One Night With the Rebel Billionaire

by Trish Wylie

  Roane was scared silly.

  Then he was on his feet, pacing the room like a caged animal with frustration radiating off his large body in waves. He frowned as he looked at her. ‘I told you I can’t give you more than this.’

  ‘I know you did.’

  ‘Staying wouldn’t change that. I can’t give you what I don’t have to give.’

  Roane didn’t understand what he was saying. But judging by the way he was pacing, frowning, and searching the air with a completely focused gaze, he was working his way up to something. So she willed herself to stay absolutely still and wait, while her palms went clammy and her heart beat erratically.

  ‘You’d want more. This wasn’t supposed to be anything more.’

  ‘I know.’ She did. But he was right; she would want more. She was slowly dying without it already.

  Adam was flexing his long fingers in and out of fists. ‘See, that’s what I don’t get. Why are you trying to build bridges between me and my family when you know that’ll bring me back here more often? You know what’ll happen if I do. You’re not that dumb.’

  Roane had to clear her throat when he turned and looked at her, anger and confusion clouding his eyes. ‘What will happen?’

  ‘This will happen.’ His deep voice was threaded with frustration. ‘Every time. Because I’ve only to look at you and I want you. You can’t tell me some part-time affair is what you want.’

  ‘It’s not.’ She wouldn’t lie to him. Even if she could she wouldn’t after his confession of how much he wanted her physically.

  ‘The thing is, you can tell me to leave you be, but even if I say I will I won’t stick to it; you fight me off—I’ll probably want you more. I know me.’

  ‘I’m not fighting, in case you hadn’t noticed.’

  ‘Why aren’t you?’ He leaned forwards to shout the words at her and the force of his frustration was a shocking thing to behold. Not that she thought he would do her any harm, she knew he wouldn’t. It was the ferocity of his emotion, the echoing emptiness, the need in him—all mixed into one and let loose as if they’d been held inside for decades that did it.

  That was what made her step closer.

  To where he stood his ground and kept going. ‘What you want from me I can’t give you. I’ve told you that. Yet here you are—you chose to side with someone you barely know over someone you’ve been friends with your whole life.’

  ‘It wasn’t about picking a side.’ She stopped in front of him and tilted her head back. ‘It was about being where I wanted to be most. Where I knew I was needed most. You needed me to believe in you, didn’t you?’

  He frowned dangerously at her, pulse pounding at the base of his neck, muscle jumping in his square jaw, hooded gaze fixed on hers.

  Despite the fact Roane could feel the raging storm being held inside him again, she set her palm on his chest above his thundering heart and told him in a low, firm voice, ‘I believe in what’s in here.’

  The kiss wasn’t gentle. He kissed her with desperation, hard and fast—demanding her response. Heat immediately shot through her with stunning speed, every thought blown clear out of her mind.

  Adam groaned and walked her back until she was trapped between him and the wall; his hands in her hair, her arms tight around his neck as she gave in to the need to give as much as she was receiving. Then one of his hands left her hair, sliding down to cup her breast. No foreplay, no teasing—and Roane’s heart soared when she realized he wasn’t holding back. It was all of his pent up emotions thrown into one kiss, he was raw and wild and uncontrolled—that was how much he needed her. No man had ever needed her that badly. It equalled how inconceivably much she needed him after so little time, as if she couldn’t breathe without him there.

  It gave her the courage to show him.

  So she moved her hands under his arms, the already tense muscles of his back clenching beneath her fingers as she traced the width of his shoulders. But it wasn’t enough. Moaning in frustration she tried to free his shirt from his arms, but even when he moved to help her and it was tossed to one side, it still wasn’t enough.

  The heat of the smooth male skin on his arms beneath her hands enflamed her—but it still wasn’t enough. So she dropped her palms to his stomach and pushed him to make room as she reached for the bottom of his T-shirt.

  Adam broke his lips free from hers and grasped the hem of her sweater. ‘Off.’

