Frown lines appeared on his face as he read the screen. “I have to take this,” he said, sounding irritated. Then he left the table completely.
Wanting to give him privacy, she played around on her own phone, but when she got bored of waiting, she headed inside to take a shower. She didn’t know where he was on the boat and thought she’d be safe using the one in the master suite, but as she got closer to the room she realized he’d gone there to have his conversation.
She would never have dreamed of eavesdropping, hated the very notion of it, but she was stopped midway down the hall by the sound of her name.
“I don’t even know someone named Molly, Mother,” Oliver said, his voice normal and as if he wasn’t pretending she didn’t exist. “So I’d say your sources aren’t worth the money you’re paying them.”
A pause.
“Of course I know what I’m doing, and I don’t give a fuck.”
Silence again and then a mumbled “I apologize for the cursing but nothing else. I’m not coming back to the firm and I’m certainly not marrying Lila!”
Molly decided to leave then because he’d deliberately hidden himself to take the call, but then he continued, this time his voice angry and frustrated. “I’m not coming home anytime soon, so you can set me up on all the dates you want, Dad can threaten to promote someone else, it doesn’t matter. He should have already promoted someone else because I might come visit you guys again at some point if you stop this constant hassling and threatening, but I will never step foot inside the firm again. I’ve already liquidated a good chunk of my assets so there’s no going back. I’m out, Mom. Get used to it. You either want me in the family on my terms or you don’t want me in the family. Those are your only options.”
Molly bit her lip, listening to him, wondering what she’d do if her own dad only wanted her around if she did what he wanted. It was just a concept that was so foreign to her she could barely imagine it, let alone have seen that Oliver was living it.
“I don’t care! I’m not fucking doing it!”
Molly jumped as she heard Oliver actually shout and knew she should leave, but her heart was breaking for him. Even if her dad hadn’t shown much emotion, she’d always known that she was loved and cherished, and listening to Oliver and knowing what she knew about his life, she wondered if he’d ever felt that way. Secure in the knowledge that someone loved him just for him. She yearned for that for him—he deserved to be loved wholeheartedly.
And then, just as she knew she should leave, the door to the bedroom flung open and revealed Oliver standing there, his face red with anger.
When he saw her he took a step back, his expression going completely blank. “Molly,” he said, clearing his throat. “I thought you were upstairs.”
“I, uh, was going to have a shower,” she explained, her voice sounding uncertain.
He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I’m sorry you had to hear that,” he said. “But I expect it to only get worse. They’re not too happy I’m not doing their bidding anymore. Recalcitrant sons get no reprieve.”
“I hate that for you,” Molly told him, wanting to reach out to him, but the waves of wrath emanating from him were enough to make her keep her distance. “I guess I knew you’d left the job, but I didn’t realize that it was such a big deal to your family.”
Oliver’s shoulder lifted. “I’m the oldest child and my sister isn’t too keen on working in the firm, either. It’s tough for them to let it pass out of their hands. I’ll still be on the board of directors, but I won’t have a hand in any of the day-to-day operations like my dad currently does. But it’s not like it will be in trouble—there are good people who can run it. My parents just want me under their thumb and they can be difficult when I’m not.”
“I see,” Molly said, wondering exactly what the word difficult meant in this context and if it was why he’d lied to them about knowing her.
“I had to tell them I don’t know you,” he explained, his expression serious as he read her mind. “Or else they’d run background checks on you and your entire family, call your bosses, the works. They don’t like it when people get in their way and if they think you are, it’ll be not great. So please don’t take that personally, Molly.”
She nodded, but couldn’t believe anyone could be so underhanded, especially someone’s own parents. “Is Lila someone you dated?”
Oliver snorted. “Lila is a lovely person and they want me to marry her, but we’re not dating, have never dated and will never date. It’s just part of this delusional plot that my family has that once I get married I’ll settle down and take the reins of the firm despite the fact that I’ve given no indication of ever doing that.”
“So they’ve been wanting you to get married?”
“Yeah, that’s nothing new, though,” Oliver dismissed.
Molly searched his face, so many emotions for him running rampant. She knew Oliver’s life, while certainly charmed, hadn’t been perfect but she hadn’t known exactly what that meant. That he was under that much family pressure. That the people in his life who were meant to protect him were the ones making him miserable. She wanted to smooth his scowl and make promises she might not be able to keep to make him smile.
“What did they want you to do that got you so angry at the end of the conversation?” she asked.
Oliver’s nostrils flared and his fists clenched. “They threatened to vote me out of my board of directors seat, which, it’s difficult to explain, but that would have some bearing on the amount of money I pull from my trusts because of the way my grandfather’s will was structured.”
“So what do you have to do, then?”
“The same as always, get married, do what they want, but it’s not going to happen. I don’t need that money.” He pinned her with his gaze. “They don’t understand what I’ve been doing for the last five years, Molly. I’ve been stockpiling, investing my own money using firms and businesses outside of ours because I always knew it would come to this. My family loves me, but it’s with limits, and the longer I hold out, the faster I’m approaching those limits.”
