On the drive from her house, Reid had told Tina about the body being found in his family’s attic and their suspicions that it might be his missing cousin, Victoria. Tina couldn’t imagine what the entire Danforth family was going through right now, not knowing the truth and having to wait for days or even weeks before the results of the tests could be verified. Her heart went out to all of them, especially to Reid’s aunt and uncle.
“Ian wanted to warn me that there’s a hotshot reporter named Jasmine Carmody sniffing around.” Reid’s arms tightened around Tina. “Nicola wants to keep this situation quiet for as long as possible. Even the hint of a scandal so soon in the campaign could blow the election for my Dad.”
“Can you really keep something like this from the press?”
“Not for long.” He sighed. “Especially with an army of reporters skulking around every corner just waiting for the tiniest speck of dirt. But we might be able to hold off until we at least get some preliminary results from the DNA testing. That will help Nicola decide how to best handle the press.”
“I can’t imagine living under a microscope like that,” she said quietly. “I don’t think I could stand it.”
“It’s part of who I am.” He shrugged. “Who my family is. I guess I just accept it.”
“I can certainly understand that.” She smiled at him. “After spending the evening with my family, you probably wonder how I manage to get through a day without going crazy.”
He brought his face beside hers, grinned at her in the mirror. “I think your family is terrific, though I don’t think your dad likes me too much. You know the saying ‘if looks could kill’? It’s amazing I made it out of your house alive tonight.”
She laughed softly at the absurdity, yet truth, of his statement. “My dad doesn’t like any man who wants to date one of his daughters. He says that men just want one thing.”
“Smart man.” Reid brushed his mouth along her neck, then moved up to nuzzle her ear.
The closeness of his body, his mouth just a few inches from her own, made it hard for Tina to think. She desperately wanted to turn in his arms, press her lips to his and ask him to take her to his bed, or just simply take her, but watching what he was doing to her in the mirror absolutely mesmerized her.
“I thought about you today,” he whispered.
“Did you?” Her breath quickened when his tongue flicked over her earlobe.
“Did you think about me?”
“No.” Every nerve ending along her neck quivered.
He glanced at her in the mirror and smiled smugly. “Liar.”
“Maybe a little,” she admitted, heard the breathlessness in her own voice.
“Just a little?” He moved to her neck, rubbed his lips up and down the slender column of soft, sensitive flesh.
Her skin grew hot and tight, her bones soft. Afraid she might slide to the floor, she leaned back against his chest. “Maybe more than a little.”
Keeping his eyes locked with hers, he smiled against her neck. “What did you think about?”
“Towels.”
He lifted his head. “You thought about towels?”
“Actually, it was more about the expression on your face when my aunt walked in and that’s all you were wearing.”
“Me?” His smile widened. “You should have seen your face.”
Just thinking about it now made her cheeks warm. “It’s not every day a member of my family walks in and finds me with a naked man.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” He nipped at her neck. “Very glad.”
His teeth on her skin sent shivers through her. His breath was hot on her throat. She felt her eyelids grow heavy, her blood thicken. Each and every beat of her heart echoed like a drum inside her brain.
“My aunt wants to photograph you,” she managed to say, even as a whirlwind of heat spiraled through her mind and body.
He stilled, looked at her doubtfully. “Me?”
“In your towel.” She watched him lift one brow. “But preferably without.”
“Maybe some other time,” he said, though his expression said more like “never.” “I’m going to be a little busy for a while.”
“Doing what?”
“This,” Reid murmured, and turned his attention back to Tina’s neck.
He couldn’t get enough of the taste and feel of her. Watching her in the mirror aroused him like nothing he’d ever experienced before. The flutter of her thick lashes, the rise and fall of her breasts, the soft flush of desire on her cheeks. He slid his hands under her sweater, felt warm skin and soft cotton. She shivered when he cupped her breasts.
She fit perfectly. Firm, yet soft, and when he caressed her, he felt her nipples harden against his palms.
