Justin let out a heavy sigh, his hand tightening on her waist as he looked into her eyes. “Well, you met your in-laws.”
It wasn’t funny but it let loose the tension in her shoulders, stress from the last few moments expelled in a laugh that sounded off to her ears. Holy hell, why was a short-term marriage suddenly so complicated? It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. It was complicated because she cared for Justin and so it mattered that his parents thought she was trash.
And if she was honest, they were just the latest in the long line of parents who didn’t think she was good enough for their kids, their lives. Some things never changed.
She couldn’t stop how she felt. But she could stop her feelings for Justin from growing any bigger.
Sarina moved to go inside. She’d take a shower, grab something to eat and hide in her room watching Netflix. She needed time to process, to construct stronger barriers around her feelings when it came to Justin Ling. She needed to remember that they did have a shelf life, that there was a pending divorce looming between them.
“Sarina, come with me. I want to show you something.”
It was his voice. Soft, intimate, a tone and cadence she knew was one he only used with her. All he had to do was say her name and all her reservations vanished. She’d waited her whole life to have someone look at her the way he did, speak to her the way he did.
Even if it was just for now, she couldn’t walk away from it.
Justin took her hand and scooped up two beers, saying a quick goodbye to Nana Orla. He led her across the lawn toward the grove of trees filling the space between the house and rising hills. It was quiet and serene here, a million miles away from the bustle of the Silicon Valley just beyond the perimeter of the property. Here, it was just the two of them; no parents, no long-lost brothers, no lawyers or investors.
They entered the copse of trees, the waning sunlight now just dapples of light on the ground all around them. It was like nature’s version of those fairy lights people draped all over the place at the holidays. The temperature dropped in the shade of the trees, causing goosebumps to erupt on her skin. Or it could have just been anticipation that had her alert and aware of every breath and brush of skin as they walked side by side.
It took her a moment to adjust to the shadows and then she saw it. A small house, nestled in the crook of the limbs of a huge old tree. It was made of wood, so expertly interwoven with the trees around it that it looked like it had been there forever. A staircase curved along the tree trunk, and led to the structure now rising up directly over their heads.
Justin flashed her a smile that took over his face, lighting his eyes up with childish delight. She smiled back, unable to resist his undiluted joy or the tug of his hand as he led her up the stairs.
If she thought the approach was amazing, the inside of the structure took her breath away. Exposed hardwood, maybe oak or pecan, formed the one-room tree house, the ceiling tall enough for them to stand easily, glass skylights and a wall of windows giving them a full view of their surroundings and the sky. From this vantage point, everything disappeared except for the treetops and the stars filling up the darkening sky.
“Oh my God,” Sarina breathed out, her eyes darting from one detail to the next. Shelves built into the walls held books, candles, a fallen bird’s nest, the mementos of exploration and indulgence. Colorful quilts were piled on an oversize daybed stationed in the middle of the room, an inviting place to take a nap, read a book or gaze at the stars.
Justin let go of her hand, placing the bottles on the small table next to the daybed before walking over to the windows and unlatching them in several places before he pushed them to the side, effectively joining this space with the great outdoors.
“Justin, I have never seen anything like this in my life.”
“It’s awesome, isn’t it?” His smile was now full of pride; he was clearly pleased that she liked his show-and-tell surprise. It made her blood warm, knowing that her opinion mattered so much to him. “Nana Orla didn’t want us to forget what it was like to just be kids, so she had this built for us when I was little. It was just a simple tree fort back then but I had it renovated a couple of years ago, had an architect shore up the structure, add the windows and electricity that can run a small fridge and add a powder room at the back. It’s one of my favorite places in the world.”
“This is incredible. I cannot believe it. It’s like something in a fairy tale.”
Justin’s grin got wider as he opened the two bottles, settling down on the daybed and stretching his long legs out in front of him. He nodded toward the spot next to him. “Sit down. Check out the stars.”
She knew that this was dangerous territory. This man, the stars, a tree house. Everything was tailor-made for her to do something foolish. She did it anyway.
The bed was comfortable, perfectly situated to give them the best view of the stars that were taking over the darkening sky. The birds were settling down for the night, adding their own muted sounds to the show.
Justin’s arm stretched out on the daybed behind her, his movement shifting the cushions between them and easing their bodies together so that they touched from shoulder to knee, their body warmth mingling and causing Sarina to shiver with the contrast of the cooler night air.
“You know what was the worst thing about waking up in Vegas and realizing you were gone?” Justin asked, his voice low, as if he thought he’d spook her.
She shook her head. She had her suspicions, but really she didn’t know. She only knew how she’d felt when she’d realized that she had to leave.
“It wasn’t that I was horrified or embarrassed about waking up married. It was the thought that I’d made up the way we connected, the way I felt when I was with you.” He swallowed hard, taking a sip from his beer before continuing. “I wanted that to be as real as I thought it was. I still do, even if I know we can’t stay together.”
