The Most Expensive Lie of All

by Michelle Conder

  ‘Never doubt it,’ he said fiercely. ‘Never.’

  His kiss was hard and hungry and then he wrenched his mouth from hers.

  ‘But I’m trying to go slow. Make sure you’re totally ready for me.’ He took her hand in his again, linking his fingers over the back of hers. ‘And I have something to show you.’

  He laid her hand palm-down on her belly and then slowly guided her hand over her silky curls.

  ‘Open your legs wider, chiquita,’ he murmured beside her ear. ‘No. More. Yes, like that...’

  And then he directed her hand even lower until, with a gasp, Aspen felt herself as she never had before.

  ‘Oh, my God—that feels...’

  ‘Wet?’

  Cruz ran the tip of his tongue around the whorl of her ear and she nearly came off the bed.

  He pressed her hand downwards. ‘Silky? Sexy?’

  Yes!

  Lost in a maelstrom of sensation, Aspen closed her eyes and let her feelings take over. She didn’t know what to focus on as her fingers slipped over her body, making her want to press upwards.

  ‘And now...’ Cruz shifted until he lay on his stomach between her splayed legs, his olive skin dark against the cream bedcovers. ‘Now I’m going to taste you.’

  Aspen tried to close her legs in a hurry. ‘Cruz, you can’t.’

  He looked up, the skin on his face tight as he held his hands still on her open thighs.

  ‘Let me, Aspen. Remember? I promised you nothing but pleasure.’

  Tensing just a little, she let him move her legs wider again and closed her eyes as he dipped down and opened her with his skilled tongue.

  She’d heard of men doing this, of course. She had been to an all-girls school, and she knew that some girls liked it and some didn’t. She had always put herself in the latter camp. Cruz’s low groans of pleasure as he licked and lapped at her sensitive flesh shifted her firmly to the former.

  She thought maybe he asked if she was okay, but by that stage he had brought his fingers into play and Aspen couldn’t breathe, let alone answer. Her whole body was burning and intensely focused on something that seemed just out of reach. She writhed and twisted beneath him, delighting in the scrape of his stubble against her tender skin, not even registering that she was calling his name until he moved over her.

  ‘It’s okay, chiquita. Let go.’

  Let go? Of what?

  And then it happened. Somehow the gentle stroking of his fingers sped up and they moved in such a way that she felt something inside her shift. Within seconds her body had exploded into a thousand tiny pieces.

  Distantly she was aware that he had moved down her body again, but she was in such a blissful state of completion she felt as if she was floating.

  ‘Aspen, open your eyes.’

  Were her eyes closed again?

  Opening them, she saw Cruz watching her.

  ‘How was that?’

  She smiled. ‘That was the most exquisitely pleasurable experience of my whole life.’

  ‘And I’m just getting started,’ he drawled arrogantly.

  Aspen laughed, and then her breath caught as he rose over her with latent male grace; his powerful biceps bunched as he completely covered her and took her mouth with his again.

  She felt the heavy weight of his erection against her stomach and unbelievably her lower body clenched, needing pressure again. She squirmed upwards, opening her legs automatically.

  Groaning, Cruz rolled off her, yanked his pants off in a rustle of fabric and reached into the side drawer for a condom. She watched, completely motionless, as he tore the wrapper apart with his teeth and then held his hard length with one hand while he applied it.

  ‘You keep looking at me like that, mi gatita, and I’ll have no need for protection,’ he husked, his gravelly voice rolling straight to her pelvis.

  Aspen felt herself blush, but she didn’t look away. He was too mesmerising. Too...

  ‘Beautiful,’ she said. ‘You’re beautiful.’

  She ran her hand over his tanned back, briefly marvelling at the smooth heated texture of his skin and the way he trembled beneath her touch. Had she done that? Her eyes flew to his and she noticed the sheen of perspiration lining his forehead.