  ‘You too.’ She let go of him long enough to tug her sweater over her head, reappearing to discover he’d done as he was told. But it was the look on his face that undid her; the rumble of his voice a low, sexual growl that sent shivers down her spine.

  ‘You’re so beautiful.’

  He stared at her body with something close to reverence. Seeing how the sight of her affected him Roane had never felt so beautiful. She loved how she looked through his eyes. Any whisper of inhibition she had left fled before the sight of his naked desire. She had to see him, touch him; have him deep inside her.

  ‘You have no idea how much I want you right now.’ She let her gaze slide lovingly over the ripples of hard muscle beneath golden skin.

  ‘Show me.’

  Leaning forward she kissed her favourite place on his neck, impulsively running her tongue up the strong column of his throat. He groaned something she couldn’t hear and then lifted her off her feet and held her high against the wall with one arm around her waist. Her breasts on a level with his mouth, Roane gripped his shoulders as he leaned in and suckled her through her bra, the abrasion of wet lace against her already hard nipple making her gasp out loud and writhe against him.

  ‘Adam!’

  Her already dizzy mind whirled as he spun round. Marching determinedly across the room, he lowered her to the desk. Roane didn’t resist when he leaned forwards and pressed her down, didn’t release her grip on his shoulders; she didn’t do anything beyond murmuring words of encouragement before touching him everywhere she could reach.

  His hands slid over her ribs and across her belly as he switched his attention to her other breast. So swept away was she by the glorious sense of abandon she felt that it was only when he unfastened her jeans and started to tug them away that she realized she’d lifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips. But then everything with Adam had always seemed so natural to her. Sexually there were surely no two people better matched on the face of the earth than they were.

  Somehow he managed to reposition her, dragging denim and lace off as one. Better, but still not enough. She was on fire, so much so that she almost sobbed with impatience during the seconds it took for him to leave her and shed his own jeans. Filled with a violent, possessive drive she’d never felt before, she hauled him back down to her and kissed him hard. Feverish and insane with need, she wanted to bite, scratch, brand him with a visible mark if she had to so that the whole world knew he was hers—even if he wasn’t. But for now he was. She would never forget him as long as she lived.

  Adam didn’t try to calm her down or slow the frantic pace of what was happening—if anything he seemed to welcome it. Apparently he considered it either too much trouble or too time-consuming to reach round and unhook her bra, so instead he tugged the straps down, freeing her breasts for his hungry mouth.

  To Roane’s ears the sounds she made as his lips and his tongue worked their magic barely sounded human, let alone as if they were coming from her; it still wasn’t enough. Would she ever get enough of him? When she reached for him he caught her wrists and pinned them above her head with a growl of warning that reverberated through her body everywhere his touched. Roane then shocked even herself by retaliating with a nip of his shoulder, a sharp intake of breath turning into a deep groan of approval as he covered her body with the full weight of his.

  When she lifted her hips and dug her heels into the small of his back he groaned again. When he rocked his pelvis against hers, his hard length sliding only inches from where she wanted it, she moaned into his ear and arched her spine of
f the desk.

  ‘Please.’ Obeying a deep instinct that told her just how to entice him most, she rocked her hips up in invitation, coating his length in her slick heat. ‘Please, Adam. I need you.’

  Adam lifted his head and looked down at her, flexing his fingers around hers where their joined hands lay on the desk over her head. He looked so deep into her eyes she felt as if he could see her soul, but Roane didn’t try to hide from him. While joint ragged breathing filled the silence she looked back at him, her smile trembling on her lips as she silently told him:

  I love you.

  Adam’s brows wavered. Then he dropped his head and devoured her mouth, made a guttural sound in the base of his throat, and rested his forehead on hers as the confession was wrenched from deep inside him. ‘I need you too.’

  With one sudden thrust he sank deep into her, releasing her hands to tangle one hand in her hair and wrap an arm tight around her waist. The sudden fullness, the hard rhythm he set, how tight he held her—it was so overwhelming that he had her whimpering against his mouth as he tangled his tongue with hers.

