“Not yet, my love. I want you to come when I’m inside you.” Noah flipped Chynna over to her back and with her teddy around her waist, surged inside her. Chynna arched her back and rose up to meet his thrust so he could penetrate her even deeper. She felt every silken ridge as he filled her completely. Their rhythm and movement seemed to flow from one beat to another without any orchestrated effort.
Soon, they were coasting toward completion, and after one final thrust, Noah gave a shout of satisfaction, and Chynna met him orgasm for orgasm. Spiraling sensations of ecstasy swarmed her from every angle as her body milked his and spasms overtook her. Noah collapsed on top of her, his breathing rapid. Eventually he rolled to his side, taking Chynna with him. He brushed back her sweat-dampened hair so he could look at her face. “I love you, Chynna.”
Chynna stared back at him and allowed the love she’d felt for him shine through. Her eyes glazed with tears when she said, “I love you too.”
The next morning, Noah awoke giddy with excitement. He and Chynna were finally together again. Last night when they’d made love, they’d enjoyed more than just each other’s bodies; they’d shared a deep sense of mutual trust that couldn’t be broken despite Eli’s attempts otherwise. Noah had finally told her he loved her—and more importantly, she’d said it back. Chynna loved him as much as he loved her. Noah was on top of the world. If anyone had told him a couple of months ago that he would find the next love of his life, he would have told them they were crazy. There had only been and would always be one woman for him: Maya. He’d been wrong.
He, like everyone else, had been foolish to believe that you could only have one soul mate. Who would have known that I could have more than one great love? How could I be so lucky to have found love again, found Chynna?
Quietly, he slid out of bed and called for room service. He intended to pop the question this morning. He saw no need to wait. He, more than anyone, knew that tomorrow was not promised, and he had to seize the moment. He would plop the ring in her champagne glass with breakfast.
Marriage to Chynna wouldn’t be easy, Noah knew that. They were going to both have to learn how to compromise. He would have to get used to the Hollywood scene, and Chynna would have to divide her time at the ranch with him. They were an unlikely couple, but Noah believed they could make it work because they loved each other. They would convince the naysayers who thought they weren’t meant to be.
Ten minutes later, the arrangements were made and Noah was about to slide back into bed with the sleeping beauty when Chynna walked into the living room in her birthday suit, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
“When I woke up and you weren’t there, I came to find you,” she murmured sleepily.
Noah grinned. “Wearing nothing? What if we had guests?”
Chynna laughed. “Then I guess they were going to get an eyeful.” She walked over to him and slipped into his arms.
Noah gave her a greedy kiss and smacked her on the bottom.
“Oh!”
“Breakfast is on its way up. How about we go shower before it arrives?”
She glanced up at him with a devilish gleam in her eye. “Now that sounds like a mighty fine idea.”
Noah emerged fifteen minutes later from the bathroom in a robe, thanks to the incessant knocking at the door. It had to be room service.
Noah opened the door with a flourish and was greeted by an annoyed room attendant. “I’ve been knocking for five minutes,”
The man said as he slid the cart into the suite.
“Sorry about that,” Noah said, following him into the living room. “I was in the shower and didn’t hear the door.”
Chynna joined them in the living room wearing a matching robe, and the attendant glanced back at Noah. “Now I know why you didn’t hear the door.” The attendant smiled.
“Don’t you worry about that,” Noah said, sliding him a twenty dollar bill from his wallet.
“Thank you, sir.” The attendant nodded then bowed before heading toward the door.
“He was cheeky, wasn’t he?” Chynna said, walking to the cart and opening the lid on the plates. She grabbed a slice of bacon and began munching.
“Guess we were having a lot of fun bathing,” Noah responded with a wink.
“We wanted to get really clean,” Chynna said, plopping down on the sofa. She reached for the remote to turn on the television.
