himself...and he’d still been a child when he’d been forced to do that.
But he could have sworn he’d seen panic on her face, too.
She’d made it clear from the beginning that she was too busy for anything serious. But he suspected she wasn’t too busy; she just wasn’t interested in anything serious.
And he’d gotten serious about her.
Hell, he’d gone and fallen in love with her—which was so damn crazy, given that he really didn’t even know her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
GRANT WAVED THE wad of thick red hair in front of her face and shouted, “Put on the damn beard and fly the billionaire wherever he wants to go!”
As arguments between business partners went, it was probably one of the most bizarre. But Blair didn’t feel like laughing about it. Instead, tears stung her eyes, but she furiously blinked them away. She never cried. And she was not about to start now.
“Stop telling me what to do,” she told her brother as, threat of tears cleared away, she stared up at where he loomed over her desk. “We are equal partners in this business.”
That was why Blair had been so adamant about contributing half of the money to start up the charter company—even though, unlike Grant, she’d had to take out loans to do that. It had been worth it so that she would have equal say in the running of their business, though. So far Grant had been good about treating her as an equal rather than a little sister. Until today.
He dropped the beard onto her desk before plopping himself in the chair behind his messy desk. “We may be equal partners in the business, but this mess is all yours. You’re the one who overreacted and wanted to teach him a lesson.”
“And you’re the one who told me to stop flying him around so he wouldn’t figure it out,” she reminded him. “Now you want me to put the beard back on and get back in the cockpit.” And she couldn’t do it.
For so many reasons...
The biggest one was that she had fallen hopelessly in love with the Italian billionaire, and she didn’t want to deceive him anymore.
“Because we’re going to lose a major client if you don’t,” Grant said.
“And what if we do?” she asked. “We must have had clients stop chartering flights with us before, but we’re still in business, still expanding.” They’d just bought another plane and were training more pilots, like Jean-Claude, in order to keep up with all the charters.
“We’ve never lost a client before,” Grant said. “In fact
, we keep gaining them through recommendations.”
“So why are you so worried about losing this one?” she asked. “He’s not going to hurt our business.”
“He could,” Grant insisted.
“He’s not going to sue us,” she said.
“Only if he doesn’t find out about your little subterfuge,” Grant said.
“The only way he might find out...” Was if she finally got up the nerve to tell him.
But her desire for him had beat out her desire to tell him the truth the other night, and she’d chickened out. And like the coward she was, she’d sneaked out of his suite the moment he’d fallen asleep. She wasn’t going to tell him, and she was definitely not going to see him again.
“The only way he might find out is if I keep masquerading as a man around him,” she continued.
“This was all your idea,” Grant reminded her.
Those damn traitorous tears stung her eyes again, and she squeezed them shut to hold them in. “I know. And it was a terrible idea...” Her voice cracked as sobs choked her.
“Oh my God!” Grant exclaimed. He must have gotten up from his chair because his big hands awkwardly patted her shoulders. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
His uncharacteristic awkwardness and kindness brought on another wave of overwhelming emotion. The tears broke free of her closed lids, and the sobs slipped out of her lips.
Grant pulled her out of her chair and into his arms and patted her back with his large, clumsy hands. “What’s wrong?” he asked again. “Blair, I’ve never seen you this upset—not even when Dad died.”
A twinge of guilt struck her that she hadn’t been more upset over losing her father. But, like her mom, she’d never felt like she had ever had him—that he’d been interested in her or loved her.
As if he’d seen that guilt or felt it himself, Grant added, “I get that, though. Dad was Dad, but even when you were a kid, you sucked it up and kept it all inside.”
“I take it you preferred that?” she asked with a giggle that cracked into a sob. She wished she could suck it up like she had the hazing hell she’d been subjected to as a cadet. There wasn’t much that had ever fazed her—until now. Until Teo...
“What the hell is it?” Grant asked. “Did that billionaire do something to you? Is that why you don’t want to fly him around anymore? Did he hurt you? Because if he did, I’ll kill him.”
His overreaction and outrageous claim cleared her tears away, and she opened her eyes with a chuckle instead of a sob on her lips. But then she saw his face—his dead-serious face—and a frisson of unease raced down her spine. “Grant, it’s okay. You don’t have to kill anyone.”
She didn’t want to hurt Teo, which was probably why she was so upset. She felt so bad over how she’d treated him. Guilt and pain overwhelming her, sobs bubbled up again, making her shake.
“What the hell is it?” Grant asked, his voice gruff with emotion of his own.
And she remembered all those times he’d defended her when they’d been growing up—usually to their own mother over some trouble Miranda had helped her get into. He’d been her knight in shining armor then. Her partner in misery in that house where they’d grown up.
But he had nobody to defend her against right now—because she had no defense for what she’d done. Embarrassed at her inability to control her emotions, she pulled out of his embrace and rubbed the tears from her face. “This is my fault,” she admitted. “I screwed up.”
“I know,” he agreed. “The whole She’s the Man thing was a big mistake, but it’s not worth getting this upset about. Even if Rinaldi tries to sue us, it’s not like he suffered any actual damages. Every flight went fine no matter who was flying him, right?”
