“Things like what?” she asked in a near whisper.
He grabbed her hand and gently placed it on his erection. “Things like this.”
She sucked in a breath but did not move her hand.
“You are beautiful, Hope. Both inside and out. And the more I get to know you, the more of you I want to know.”
Rusty was speaking through clenched teeth because all the while he’d been speaking, she was running her hand gently over him and it was playing havoc with his mind. He curled his hands into fists in a bid to remain still. He did not want to do anything that would spook her. But he could not stop himself from growing harder.
Suddenly, she caught herself and pulled her hand away from his manhood. He wanted to snatch her hand and place it back but held himself and waited. After a moment, she lifted her gaze to his and he saw that her pupils were slightly dilated. He could see the rapid rise and fall of her chest and knew for sure that the attraction was definitely mutual. Her tongue came out to moisten her lips and he held back a groan. She was killing him without even trying.
“Well…” she paused to clear her throat, “the thing is, I do like you a lot, Rusty. And you are right when you say that this thing between us is not just one-sided. But it can’t go any further than this.”
The hope that was springing up inside Rusty as she began to speak died a quick death.
“Why not?”
“We work together and I never get involved with people I work with,” she stated in a matter-of-fact way.
“This is different,” he heard himself protesting.
“Yeah, it is. We live together, which would make it even more awkward when things end.”
Rusty could not believe what he was hearing. They had not even begun anything and she was already talking about when things ended. He looked into her eyes and saw that she was not trying to be dismissive. She looked earnest, and he could tell she really believed what she was saying.
He reached out and ran two fingers down the side of her face. “It doesn’t have to be that way, Hope.”
Her lashes fluttered down and she let out a soft sigh. “Can I take some time to think about it?” She lifted her lashes. “I can’t believe I’m saying this and believe me, I’m not trying to be coy. I just need to process things in my mind.”
Rusty nodded. “I understand.” And he did. He respected the fact that she was giving things thought, it meant that this was important to her. However, he needed to give her something to help her thought process along. “There’s just one more thing I need to do,” he said.
She tipped her head back. “What?”
“This.” He leaned forward, closing the gap between them and kissed her.
She gasped in shock and went still. He tasted her lips, loving how soft and supple they were. She sighed softly and her body went soft. Her lashes came down and she kissed him back. Rusty groaned deep in his throat as liquid fire went through his bones. Hope sighed softly, and he slipped his tongue in, deepening the kiss.
She lifted her hands to his chest and caught hold of the lapels of his jacket, pressing her lush breasts against his chest as she kissed him back with equal passion. He ran a hand through her hair and tugged on a lock. She growled deep in her throat, sending his libido into overdrive.
Kissing Hope was everything he had imagined it to be, and so much more. He felt like he could not get enough of her and wanted to go on kissing her forever. She was sweet and hot and so damn sexy.
Eventually, they needed to come up for air. They broke apart, each breathing heavily, and they gazed at each other in a lust-hazed daze. Without thinking about it, Rusty leaned forward again and nibbled on her lips. He really did not want to stop. He felt her tremble as her lips clung to his. Finally, she drew back and leaned her forehead against his as they both tried to catch their breath.
Rusty knew in his heart that there would be no going back. Now that he’d tasted her, he had become addicted. He wanted more. The need was like a voracious monster inside him and it was not going to be appeased till he had more of Hope.
**
On the other side of town, in a dingy apartment, the woman paced the length of the tiny studio apartment. Admittedly, there was not a lot of space to pace, but she was too restless to sit still. She had finally made contact with the target and it had not at all been what she’d expected.
She folded her hands into fists as she continued to pace. She was so close. So close, she could feel it. She could almost taste it. She had worked so hard, for so hard and for so many years, and she was not going to let anything derail her. Nothing was going to stop her from achieving her goal.
Still, there was a niggling doubt in her mind. Could she have been wrong?
This was ridiculous.
She needed to catalogue what she knew for sure. She walked to the sofa bed and sank down on it. She pulled out her notebook and opened a blank page. Reaching inside her purse, she pulled out a pen and began to write.
What I know For Sure…
Hope Conran is the co-founder of dating site, DesireU.Net
Hope’s co-founder is Jared Black
Hope and Jared were fostered by Marinette and Bob Shipman 15 years ago
Hope is the reason why my life was ruined
Hope Conran is a bitch???
“Arghhh!” She tore up the page and squeezed it.
The fact that she was no longer sure about the fifth point was what was driving her crazy. She had spent the better part of her life believing that Hope Conran was a selfish, spoiled bitch who lied and destroyed the lives of others without a single thought, just to get ahead. She had not only believed it, but it had been a driving force.
But the woman she’d met in the grocery store did not fit into the picture she’d painted over the years. That woman had kind eyes and had been willing to help her out. That was not the person she’d been expecting to see.
She hated this self-doubt. She was too close to executing her final plan to begin to question herself. She reached for her cellphone. Her fingers hovered over the screen for a moment then with a deep sigh of resignation, she placed the call.
