“Arianna?” he said, looking over at her now.
Silence.
“Arianna?” he repeated.
She continued to stare straight ahead, presenting him a blank, cool profile that perversely made him want to shake her.
“Please talk to me,” he pleaded, resting his hand on her arm.
She jerked her hand away, her face turning to his as she warned in acid disgust, “Keep your lecherous hands off me.”
“Arianna!”
“I may be a slut, but even I have my standards!” she spat, her face alive with electrified wrath.
With a muffled oath, Dylan shot a quick glance at the rear-view mirror; they were on a lonely stretch of road with no cars from either direction. In one swift motion, he turned the car onto a dirt road he had discovered some years back, driving until they were hidden from view of the main road.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. Her eyes scanned the lonely bushes enveloping them and she looked at him again, feeling a surprising tickle of fear. “You’re not going to kill me are you?” she asked hesitantly.
His fulminating glare was answer enough.
He pulled the car to a stop and stared down at his hands for a minute. When he looked up at her, his eyes were remorseful. “I’m sorry Ari. I didn’t mean to say that,” he said softly.
His expression as he looked at her was open, honest and sincere and she relaxed, leaning back against the headrest.
“Then why did you?” she enquired softly.
“Because you have been driving me nuts from the moment you appeared in my driveway,” he admitted roughly, his voice dark and sinful as hot chocolate.
Startled, Arianna’s eyes flew to his face and her breath caught in her throat as she saw his expression. His turquoise eyes were so tumultuous and stormy, they were almost black and as she watched, his dark gaze dipped to her full pouty lips. Passion arched in the air between them, raw and hard and as though by unspoken mutual consent, they reached for each other at the same time and their lips came together in fevered combustion.
Passion raged between the pair of them burning so hot and fast that Arianna almost forgot to breathe. Her senses soared as he plundered her lips with his. She could feel his body hardening against her and she moaned as he pulled her tighter against him. She moved against him, wanting to feel more of him and unconsciously shoved her body deeper into his arms.
“God you’re so sexy Arianna,” he moaned against her skin. “I’ve been in a serious sweat since I caught sight of you the first time.”
Dylan’s hand trailed straight to her cleavage, gently caressing the bare expanse of flesh before pushing the material of her dress to the side and baring her breasts to his touch. His lips trailed from her lips to her neck, biting and licking and leaving a trail of fire behind.
Arianna arched against him mindlessly, urging him on with her cries. His other hand delved beneath the short hem of her dress, swept up her thigh and came to rest in the juncture of her thighs.
“Dylan,” she gasped trying desperately to clamp her legs together.
“Trust me okay?” he murmured against her breast right before he opened his warm mouth and took one thrusting nipple between his lips. Pleasure pooled between her thighs immediately and she arched against him. Dylan’s hands trailed down to her legs and his long fingers stroked the sensitive nub of flesh at her core.
Arianna sighed with pleasure; her legs falling wide open to give him access. Dylan cupped the mound of flesh between her thighs savouring her breathless response to his every caress.
He dipped one long finger into her warm, wet, willing passage, gasping himself as he felt her incredibly tight walls close around the one finger.
“I can’t wait,” he told her urgently as he shoved his seat backwards as far as it would go.
Arianna climbed over to the driver’s side and straight onto his laps, facing the steering away from him. Dylan grunted as he worked his fly free and his fat, turgid penis sprang free. He gently guided the head of his penis to Arianna’s glistening wet opening and she moaned encouragement as he shifted her panties to the side and rubbed the head of his penis against her entrance.
Slowly, he entered her, grunting involuntarily as her tight passage enveloped him in a tight grip.
“God, you’re fucking tight!” he groaned.
“Yeah?” she moaned.
“Oh yeah!” he grunted as he shoved into her to the hilt, his pulse beating a wild tattoo in his as liquid fire sped through his veins.
He began to move, thrusting upwards and into her again and again and again. Arianna undulated against him, twisting her hips this way and that as he pounded into her. Dylan growled, low and hard in his throat and impossibly deepened his thrusts, changing the angle at the same time. Nothing in her entire life could have prepared Arianna for the onslaught of sensations coursing through her and every last one of her toes curled in reaction.
“Please don’t stop,” she moaned mindlessly as he rode her hard.
“I won’t,” he promised on a groan changing the angle of his thrusts yet again.
The pleasure was too intense; the dam burst and suddenly Arianna was cumming as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her; her vaginal walls clenching and unclenching around his hard, thick member.
He grunted and thrust harder into her as he ground out through clenched teeth, “You are so hot! So fucking hot! I want you so much!”
Dylan renewed his thrusts, this time moving faster than ever beneath her. His fat penis glided easily in and out of her and she moaned with each thrust. Suddenly, he was jerking and bucking and sighing her name. He emptied his seed straight into her tight, wet passage.
Arianna drifted back to earth slowly as droplets of sweat worked their way down her face and onto her chest.
At Dylan’s gentle urging, Arianna slowly pulled him out of her and then gingerly manoeuvred her way to her own seat on the passenger’s side trying not to wince at the soreness between her legs. The man was huge! Her hair was a riotous, tangled mess and she desperately tried to restore it to some semblance of order with her fingers.