  It was fast and furious and primal and within moments she was wrenching her mouth from his to throw her head back and cry out with the force of her release. Again and again the waves came, making her writhe like a wild thing against him. She dug her nails into his back as he continued to thrust into her, hard and fast. He nipped, then suckled the hollow between her throat and her shoulder so hard she was sure he would leave the very brand she’d wanted to put on him, but she didn’t care. Because the fire still pounded through her veins, her writhing was matching his thrusts, she was pushing against the desk to get her hips higher so he could go deeper. When she honestly thought she might pass out from an excess of pleasure, Adam lifted his head, groaned loudly into her hair and his body went rigid with his own pulsing release.

  The feel of it inside her sent Roane over the edge again, leaving her limp as Adam collapsed on top of her, holding his weight on one elbow while they both struggled for breath.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ He mumbled the rough words into her hair. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Roane felt her throat closing over at the shuddering breath he took after he said the words. She smoothed her hands over his back in circles, turned her head to kiss his throat. ‘You have nothing to be sorry for.’

  ‘I can’t give you more than this.’

  Roane choked out the words she wished with all her heart weren’t true. ‘You can’t give me something that’s not there. I know that.’

  His head lifted and he looked down at her with the most tortured eyes she’d ever seen. ‘It’s not there. It never has been.’

  She was still fighting the piercing agony of being told it wasn’t there when she felt it so deeply for him when a sudden thought stole her breath away and twisted her battered heart. ‘You don’t think you can feel love?’

  His gaze shifted to her hair as he brushed a strand of it off her heated cheek. ‘I don’t have it in me. That’s what I’ve been telling you. That’s why I’m sorry.’

  ‘Who told you you couldn’t?’

  He shot her a brief frown. ‘No one told me. I know. If I had it in me I’d have felt it by now. In case you hadn’t noticed from what just happened—me and emotions? We don’t get on so good.’

  Roane blinked up at him in stunned amazement as he continued in a low, deep rumble that made it difficult for her to think. ‘I get angry. A lot. It’s better as I’ve got older ’cause I’m better at controlling it now, but being back here has reminded me of how it used to feel. Emotions are a variable—that’s the problem. I like things with patterns and rhythms. Those I get.’

  Somewhat miraculously it made complete sense to Roane. She’d been right—he did think entirely too much. He was the most intelligent man she’d ever known, he’d made a fortune from the fact he could figure out stocks and shares as easily as breathing in and out, but he hadn’t a clue how to deal with emotions.

  He looked into her eyes again. ‘I can’t lie to you. I’ve been economical with the truth the last few days but I can’t lie. Not to you. Don’t ask me why.’

  Roane smiled at him, not caring if how she felt showed in her eyes. ‘I know why.’

  His brows lifted.

  She wrapped her arms around him and lifted her chin. ‘So the only reason you’re not prepared to give this a try is because you think you’re incapable of loving me, that’s what you’re saying?’

  ‘That’s what I’m saying. I want you, you know that. And I need you, God only knows how much. If I could feel more for anyone I’d feel it for you. But I can’t.’

  ‘Do you want to leave?’

  It took a moment, then she got a low, ‘No.’

  ‘Do you want to see me with someone else?’ His coarse answer made her flinch. ‘That’d be a no then.’

  ‘Damn right it would.’ He frowned.

  Moving a hand to frame his beautiful face, she brushed her lips over his and asked, ‘Do you want to make love with me every day and every night for the foreseeable future?’

  The answering smile was so devilishly sexy it sent a shiver up her spine. ‘Hell, yes.’

  Smoothing her thumb back and forth against his cheek she continued smiling as she nodded. ‘Me too.’

  He studied her eyes for a long while. ‘I’ll still have to go at some point. You’re saying you’ll come with me, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes. And you’ll stay with me here too, won’t you?’