“Reid.” She said his name on a ragged whisper, tried to turn in his arms.
“Don’t move.” He held her against him. “I want to look at you.”
She stilled, held her breath when he reached for the hem of her sweater, then slowly pulled it over her head and tossed it aside.
Her bra was baby pink, simple cotton, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen anything sexier in his life. Gently, he kneaded the firm, soft flesh, then slipped the fabric down and bared her breasts.
Her cheeks darkened with a blush, and she dropped her eyes.
“Look at me, Tina,” he said hoarsely. “Keep your eyes on me.”
He watched her lift her gaze to his, saw the fire in her eyes, the same fire that raced through his own blood and over his skin. He lowered his gaze and had to remind himself to breathe. She was so beautiful, her skin so soft and smooth. He brushed his thumbs over her rosy nipples, saw and felt them grow tighter under his touch.
Every inch of him wanted to take her now, right this second, standing right here. But he couldn’t let go of this moment, not yet. He felt intoxicated by the sight and touch of her, wanted this feeling to last as long as he—as they both—could possibly stand it. Not a simple task when he wanted to touch her, kiss her everywhere at once.
So he concentrated on her breasts. Stroking, caressing, teasing. Pushing fabric away until there was only skin against skin, soft against rough, ivory against tan. He thought he might die if he didn’t taste her soon, if he couldn’t take her pearled nipple in his mouth, feel the hardness of her against his tongue.
On a moan her head fell back against his chest. And then her hands got busy.
She slid her hands up and down the outsides of his thighs, a slow, rhythmic movement…up, down, up again…gradually inching her way to the inside. When her fingertips skimmed the edge of his hardness, he sucked in a breath.
It shocked Tina that her knees were still able to hold her. Like warm wax, her body melted against Reid’s, molding intimately so she felt every muscle of his chest against her back, the curve of her hips against his, the press of his erection against her buttocks. Watching what he was doing to her, with his hands on her breasts, his mouth on her throat and neck, was more than she could bear.
Didn’t he know that? she thought, squirming against him. Didn’t he know how much she wanted him, how desperately she needed him?
She took comfort in knowing that the sweet torture was not hers alone. His eyes had darkened with need, as well. His body had grown hard and tense, his breathing had turned ragged. If this was a contest as to who could last the longest without begging, she would surely—gladly—lose.
“Reid,” she breathed his name, pressed herself firmly against him and moved back and forth, felt him grow harder still.
His hand moved down her stomach to the button on her slacks and popped it open. Tugging her zipper down, he slid his fingertips over her belly, then cupped her in his palm. When he pressed his lips to her ear and whispered what he wanted to do, she thought, Yes, yes! Please do that and more!
Moaning softly, she could only wonder when and how she’d become so shameless, so wanton. She felt as if she might burst into flames any moment, and when he began to stroke her, she did. A firestorm swept o
ver her, and the fury of it consumed her.
“Look at me,” she gasped.
His eyes, glinting dark with need, met hers.
“I need you,” she whispered roughly. Taking hold of his wrist, she moved her hips against him. “Inside me.”
His jaw tightened, then he turned her toward him, dropping his mouth down on hers at the same time he lifted her up in his arms. She slid her arms around his neck and held on tight, the urgency overwhelming her ability to think of anything but satiating the raw, consuming need.
While walking with her to the bedroom, his mouth never left hers for more than a second. Kiss by kiss, touch by touch, their clothes fell away. Arms entwined, they tumbled onto the bed. She felt the mattress give beneath her, the downy cushion of a comforter, the slide of soft cotton on her back. The hard press of man.
Her breath caught, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders as much to brace herself as to pull him closer. He bent his head to her neck, her shoulder, then to her breast. She arched upward on a moan when he took her into his mouth and suckled, arrows of white-hot pleasure shot from her breast to the V of her thighs. He used his tongue and teeth and lips on her; one moment he was gentle, the next he was rough. She couldn’t decide which she liked better. Both thrilled her, aroused her to the edge of insanity.