  A smile of abject female joy slowly crossed her face. He saw it and groaned. Captured her mouth with his and pushed her onto her back, coming over the top of her in a position of pure male dominance. For once it didn’t scare her. Because in that moment she felt a sense of feminine power she’d never known she had. And it was exhilarating. Drugging. Freeing.

  ‘Hook your legs around my waist,’ he instructed gruffly.

  She did, and immediately felt the smooth rounded head of his penis at her entrance. Totally caught up in the wonder of it, she dug her hands into the small of his back as she pulled him closer.

  He hesitated and for a moment her old fear returned, her nerves tightening in anticipation of possible pain, and then he nudged her so sweetly her breath rushed out on a sob. She clasped his head and brought his mouth down to hers, tears burning the backs of her eyes as he slowly eased inside her body.

  She easily accommodated him at first, but then she did feel too full. Too stretched.

  ‘Relax, amada,’ he crooned against her lips. ‘I’ve got you.’

  He kissed her hungrily and withdrew almost all the way, before slowly pushing forward again, his tongue filling her mouth and mimicking his lower body’s movements until Aspen felt as if she was melting into the bed.

  He raised his face above hers and he looked intense. Focused. ‘You feel amazing.’

  He adjusted his weight and Aspen moaned, arching towards him.

  ‘But you’re so tight. I feel like I’m hurting you.’

  ‘No.’ She flexed her hips and rubbed against him, gasping as she felt him lodge deeper. ‘It feels sensational. You feel sensational.’

  Cruz groaned and seemed to praise God as he started moving inside her, his strokes smooth and slow before gradually picking up pace. Every time his big body pushed into hers Aspen clung harder to his damp shoulders, her body growing tighter and tighter until with a sudden pause she felt another rush of liquid heat, right before her body convulsed into a paroxysm of pleasure.

  Dimly she was aware of Cruz still moving inside her, of her pleasure being completely controlled by the powerful movements of his. And it was endless as he drove into her, over and over and over, until with a pause of his own he tilted her bottom and surged into her with controlled power. Once, twice more, until she cried out and felt him rear his head back and fall over the edge with her.

  Again time seemed endless as Aspen stared at the ceiling, slowly coming back into her body. She felt wonderful. Blissfully, sinfully wonderful. Her body was a sweaty, sensual mass of completion. Her hand lifted to Cruz’s hair and she caressed the silky strands, enjoying his harsh breaths sawing in and out against her neck.

  A smile curved her mouth as she recalled the moment Cruz had guided her hand between her legs so she could feel how wet she was. And she had been. Unbelievably wet—and soft. It had been like touching somebody else’s body.

  Unbidden, Chad’s drunken taunts came to mind and she realised that it had been he who was unable to perform, not her. Deep down, and in moments of total confidence, she had told herself that exact thing, but believing it to be true was something else entirely. Especially when he was such a gregarious and charming person when he wasn’t drinking. He was like a Jekyll and Hyde character, she realised, but after tonight what had happened in the bedroom with him would never haunt her again. She wouldn’t let it.

  * * *

  Hours later Cruz woke and used the remote console beside his bed to open the curtains. The sky was pale blue outside so he knew it wasn’t much after dawn.

 
Slightly disturbed by the whirring sound of the drapes, Aspen snuggled deeper beneath the covers he’d pulled over them both some time during the night.

  Cruz’s arm tightened around her shoulders. Last night had blown his mind. First finding out that Aspen had clearly had a poor excuse of a sex-life before him, and second, realising that he had had a poor excuse of a sex-life before her. Hell, he’d never come so hard or so often as he had last night, and he was half expecting to be rubbed raw.

  He glanced at her delicate features softened by sleep. Her rosy cheeks and the dark sweep of her lashes. He grew hard just thinking about last night.

  One night.

  He frowned as their deal slid back into his mind like an insidious serpent. Her damned document. At the time one night had seemed like more than enough. He’d thought she was a vacuous princess type he had once lusted after and needed to get out of his system. He’d thought he’d take her to bed, slake his lust for her and move on.

