Cinderella's Tycoon

by Caroline Cross

  “I know what I need to, Sterling. I know what a good person you are. And I know that you make me feel things I’ve never felt before.”

  “Well, that’s great.” He made it sound anything but. “What happened to our being friends? Do we just forget about that and settle for being lovers?”

  “No, of course not. I don’t see that one cancels out the other. If anything, our being intimate would probably help our friendship.”

  “Oh yeah? And how do you figure that?”

  “Because it should relieve some of the tension between us. Before, I thought it was just me. But then, today, down by the lake I realized that you felt it, too. And that I’d really like to be your lover before I become a mother.”

  “Susan—” he protested.

  “I know what I’m asking, Sterling.” Again she closed the distance between them. Laying her hand on a warm patch of skin exposed by his shirt, she echoed the shudder that shivered through him at her touch. “Please. Make love to me.”

  Eight

  Sterling looked from Susan’s upturned face to the small elegant hand that felt like a brand on his skin.

  It wasn’t fair. She had no right to put him through this. Not twice in the same day.

  Because there was no denying the drumbeat of need pounding through him. He wanted her, so much that his skin felt tight and his muscles ached with the effort of not reaching for her.

  As for his mind, it felt painfully split. Go on, urged a part of him. She knows the score and she wants you anyway.

  Not to be denied, the other half counseled, Stop this now, while you can. Be a man and walk away.

  “Oh, dear.” Susan’s soft voice, uncertain after what he vaguely realized had been an extremely protracted silence, intruded on the struggle he was waging with himself. “I thought—that is I assumed—I thought you wanted me, too. But you don’t, do you?” She started to draw her hand away. “Oh, dear. I’m so sorry...”

  He looked down and saw the hurt she was bravely trying to hide. And just like that, the decision was made. He still had reservations, but there wasn’t one of them worth the look on her face. “No. Don’t be sorry.” He caught her hand and deliberately guided it back to his chest. Pressing her cool palm against his hot skin, he had to grit his teeth at the jolt of pleasure that went through him. “You weren’t wrong,” he said harshly. “I just—you have to be sure, Susan. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Oh, Sterling. You’d never do that.”

  He shook his head at her naivete. “Maybe not deliberately, but—” he paused, his frustration manifesting itself as a muscle jumped in his jaw “—you’ve got to understand. I want you. That’s true. But I’m not in love with you.”

  “I know. And it’s all right,” she said quietly. She stared up at him, the truth of what she was saying clear in her big brown eyes. “I trust you.”

  As if the moment was frozen in time, he registered a quartet of small details. The softness of her palm against his skin. The tantalizing familiarity of her scent. The darkness of her eyes. The pinkness of her lips.

  Misunderstanding his silence, she reached up and laid the fingers of her free hand against his cheek. “It really is all right, Sterling,” she repeated.

  Something inside him seemed to shatter. Desire—and a deeper need that was totally unexpected—roared through him. Before he could change his mind, he hauled her close, lifted her off her feet and took her mouth with his own.

  The hours since their embrace at the lake might never have happened. Instead of starting over, the passion between them returned full-force. Sterling felt it cut through him like a blow torch, burning away the last of his reservations.

  She’s right, he told himself. It was okay. He wasn’t breaking his vow—not really. As Susan had pointed out, this was just physical desire. He wasn’t giving her his heart or making a promise that he couldn‘t—he wouldn’t—keep.

  She had a point about a sexual liaison improving their relationship, too. Right from the beginning, he’d been negatively influenced by his attraction to her. If he could finally slake his hunger for her, get it out of his system once and for all, maybe he’d be able to get his life back the way he liked it—which was firmly under control.

  At the moment, that was not an option. Driven by need, he began to walk blindly toward the bed, not stopping until he felt the edge of the mattress press into the backs of his legs. He tore his mouth from Susan’s, and lowered her to her feet, his stomach hollowing as her body rubbed against his in the process. Trailing his fingers over her satiny-soft shoulders, he tugged off her robe and tossed it to the floor. A shudder went through him as he looked down at the soft thrust of her. breasts straining the lace of her bodice. “Damn, but you’re pretty.”