“That’s only part of how I screwed up with Teo,” she admitted.
“Teo?” He tensed. “How close did you get to him while you were flying him?”
“Not very damn close at all,” she said. Because she hadn’t wanted him to see through her disguise. But she had to add the disqualifier. “Then.”
Grant groaned. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She nearly started crying again as she thought of all the things she hadn’t been telling...all the truth she’d kept from the man for whom she’d fallen.
And she had, she loved Teo, and she’d totally blown it with him.
Before she could lose it again, she admitted, “I met Matteo Rinaldi before he called here to charter a flight.”
Grant’s brow furrowed. “Where did you happen to bump into a billionaire?”
“I didn’t bump into him,” she admitted. “I was set up with him.”
“You went on a blind date with the guy?” he asked. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I just went out with him once before he called here to charter a plane,” she said.
“Is that why you were so pissed that he didn’t want you as a pilot?” A muscle twitched along his jaw. “Was it some kind of one-night stand?”
Not on Teo’s part; instead of waiting a certain number of days like other guys had, he’d called Miranda right away to get her number. She shook her head. “No. He wanted to see me again—”
Grant’s brow furrowed with confusion. “But then why didn’t he want you flying his plane?”
“He doesn’t know I’m a pilot,” she said. “He doesn’t even know my real name.”
“What? You gave him a fake name?” Grant asked, then blew out a ragged breath and rubbed his hand over his face. “Sounds like something I might have done.”
She groaned and then teasingly remarked, “Don’t make me feel even worse about this.”
He chuckled, but then the slight grin slid away from his face. “You do feel really bad about this. Why didn’t you just tell the guy the truth? Or better yet, why did whoever set you up not tell him your real name and what you do?”
“Miranda —”
“God, no! Tell me you’re not still friends with that troublemaker.”
She chuckled now. “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” she wondered aloud with great irony.
Grant glared at her. “I never got you in trouble. Usually I was trying to get you out of it—because she got you into it in the first place.” He threw up his hands. “Of course I should have realized she was all over this—the fake name, the dressing up like a man. That’s pure Miranda Fox—if there was ever anything pure about that damn woman! No, she’s pure all right. Pure evil!”
She glared at him now. “She’s my friend, Grant. And it wasn’t her idea for me to lie or for me to dress up like a man.” She sucked in a breath as she made a sudden realization. “Miranda doesn’t even know about that. She’d probably kill me for making this situation with Teo even worse.”
“Why? People set people up all the time. Why would she get that upset about it not working out?” he asked. “Really—what the hell business is it of hers?”
“It is her business,” Blair said. “She didn’t just do this as a favor for a friend. She set me up because she’s a professional matchmaker.”
He snorted and acted as if he was humoring her when he replied, “Sure she is.”
“Really, she is. She and her sisters took over her mother’s matchmaking business,” she explained.
He shook his head. “I don’t believe it. Even as a kid, she had no use for marriage. There’s no way she’s promoting it.”
“She’s not promoting marriage,” Blair agreed.
“So what kind of matchmaking business is she running?” He groaned. “It’s not a legit business, is it? It’s some sex thing. That woman was always trouble and she always got you into it with her. This is all her fault.”
“No, it’s not,” she said. “It’s mine.” And she needed to figure out a way to fix it instead of crying on her brother’s shoulder about it. She grabbed the beard tha
t Grant had dropped onto her desk. Maybe she needed to dress up one more time.
But Grant was shaking his head. “This is a bad idea,” he said.
“It was your idea,” she reminded him.
“I didn’t know Miranda Fox was involved in this mess. You need to stay the hell away from Rinaldi now,” he said. “Or you’re just going to make it worse. And you need to stay away from Miranda Fox, too.”
She smiled at the repeat of a very old argument between them. Just as she never had when they were kids, she wasn’t going to listen to him now about Miranda. She was a friend—a better friend to Blair than Blair had been to her. She’d risked her friend’s business with her damn game just like she’d risked her own.
If Teo would actually sue anyone...
She wasn’t sure how he would react when he realized how much she’d kept from him. But she was about to find out. And, unlike last time, she was not going to chicken out. He deserved the truth—no matter how much it was going to hurt and whom it was going to hurt.
* * *
Teo had had enough of a runaround. He’d had to put up with it from Savannah and from the dating service. But he didn’t have to put up with it from the private plane company as well. They were damn well going to return his calls and unlike Savannah, they were going to answer all of his damn questions.
They had several offices, or hangars, all over the world, but the main one seemed to operate out of London. So he’d caught a commercial flight there—something he would never endure again, even in first class. It had been intolerable. Having anyone but Bill as his pilot had become intolerable, and he had no idea why.
Just in the way he’d begun to feel as though he saw Savannah everyone, he felt like he saw Bill. Because when he stepped into the office, he saw a man who looked a lot like the pilot—just with a much bigger, broader build. His beard was also shorter, clipped neatly against his square jaw.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The guy glanced up from the desk he was sitting at. “Who the hell are you?”
The deep voice was familiar, not like Bill’s at all, but like the voice Teo had talked to several times on the phone when he’d chartered flights. So he easily identified the man. “Grant Snyder.”