  Of course he’d still move on, but...

  He thought about the hotel he’d planned to build on Ocean Haven. Last night he’d given up on that plan and, surprisingly, he didn’t care. Aspen had been as much a victim of Charles Carmichael’s warped ideas about what was right and wrong as he had been—maybe more so.

  And the truth was he didn’t need Ocean Haven and she did. Ergo, she should have it. Which seemed to be what her uncle thought as well, because he was still obstinately refusing Lauren’s increasing offers on Cruz’s behalf. He smiled. Stubborn old goat—he might not be as sanctimonious as his old man, but he’d inherited that attribute from him, all right.

  And good for him—because as soon as Cruz got up he would tell Lauren to pull out of that particular race. Aspen had won and for once he didn’t mind losing. One day he’d share that with Ricardo. Have a laugh. One day when he understood it better.

  But for now he had to face facts.

  Fact one: Aspen would want to return to Ocean Haven some time soon. Fact two: he was supposed to be flying to China to check out the site of the first of his—what was it?—fifty new hotels first thing tomorrow. Fact three...

  Fact three was that he wanted neither of those things to happen. Fact four was that he didn’t know why that was, and fact five was that she felt divine curled up against his side. Fact six was that he was definitely going crazy because he was yapping to himself again.

  His throat felt as if he had a collar and tie around it.

  Previously, making sure that he was rolling in money had been all that he could think about. He’d put his polo career on hold indefinitely to achieve it. After he’d left Ocean Haven he could have picked up any number of wealthy patrons who would have happily paid any fee to have him play for them, but he would still have been at their beck and call. Still disposable. Still an outsider in a world of rank and privilege. So he’d worked hard to change that. And, although many might say he had now achieved his goal, pride—or maybe that old sense of being vulnerable—drove him onwards.

  But was it enough now? Hadn’t he started to question how much satisfaction he actually derived from pushing himself so hard? Hadn’t that old feeling of wanting a family started poking into his mind again? Wasn’t that one of the reasons he’d tried not to visit his own family? And here was fact seven: he hated that feeling of being the one left out. Maybe Aspen was right about that. Maybe if he became more human around his family they might be the same with him.

  Madre de Dio.

  He was doing it again.

  Cruz closed his eyes and let himself absorb the slender length of the woman who was pleasantly draped over his side like a human rug. Gently, so as not to disturb her, he stroked her hair. She shifted and the rustle of the sheets carried her scent to his nose. She smelled good. Superb.

  His mind conjured up how she had looked last night, spread out beneath him while he made her come with his mouth. His body hardened and he had to bite back a groan. He wasn’t sure he could do it again, and he was damned sure she was probably too sore, but his body had other ideas.

  Trying to stanch the completely normal reaction of his body to the closeness of a naked woman, Cruz carefully extricated himself from under Aspen’s warm body. Better he get up now, have a shower and start the day. It was going to be a busy one. First a round of meetings to finalise what he hadn’t done yesterday, and then the polo matches would start just before lunch and run till the afternoon.

  He would have made it too—except Aspen chose that moment to move again and attached herself to him like scaffolding on a building site. She moaned and smoothed her hand over his chest.

  Cruz had closed his eyes, his senses completely focused on the southerly trajectory of her hand, when she suddenly snatched it back.

  ‘I’m sorry. I...’ She sat up and pushed the tangled mass of curls back from her face.

  Fact eight: she looked adorable when she woke up. All soft and pink, with her lips still swollen from where they had ravaged each other.

  Unable to help himself, he dropped his eyes to her chest and she gave a small squeak, quickly dragging the sheet up over her nakedness. But not before he’d had a good glimpse of creamy breasts that wore grazes from his beard growth.

  For some reason her obvious distress eradicated his own desire to put as much distance between them as possible. Which was surprising when he recalled how he had opened up about his childhood last night. That alone should have had him eating dust. But her loser ex had done her a disservice when it came to intimacy, and Cruz wasn’t about to make that worse because he had itchy feet.

