“You are amazing,” he said, exposing himself to the honesty of the situation. Because it was true. Tonight, she’d worked so hard, showed how good she was at running a business. The way she handled the patrons and her staff, keeping things running smoothly, keeping track of several things at once, never letting it get on top of her. What a woman.
“Wait till I get started,” she said, moving to his other foot and doing all those wonderful things all over again.
Arrow swift lust shot blood to his groin. He lay horizontal on the bed, his erection making a tent in the fabric.
“Take your pants off,” she said.
No sooner had she said the words than his hands were at his belt, tearing the clothes away to set himself free.
Pulsing lust filled his system, pounding his ears, thumping against his chest. Down low, he felt the heat building.
Firecrackers went off behind his eyes when her lips closed around him, her tongue tracing lazy circles over his wet tip. He clenched his hands into fists. If she kept this up, he wouldn’t last another second.
Would she want that? Could he let himself lose control?
Before he lost his mind, he had to make a decision.
Cool air blew against his hot, wet skin. She’d made the decision for him as she pulled back from the bed and removed her clothes from the waist down.
“God, you’re beautiful.”
“Shh,” she said, climbing on the bed to straddle him. Her body felt hot and wet as she took him in and he had to slam his teeth together to stay sane.
She still had her shirt and jacket on, and under that, a bra. There was something incredibly appealing about taking someone’s clothes of while already making love that made him harder than he thought possible.
Doing things in reverse summed up their relationship. Sex first, then clothes off. Marriage first, then love.
Love?
No. No way. As soon as the blood came back to his brain he’d work out exactly what these strange feelings were. Right now, he had a woman to pleasure, and that woman was his wife. It that took every scrap of concentration he had to make sure he lasted the distance.
Never in her life had she felt so wanton. Half dressed, Cassidy rode Anton, grinding herself into him. Meeting him, thrust for urgent thrust as they pushed each other towards the edge, her body becoming slick with sweat.
His hands reached up for her jacket, slipping the buttons away. Then the shirt. Hands fumbled, so she ripped them free. Something pinged against the wall – probably a button. She didn’t care about the damaged shirt as she rode him, her breasts straining against the confines of her bra.
Straining no more, spilling out as Anton set them free of the cups, worshipping them with his hands.
Feverishly she set to work on him, pulling his layers of clothing away until his strong chest lay naked before her. She splayed her palms out over his skin, loving the contact with the light dusting of curls. When she leaned forward, he took her breasts in his mouth, first one and then the other.
“Oh God,” she cried as the pleasure took hold. Built. Threatened to engulf her.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Anton, I can’t…hold on…”
“I love when you let go, Cassie my love.”
Shuddering spasms took hold, bursting through her system, pounding in her chest. The pleasure felt so good she could hardly breathe as the orgasm took hold. She clamped and cramped around him, bore down and took him in, all of him.
“Anton!”
Everything turned to jelly inside her and she fell against him, trying to keep rocking, to keep the wonderful feeling alive, but there was nothing left of the intensity, only series of lovely, rippling aftershocks.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she slumped into his body. She felt stupid and foolish. She’d come far too hard and fast. “You didn’t get there.”
“I love watching you shatter first.” He rolled them over, so she was on her back and he kissed her swollen lips. They were still joined, her body shuddering with little tremors. The shadows of the earthquake that took her. The sweat on her body made it harder to hang on, so she wrapped her legs around him and locked her ankles behind his back.
He thrust again and she felt the full, hot length of him inside her. Every nerve tingled at the exquisite, pleasurable pain. Then he came, fast and hard, his body climaxing powerfully into hers. His pleasure etched on his face as he kissed her again, tenderly, gently.
Reality slammed her heart. He felt so good inside her she never wanted to let him go. She was a fool – lying to herself – if she thought she could ever deny him this pleasure. Because she couldn’t deny it for herself. She needed his touch, craved his affection.
Yet it was more than physical. Beyond anything she’d felt for anyone. Such confusing emotions she struggled for a while to put a name to them. If she told him how much she needed his touch, how much she craved their intimacy, would it mean he’d won? Were they even in competition with each other in the first place?
Thoughts continued to swirl in her head as she tried to make sense of them, but the truth eventually became clear.
So help her, she’d gone and fallen in love with him.
It wasn’t lust, because if that were the case, she’d be able to have sex with him and walk away with no regrets. What they’d done was not sex. They’d made love.
Did he have any idea how much she wanted to tell him the truth? How much she desperately needed to be able to trust him with the truth?
As sleep claimed him, she knew telling him those three words would take an enormous leap of faith. Yet a little voice in her head told her she was ready to jump.
“I think I love you,” she whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear. It simply felt good to be able to say the words. Perhaps one day she’d have the courage to say them out loud, when he was awake.
“I’m sorry,” Anton murmured back.
He was awake! Oh hell! He wasn’t supposed to hear that confession. Damn the man for not falling into a deep sleep straight after sex!
When a few moments passed without her saying anything more, he cleared his throat, “I know you’re awake. I guess you thought I wasn’t.”