  “So are you,” she said breathlessly, pushing at his shirt. When he looked at her sharply, her cheeks suddenly turned pink, but she didn’t back down. “Well, you are.”

  Tenderness shot through him, tempering some of his urgency. He shrugged his shirt away. “Come here,” he said hoarsely, sinking down on the bed and drawing her into the cradle of his thighs. “Touch me.”

  He didn’t have to ask her twice. Her hands, tentative at first, traced the line of hair bisecting his chest and grazed the curls under his armpits. Quickly growing bolder, she ran her thumbs over his nipples. Her eyes rounded slightly as they drew into tight little beads. With a soft “oh,” she stroked them again, then slid her palms down his sides, over his hipbones and across his abdomen. Bracing her fingers against the ridged muscle of his belly, she caught him off guard as she bent down and kissed his shallow navel.

  Sterling’s heart seemed to jump into his throat. He groaned, fighting the urge to tangle his hands in her hair and direct her attentions lower. Easy, he ordered himself. Don’t forget that she’s new to this. And that she’s carrying your child. Take it slow.

  Still, the urge to touch her, to lie down naked beside her, was riding him too hard to ignore any longer. He gently tugged her upright. He came to his feet, unzipped his jeans and pushed them and his briefs to the floor. Stepping free of the fabric, he heard Susan draw in her breath.

  “Oh, my,” she murmured. Her gaze shot to his face. “I know everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas, Sterling, but I—I don’t think this is going to work.”

  Her words caught him by surprise. To his shock, he felt a grin tug at his face. Although it came and went in a flash, it served to increase the odd mixture of passion and protectiveness she was causing in him. “It’ll work. I promise.” Reaching for her hands, he tugged her onto the bed, turning at the last minute so she was underneath him.

  “Shouldn’t I take off my nightgown?” she said faintly.

  “In a minute.” He grimaced at the strain in his voice, wondering if she had a clue just how much he wanted to strip her bare and plunge himself inside her. Yet her sudden nervousness was obvious and he wanted this to be good for her. He wasn’t sure why it mattered so much, but it did. Leaning over, he kissed her, determined to rebuild her passion to match his own.

  It didn’t prove hard to do. Cupping her face in his hands, he plied her lips with his mouth. He nipped her lower lip and worried it with his teeth, and when she probed at the tiny hurt with her tongue, he sucked it into his mouth. He swallowed her faint cry of surprise. It quickly became a murmur of pleasure.

  She was a quick study. Locking her hands around his neck, she dragged him closer, slanting her lips against his. Slowly at first, and then with more and more confidence, she began to imitate what he’d done to her out by the lake, making love to him with her mouth until they were twisting restlessly against each other.

  He felt his control slipping away. Determined to get it back, he forced himself to break off the kiss. He looked down at her, watching as her heavy-lidded eyes rose to his. “Easy,” he murmured, struggling for breath. “There’s no rush.”

  She shook her head and tried to draw him back down to her. When that didn’t work, she shifted impatiently
and bent one silky leg, rubbing it against his hip and along his outer thigh before hooking it around his leg.

  Perspiration sprang up across his forehead and in the small of his back. With a groan, he buried his face in her throat, fighting for restraint as her lace-covered hip rubbed tantalizingly against his straining sex. “Aw, sweetheart, please. Slow down. You’re doing me in.”

  “Good,” she said breathlessly. And then, “Don’t stop.”

  He was powerless against her soft plea. Tangling his fingers in the dark fire of her hair, he sank his mouth into the vulnerable flesh at the base of her throat. She gave a muffled cry and he slid lower, closing his hand around one thrusting breast while his lips claimed the other. Fitting his mouth to her nipple, he began to suckle.