Noah was disappointed. He didn’t envision proposing to her with the television in the background. “Babe, I was hoping we could have,” Noah began, but before he could finish saying “a romantic breakfast,” he watched the reporter onscreen announce that Kenya James, sister of Chynna James, had been assaulted in Chynna’s mansion the previous evening.
“Omigod, Noah!” Chynna screamed and covered her mouth with her hands.
Noah rushed to her side on the couch. They listened to the reports, which indicated that Kenya had been home alone when an unknown intruder assaulted her in her sister’s home. Images flashed of Kenya and then of Lucas Kingston, who’d reportedly heard her screaming and rushed in to save her. An arrest was made and an investigation was underway.
Using the remote, Chynna turned off the television. “How the hell could something like this have happened? I have top of the line security at the mansion. Do you think Kenya was, was raped?”
“I don’t know, babe.” Noah sure hoped not. He wouldn’t wish such a horrific act on any woman, and he prayed Chynna’s sister was not a victim.
“And why didn’t anyone call me?” she said.
“Remember we sort of turned our cell phones off in the limo,” Noah replied.
“That’s right. I have to call my sister now.” Chynna glanced around the living room for her phone. She jumped up when she saw it on the settee nearby and immediately began dialing Kenya’s cell phone. Her call went right to voicemail.
“She’s not answering,” Chynna said. Alarm was written across her fair features. “I need to get home.” She began rushing toward the bedroom. “I have to get to my sister.”
“Of course, of course,” Noah said, rising and following her. “What can I do?”
Chynna scratched her head. “I’m calling Deacon.” She placed her cell phone to her ear. “I need to get my plane up in the air in an hour. Kenya needs me.”
Chapter 14
Lucas did not relish taking Kenya back to the scene of a crime where she was so viciously attacked, but Kenya had insisted on returning. He’d only agreed after insisting she eat the breakfast he’d made of eggs, bacon, toast and fresh fruit. She’d attempted a few bites but hadn’t eaten much on the plate before he’d finally agreed to do as she asked.
“I have to go back,” Kenya explained as they drove to Chynna’s estate. “This story is out there, and Chynna’s got to have seen it. I left my cell phone at the house, and Chynna’s bound to be worried. We have to get back.”
“Okay, okay,” Lucas said. He didn’t want Kenya getting overly excited. She’d been through enough right now, which is why he was going to have to wait to tell her how he truly felt. Last night had shown him he had not just fallen for her, but was in love with her. He didn’t see his life without her in it. He couldn’t tell her that now because she wouldn’t believe him. What was that saying about how people say things after a traumatic experience? His change of heart had nothing to do with the thought of nearly losing her last night, though he would have lost his mind had that happened. He’d realized on his way to the airport that he wanted her in his life, and he needed Kenya to believe it when he told her.
They arrived at the mansion to find the entire house in order. The police tape was gone and the damaged furniture had been removed. It was as if nothing had ever happened, though Lucas doubted Kenya would ever forget it.
“You okay?” he asked, squeezing her hand as she looked around the foyer.
Kenya nodded, but she
didn’t speak. She released his hand and began walking down the hall. He didn’t know if she was remembering the events of the night before, so he just followed behind her. He wanted to be her anchor. He wanted her to know he wasn’t going anywhere.
She made it to the kitchen and stood looking at the room and a frown came across her face.
“What’s wrong?” Lucas asked. “Do you remember something?”
Kenya nodded.
“Something bad?”
She nodded again.
Kenya was about to speak when she heard Chynna’s voice: “Kenya, Kenya, where are you?”
Kenya glanced toward the door and took off running, leaving Lucas to wonder exactly what it was she had been about to say.
Chynna fell slightly backward, and Noah had to catch her when Kenya came running toward them. She was shocked to see her sister so badly beaten. “Oh, thank God,” Chynna said when Kenya rushed into her arms and they embraced. “Thank God, you’re alright.”
“I wouldn’t say alright,” Lucas said from behind Kenya. “But she’s in one piece.” Lucas must have noticed Noah standing behind her because he offered him his hand. “Lucas Kingston.”
