She must have slept. At least for a few minutes. When she roused, Gavin was leaning over her with a washcloth, gently cleansing the residue of their lovemaking. His eyes were dark with concern as he saw the evidence of her innocence. Their eyes met...his shadowed, hers uncertain. It was a more profoundly intimate moment than any that had gone before.
When Gavin was satisfied that he had taken care of her, he tucked her up against his side, one big masculine arm holding her close. In moments his breathing became regular, but she couldn’t tell if he was awake or asleep.
For the first time, misgivings winnowed their way to the surface, making her wince inwardly. What if this experience ruined her for other men? She couldn’t imagine any other male of her acquaintance making her feel like this. Gavin was an intensely exciting lover. Both masterful and tender. At moments, it had been difficult to remember that she was her own person. All she had wanted was to lose herself in him.
The thought was sobering. She’d spent the past six years trying to prove her worth to her father. To make him see that a woman could be just as intelligent and business savvy as a man. But this gallant rescuer, her passionate lover, had shown her that in certain situations a woman might be tempted to chuck everything for the chance to be intimate with a man like Gavin.
She had planned out her career. She had goals and dreams. One day when her father was gone, Cassidy would be in charge of the casino. It was all she had ever wanted to do with her life.
But Gavin, damn him, made her question the master plan. Still, she shoved the doubts aside. She had gone into this experience with her eyes wide-open. This might not be casual sex on her part, but it was definitely temporary. It had to be. Her future didn’t include a man who might try to mold her and change her and sidetrack her with his crazy hot body and phenomenal sex.
Her lover stirred and yawned, glancing at the illuminated dial of the clock beside the bed.
“What time is your flight?” she asked, feeling all her fuzzy happiness slip away.
“Eleven. Means I have to be there at ten.”
“Not very long from now.”
He linked his fingers with hers and lifted her hand to his lips. “Plenty of time for the big three.”
“The big three?”
“I want to take you in the fancy tub, and the shower, and probably the sofa in the living room.”
She actually felt faint. “Oh, well...”
He tugged one of her curls, tickling her ear with his fingertip. “But first, we talk.”
“Talking is overrated. Though I do have a confession to make,” she admitted, shamefaced.
He nuzzled her hair. “Then we’ll start there.”
It was difficult to know exactly what to say. “You know the man in the alley, the one you punched when you came to my rescue?”
“He’s kind of hard to forget.”
“That was my brother, Carlo.”
The dead silence was intimidating. “Your brother was attacking you?” Gavin asked, the words enunciated carefully.
“Not exactly. We were arguing...loudly. Our family does that. I’m sure to an outsider it must have seemed as if I were in danger. So when you swooped in and rescued me, it was so sweet and wonderful and chivalrous.”
“I hit an innocent man and left him on the ground. Yet you didn’t bother to tell me the truth?” Gavin’s volume escalated, his words incredulous. He rolled out of bed and got to his feet, pacing like a caged tiger. “Damn it, Cassidy. What were you thinking?”
The open accusation on his face brought hot tears to her eyes, but she blinked them back. “It all happened so fast,” she said. “And trust me, Carlo is built like an ox. You didn’t hurt him. When you dragged me back to your hotel room, I was enchanted. No man has ever stood up for me like that. I wanted to get to know you.”
“You made a fool out of me,” he said, his scowl black with displeasure.
“No. No, I didn’t,” she said, climbing off the mattress and going to him, trying to ignore her nudity and the shivery way it made her feel. She put both hands on his upper arms, wishing she had the strength to shake him out of his mood. “You acted on instinct. If the situation had been different, you would have saved me from something terrible.”
* * *
Gavin thought himself far past being taken in by a pretty face. Yet here he was, suffering from the effects of bad judgment and simple lust. He’d been down this road before. A pretty girl, sexual attraction, a series of bad choices. As a senior at an Ivy League school in the Northeast, he’d spent time in jail when a woman accused him of rape.
The incident had nearly killed Gavin’s mother. Even his own brothers had looked at him askance as if not quite sure what to make of the situation. The woman had been extremely convincing. Right up until the moment her lawyer promised to drop the charges against Gavin if the Kavanaghs handed over a hefty settlement.
Gavin had been furious and embarrassed and disgusted by the whole thing. He’d refused to let his family bail him out or pay anything to silence the duplicitous woman. For his stubbornness, he’d spent an unforgettable five nights behind bars. In hindsight, he should have tried harder to proclaim his innocence. The irony was, he’d never even had sex with the woman. They had dated only once.
Looking back, he could see that she had crossed his path intentionally, flirted with him and led him on. Her partner in crime, the alleged lawyer, was a fellow psychiatric patient with whom she had slipped away and, in a lucid moment, hatched a plan to get some money and disappear.
Fortunately for Gavin, the girl’s parents had come forward when the story hit the newspapers. They lived in a nearby town where their daughter was institutionalized at a long-term care facility.