  She cried out again. Then, with a strength he hadn’t known she possessed, she wrapped her arms around him and shifted, centering herself beneath him. Clamping his hips in her knees, she tangled her hands in his hair and fit herself against his hardness.

  Wild fire. Sterling felt the heat of it in his blood. Raising his head, he tugged down her bodice, unable to stop the sound that tore from his throat as her breasts popped free, exposing small, stiffly erect peach-colored nipples. Leaning down, he raked one with his teeth.

  She whimpered and rocked herself against him.

  He swallowed a curse. She was driving him wild, and suddenly, he just had to touch her. His mouth against her breast, he twisted, rolling them onto their sides. Reaching down, he pushed her nightie out of the way and placed his hand between her thighs, rotating his thumb over her satin-covered mound.

  She bucked as if she’d been touched by a live wire. “Sterling!”

  “Do you like that?”

  “Yes. Oh, yes!”

  He kissed his way to her mouth and stroked her again, touching her until he felt a growing circle of damp against his fingertips. “That’s right,” he said against her lips.

  She shuddered. “Oh! That feels—I didn’t know... I need... Oh, Sterling, please!”

  He couldn’t wait any longer.

  Coming up on his knees, he gripped the hem of her gown and dragged it up and over her head. On some level he registered how exotic her pale skin and dark flame hair looked against the royal-blue of his satin bedspread. It was too much; he looked away, his self-control balanced on a razor’s edge as he gripped her black satin panties and pulled them away.

  He moved between her thighs.

  Susan stared up at him. Rising above her, he looked like every red-blooded woman’s dream. The muscles in his arms and torso were hard with tension, his eyes were heavy-lidded, his lips still wet from their kisses. The bronze tones of his skin were in sharp contrast to her own paleness, while a single lick of dark brown hair fell forward, softening the hard angles of his face.

  Emotions flooded her: tenderness, excitement, desire. She reached up. Brushing back that silky strand of hair, she looped her hand behind his neck and drew him down for an openmouthed kiss, only to gasp at the sensation as they came together, fully naked for the first time. His hard, hot chest rubbed against her sensitive nipples, while lower down his muscled abdomen pressed between her thighs. He felt impossibly heavy. But so very good.

  She felt the thrust of his tongue, the stabbing rhythm evoking the act to come. A second later, he shifted his lower body and touched her, rotating his thumb against the seat of her desire. He gently slid one big finger between her slick folds.

  The shock of it jolted through her.

  Before, the thought of a man touching her there had always seemed shocking, too intimate and invasive to bear.

  With Sterling, it just felt right. Her entire world seemed to narrow to the pleasure brought by his skillful fingers. He stroked her again and again, until her back was bowed and she was rocking mindlessly against his hand. Yet as good as it felt, it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted him. “Sterling?”

  “Hmm?” He was breathing hard.

  “I want you inside me,” she whispered.

  For a moment he didn’t move, and she was afraid she’d said something wrong. Her apprehension evaporated, however, as he shifted and his weight abruptly pressed her into the mattress. “Me, too,” he murmured against her throat.

  Bracing himself with an arm on either side of her, he lifted himself up. She felt the thick end of his sex nudge against her. For a moment she was convinced she’d been right, that this would never work. Yet inch by inch her body yielded to his. And though there was some pain, there was also a slow-building sense of anticipation as he gently, carefully filled her until she couldn’t stand it any longer. “Don’t,” she bit out finally, straining against him.

  He froze. “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t go—so—slow. I need...I want...to feel all of you.”

  He groaned. “Susan. Sweetheart...”

  That was the second time he’d called her sweetheart. The endearment shivered through her, the sweetest word she’d ever heard. “Please, Sterling. Do it harder. I promise I won’t break.”

  “Hell, I know that. But I don’t want to hurt you. Or the baby—”

  “You won’t.” Reaching up, she gripped his bulging biceps and flexed against him, trying to draw him deeper. Then, with an instinct she hadn’t known she possessed, she rotated her hips.