Dylan’s eyes met hers as he also tried to shift his clothes back into order. Something flickered briefly in his eyes but was gone before she could decipher what it was.
“Are you alright?” he asked, not quite meeting her eyes.
She stared at his profile, surprised. Why was he suddenly acting all cold and distant again, she wondered?
“Yeah. You?” she asked watching him closely.
Dylan stared straight ahead, his eyes fastened on some invisible spot beyond the windscreen. Then his gaze flicked to her face and Arianna felt suffocated; he looked as cold and distant as he had ever looked.
“I am not a cheat,” he said quietly.
“Excuse me?”
“I am not a cheat,” he enunciated. “Linda was never my girlfriend you know? So I did not cheat on her with you; just in case you were wondering.”
“Oh? Nice to know I guess,” she said, nonplussed.
“No Arianna, it’s not nice. I lied and made you think she was my girlfriend because for the first time in my life, I felt the urge to hide behind a woman’s skirt!” he finished, his voice going up an octave.
“Why are you yelling at me?” she whispered tremulously, her lips trembling. He wasn’t making much sense.
“My point,” he said, visibly reaching for control, “Is that I had to lie just to keep you at arm’s length and even that did not work.”
“I see. And you are telling me this because?” she asked striving to keep the hurt from her voice.
“I didn’t want this; I didn’t want any of this!” he bit out.
Arianna’s green eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as she retorted, “So by your definition, I raped you?”
“Okay that didn’t come out right,” he conceded turning fully to face her, his expression carefully blank as he met her eyes. “My point is, you are little more than a child”
“Don’t you dare!”
“And,” he continued just as if she had not spoken, “even if you weren’t, you’re my sister”
“Step sister,” she corrected furiously, feeling bile rising at the back of her throat.
“Step-sister then,” he agreed. “But in the end, I am not looking for”
“A relationship? Neither am I!”Arianna assured him frigidly, drawing her anger about her like a cloak as she lifted her chin.
“Are you going to let me finish?” Dylan asked exasperatedly, trying to ignore the hurt he saw shining in her eyes.
“By all means, Dylan. Go ahead; finish,” she invited, leaning her head back against the backrest and shutting her eyes; the very picture of calm. Only her knew that a turbulent storm raged inside her and it was all she could do to fall to her knees and beg Dylan not to say what she knew he wanted to say.
He stared at her gamine face, his eyes roving hungrily over her features now that her eyes were closed. Something squeezed in his chest, so tight he could barely breathe and his lips parted to take in more oxygen.
She looked so calm and unruffled and here he was struggling with words. He had always been a playboy; probably because he had made his first billion at age twenty-two; his good looks hadn’t hurt either. He always knew how to run for the hills after sex but with Arianna, it was surprisingly difficult; letting her go felt surprisingly hurtful.
“What? Cat got your tongue?” she asked, eyes still shut.
His gaze jerked away from her lips and he said with deliberate boredom infused in his voice, “This was fun, is all I’m saying Arianna. It can never happen again. Your mother would have my head!”
Silence.
“I mean, not that I regret it; it’s just that you’re a child and I don’t want you to get ideas like”
“Like what? White picket fences and a dozen kids? Of course you’re just arrogant enough to think every woman you fuck wants the ‘protection of your name’ which is an antiquated notion if you ask me. Relax Vanderbilt, your name and your virtue are safe from here on out,” she assured him bitingly, eyes still shut.
He stared at her smooth features, feeling that urge to shake her again; to rattle her. He wanted to ask her why she was letting him go without a fight; no woman had ever done that and strangely, it made him angry that Arianna was.
“So we’re good?” he asked instead.
“We’re perfect. Now please take me home, I need to get out of these clothes,” she commanded, eyes still firmly shut so he wouldn’t see the tears behind her lids.
With a sigh, Dylan started the car and turned around in the direction of his mansion which at this moment gave him about as much joy as a dilapidated hut!
CHAPTER FOUR
“Oh I’m so excited! I have never been more excited in my entire life!” Penelope Vanderbilt declared as she tried on yet another pair of slinky black heels.
Arianna barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Her mother was forever using that phrase. She said it when the milkman delivered fresh milk; she said it when she met her third husband, Will Vanderbilt for the first time; she said it when Arianna got into college; she even said it every time it rained for the first time.
“Mum, could you wrap it up? My feet hurts,” she whined, collapsing reluctantly onto the same cushion the harried attendant at Bende’s had offered her when she walked in. Her mum had been dragging her through just about every shop in Santa Fe and after watching the woman ooh and aah over every pair of shoe this side of the planet, it was getting a bit old.
Will had asked them to attend a dinner party cum unveiling of a new artist at a friend’s Galleria tonight with him. Evidently artists were a dome a dozen in Santa Fe but this one seemed to be a special find. As much as she hated to admit it, she was excited. She had been moping about the house all week after her tryst with Dylan because he had upped and left the very next day claiming a business emergency in Los Angeles.
Remembered hurt blazed through her as she recalled the way he had cast her off after having sex with her and made her feel as though she were a piece of trash clinging to his Italian loafers.