  ‘Good morning.’

  She turned wild eyes up at him. Dampened her lips. ‘Good morning.’

  Silence lengthened between them and Cruz realised he had no idea what to say. This was the equivalent of a one-night stand and, while he’d never had what could be considered a long-term relationship, he didn’t indulge in one-night stands either.

  ‘This is—’

  ‘Awkward?’

  She let out a shaky breath. ‘Yes, but last night was...’

  ‘Wonderful.’

  She pulled a pained face. ‘You don’t have to say that. I mean yes, it was good, great for me but...oh, never mind.’

  Cruz felt a well of rage at Anderson for hurting her. He wanted to reassure her that he was actually being honest, but he suspected she’d see his words as hollow.

  ‘Spend the day,’ he found himself saying instead.

  ‘Why?’ Her shocked eyes flew to his and he made sure his own surprise at his invitation didn’t show on his face. But why shouldn’t she spend the day? He had a first-rate polo tournament starting in a few hours. She loved polo. She ran a horse stud.

  ‘I thought you were busy today?’ she said.

  ‘I am.’ Her reserved response had him putting the brakes on the surge of pleasure he’d experienced at the thought of her staying with him. ‘But there’s plenty for you to stay for. The polo, for one. It’s going to be an incredible event.’

  She gave him a wan smile that made his teeth want to grind together. ‘I don’t want to complicate things.’

  Confused by his own reaction to her reticence, he took refuge in annoyance. ‘And how is watching a polo tournament complicating things?’

  ‘Our deal—’

  ‘Forget the deal.’ He got out of bed. ‘Stay because you want to. Stay because the sun is shining and because there’s going to be a world-class polo tournament here that’s sold out to the general public. Stay because you work too hard and you need a break.’

  ‘Well, when you put it like that...’

  Torn between wanting to kiss her and sending her home, Cruz nearly rescinded his offer when the cell phone on his bedside table rang.

  They both looked at it.

  ‘What’s your decision?’

  She dampened her lips.
‘Yes, okay, I’d like to watch the polo.’

  * * *

  Aspen stood on the penthouse balcony and stared out over the shiny green polo field. Horse floats, white marquees, riders, grooms, horse-owners and hotel employees scurried about as they readied themselves for the day ahead.

  Yet despite the heady anticipation in the air that preceded a major event all Aspen could think about was what she was still doing here.

  Replaying their awkward morning-after conversation in her head, she cringed. When Cruz had first asked her to stay Aspen had felt her heart jump in her chest at the thought of spending the day with him. Then he’d confirmed that he’d be busy and she’d felt like an idiot. Of course he was busy. He had invited her to watch the polo, not to spend the day with him.

  When his phone had rung she had automatically said yes because he’d looked beautiful and sleep-tousled and she hadn’t wanted to leave.

  Now she didn’t think she could leave fast enough.

  Because last night had changed her. She felt it deep within her bones. Last night had been everything she’d ever dreamed making love could be, because Cruz had taken the time to make it that way for her and she could already feel herself wanting to make more out of it than it was. Wanting to make it special, somehow. But what woman wouldn’t want to do that when she’d just been so completely loved by a man like Cruz Rodriguez?

  No, not loved, she quickly amended. Pleasured.

  God.

  She buried her forehead against her arms, which were resting on the balustrading.

  It was beyond clear that Cruz had asked her to stay out of politeness or—worse—pity. She, of course, had said yes out of desire. Desire to spend more time with him. Desire to experience his lovemaking again. Desire to re-experience the pleasure she felt sure only he could give her.

  But he was as much of a Jekyll and Hyde character as Chad when it came down to it, because he had come to Ocean Haven specifically to try and take her farm.

  She had forgotten that. Again.

  Was she a glutton for punishment? Was she so used to having men control her that she’d gladly fall in with the plans of another self-interested, power-hungry male?