Molly didn’t care if he didn’t want her affection then—she took his hand and squeezed, raising it up to drop a kiss on his knuckles. “Well, they’re going to miss out on being part of your life.”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re too worried about it.”
“They don’t deserve to know you, then,” she pressed, hoping he knew that she valued him, that she cared for him regardless of what he did or how much money he had. “After all, I like Oliver the person in spite of you being a rich asshole.”
He gave her a small smile then. “Thank you for that.”
“I’m glad you didn’t marry Lila, too.” She met his eyes, giving his hand a squeeze. “I really needed this vacation.”
Shoulders shaking with laughter, he pulled her into him and pressed his forehead against hers. “There was never a chance.”
Scooting him back toward the bedroom, she marveled at how she needed to touch him. It was insane that she couldn’t go an entire day without jumping into bed with him, but he needed that now—they both needed the connection.
She stopped near the bed and slowly pulled off his shorts, pushing them aside with her foot before taking off her own cover-up and bathing suit. She’d been ready to lounge all day in the water, but first there was the quick detour of making Oliver feel better to indulge in. Standing in front of him, totally naked, she smiled. “One time only, I’m completely at your mercy. Anything you want from me, I’ll do.”
A corner of his mouth quirked and it made her feel like a million dollars that after his shitty conversation she could make him feel a little lighter. “Have you been holding back things from me before?” he asked, laying a hand on her waist, his thumb caressing over the soft indentation of her rib.
“No, but—” she shr
ugged “—you have total domain. I’m yours to command, to do with what you will.”
His gaze tracked over her body, scorching her with heat from head to toe. “You sure?”
She nodded.
“You’re not nervous that I’m a little unhinged right now?” he asked, his eyes hooded.
“No, I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”
“No, I’d never hurt you,” he confirmed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m safe, Molly.”
The words kicked up her pulse, the promise in them. This whole journey had been about risk and here was another one she wasn’t going to pass up. She wanted to go wherever Oliver wanted to take her.
“Do you understand what that means?”
“I think so,” she said.
“Good,” he grunted. “At any moment if you feel uncomfortable, I’ll stop.”
Molly felt her eyes widen, but like she’d felt when tied to the railing of the boat, there was an element of anticipation. She’d loved every second of being exposed to him; every hot glance, every slightly shaky touch from him as he teetered on the edge of losing control felt like her having power over someone she’d never had before. In all her relationships, sex had been about sex and feeling good. It had never been about her the way Oliver made it feel, like he was feasting on her, couldn’t let another second go by without having her. It was the passion she’d been missing for so long in her relationships and had ended up channeling into her job instead. But this, what she and Oliver had, the urgency, the tenderness, the willingness to be completely open to each other, was the best.
So when he pointed to the bed and said, “Lie down on your back,” in that growly voice, tingles shot straight to her core.
She did, crossing her legs over each other to naturally hide her wet center, but he shook his head. “Legs apart.”
Slowly, she slid them across the smooth duvet, her eyes locked on him as she did so. Tension still surrounded him and she’d do anything to see that classic Oliver smile on his face, all teeth and to-die-for dimples. She kept wondering what that smile had cost him over the years, what it cost him now to know that his parents only valued him for what he did for them. She wanted to show him that she valued him, trusted him. Scared, indeed, that she’d do anything for him.
“Good girl,” he said, and then gave no reaction when her lips thinned.
He strode across the room to one of the large armoires and pulled out a nondescript black duffel. Dropping it next to her on the bed, his hot gaze raked up her entire body as he unzipped it.
“You look like a fucking goddess,” he said, his hand stilled inside the bag. “And, yeah, I like you spread-eagled on my bed right now, but there’s never a moment I don’t look at you and think about how I’d go to my knees to worship you.”
The words stopped her breath for a moment because she felt the same way about him. For so many years he’d been a mystical memory of a perfect boyfriend who didn’t actually exist or whom she’d let get away. But now he was here in the flesh and even better than she’d remembered.
“But now, Molly,” he said, pulling out a length of silken rope, “I just want to fuck. Are you okay with that?”
She nodded, but then he said, “Uh-uh, I need the words.”
“Yes,” she whispered, already reaching for him.
But he used the opportunity to snag both her wrists in his and pull them up over her head to tie onto a secret hook in the headboard she’d never noticed before.
Her eyes flew to his. “I had it custom-made so the hooks were hidden under the leather. You know, a classy kink.”
She took a deep breath because for the first time since she got on the boat she was realizing that maybe she didn’t actually know much about Oliver.
“I’m not scared,” she told him.
