by Cora Blu
His world held dark corners and wild unruly things and people she hadn’t counted on coming after her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked feeling like prey under his predatory stare.
“I’m indulging in this moment with you. Thinking about making love to you… seeing you soft under me…going to sleep with you spent and limp in my arms and waking to your easy breathing.”
She didn’t run screaming into the woods, but rather liked the sound of being with him. Liked the picture forming of him curled around her in her sleep and the sound of a chortle startled her, realizing it came from her mouth.
She knew the time had come to release the pain and move forward if they were to have a chance at a new start.
“When we’re right…we’re good together. I won’t lie and say I hadn’t thought about it, making love to you. I’ve never lost my attraction nor desire, Khail. You’re still the most handsome and fascinating man I’ve ever known.”
He moved closer on the wobbly and wet stump absorbing the sounds of the forest coming into its comfort of creaks, whispers, and howls.
Cupping her face, he kissed her knowingly as if they were old lovers settling in for the evening to watch the stars shine over the back porch of the old homestead.
“I’d planned to spend the weekend getting you to forgive me then making love to you the rest of the week.”
Fantasies died under lies. Truth leads to unbridled ecstasy.
“You can’t predict what others have on their mind.” She threaded their fingers in her lap tucking them between the warmth of her thighs more platonic than sexual. The air had picked up, blowing across her nose and making it run. “I support everything that goes on in the office, and I’ve never had a run-in with another employee…so why me, Khail?”
He tugged her under the curve of his chin and held her to his chest. “Mark located you in the American office after my employee for our diversity program quit. When he found out you agreed to my invitation, he told everyone I stole you from him.”
“That’s lunacy. I’m already a Heinemann’s employee…your employee,” she told him. “He sounds crazy. So what does that mean for us…me?”
“It wasn’t public knowledge that my grandfather was signing the company over to me a year ago. Now other companies are watching to see if the program works, and if I can keep my dick in my pants long enough.” She flinched at his crass word. “You’re not the only one that thinks I’m morally corrupt when it comes to women.”
“I don’t think that.” Anymore.
“Don’t believe everything you hear. I’ve only ever loved one woman, Bethany. Just one and she hasn’t seen my…
Oh, he was not saying that word again. She jumped to her feet, grabbed up a large handful of snow balling it then lobbed it at his chest.
Mikhail bolted up, chasing her around the trees through the thigh high snow slowing their efforts.
Bethany’s pulse pounded making her limbs shake seeing him hurdling after her. She hooked her arms under the horse’s neck and huddled against its chest hiding from Mikhail when his large hands yanked her off the ground.
She giggled.
Her back sank into the snow, her body crushed by his pinning her in the thick white crunchy floor.
“You’d nearly put my eye out, woman.”
She squirmed hooking her legs out. He fell snug between the v her open thighs exposed. “Oh, my God you’re heavy. Get off me. How do you get women to sleep with you?”
He stopped moving swiping his gloved hand over her flush cheek and brought his face within inches of hers.
“I’m usually moving at the time with a good rhythm too, they don’t notice how heavy I am,” he teased wedging himself tighter to her body.
“Are you always on top?” Where had this playfulness come from? She was supposed to be pissed, but she hadn’t felt this comfortable with him in a long while.
“Are you always on bottom?” he returned. “I could adjust my weight.”
“It’s been too long to remember—” Probably because it had never been with him. Not for lack of want. She’d appreciated he understood she wanted to take it slow. Yet that had been because of his reputation, not because she was afraid to be with him.
“Bethany…” he said her name as if it were a fine wine crossing his tongue. Savoring with a lust she’d never heard before, something warm to pour over her body in long lurid swathes of sensual torture seeking out a crack in her armor to slip in and take her heart and soul.
Too late. He’d already held possession.
She stuttered breathless, “Yes, Khail…”
“You’re all I want.” He shifted his hips aligning his cock to her quickly swelling sex. “Gemme was a moment of regret and stupidity on my part, and I’m not looking for you to accept my apology, because I’m not offering one.”
Finally, he understood what she’d said. Don’t apologize for something you thought about before deciding to do it. “What are you offering?”
The kiss to her nose warmed her entire body.
“Honesty. One day I’ll find the strength to open that firewall in the back of my heart, exposing myself to these warm eyes, but for now, can you see far enough past the pain I’ve caused to love the man before you?”
She wanted to laugh and roll around the ground with him because she did love him, always had. “I’m lying beneath you on my back in the frigid snow in a wolf inhabited forest, and it’s not because I like you…”
“A man needs to hear it, Bethany. I need to know I haven’t lost you or your heart during our time apart.”
Bringing her hands between them, she massaged his hard cold face, loving everything inch of his scowling mouth and lines creased around his eyes. “Loving you isn’t the hurdle I’m slipping on; it’s forgiving you that’s crippling me, Mikhail. My heart wasn’t made to be broken, but loved and cared for. But it’s healing, slowly so give me time to move past the hurt.”
That seemed to release some tension in his body. “Say it…tell me…give me something to keep me in this race.”
He looked so sad.