She could go two ways with this: she could lie and tell him that it was just the shots at the bar, or she could tell him the truth and assure him that she’d felt it, too. But she knew she couldn’t lie because she understood completely what he was saying, because it was the reason she’d left.
“It was real, Justin,” she whispered, taking a deep breath to steady the frantic beat of her heart. “It was why I had to leave.”
Justin placed his beer bottle on the table and turned to her, his free hand sliding over her jaw, fingers winding into her hair. She lifted her face to his, shutting her eyes to the intensity of his gaze at the same time his mouth pressed against her own. Soft lips, quick breaths, and then groans and mouths opening to each other, tongues tangling and the kiss deepening to the point where she didn’t know where she ended and he began.
Sarina wrapped her arms around his neck, hungry to be as close to him as she could get, her body craving what it remembered was so good. Justin’s hands roamed over her body, coasting over her back, her hip, back into her hair. Everywhere he touched her was liquid heat, nerve endings responding to him and sending messages to her brain that defied logic and drove out any rational thought.
It was need and connection and pheromones and hunger.
Justin groaned, lifting her onto his lap. She straddled him, the tender, aroused center of her body pressed against his hard dick under his jeans. Sarina gasped, releasing his mouth as she threw her head back, eyes open, with nothing but the stars above and Justin’s hard, sexy body beneath.
“Damn, Sarina,” Justin moaned out beneath her as his body bucked up to meet every one of her downward thrusts. His fingers went to the neckline of her V-neck T-shirt, tugging it and the soft cup of her bra down to expose a nipple. She looked down just in time to see his mouth close over the tight peak and then she felt the tug of his wet, hot mouth on her nipple. She was close, so close.
It was so primal, something she hadn’t indulged in since a tee
nager, the not-so-innocent humping of two bodies together as they pursued one of life’s best gifts. But she couldn’t get naked with Justin, not now. It was too much. Her body wanted him but she couldn’t be that vulnerable. Not when she knew she had to leave.
But she would be selfish and take what she could. Because she needed him.
She bore down on his hard length, pleased when he released her breast on a moan that was half pain and half pleasure. Their eyes locked, mouths swollen and lips wet as they ground their bodies together, both needing the same thing.
One minute she was on the edge and the next she was arching into him, crying out loudly as her orgasm hit her like a bolt of lightning. Hot, intense, sharp-edged with pleasure that tightened every muscle in her body, it was drawn out by the sound of Justin moaning underneath her, his hips and cock pulsing against her body as he came.
Sarina collapsed against him, trying to catch her breath and glad for his arms around her as she tried to wrap her brain around what had just happened.
It had been real in Vegas. It was real in the here and now.
But it didn’t change anything.
Eight
Sarina was avoiding him.
The mind-blowing orgasm in the tree house had been unbelievably hot. They’d needed to talk about it but in true Justin and Sarina avoidance protocol, they’d cleaned themselves up, headed back to the house and then retreated to their corners to process what had just happened.
And two days had gone by with no contact and it was driving him nuts.
He’d gone to the office, burying himself in the financials he was working up to accompany the deal they were executing with the investors at Aerospace Link. This wasn’t a typical deal for Redhawk/Ling but it was exciting. In the past, they’d been the ones seeking people to assist them, doing the work to prove that they were a good investment. Now they were one of the frontrunners in app and cloud-based technology and Aerospace Link was a leader in satellites. And this new venture would put them both in the position of leading the next wave of technological innovation.
This was a collaboration that would lead to opportunities that Redhawk/Ling wanted and needed to be a part of in order to solidify their lead in the market, so nothing could jeopardize it. They had made the money and the money had gotten them a spot at the table but Justin and Adam wanted to be at the head of the table and this deal would put them there. Which was why it was so important to keep the marriage to Sarina a secret.
Adam wasn’t wrong when he said that Justin’s reputation wasn’t always an asset to the company. People admired his ability to crunch numbers and project trends in finance, to think outside of the box and make people a shit ton of money. There was a reason why the upstart companies who had nothing to lose were the ones that shook things up and pushed the boundaries. Once people got rich they got scared and they played it safe.
So they didn’t like that he loved poker, high-stakes poker with players who could match his skill. Outsiders saw his participation as an indication that he lacked control and that he had a problem. But he wasn’t an addict, he was a puzzle solver, a human calculator. It wasn’t risky, it was statistics and probabilities. Poker was numbers and numbers always made sense to Justin; it wasn’t risky for him because it was just math.
But the only thing that they mistrusted more than the poker was the women. No matter how trend-setting the men and women of Silicon Valley were supposed to be they were pure 1950s when it came to sex. Stability was going home to the same partner every night for dinner, and investors preferred to trust people who were stable with their bank accounts.
Justin was never going to apologize for enjoying sex with a variety of partners. His parents would love for him to settle down but the women he picked weren’t there for him. They showed up for his money and they stayed for the orgasms and the good times. Everybody was an adult and everybody knew the rules. Nobody got attached and nobody got hurt.
But Sarina was different. He wasn’t in love with her but they had something. A connection. She made him feel good, like he was doing it right by doing it his way.