“Hello, Mom.”
“Hi, darling. You haven’t forgotten your poor mother now, have you?”
She cringed at the whining voice. “Why would you say that, Mom?”
“I haven’t heard from you in two whole days,” came the tart reply.
“But I’m calling you now, aren’t I?” She rolled her eyes.
“Are you rolling your eyes at me?”
She froze. How on earth did her mother do that? It freaked her out each time. “Mom, I met her.”
“Who?”
“Hope Conran.”
There was silence.
“Mom, did you hear what I said? I met Hope Conran.”
“I heard you, darling, I just needed to sit down. That name fills me with so much pain…” There was a sob. Then the voice turned cold. “I want you to completely obliterate her from the face of the earth.”
Her blood ran cold at the words. “What are you saying, Mom?”
“I want her completely destroyed, the same way she destroyed your life.”
For the first time, she did not feel fired up by her mother’s words. “She seemed…nice.”
“Whaaat!”
She held the phone away from her ears as her mother screeched.
“What did you just say?”
She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, “I’m just saying, what if we don’t know the full story? What if we’ve got it wrong all this while?”
“You stupid, ungrateful child! After all I’ve done for you, this is what you say to me? Your poor father was killed…murdered by that manipulating, spawn of the devil, depriving you of the life you should have had and this is what you say to me?”
Then the inevitable sobbing began.
“Mom? Mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said…I don’t even know why I said it.”
“I never thought I
’d see this day, when my own child would betray me like this.”
“But Mom…”
“You are sticking to the plan.”
“Yes, Mom, I am sticking to the plan.”
“And what’s the plan?”
“Destroy Hope Conran.”
“Good. That’s very good. You always were a good girl. I’ve got to go now, baby. Call me soon.”
She stared at the phone. Her mom was already gone. Her heart clutched at the loneliness that wrapped over her. For so many years, she’d had just one ambition: destroy Hope Conran. It had driven her and given her purpose. Now, she wasn’t so sure anymore.
She just wanted to get done with destroying Hope Conran and hopefully, she would be able to move on to other things, maybe have a life of her own.
Getting up from her bed, she walked towards the computer at the side of the room and turned it on. For now, she needed to stick with the plan and make sure she completely devastated the life of the one woman who had haunted her for most of her life. And who knew, maybe she could finally have some sort of relationship with her mother, even if she was all the way in Hawaii.
**
Far away in Hawaii, Marinette Shipman stared through narrow eyes out of her window, but she was not seeing the beautiful landscape or the blue-green ocean. She was seeing her plans for revenge getting shipwrecked and she could not have that. She had planned too carefully and worked too hard. She was not going to let anyone, not even her sappy little weakling of a daughter, wreck her plans.
She placed a call to her travel agent.
“Get me a flight to New York…As soon as possible.”
It was time to take matters in hand. She was going to personally make sure that nothing went wrong, not when they were finally so close.
Chapter Fifteen
The next day, Hope got up and got ready. It was Sunday, but not just any Sunday. This was the one day in the month she got to spend time with her mother. She fought a feeling of lethargy as she slipped on a pair of leggings beneath the denim dress that only came to mid-thigh. She clinched it in with a wide belt. This was not a day she looked forward to. Well, not really. She loved that she could get to see her mother, but their relationship was complicated.
She walked to her window and stood there, gazing outside. There was so much going on in her head and strangely, it had very little to do with the visit to her mother, rather the man downstairs was the one occupying her thoughts. She had not been able to get the kiss out of her mind.
She shut her eyes and trailed her tongue over her lips, reliving the kiss. Talk about sizzling. She sighed at the memory. It excited and bothered her at the same time. She had never been turned on so quickly before, and certainly not from a kiss. It usually took her a while to get warmed up, mostly because there was always so much going on in her head. Last night, though, she’d become so hot in an instant.
Opening her eyes, she gazed into the distance. What was it about Rusty that pulled her in so quickly? He wasn’t the first hot male she’d met. Could it be the way his eyes turned into deep pools of molten lava when he’d told her in no uncertain terms that he wanted her? She shivered slightly at the memory then absently glanced at her watch.
“Shit.” If she didn’t leave now, she was not going to get enough time with her mother.
Shaking her head to dispel the thoughts of Rusty, she grabbed her purse and her keys and walked to the door. She pulled it open and stopped in surprise to find the subject of her rumination standing right there.
“Ah, hi,” she said.
Rusty stood there with a warm smile on his face. “Hey,”
“What are you doing here?”
“I wondered what was keeping you. Did you sleep well last night?”
She nodded, even though her dreams had been filled with erotic dreams featuring the man standing right before her.
“I didn’t,” he said, his warm gaze a caress.
Hope pursed her lips and placed a hand on her hips. “I’m afraid to ask why.”
He chuckled. “Well, for starters, just knowing we were beneath the same roof did all kinds of things to my blood pressure.”