Gavin’s pseudo girlfriend, faced with her parents’ presence, finally recanted her story and Gavin was released. But the gossip had lived on. He hadn’t dated much after that. Because every time he met a girl at school, there was always a look in her eyes...a question about Gavin’s nature.
He’d responded to the situation by withdrawing into himself. He’d finished school and returned home to set up his cybersecurity business. He was good, very good. And once he was officially an adult, no one really cared about the unsavory incident in his past.
Yet, despite all he had learned, here he was again, standing on shaky ground. What if all that business at the wedding chapel had been some kind of setup? Was there an angry father or brother waiting just around the corner to insist on a shotgun wedding?
If was difficult to ignore the fact that a curvy beautiful woman stood toe to toe with him, her breasts almost brushing his chest. “Put some clothes on,” he said brusquely.
When he tried to turn away, Cassidy launched herself into his embrace, her arms locking around his neck. Though he was angry, his body responded predictably. Hunger roiled in his gut like an unappeased demon.
“Don’t be like this,” she cried. “We don’t have much longer. Come back to bed.”
Though he was stingingly aware of every inch of her voluptuous body plastered against his, he rallied his defenses, staring down at her with glacial disdain. Removing himself from her stranglehold, he stepped away. Cassidy’s expression was chastened. As he watched, she grabbed a silk throw from the end of the bed and tucked it around her body like a sarong.
The ruby color made her skin glow.
Needing some armor himself, he picked up the damp towel from the floor and wrapped it around his hips as he had earlier. Grimacing at the clammy fabric, he crossed his arms over his chest. “I want to know,” he said, keeping his tone level and unemotional, “how a woman who looks like you can still be a virgin at the age of twenty-three.”
Cassidy perched on the end of the bed, one leg tucked beneath her. She was beautiful in an extremely natural and vibrant way. “It’s simple, really. My dad is an extre
mely strict Italian Catholic father. My mother died when I was six. So Daddy sent me off to boarding school, followed by an all-girls college. It was only when I enrolled for my MBA that I had much contact with the opposite sex. And I was working so hard the whole two years that I didn’t have much time for romance.”
“So you remained pure as the driven snow.” His sarcasm was a defense mechanism.
“I’m not saying I wasn’t curious,” Cass said. “But I never really met anyone who tempted me enough to incur my father’s wrath.”
“What did you think he would do to you?”
“I didn’t know. And I was scared to find out. I had bodyguards assigned to me around the clock from the time I was first shipped away from Vegas. Daddy was afraid his status would make me an easy target for kidnappers. I rebelled, of course. But the one and only time I ever successfully eluded my guards and had a night out with girlfriends, my father came to campus and yelled at me for an hour, nonstop. That kind of thing leaves an impression.”
“And after you graduated?”
“I wanted so badly to go into business with my father. I thought the MBA would convince him, but he has yet to promise me for sure that I’ll have a spot at the casino.”
“What about your brother?”
“Well, that’s the infuriating part. I was a mama’s girl, so when she died, I was lost. I was always her favorite and Carlo was Daddy’s. Even though Carlo partied through school and majored in fraternity parties and binge drinking and women, he could do no wrong. I, on the other hand, worked my butt off. Carried a 4.0 all the way through. I wanted to prove to my father how ready I was to become his second in command.”
“And did it work?”
“No. That’s what Carlo and I were arguing about. He told me Daddy thinks I should marry and raise a family and leave the business end of things to Carlo.”
“Maybe that’s wishful thinking on your brother’s part.”
“I doubt it.” Her expression was glum. “Daddy’s very traditional. One of the floor managers is taking a two-week vacation starting next Friday. I’m hoping to cover for him while he’s gone and prove that I can be an asset.”
“So we’ve covered the reasons for your surprisingly virginal state, but not the specifics of why me? Why now?”
Five
Cassidy found that it was not an easy thing to carry on an adult conversation with a large, angry, half-naked man. She could understand his suspicions, but they were using up precious time.
She decided that honesty was the only prudent way to go. “I’m wildly attracted to you. From the first moment you ran down the street with me. You’re gallant and wonderful and unlike any man I’ve ever met.”
“And I’m leaving in the morning.”
Grimacing, she nodded. “That played into it. No strings attached. When we got to your hotel room I realized that for once in my life I was going to take what I wanted and to hell with the consequences. I feel a connection with you, though I can’t explain why. You’re not much of a talker. But I knew that sex with you would be memorable.”
Still he stared at her like judge and jury. “That’s a pretty big step for the good little Catholic girl.”
“I do want to prove myself to my father, but I’m a grown woman. My choices are mine.” She paused, wondering if she had the guts to push this next point. “Admit it, Gavin. Tonight never would have happened if you hadn’t been feeling some of the same things I was. You wanted me, too. That’s what made it all so exciting.”
The flicker of emotion in his eyes told her she had hit on the truth. The spark had come from both directions.
He glanced down at the place where the towel lifted over his erection. “It’s a hard thing for a man to hide.”
“I’d like to think I was more to you than a convenient body.”