“Noah Hart.”
Lucas smiled knowingly. “Ah, so you’re Noah.”
“I guess my reputation precedes me,” Noah replied.
“Something like that,” Lucas said.
“Let me look at you,” Chynna said, stepping back and surveying Kenya, lightly touching her bruised cheek. “Any broken bones?”
Kenya shook her head. “No, but I had a slight concussion. I’ll have to go back and get checked out later.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Chynna said, wrapping her arm around Kenya and leading her to the living room. “We’ll bring a doctor here. You’ve been through enough.”
Both men followed the women into the living room adjacent to the foyer.
Chynna sat down with Kenya on one of the sofas. “Can you tell me what happened? Why weren’t Darryl and Max here?”
Kenya inhaled deeply. “I told them to take the night off. I thought it would be o-okay,” she said, her voice breaking. “But it wasn’t ... I saw a shadow outside and before I knew it, he was inside the house.”
Chynna squeezed Kenya’s hand to encourage her to continue.
“He chased me down the hall and caught me in the foyer. I tried to fight him, but he, he hit me,” Kenya said, touching her cheek at the remembrance, “threw me to the floor, then he climbed on top of me and—”
“I think that’s enough,” Lucas said, coming to Kenya’s side. He sat next to her on the sofa.
“I’m so sorry,” Chynna said, her eyes filling with tears, “that this happened while you were in my home.”
“It’s not your fault,” Kenya said, glancing at Chynna. She could see Chynna was blaming herself for what had occurred and she didn’t want that. “You mustn’t blame yourself.”
“Isn’t it?” Chynna asked. “He was probably some stalker looking for me, and you look just like me ...”
“He wasn’t here for you,” Kenya said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“He was here for me.”
Chynna’s forehead wrinkled. She didn’t understand. She wasn’t sure she wanted too. She could hear the front door opening and voices in the hall as Eli, Deacon, Fiona, Penelope and some of her staff came inside, but she had to focus on Kenya.
“He told me he was here to teach me a lesson so I would leave town,” Kenya continued her story.
“Why would some random stranger go through the trouble to break in here to scare you into leaving town?”
“Because he wasn’t random,” Kenya replied. “Someone sent him.”
“Who?” Chynna, Lucas and Noah asked almost simultaneously.
“Eli.”
Eli walked into Chynna’s living room with her entourage at that moment to see all eyes were on him. He saw Kenya first, and she looked terrible. Her right eye was nearly closed shut thanks to a black eye, and she had cuts and contusions all over her face. He’d heard she’d been attacked, but hadn’t known how bad it was until now. Could Duke really have done this?
He glanced in Lucas’s direction and the look of absolute hatred on Lucas’s face startled him. Eli took a step backward.
“What’s going on in here?” he asked, attempting to sound lighthearted when he felt far from it. There was a distinct air of hostility in the room.
“Kenya!” When Deacon saw her he rushed toward her.
“I don’t know, Eli,” Lucas said, rising and pacing the floor agitatedly. “Why don’t you tell us?”
Eli shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Liar!” Kenya rose to face Eli, pushing past Deacon and Fiona who were coming to check on her to stalk toward him. “I know what you did.”
“What I did?” Eli touched his chest for dramatic effect. “I just got back from Houston. What could I have done?” The best defense was to feign ignorance.
“You sent that man after me. You sent him here to teach me a lesson, make me want to leave Los Angeles so I wouldn’t steal Chynna’s thunder,” Kenya said, turning to look back at her sister. “But I didn’t, so you had to get creative, right? You sent that bastard to terrorize me.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Eli huffed. “And I’m outraged that you would think such a thing. I might not be your biggest fan, but I would never send someone to harm you.”
Noah Hart walked toward him. “Like you wouldn’t pick up Chynna’s cell phone and tell me that Chynna wanted nothing to do with me. You wouldn’t lie and tell me that Chynna and I were through and the fun was over?”