He seemed unconcerned with this statement. “Good, Molly, but you might think differently when we’re finished because these ropes will come off, but you should get used to the idea that I’m not letting you go.” Those words sent a streak of adrenaline up her spine as he tied one of her ankles to another secret hook in the floorboard of the bed. Holy hell, what had she gotten herself into?
“Eventually you’ll have to marry a Lila,” Molly pointed out.
Oliver breathed through his nose, meeting her squarely in the eyes. “If you haven’t figured out by now that I do exactly what I want when I want, Molly, then you haven’t been paying fucking attention.”
Then he left the room completely. What the hell? She tried to sit up, but of course, she was tied down.
“Oliver!” she shouted.
But there was no answer from the empty floor of the yacht. She knew this was all a part of the game and she was getting wetter the longer he made her wait, but at the same time, she’d never played this kind of game before and didn’t know what to expect. But she trusted Oliver, knew that he’d deliver, that he could take her over the edge in a way she’d never experienced before so she took a couple deep breaths and once she’d finally settled, he reappeared in the room carrying a small tray with several different bottles on it.
“Did you need something?” he asked.
She glared at him and he grinned, running a reassuring hand down her arm, his eyebrow raising when she shivered. “You like this, don’t you?”
She shrugged, which was not easy to do in her current position.
He ran a single finger down the underside of her arm and she jerked. “It’s okay to admit you like it, Molly. I like it when you’re in control, too, so it works both ways.” The same single finger he’d used on her arm ran over her beaded nipple and she shivered. “There’s never any shame in pleasure.”
He leaned down and kissed the peaked point of her nipple, a single soft brush, and she thought she might die from the unfulfilling contact. She wanted so much more from him.
“Do you like it when I touch you?” he asked, his eyes following the trail of his finger over the curve of her breast, into the valley in between, and up the hill of the other breast.
“Yes,” she whispered, her gaze also riveted to his finger and the sensations he was creating with that lone pad of flesh touching hers. A single millimeter of contact on her skin and it echoed over the rest of her body.
He removed his finger and met her eyes. “Do you like it when I don’t touch you?”
Was this a trick question? Because it was admittedly getting difficult for her to think in her current state but she was pretty sure the answer was obvious.
“No,” she said, her head motioning for him to touch her again.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked, pausing in whatever he was doing in that duffel bag again. She raised an eyebrow as he pulled out a sealed plastic package along with a pair of scissors to open it.
Her eyes were riveted to what was soon revealed to be a slender vibrator with two small prongs. “Yeah, I’m sure,” she told him. “I like it when you touch me.”
“That wasn’t the question, though,” he said. “The question was if you liked it when I didn’t touch you.” At her raised brow, he nodded. “I know, I know, it’s confusing, but all day long when I’m not touching you and you’re not touching me, I’m imagining what it would be like if you touched me.”
He pulled the vibrator out of the package and left her again to go to the bathroom and her head fell back against the bed with a deep sigh. This might have been a mistake.
“So what I’m saying,” he continued when he emerged from the bathroom, “is that when I finally get to actually touch you, the act of not touching you has made it all the better when I finally get to.”
“Okay, fine,” she said, beyond frustrated with the slow pace he was taking right now when she’d just had the promise of being thoroughly fucked thrown her way. “I like it when you don’t touch me.”
A corner of his wide mouth quirked. “You don’t sound convince
d.” He vaulted up onto the bed and she gasped as she stared up at him towering over her. “It goes without saying that I would rather touch you than not touch you, but every moment I’m not, I’m thinking about it, wondering how you’ll feel in a certain spot, how much touching will make you twitch, how your eyes will look. All of those thoughts get me through any given day and I wouldn’t want to ever be without them. Perhaps what you’re saying is that you never imagine me touching you? That’s too bad because I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve imagined you when I got off.”
“Of course I thought about you,” she admitted, waiting even now for him to actually touch her. He looked like some kind of pornographic superhero standing on the bed, legs on either side of her waist, with a yellow vibrator dangling in his hand.
“Good,” he said. “And did you use one of these while you did it?”
“Did what?” she asked to be contrary.
“While you fucked yourself and pretended it was me inside you?”
Her inner muscles clutched as a new wave of lust hit her. When he knelt down so he was straddling her, further limiting her movement, she sucked in a deep breath.
“So Molly Madix likes dirty talk,” he mused, adjusting the vibe in his hand. “Too bad I didn’t know that before. We could have had a lot of fun over the years.” He held up the yellow plastic so she could see it better. “You’ve used one of these before?”
She raised a sarcastic eyebrow.
He ignored her attitude. “And how many times did you imagine it was me?”
When she refused to answer he flipped a switch on the device and laid it against her nipple. Once again, the contact was not enough and she wanted to scream in frustration. “A lot,” she finally said, hoping he’d relent and give her what she wanted.
But of course, he had his own oblique and infuriating plans and instead transferred the device to the other nipple, notching up the speed as he did so.
“What did you imagine?” he asked.
Bring the Heat Page 12