“Who are you racing against other than yourself?”
“Every man who crosses your path,” he confessed, burnishing her lips with slow tight strokes from his across the luscious seam slightly parting hers.
She leaned back, breaking the connection. “Come on Khail, let’s be honest with each other,” she urged with a gentle smile curving the corners of her mouth. “You, me, every person in the valley and up here on the mountain knows my heart belongs to you. I love you.”
His chest rose beneath her. “Don’t ever do that to me again…shutting down instead of talking to me. And if you ever…ever go to another man to talk instead of me… I don’t care who he is—” Hesitating, he peered deeper into her soul and she saw all she needed to know…they were a solid couple. She caressed his face in her hands and kissed his lips forgetting how cold it had become so close to the water. They needed this. Mikhail nudged her nose with his. “I’m your man…nobody else…something needs fixing, you come to me.”
She slipped her hands in his back pockets molding them around his muscled butt she loved watching walk to his car when he’d leave her condo on Friday nights, both of them hot and horny yet not giving in to their desires to go to bed.
“I don’t even know how to love another man, Khalil. In Arizona after momma’s surgery all I thought about was jumping your body the minute I got off the plane.”
Loud laughter exploded from his chest as he rolled her over to lay atop his body, large hands crushing her to him. Had she missed a joke? What happened?
He kissed her; deep, purposefully maddening in the way he played his tongue across the seam of her lips blowing her mind making her give in. Warmth crowded her under the coat collar as his mouth moved down to nip and suckle along her throat heating her where the snow had found her skin.
He moaned and laid against her, then he lifted her into his arms as
he got to his knees cradling her to his chest, lacing her arms around his neck she buried against the curve of his shoulder.
“Hell I love you woman…I love you so damn much, Bethany Cansler.”
Shoving at his chest, Bethany dragged at his jacket sleeve. “Bear…bear…bear.”
“Shit!”
Mikhail hefted her onto her horse so fast then slapping his rump to get her out of there, she never saw what happened other than Mikhail telling the bear to go home.
She was dating Dr. Do-little in a three-piece suit.
Chapter 16
Bethany
Mark was his uncle by marriage. She never saw that coming.
Up early the next morning, inside the barn farthest from the chalet, hard at work, Bethany curled her feet behind her in the ratty chair. She reread the text she’d received last night from Mikhail after she rode back to the chalet at a hundred miles an hour getting away from the bear Mikhail swore wasn’t going to eat her. Yeah right. It had teeth so it ate, and she was meat.
“The bear was a domestic cub from my neighbor, who raised it after its mother was killed a few months ago. It is back in his shelter. Everything’s okay. Except, you ran my horse to exhaustion so I’m taking that out of your salary to have him checked over by the vet…. Meet me in the loft at six am, and I’ll explain everything. I think I know who our stalker is.”
She had no idea if he was serious about the vet fee, but she’d pay it. That bear scared the hell out of her yesterday.
Spreading out two sheets of lined paper, she leaned on her elbows tapping a pencil on the desk staring at two words, one above each column on the paper.
She’d written Suspect and No Motive in bold capital letters across the top of the paper.
There’s no reason to track people solely on their accessibility to her account. Anybody can find her if they wanted her bad enough. They needed to know who would go the distance to harm her. Or Mikhail.
The scent of rich dark coffee coupled with a sweetness filled the air as Bethany turned and watched the loft opening.
Heavy footsteps pounded up the creaky wood rungs on the old ladder resting against the hundred-year-old wood floor and Mikhail’s black hair showed first over the split railing along the open floorboards. Then his wide shoulders emerged. She could almost feel the air rolling away from him in a great billowing haze.
She was still horny from yesterday, watching his cream-colored Henley stretched taut across his broad chest, gripping his biceps. The gasp she heard came from her lips.
Shifting on her seat, she watched him. Loose fitting dark jeans with just enough hug on his thighs to make the zipper stand out accentuating the size of his cock. And a body made for denim.
Bethany propped up on her knees in the chair; the visual pulling her up like a marionette. “Good morning sunshine. Ready to get to work?” she asked excited to see him and get started.
Big and imposing he halted and yawned, his chest swelling with the inhale. She chewed her lip. The way he exhaled was just as good, making thick dense muscles strain under the cotton fabric molded over every dip and valley. Tousled and cranky Mikhail was still the sexiest man she’d ever known.
“Hey.” He held up the large black mugs, waving the salacious scents to arouse her enough for her to want to taste it. “I got tea, and I got coffee…you’re getting tea, sunshine. You’re perky enough for both of us.”
She could learn to wake up to Mikhail every morning. The casters rattled on her chair when she leaned back getting comfortable. “You’ve not woke yet and before you get all the way over here breathing on me, tell me you brushed your teeth at least or swished a capful of mouthwash?”
The floorboards whined with each footstep he landed across the room. The tea smelled like oranges. “Only one way to find out,” he teased. His mouth lowered and fresh mint filled her lungs.
He tugged her hair making her head fall back and bushed his lips over hers. A sweet and delicious morning kiss, and the pleasant scent of his skin she could get accustomed to.