“What do you think of this one Ari?” her Mum asked now.
Arianna snapped. “Just get one Mum? I have looked at so many shoes my eyes are in danger of falling out! Will is gonna love you no matter what shoes you’re wearing; just as dad did and your husband before that. So please, just pick a freaking shoe!”
Silence reigned, pregnant and tense as every single person in the vicinity froze. Suddenly there was a bustle of activity as every other shopper suddenly found something more interesting at the other end of the store.
The attendant waiting on them announced brightly, “I’ll just check in the back for more shoes.”
And then she fled, her cheeks flaming.
Penny looked over at her daughter, her eyes sad. “Sit down honey, and tell me what’s been eating you all week.”
Remorse warred with the remnants of Arianna’s anger. Remorse won and she collapsed onto the cushion. Slowly she laid her head on her mom’s shoulder, feeling drained as she said, “I’m so sorry Mum. I really am.”
“I know you are honey,” penny said generously, patting her daughter. “Now tell me what’s been bugging you all week. Is it Santa Fe? You don’t like it?”
“No mum, it’s okay I guess,” Arianna said dully staring at her scuffed sneakers. She was forever refusing to let Will buy her expensive things and he had complained about that severally to no avail.
“Ari, we used to be such close friends. You can tell me anything; I promise I won’t react like a mum.”
Arianna shot her mother an amused disbelieving look and Penny chuckled. “Alright I might but I’ll try to tamper my mum instincts and just be your friend.”
“It’s Dylan,” she admitted in a suffocated voice.
“Did you kids have a fight?” her mother asked kindly, her heart pounding as she waited for her daughter to admit what she had already suspected; it seemed her daughter had feelings for the boy. Well who wouldn’t? He was quite a looker; just like his father.
“Well, sort of,” Arianna said. No way in hell would she tell her mum she had let Dylan add her to the notches on his bedpost. She couldn’t stand to see the inevitable disappointment in his eyes.
“Regarding?”
“Mum! Does it matter?” she asked, lifting her head from her Mum’s shoulder again in her agitation.
“Hush baby, hush,” her mom crooned, patting her and returning her head to its position on her shoulder.
“Mom can we just go home?”
“Do you like him Arianna?” her mum asked, shocking her into silence.
“Uh...yeah.”
“Well in that case, go for it,” the woman suggested impertinently.
Arianna’s head lifted from her mother’s shoulder again, this time in surprise. “He’s my step-brother,” she reminded her, latching onto the first excuse that popped into her head.
“Yes, but not your brother. You aren’t even related by blood. Next?”
“He doesn’t want me,” she admitted dully. “And now lemme guess, this is the part where you’re gonna play the Mum card and tell me that everyone likes me?”
Penny studied her silently for a moment, her expression unreadable. Then she said with conviction, “If the way he has been glaring at you from the moment we arrived is any indication, then trust me, he wants you. Next?”
Arianna couldn’t help it, she burst into laughter; her laughter tinkling like bells and filling the room with musical gaiety. Her mother was something else, she decided.
“Mum he does not want me, he told me so himself.”
“Okay now this is the part where I tell you that you are so amazing that there is no man alive who would not want you. I mean you’re smart, funny, intelligent, considerate, beautiful and sweet. And I’m not just saying that because I’m your Mum. It’s the truth.”
“You’re biased,” Arianna accused.<
br />
“True,” her mother admitted cheerfully. “So what’s your next objection?”
“I’m a child.”
“At twenty-two? I beg to differ. I had you at twenty-two and the stuff I knew then would have made my mother’s hair curl.”
Arianna laughed at that one. “So what do you think I should do Mother?”
“That’s my girl. I think you should dress hot tonight and attract as many men as you possibly can. When next you see Dylan, ignore him. Make him feel invisible. Men love attention even more than women although they would never admit it. Just let him see that you have other options; but don’t do anything you can’t tell me about.”
“Okay Mum,” Arianna agreed. “But who knows when next I would see Dylan. We’re leaving tomorrow for Manhattan,” she reminded her mother.
“Leave that to me,” Penny said, a wicked glimmer in her cobalt eyes as she grinned at her daughter. “Besides there is something I learned from Will, if a man likes you, he would move heaven and earth just to be with you.”
Something inside Arianna shifted as for the first time in months, she let herself see something that had been right in front of her all this while, “Will makes you happy doesn’t he?”
Penny blushed like a school girl, leaving Arianna’s mouth hanging open. Her mother was truly in love. For the first time in months, she decided to make an effort to like the man who could put that look on her mother’s face.
* * *
“My girls look stunning!” Will Vanderbilt proclaimed loudly, his face wreathed in a huge grin. He didn’t look sore for once; in fact he looked positively excited with this weird gleam of excitement in his eyes.
Arianna had worn the lovely cocktail dress Will had sent up to her. It was a beautiful teal colour that did wonders for the colour of her eyes; the bodice was peppered with tiny rhinestones and the neckline plunged becomingly to reveal the swell of her breasts.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: Obsessed with Secrets (New Adult Billionaire Stepbrother Taboo Collection) (New Adult Billionaire Taboo Romance Short Stories) Page 2