“Ah, yeah.” Thank goodness it was dark.
He cupped her face with his palm and drew her eyes level with his. “I don’t love you, Cassie. I won’t lie to you about that. But you have my respect – more respect that I’ve ever had for anyone.”
He’d called her ‘Cassie’, and it didn’t rankle. The pet name was starting to grow on her. A sensible woman would leave well enough alone, but Cassidy felt more confessions blurting out, before her brain had time to stop them, “Even your wife? I mean, ex-wife?”
He signed deeply. “Sad as it sounds, yes. I guess our marriage was doomed from the start, but I never saw it that way. Not at the time. With hindsight, the warning signs were all there.”
Didn’t that just take the cake? How many times had Cassidy ignored her own warning signs that neon-flashed every time she closed her eyes? “Aren’t we a pair then? Maybe we’re both so messed up, we deserve each other.”
“As we both seem to be confessing things. I have more bad news, and this is completely the wrong place to say this…”
“Out with it then. That’s a huge set up, it better be something good.”
One eyebrow shot up in surprise, “Please don’t shoot the messenger, but … I think your father has a mistress or three.”
A fountain of curses formed on Cassidy’s lips, yet she found the strength to rein them in. “So, the rumours are true then?”
A few beats passed as various stages of confusion played across Anton’s face in the darkness. “You already suspected?”
She stared at the ceiling, her eyes growing used to the darkness. “He’s such a hypocrite, pushing this line about our family-friendly company and all the while he’s cheating behind Mum’s back.”
There was a silence for a while, until Anton cut back in, “Does your mother kno
w?”
“She’s not stupid. But she turns a blind eye to it.”
Anton rolled toward Cassidy and wrapped his arms tenderly around her, “You once asked me why I would place an ad for a mistress. Truth is, I never cheated on my wife, but she was cheating on me.”
Only moments earlier he’d said he didn’t love her, yet he was confessing his secrets, trusting her with them. Surely that counted for something? As much as she wanted to talk, she thought it best to stay quiet and encourage Anton to continue.
He sighed and held her closer. “We were headed for divorce court. I wanted to catch her out, wanted a bit of payback. So, I placed the ad, with all the right words that would appeal to her, knowing she’d answer it.”
Now it was Cassidy’s turn to confess. “Except she didn’t. I turned up instead. And I put on quite the show for the hidden cameras.”
“Yep.”
“I was a very angry person back then.”
“Yep.”
“Stop agreeing with me.”
Anton chuckled. “OK then.”
Heavy guilt roiled inside her, but the thought of releasing the burden became too appealing. With a deep sigh, she started at the beginning. “The last time I told secrets – to Toby of all people – they ended up splashed across the newspapers and Cloud Eleven become embroiled in that insider trading scandal.”
“I remember that,” Anton said with a grimace.
“Toby told me a journalist had gotten him drunk and secretly recorded their conversation. At the time, I believed him. I forgave him because we had to work together and we were building up the bistro. But … after everything he’s done, I’m now thinking it was deliberate. They probably paid him for the story. It took years for Dad to claw back his reputation, and the best lawyers money could buy to keep him out of prison.”
“I know about those lawyers too,” Anton said, “They represented my ex-wife.”
“Oh dear,” heavy guilt took hold in Cassidy’s gut. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry about what happened to you. I did set you up. I was angry at the world and lashing out. And if I think about how old I was, it was probably around the time I found out my father kept mistresses.”
Anton kissed her so gently she almost wept. “I promise you, I will never have a fling or any affairs or any of that mistress stuff. It sounds so outdated even saying that.”
He had told her the truth, including the sobering reality that he didn’t love her. Respect was good, but it was a poor second best. Something clamped behind her heart as she took in his beautiful face. Heaven help her, she’d become her mother. Gone and fallen in love with a man who could not love her back. All those years of misdirected anger, that her mother should have seen sense and stood up for herself; it all started to dissolve.
For the first time in her life, she understood what it was like, what her mother had really gone through all those years ago. Yes, her mother was a fool, but she’d fallen in love. And love made fools of the most sensible people. It was far from sensible, but now Cassidy knew why her mother had stayed with her father all those years. Because of Love; Love made no sense at all.
Anton snuggled Cassidy into his chest, “I was an idiot too. I think sometimes you have to do some really stupid things before you get wise in this world. I forgive you, as long as you forgive me in return.” The breath of a heavy sigh brushed Cassidy’s cheek. “I placed that ad because I wanted to entrap my ex-wife. I wrote it specifically to appeal to her. Sent it to the apps I knew she had. Listened to the voice messages and thought I’d picked her out, obviously thinking she was trying to disguise her voice. I made the arrangements to meet in her favourite restaurant. It would have given me the proof I needed that she was cheating on me. Except you turned up.”
“Sorry about that.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “New rule. We draw a line under this. Neither of us speaks of it again.”
“Deal.” Her heart soared and her pulse quickened in her veins. “No more secrets between us. No more regrets about the past. From now on, we only look to the future.”