  She felt the muscle beneath her fingers compress as his whole body tensed. Yet if there was one thing she was coming to understand about Sterling, he was nothing if not stubborn.

  Gritting his teeth, he withdrew just a little before he pushed back into her. His thrust was harder this time, the angle not nearly so shallow, yet it was still carefully controlled.

  “More,” she demanded, laboring toward something just out of reach. “Please.”

  “In a minute—”

  “No, now.” Breathless, needy, and more than a little desperate, she thrust her hips upward on his downstroke, seating him fully inside her.

  “Dammit, Susan.” His big body quivered. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. Oh, yes. It’s just that I need...I need—” Driven by something she couldn’t contain, she reached down and clutched the hard curve of his buttocks, grinding him against her. To her shock, pleasure rocketed through her, explosive and unexpected. She felt herself tighten around him, felt her inner muscles contract wildly, shattering her into what felt like a thousand pieces. “Oh! Ohh! Yes!”

  Sterling said something harsh under his breath as her climax triggered his own. With a guttural cry, he wrapped his fist in her hair and came, his big body shuddering convulsively at the rhythmic gloving of her body.

  Moments later, he collapsed beside her, nestling his sweaty face in the crook of her neck. Feeling the fine tremors that continued to shiver through him, Susan cradled him against her, gently stroking the damp feathers of his hair.

  Happiness burned through her. For the first time, she truly felt like Sterling’s wife.

  The bedroom was filled with sunshine by the time Sterling awoke the next morning.

  Careful not to disturb Susan who lay curled against him, he stretched, then shifted onto his back.

  He thought about the night just past, about the two of them making love. They’d done it despite his reservations, his worries about the future, his bald admission that he wasn’t in love with her. What’s more, they’d done it not just once or even twice, but three times, most recently shortly before sunrise, when he’d kissed Susan awake, rolled onto his back and guided her on top of him.

  It would be a long time before he forgot how she’d looked in that silvery light, with her head thrown back, her perfect little breasts thrust forward, her shot-with-fire hair swaying as she rode him to another explosive climax.

  And though he was pretty sure it didn’t speak well of his character, he didn’t regret one single moment of making love to her. Because as humbling as it was to admit it, sometime during the night a part of him that he’d refused to even acknowledge was wounded had been healed.

  Now, lyin
g here in a golden blaze of daylight long after the fact, he could finally admit to the hit that his ego had taken when Teresa had left him because he couldn’t get her pregnant. And though he knew damn well that nothing could fix the more crucial flaw in his character that had prevented her and his mother—the only two people he’d ever loved—from loving him back, last night had nevertheless gone a long way toward alleviating that other, very masculine hurt.

  Not to put too fine a point on it, but he felt good.

  And he owed it all to Susan. Shy, inexperienced, kindhearted little Susan, who’d given him far more than her virginity last night.

  He turned his head on the pillow and looked at her sleeping face. Even with her lips swollen from his kisses, her cheeks pink from his beard and her hair tumbled wildly around her, she had a certain sweet serenity that appealed mightily to him. And though he didn’t love her—he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, for both their sakes—he had to admit that last night had changed things between them.

  Pure and simple, she belonged to him now in a way she hadn’t before. While he’d felt protective from the beginning, it had been more about the child she was carrying than Susan herself. That was no longer true. Although he knew it was primitive, the intimacy of what they’d shared and the knowledge that he’d been her first and only lover, made him feel strongly that she was now his.

  He’d take good care of her, he promised himself. He might not love her in a romantic sense, but her happiness did matter to him. He’d make sure she didn’t regret what had happened between them.

  Next to him, she stirred. He watched as her lashes slowly swept up and she took stock of their intimate position. Her gaze flickered down to the sheet-covered leg she had hooked over his, then up to her hand, which was’possessively splayed across his bare abdomen. From there, it was just a matter of time before she took note of the way her bare breasts were pressed intimately against his side.

  For a moment she didn’t move. Then, taking him by surprise, she lifted her head and gently pressed a lingering kiss to his shoulder.