Which is why he was walking into the Rise Up Center in the middle of the day to see her when he should have been at the office. Estelle, the assistant extraordinaire he shared with Adam, had given him a sly smile and amused side-eye when he’d told her that he’d be taking the rest of the day. He didn’t even stop to wonder how she knew what he was up to; Estelle knew everything.
After a quick exchange with Kori at the center’s front desk, he headed to the rock climbing room, following the excited voices.
He entered the space, familiar to him since he’d designed it. He’d wanted it to be a place for the kids to push themselves, to try something new and different. The result was a room surrounded by climbing walls from floor to ceiling with every level from beginner to advanced. The kids loved it.
The sight of it made him a little queasy.
Teresa spotted him first, hanging from a rope halfway up the wall. “Hey, Justin! You here to join us? Get your climb on?”
“Holy crap, Teresa, pay attention to what you’re doing!” Justin shouted, his unease impossible to hide. Didn’t she see how far up she was? And with nothing beneath her but air. He shuddered a little.
“Green ain’t your color, man!” Big Pete joked, inspecting his equipment on one of the benches that ran along the center of the room.
Justin waved them off, eyes searching for the person he came here to see. He scanned the room, heart jumping in his chest when he spotted a familiar figure, wearing black form-fitting clothes and hovering forty feet above the ground. Sarina was stunning, her body strong and in perfect control as she strained to climb higher, muscles tense with the effort.
His fingers flexed, memories of touching her body, gliding along her smooth skin as she responded so sweetly to the passion that flared between the two of them. The other evening in the tree house it had been combustible, something he’d known was coming and he’d done nothing to stop. The next few weeks were going to be agony if he stayed around her and couldn’t touch her.
But he knew that staying away was going to be impossible.
His current location was proof of that.
He held his breath as she reached the top, grinning down at the kids who yelled out their congratulations to her. Their eyes locked and it was a moment of recognition, a spark, and he saw delight in her gaze. It made his stomach flip and he grinned up at her unabashedly, not caring who saw. His excitement didn’t even dim when she checked her equipment, glanced behind her and then descended at a rate of speed that made the floor move under his feet.
Damn it. Why had he built this rock climbing gym?
Sarina landed with sure-footed confidence, turning to high-five the kids who swarmed around her to offer their congratulations. She laughed, her usual placid expression replaced with the enthusiastic affection she already had for the kids. He gave himself an inner high five for taking the chance that she would be the right fit for this group. They were older kids, pasts full of disappointment and with few adults to look up to, but he’d known that they’d find what they needed in Sarina.
“Don’t you have a job?” Sarina’s question broke into his thoughts. She walked over to him, hand on her hip and head cocked to the side. “Don’t you have a bunch of tech billionaire things to do?”
He laughed, moving in closer just to catch a little bit of the citrus scent that clung to her hair and skin. His first impulse was to lean in and kiss her but he knew they had an audience. A young, impressionable audience.
An audience that would rat them out to Adam.
“I do, but I wanted to invite myself over tonight. I’ve got a present.”
“For me?” she asked, her nose scrunched up in confusion. “For what?”
He shook his head, knowing she’d never accept a gift from him. “No way. It’s for Wilma.”
“Ah,” she replied, giving him a dubious side-eye. “You know that she can’t be bribed.”
“A man has to try.”
“Good luck with that.” Sarina unhooked the equipment from around her waist, offering it up to him. “You want to climb?”
He couldn’t back up fast enough. “Oh no.”
“He’s afraid of heights, Sarina,” Katie offered. “We can’t get him up there for love or money.”
“Really?” Sarina looked really confused now. “What about the tree house? You know it’s up in the air, right? Off the ground?”
“Yeah, but it has a floor. I’m okay with things that have floors. I just can’t have the vast expanse of nothing below me.”
Sarina moved into him, her fingers brushing against his midriff. She meant it to be teasing, comforting, but it made him ache for her. “So I guess you wouldn’t walk the Grand Canyon Skywalk with me?”
He reached down and took her hand, his thumb rubbing over her knuckles. “Not if it doesn’t have a floor.”
“Oh no. It’s a glass bridge that extends seventy feet out beyond the rim of the Grand Canyon and four thousand feet above the bottom of the canyon. My old master sergeant said that if you stand on it you can look down and see your future.”
“Is that before or after you puke?” he asked, horrified by the image that popped into his mind.
“Ha! Before, I would guess.” Sarina winked at him, turning and pointing at Marcus. “You ready?”
The boy nodded, his expression tentative as he shifted his big eyes between Sarina and the wall.
“Don’t worry. We’ll do this together,” she assured him, giving his arm a squeeze of encouragement.
Justin moved back, keeping his eye focused on his wife and the young man she gently guided through the steps of preparing to climb. Marcus was nervous but Sarina was calm, telling him that he could do it and running him the through the steps until he could repeat it back to her verbatim.
Seducing His Secret Wife (Mills & Boon Desire) (Redhawk Reunion, Book 2) Page 7