  ‘Yes. It might take a while to figure that out though…’

  Roane’s smile grew, the world suddenly brighter than it had ever been before. ‘Yes, but it’s a place to start. We could take it from there. See what happens. Consider me your fixed mark from the compass poem from here on in and I’ll rely on you to make me soar on terra firma…’

  ‘Now that I can do…’ His smile faded a little.

  But when he opened his mouth she set her finger over it to stop him, her voice soft with sincerity. ‘Adam, I don’t believe for a single second you’re incapable of love. No one who makes love with the passion and the tenderness you do is incapable of love.’ She tried to keep the smile on her face for the next part, but it wasn’t easy. ‘It might not be me you fall in love with. But I hope it is. I really do. Because…’

  The words sat on the tip of her tongue, but when she saw the silent question in his sensational eyes she knew she wasn’t going to stop them being said. No matter how soon it was or how far they had to go before she knew if she was having her heart broken…

  She smiled tremulously. ‘I love you.’

  Adam stared at her for what felt like for ever, then he moved his head enough to dislodge her thumb from his lips, his voice husky. ‘You don’t know me well enough to love me.’

  She lifted her shoulders, her smile becoming shy. ‘My heart says it knows you enough.’

  His throat convulsed as he swallowed and Roane held her breath as she waited to see if he would argue with her or try and convince her she was wrong or laugh or—

  ‘What does it feel like?’ he asked.

  Tears formed in her eyes. And just like that Roane knew they were going to be okay. They had time. And for as long as he wanted her they had a chance. One day at a time. She would love him with all her heart and pray every day that one day he’d feel the same about her.

  She had to.

  With a deep breath made difficult by the swell of her heart, she framed his face in both hands and nodded as she told him in a firmer voice, ‘I still have a lot to teach you.’

  Adam laughed. She loved it when he laughed. She loved him, period. Always would. End of story. If waiting for ever meant he’d love her one day, then she’d wait for him. He was worth it. And she had a sneaking suspicion a girl only got one naked Adonis on a beach per lifetime…

  ‘We’ll teach each other.’

  ‘We will.’

  Adam scooped her off the desk. ‘I’m gonna teach you about joint showers now, sweetheart…so pay at
tention…’

  EPILOGUE

  Eighteen Months Later

  THERE WERE CERTAIN days in a man’s life, Adam decided, that stuck in his mind; a special day in a long chain of events. There was a pattern to that. He should have known if he looked hard he’d eventually find one.

  The day he’d decided to go home, for example. That had been momentous. Life changing. More for the moment he’d got off his motorcycle dusty and sweaty and decided on impulse to take a swim in the ocean than for the trip itself. The first link in the chain…

  Then there was the day he’d decided to make it plain she was going to end up in his bed. Okay, her bed. But it had been a bed. That was all that mattered. Another link in the chain…and he’d felt the same way she had regardless of the lie he’d told himself about her being a distraction—it was inevitable, was right; it made perfect sense when viewed with the rest of the chain.

  The first time they’d made love would stay in his memory until the day he died. He didn’t doubt that. Not just for how amazing it had been or how perfect or how seriously hot, but because he’d never wanted to see her cry like that again. That was the day she’d touched him in a way no other woman ever had—or ever would. Two links in the chain in one day. They’d maybe done things a little fast according to tradition—but then Adam had always been a bit of a rebel.

  The next links—there were a ton of them all in the one day. But the one that had stuck most clearly in his mind now was when she’d said she would be his fixed mark. She was. No matter how many trips he took away from home or how many flights she made or how often they went to places together—she was a fixed mark in his life. A touchstone. A sounding board. A voice of reason when he wouldn’t listen to anyone else. The one woman who could turn him on with a glance and soothe his soul with a touch…

  Adam couldn’t remember what his life had been like without her in it. He didn’t want to. She loved him. She knew him better than anyone ever had and she said she loved him more each day. Yelled at him when she was mad; yes. But she loved how they’d make up…