The silence stretched for miles. Just when she thought she would have to crawl into a hole to escape the humiliation, he nodded grudgingly. “You’re a fascinating woman, Cass. Intensely feminine, distractingly sexual. But from where I’m standing, this all seems a little too good to be true. I can’t help wondering if there’s a trap in here somewhere.”
She stood up, hoping his compliments meant an end to hostilities. “I swear on my mother’s grave that I am no threat to you at all. And I’ve told you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Do you believe me?”
He ran his gaze from her head to her toes, making everything in between sizzle with excitement. Her skin hummed with the need to feel him inside her again.
“I want to believe you. Though I have damn little reason to do so. But even if you turn out to be my worst mistake, I can’t walk away now. Your promises will have to do.” When he ripped off the towel a second time, she should have been prepared. But his body was a sculptor’s dream.
She swallowed hard. “I’m glad.”
With his hands on his hips, he studied her. Then, before she had a chance to prepare, he closed the distance between them in two long strides and plucked away her only armor, leaving her defenseless and bare in more ways than one.
He scooped her into his arms. “The hot tub will help you feel better.” He kissed her briefly, a butterfly brush of lips to lips.
His breath was warm on her cheek. She looked up into his eyes searching for something...anything. Was he sorry to be leaving?
In the bathroom, he turned on the taps. The oversize faucet dispensed water generously. While they waited for the tub to fill, Gavin perched on the edge and stood her between his legs. With his hands on her waist, he proceeded to rekindle her need.
Rough tongue on sensitive nipples. Murmured words of praise and admiration. His thumbs rubbed her hip bones in a desultory fashion as if there was all the time in the world for foreplay.
She rested her forehead against his. For the first time, she realized with no small amount of dismay that grabbing for what she wanted had a downside. “The sand in the hourglass is almost gone,” she whispered. “I’ll never forget this night.”
His body went rigid, his rapid shallow breaths audible. “Pretend we have forever, Cass.” He buried his face between her breasts. “That’s all you have to do.”
* * *
Gavin put a hand to his head and groaned. The muted chirping of the alarm on his cell phone had awakened him. Studying the screen, bleary-eyed, he saw that he barely had enough time to shower and shave and head to the airport to turn in his rental car.
He rolled toward Cass, determined to take her one more time despite the time crunch. Last night had been amazing, perhaps the best of his life.
But when he reached across the bed, he found nothing but empty, chilled sheets. Abruptly, the sleep fog lifted. “Cass,” he called out urgently, hoping she was in the bathroom.
Then he saw the note on her pillow. His stomach pitched unpleasantly. The small rectangle of hotel notepaper had been folded once. He opened it and read:
Dear Gavin:
Last night was amazing. I’ve never met a man like you. I’m sorry for not being totally honest with you in the beginning...about everything...but I selfishly wanted a chance to spend time with you. I suppose you think badly of me, but I hope in time you’ll be able to forgive me and to enjoy the memories of our one incredible night in Vegas.
I know you have a plane to catch, so I didn’t linger. I never have liked goodbyes anyway. I hope the women in North Carolina appreciate you as much as I do. You are one in a million.
Fondly,
Cassidy Corelli
He dropped the Dear John letter on the bed and put his head in his hands. This was the kind of experience many men craved—the gorgeous woman, the no-strings sex, the night of unparalleled excess. He should be feeling on top of the world.
But the truth was, this trip to Vegas sucked, any way you looked at it. Stumbling into the ba
throom, he splashed water on his face and then stared in the mirror as he grabbed a hand towel. He looked like hell. Bloodshot eyes underscored by dark circles. Stubbly chin. A headful of hair sticking up in all directions.
If he’d just scored #1 on the all-time list of guy fantasies, then why did he feel like crap? And why was his gut telling him he’d made a gargantuan mistake?
He slept his way across the country. Flying first class at least gave him room to stretch out his legs and get semi-comfortable. The young blonde flight attendant flirted with him. He passed up the offers for alcohol and peanuts and instead propped his head against the window.
Changing planes in Atlanta was a hassle, but at least no one paid any attention to him. He bought the latest hardcover crime thriller so he could use it as a shield if necessary.
Once he landed in Asheville, he sent a text to his brother Conor, who was picking him up. In Conor’s hybrid SUV on the way to Silver Glen, all Gavin wanted to do was brood. But Conor was cheerful and chatty and interested in hearing about the trip.
Gavin answered in single syllables, hoping his sibling would take the hint, but it was not to be.
Finally, Conor shot him a frowning glance and called him on his crappy attitude. “What the hell’s wrong with you, Gavin?”
“Sorry,” he muttered, suddenly ashamed of his mood. “I guess I’m just tired.”
“Don’t try that on me. Something is chewing your ass and I want to know what it is. Did your speech crash and burn?”
“No. Everyone loved it.”
“Don’t tell me you gambled and lost a pile of money. That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
Gavin managed a grin. “I never even put a nickel in a slot machine. If I want to blow money, I’ll toss it out the window on the interstate.”
Twins on the Way Page 5