When he finally moved between her legs and entered her, she slipped over that edge.
After what they’d shared the previous night, Tina wouldn’t have thought it possible that this joining could be more. But somehow it was. This time she felt as if he took more than her body, more than her heart, but her very soul. In every way she was absolutely and completely vulnerable. She held back nothing, willingly gave all she was.
He thrust deeply inside the tight, hot glove of her body. Again and again. Long, slow strokes that gradually quickened. Like a drum beating faster, then faster still, pounding fiercely. They moved as one, the urgency now gripping them both.
She cried out when the first shudder rolled through her, dug her fingernails into the rippling muscles of his damp back. He took her hips in his hands, held her still as the second shudder shattered inside her.
She felt his climax stiffen his body. On a deep, harsh groan, he crushed her to him and shuddered.
Too spent to move, to speak, to even think, they sank into the mattress together. After minutes or hours, it was hard to say which, he rolled to his side and pulled her into his arms.
Laying her head and hand on his chest, she listened to, and felt, the heavy beat of his heart.
And she smiled.
When Reid woke, he had no sense of time. He glanced at the bedside table, then realized they’d only been asleep a few minutes. Tina stirred at the movement, then murmured a complaint when he slid out from under her.
“You’re cold.” He pulled down the bedclothes, then tucked her under the warmth of the covers.
Her eyes fluttered open as she rolled to her side and tucked her hands under her face. “I wasn’t until you moved.”
Light from the moon washed the walls in shades of gray, sent shadows sliding across the floor. An overwhelming sense of peace and…wholeness? settled over the room.
Climbing under the covers beside Tina, he stretched out and leaned on an elbow, gazed down at her and grinned. “You look good in my bed, darling.”
Her eyes met his as she slid a fingertip from his shoulder to his hand. “You have such a big one.”
His grin widened. “Thanks.”
Rolling her eyes, she slid her fingertip to his chest and pushed. “Bed.”
“Oh.” He feigned a hurt look.
“Very masculine.”
His heart lurched when her fingertip slid down his chest to his rib cage. “I’m glad you like it.”
It wasn’t so much what she was doing to him as it was what she wasn’t doing. With her finger tracing the outline of his bottom rib, she seemed quite content to touch him, but stay within the parameters of “safe” territory.
Not that her touching him anywhere was exactly what he’d call safe, Reid thought.
When she ever so slightly inched her way downward, he sucked in a breath and covered her hand with his. “Tina, look at me.”
She lifted her gaze to his, and he realized she didn’t have to touch him at all to turn him on. All she had to do was look at him with those languid bedroom eyes.
“I’m not going to pretend I’m interested in Rachel anymore.”
Her hand stilled, then she rolled to her back. “I know,” she said, closing her eyes. “I don’t want you to.”
Leaning over her, he brushed his mouth against hers. “We can talk to your parents tomorrow and—”
“No!” Her eyes snapped open. “I’ll need to talk to Rachel first, to prepare her. Then I’ll talk to my parents.”
“I understand that family dynamics can be complicated. Lord knows mine gives new meaning to the word. But you’re twenty-four years old.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand my father. When it comes to Sophia and Rachel and me, he’s more than unreasonable—he’s irrational and inflexible.”
“What could he object to?” Reid asked, then cocked his head and grimaced. “Well, other than the fact I’ve seduced his youngest daughter and taken her virginity. So how big are the knives in his kitchen, anyway?”
“Just be glad he’s a baker, not a butcher.” Smiling, she pressed a kiss to his jaw, then dropped her gaze. “Reid, I want you to know that just because you…because we, ah, slept together, I’m not expecting, I mean, I’m not asking for any kind of—” She blew out a breath. “You know.”
“Commitment?” The word felt odd on his tongue. He had to roll it around in his mouth, found the taste wasn’t as bitter as he’d thought it would be.
If anything, he suddenly realized with startling clarity, the taste was just right.