“Uh huh…So do we need to stop at the emergency room on our way out?” she asked, struggling not to smile.
Rusty touched his chest, looking wounded. “Oh, you are heartless.” His eyes twinkled with amusement.
Hope just nodded again. “Sure. We need to get going.”
Rusty glanced at his watch and frowned. “Goodness, woman, you’re going to be late! Come on, let’s go…hurry up!”
Hope stared at him with her mouth open, then she just shook her head. The man was a basket case, no doubt, but for the first time ever, she was not dreading the visit to her mother.
She made to walk past him when she came up against his solid frame. Surprised, she stumbled back and his arm came around her waist, steadying her. A flash of heat went through her as her body brushed against his.
“Steady there,” he murmured against her ear.
She tried, but there was nothing she could do about the way she trembled at his touch or the light dusting of goose bumps that came up on her arms. She looked up and caught him looking down at her. The top of her head came to the middle of his chest and with his arm around her, keeping her steady, she felt…petite. That was a word she would never have used to describe herself.
“We’re going to be late.” Was that her voice sounding so husky?
“I thought about you…us, for most of the night.”
Hope tipped her head back. “What conclusion did you come to?”
“That I want more.”
She frowned in confusion. “More?”
“That kiss last night was nowhere near enough. It just made me ache in parts I’d rather not mention right now.”
She felt her face heat up as his words did all sorts of things to her. She was so aware of him and it made her nerve ends tingle. But she still wasn’t sure their getting together was a good idea, and she opened her mouth to tell him, but he placed a finger over her mouth, effectively shutting her up.
“I know…you are not ready.” She saw the wistfulness in his eyes and it made her heart clench. “I would like nothing better than to walk through that door with you and spend the rest of the day in bed, but I know you still need to think about all this. I get it. And I’ll wait.”
Hope felt emotion flood through her. She’d never had anyone wait for her before, so she was really touched by his offer to wait. Still, she could not banish the niggling voice inside her that whispered, for how long? How long before he decided that she was not worth waiting for? She thought about Ryan and what he’d told her about the woman he was waiting for. Even with the frustration he felt, he was still willing to wait. The woman must be something special. Hope Conran was not the sort of woman that a man waited for.
Yet when she gazed deep into Rusty’s eyes, she felt a fluttering of hope. Maybe, just maybe, it would be different this time.
She felt his finger lightly caress her lips before he dropped his hand.
“Thank you,” she said, meaning it.
His eyes darkened and then he smiled. “Sure thing. Now, let’s hit the road.”
He stepped back and she walked past him, down the stairs to the front door. She paused to shrug on her coat before stepping out the door. She headed straight for her car.
“Hey, I thought we were taking my car.”
“You thought wrong, buster,” she said, not even turning back.
She opened the doors and slipped into the driver’s side. Then she turned on the engine and waited for him to come to terms with the fact that they were really taking her car. After several moments, he opened the passenger door and got in with a scowl.
“Seriously? You want me to squeeze into this tiny thing?” He made a huge show of pushing the seat back to make space for his legs.
Hope rolled her eyes in exasperation, “Admit it, it’s not the size of the car that’s your problem,” s
he said putting the car in drive and easing into the street.
“No? What is my problem then?” he asked with a hint of sarcasm.
She gave him a reproachful stare before turning back to the road. “You just hate not being in control.”
“Are you calling me a control freak?”
“Damn straight.”
He was quiet for a while and Hope tried to hide the smile dancing around her lips.
“Ha! I think that’s some damn fine displacement at work,” he finally said.
She lifted an eyebrow and cast a quick glance at him.
“Displacement? What are you talking about, dude?”
“You are the control freak, and the fact that I’ve been the one at the wheel all this while got to you, especially since our relationship is changing, sort of.”
She opened her mouth to deny his words then shut it again. He was so right, and it was aggravating. She did like to be in the driver’s seat of her life. She was not interested in controlling anyone else, but when it came to her personal life, she insisted on being in control. Thus far, it was beginning to look as though Rusty was the one calling the shots. He acknowledged the attraction between them. He wanted their relationship to change. He wanted to be intimate. And he’d decided that he could wait for her. Okay, if she were being honest, she had been the one who had put a brake on things, but that was not the point. The point was…shoot, she didn’t even know what the point was.
“Then you’re probably one of those guys who has a problem with women in the driver’s seat.”
He laughed then. “Baby, you need to be in a car with Tamika. She drives like a NASCAR driver.”
She heard the admiration in his voice and stifled a sigh. She still could not get over the thought that he was slightly in love with Tamika. She’d met the woman…smart, slim, gorgeous, slim, badass, slim…what was not to love about her. And she had a sense of humor. She was the full package; there was no way Hope could compete. Not that she wanted to compete, but if she was going to date a man, it would be nice if he was not already in love with someone else.
“Yeah, well…I’m driving today and that’s that.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Silver Shield Security Box Set Page 87