How are you awake Bethany, when I’m the walking dead struggling to keep my eyes open?”
“Stop exercising right before you go to sleep and maybe you can close those lids before two am.” She poked fun knowing he worked off his sexual tension when they dated, but two months was too soon in her opinion. “Do you still do that?”
He squeezed his brows together. “I’m up to five hundred sit-ups a night.”
She rolled her eyes. He was so full of it. “I don’t doubt the sit-ups, you’re in great shape, perhaps we should let you go to sleep with a different workout tonight,” she teased.
“Don’t tease a bear, Bethany. Sliding your shapely jar of honey in my face to take it away won’t end well. I’ll lick you from head to toe as you beg me to stop.”
“I’ve never teased you, and I won’t take it away once I offer it to you.”
“You’re right, you haven’t. But you don’t have to be naked for me to want you.”
“Then let’s get to work and figure all this out, and then later we’ll figure out a way to cut back on those sit-ups.”
Taking her face in his hands, Mikhail kissed the bridge of her nose. “You’re sleeping in my cabin tonight…got it?”
Would she have time to shave her legs?
“Okay.” She kissed his hands then turned to her tea. They both knew yesterday was an important step in them finding the love again. “Everybody was surprised when you fired Martha.” Especially her.
He sighed and walked around the space his arms stretched overhead in a back-cracking arch. “Nobody talks to you that way. I don’t care who they are.”
“Thank you…okay back on track,” she directed fighting the humming in her body to straddle him here on the table. “If Mark’s behind this, which I don’t doubt anymore, who’s working with him?”
He moved the dial on the heaters then looked out over the railing down to the barn.
Coming back to the table, he kissed her again. “Let’s get to work.” He perched on the edge of the old wooden desk. “What have you got so far?” His accent held a little fire from her comment. They were good at flirting, but she needed to understand him on a deeper level.
She angled the paper so he could see on the desk. “I thought about what you said in the forest about the diversity program, the other companies, and Mark. When I was in the cabinet, the thing I remember about the guy was his size and his thick accent. At first I thought it was the detective when I heard him speak then Greg, then your father, and that’s when I knew I couldn’t slap that on anyone until I was certain.”
“…Greg…I hadn’t thought of him, but what’s his motivation to go after you?” He shook his head. “Men like that need money to sabotage their jobs. It’s all they have.”
“And he’s similar to Crazy, as far as being a stickler for structure. On the scavenger hunt, he was always teaching me to be aware of my surroundings and just very teacher-like.”
“Hmm…” Mikhail groaned. “I noticed the second day on the stump. Is that what he was telling you, how to survive if you were ever attacked again?”
“Don’t say it like that; he sounds like a serial killer. No he’s attracted to me, but I don’t think he liked me at first, said he thought I was a snob then relaxed once we started talking.”
“Another beast you’ve calmed with your voice,” he urged cupping the back of her neck where her nerves were the most sensitive, running his fingers down her spine. “A pleasant woman is candy to a gruff soul, Bethany I keep telling you you’re more attractive than you realize.”
“Don’t give me another worry, Khail. Let’s concentrate on ending this so we can move on.”
He sat up bracing his hands to the table. “Just be careful around him. Now narrowing down the suspects we should go after those that know and associate with Mark.”
“Makes sense,” she replied. “Should I call Glenda since she’ll know his inner circle?”
“Yeah call
her,” he said. In her pocket, she gathered her cell and punched number two for Glenda.
“If I don’t answer, I’m having fun somewhere or at work. Leave me a message.”
“Hey Glenda when you get this call me back. I need to ask you something confidential,” she left the message and then ended the call. “If she’s in the area she’ll call back.” Steam rose from the mug now at her lips. She blew air over the top, cooling her tea, the orange aroma filling her nose as she took a sip. “There has to be more than bragging rights.” The hot tea warmed her body as it slipped down her throat.
“Enough money to share.” His fingers rubbed distractedly over one brow. “Twenty five grand—bonus and a separate dividend check at the end of the year.”
Her jaw went slack. “You get twenty five thousand dollars for the idea of bringing me over?”
Mikhail drank his coffee, set it down then penned a few names. “The idea has to work and bring in a profit for the firm.”
Bethany set down the tea and dropped back in the chair. It creaked and popped, but the truth just hit her. “You guys are fighting over the revenue my hard work is bringing the firm? Tell me I’m mistaken, Mikhail.”
“There’s more than money involved at this level. Twenty-five grand to investors on this level is what a thousand is to most people. It’s not worth going to prison over. At this level it’s about notoriety and many companies are watching you.”
“And you?”
“My promotion was a rank change.” Mikhail brushed a finger over hers rubbing circles over her knuckle. It was more arousing than it should have been. “How many firms have approached you more than once?”
One, she thought.
“Just GCT Holdings,” she said. “Mark…”
“Everything is to get you to leave Heinemann’s…and me.” Mikhail stressed the last few words.
Now they were getting somewhere. “Knowing this opens possibilities for other employees to be mad at me for getting the position.”