Yet here Tina was, Reid thought irritably, intently trying to explain to him that she wasn’t expecting, or asking, for a relationship. He frowned at her. “Are you dumping me, Tina?”
“No, of course not.” Her gaze snapped back up. “I just think you, we, should be open and honest with each other.”
“Haven’t we been?”
“I just don’t want any misunderstanding between us.”
“Looks to me like there already is, sweetheart.” She gasped when he took her by the shoulders and rolled to his back, bringing her on top of him. “Look, I don’t know exactly what’s going on here between us, but I do know I want to be with you, openly and publicly.”
“I’d like to be with you, too,” she said softly, then pressed her smile to his mouth. “But your family, your father’s campaign—”
“My father’s campaign has nothing to do with you and me, Tina. Who I see personally and what I do in my private life is my business.”
“And every newspaper and magazine reporter’s in Savannah,” she added.
“That’s always a possibility,” he said with a nod. “I’m a Danforth. I can’t stop being who I am.”
Her eyes softened as she touched his cheek. “I wouldn’t want you to, Reid.”
Her hand on his cheek, such a simple, gentle gesture, made his chest hitch. He couldn’t remember any woman who’d ever made him feel this way. No woman who had ever mattered so much.
He took her lovely, delicate face in his hands and brought her mouth to his, wondered if he would ever get enough of the sweet taste of her.
He certainly intended to try.
Tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue, he slid inside the honeyed softness. Her tongue met his, mating, stroking, slowly growing more urgent. He felt more than heard the moan from deep in her throat, and the slight forward thrust of her hips heated his blood.
Wanting, needing more, he deepened the kiss, slanted his mouth against hers over and over. He ran his hands down her back, cupped the round softness of her firm bottom, arched his hips up to press intimately into the V of her legs.
They were both bre
athing heavily when she rose upward, then slowly came back down onto the hard length of him, inch by torturous inch. He pressed himself deeply inside her, his hands tightly gripping her hips.
And then she began to move. Slowly at first, drawing out the intense pleasure until it became unbearable. With every thrust of her hips, the rhythm built, spiraled. The fever swept through them like a storm, wild and fierce. Powerful.
Eyes closed, hair tumbling around her shoulders, she tossed her head back on a sharp cry as her climax shuddered through her. He crushed his hips to hers, driving himself into her again and again, until his body convulsed with the same release.
She collapsed on him, gasping for breath, murmuring something incoherent. Struggling to breathe, himself, he wrapped his arms around her, brushed his mouth over her temple and kissed her cheek.
While their hearts and breathing slowed and their minds cleared, he held her close, smiled when she sighed and snuggled against his chest. “No more sneaking around,” he reminded her.
“Tomorrow,” she murmured on a nod. “I’ll talk to my parents tomorrow.”
Nine
Tina came into the bakery through the back entrance, winced at the bright tinkling of the bell that signaled the opening of the door. On a daily basis, she never even noticed the sound. But today, considering the fact she was an hour late, that little brass bell seemed to blare with the fervor of a bastille trumpeter.
Once, Tina remembered, when Sophia was sixteen, she’d managed to wrench the clangor out of the bell so she could meet a boyfriend in the back garden. But their father had caught on quickly enough. The boyfriend had been banished, Sophia grounded, and the bell replaced with a stronger, louder, daughter-proof model. While Mariska held charge at the front door, from the kitchen, Ivan kept track of the comings and goings through the back door. No one sneaked in, no one sneaked out. As teenagers, it had driven the Alexander girls crazy, but as adults, Tina had never given it much thought.
Until today.
Today, she thought with a smile, she’d overslept in the arms of the man she loved.
A shiver ran through her that had nothing to do with the cool air coming in through the still-open back door. When she’d wakened this morning in Reid’s penthouse, with his broad chest pressed against her back and his muscled arm draped possessively around her waist, she’d had to pinch herself. Enjoy the moment, she’d told herself. Don’t think about the future. Don’t let yourself hope, or wish, for too much. Be happy with what you have now.
The Cinderella Scandal (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 1) Page 11