Eli glanced at Chynna and instead of appearing horrified by Noah’s statement, she was nodding her head in agreement.
“Or how about the fact that you called in Lamar, Chynna’s ex-boyfriend, to handle me,” Kenya said, “because while I played Chynna, I wasn’t doing your bidding.”
Eli glanced at Chynna. “Surely you can’t believe this, Chynna. You know I’ve always had your best interest at heart.” Then he glanced at Lucas, his best friend of twenty years, and said, “And you, you know I wouldn’t do this to you, Lucas. I know how you feel about Kenya, that you love her. I would never hurt her.”
Bull’s-eye. Kenya stared at Lucas with a dumbfounded expression on her face. Eli so loved it when he could drop a bomb and watch the fallout. The poor girl was looking at Lucas with questions in her eyes. The downside was Lucas looked like he was ready to rip Eli’s heart out.
Chynna was the first to speak and rose from the circle to come forward. “You know what I believe, Eli?” she said. “I believe you are a lying, two-timing, conniving criminal who set my sister up to be beaten and worse, raped.” Her voice steadily rose. “I believe you called Noah and told him I didn’t want him so you could interfere in our relationship just as you interfered with Lamar and me all those years ago.”
“I, I—” But she didn’t let him finish.
“And I believe,” she said, pointing her finger in Eli’s face, “that you knew Kenya and I switched places. You leaked the story to the press and unleashed the paparazzi on all of us.” She pointed to Kenya, Lucas and Noah.
“Eli leaked the story?” Lucas’s dark eyes were again on Eli, and Eli could feel himself begin to sweat. Ever since they were little kids, Eli had always known that there was a switch on Lucas. And if crossed, he would become another man; Eli could see that switch being turned on, and he began backing away.
“Okay, okay,” Eli said as he made his way to the doorway. “So I leaked the story.” He had to get in front of this and admit to half-truths before the situation went to hell in a handbasket. “I mean bad press is good press, right?” He shrugged, but no one seemed to be buying it. Even Deacon was looking at him with disgust. “And I couldn’t let her,” Eli said,
inclining his head toward Kenya, “imitate you. She was nothing but a poor imitation of you.” He saw Kenya flinch at his words. Score again!
“You nearly ruined me! And you almost ...,” Chynna said, reaching for Noah’s hand, “almost cost me the man I loved.”
Fury boiled within Eli, and the posture he’d been working on maintaining for so long finally broke. He said what he really thought. “And whose fault is all of this, Chynna? You’ve been in one disaster after another. First there was the Blake incident and now all of this. You started this whole thing in motion. We,” he said, pointing to Lucas, “didn’t tell you to switch places. You got that bright idea all on your own. And how smart was that?”
Eli saw Noah make a move toward him, but he didn’t back down. “You are the cause of your own drama, baby girl. You two,” Eli said, pointing to Noah, “were never going to work. Don’t you know that love and fame can’t exist in the same place? And well,” he said, turning to Kenya, “I had no idea Duke would go after you that way.”
Eli’s hand flew to his mouth at the slip-up. He was standing in front of a room with tons of witnesses. “I, I meant that I would never have dreamed that something this terrible could have happened.”
“Bullshit!” Kenya yelled. “You could have gotten me raped, Eli. Or worse, killed!”
Eli didn’t know what to do. He was cornered. Everyone was yelling and screaming at him, but the worst was Lucas. The look of disappointment would haunt Eli forever.
“How could you do this to me, man, after everything we’ve been through together?” Lucas was choked up. He’d been listening to all the allegations that Kenya, Chynna and even Noah had lodged against Eli. They all couldn’t be making it up. It had to be true. The person he’d aligned himself with was a liar and a criminal. Lucas beat his chest and cried out, “You’ve been my friend for twenty years strong. How could you send some thug after the woman I love?”
Harts of Arizona Series Page 34