His hands roamed her lush body, feeling every curve and smooth plane of her, taking his time to explore every part of her. In return, she dotted his body with languid kisses. This time was different, something had shifted. This was the frantic coupling that had marked their relationship until now, it was something more luxurious and slow, something wonderful to enjoy.
As he kissed trails across her collarbone, he tried to sort his thoughts out. When he’d proposed the terms of their marriage, she’d agreed to them. She’d come to him willingly. He hadn’t spun lies and promised her things he wouldn’t – couldn’t – deliver.
But something nagged within him. He’d set out to seduce her, then rip her world apart. These incredible weeks in her company had made the reality – and impossibility – of that plan crystal clear. No way he could go through with it.
Because he had too much to lose now, as he felt her shift invitingly beneath him, as she opened herself to him yet again. It wasn’t love, it couldn’t be. But being with Cassidy, knowing she’d be the first person he’d see in the morning, and the last to see at night, was the loveliest feeling he’d ever had.
Only an idiot would throw all that away for some crazy revenge. And he was done with being an idiot. So long as she never found out his original reasons for their marriage, they had a real chance together.
‘You are beautiful,’ he said, his body seeking hers as he plunged home.
Where he belonged.
9
GARDENING HAD NEVER held much appeal to Anton. His parents, courtesy of their lack of money and European heritage, had grown mountains of vegetables and fruit in their garden.
But he’d never felt the urge to dig in the dirt. Perhaps because it seemed to take so much of his parents’ time – there were so many other, more important things to do. More likely, his aversion to gardening was because he knew he didn’t need to grow his own food. He could buy anything he wanted. His parents were comfortable now, he’d seen to that, yet they persisted in digging in the dirt.
Perhaps poverty was a hard habit to break?
Even in their middle age, his parents were still up early every morning, out there weeding, planting and digging. Mornings were too valuable for Anton to waste with soil. He needed to read the overnight stock market reports from Europe and the US, and check up on the latest public offers.
All that had been BC, Before Cassidy. Today, as the mercury climbed towards the high teens for one last burst of autumn heat, he stood in the yard with his wife and couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. Thankfully, they weren’t alone. Cassidy had organised a small army of gardeners and designers to arrive on this particular Sunday.
“We’ll put a whole bed of white flowers over there. Some standard roses with carpet roses underneath, and then behind that, we’ll do a copse of silver birches.”
“I barely understood a word of that”’ Anton confessed.
“I’m learning the language of flowers,” Cassidy said.
A chuckle escaped his lips and he drew her in close for a hug, kissing the top of her head.
“If we behave ourselves, they might even let us plant some trees later.’
The thought of planting trees with Cassidy – the definitive image of putting down roots – filled him with warmth. She’d filled his home; every room carried her personal touch of welcoming comfort. That same warmth extended to the garden, where before was nothing but clay and weeds. Soon it would be a green oasis, and it was all down to her. How many years had he been here and not worried about most of the rooms inside the house, let alone the exterior?
Originally he’d bought the building purely as an investment, but now it was a home, filled with things that reminded him of Cassidy.
A new thought bubbled through his reverie; she filled his life.
Which only made the burden he carried so much heavier. A warm glow had come over her features ever since she’d confessed h
er secrets, freeing herself of their burden. Releasing his secrets would not be as simple. Because his were still in play. Hers were easy to forgive because they were all in the past. His plans for revenge nipped at his conscience every morning when he woke up and saw her luscious smile, tucked back her tousled hair, kissed her with everything he had.
Holding Cassidy in his arms was the only thing that made sense to him now, and he’d do anything he could to keep her there. Everything she’d done in the past had been an emotional response to family troubles. Events that were beyond her control.
Just like his problems, he realised with a jolt to his system. They were beyond his control, he’d been powerless to stop his ex-wife, so he’d decided to take his anger out on Cassidy and her family. Another kernel of truth sprouted in his mind: they couldn’t move forward until he told her everything.
Yet if he told her the truth, she’d pack up and leave. He was sure of it.
As he stood beside her in the sunshine, watching the small army of overall’d workers slotting in drip lines and marking the ground with hi-viz aerosol spray, clarity shone through. Day by day, she’d ground his plans into dust, just by being herself. He’d been stupid and stubborn not to realise how flawed his original plans were.
But he could learn from his stupidity and make things right.
There was no way he could go through with his original plans. Not anymore. Not now he knew he and Cassidy had a real chance of a future together.
Sure, Craig Young deserved no pity; Anton would still take over the company any which way he could. But now he’d do it to build a future for Cassidy, to secure her inheritance, not to destroy it.
She made his blood simmer and his groin hard every time she kissed him. Lately, all it seemed to take was a sexy look and he was putty in her hands. So help him, he needed Cassidy in his life. Now and forever.
A buzzing sound broke the spell. Cassidy reached into her pocket and looked at her mobile phone. Her face fell. “Our mate Toby is back in town.”
Be Mine: Valentine Novellas to Warm The Heart Page 78