Seized by Seduction--A Compelling Tale of Romance, Love and Intrigue

by Brenda Jackson

Randi watched the anger in Quasar’s face spread from his eyes to encompass all his features. Lilly must have observed it, as well, because she had the good sense to take a step back.

  “What makes you think that I still love you?” Quasar demanded. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I stopped loving you years ago, Lilly. When I realized just what kind of person you are. For years I called myself all kinds of fool for ever wasting my love on you. Just look at you. You are Doyle’s wife, yet you want me to hang around. For what? To play second to my brother like I’ve always done? Marrying Doyle was your decision, so you can deal with him and his whores any way you see fit. Personally, I don’t give a damn.”

  Randi was certain Quasar would have said more if the valet attendant hadn’t chosen that moment to deliver the car to them. Ignoring Lilly, Quasar opened the car door for Randi before settling himself in the driver’s seat. Without giving Lilly a second glance, he pulled away.

  Since leaving the party, Randi had endured his silence. She loved him, and it pained her to know the man she loved was hurting. She felt at a loss because she didn’t know what to say to give him comfort. To take away his pain.

  When he brought the car to a stop at a red light, she decided she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Quasar?”

  He glanced over at her, and her heart swelled with even more love for him. His eyes, which were usually full of life and energy, now appeared dull and unresponsive.

  “Please talk to me,” she said. “Tell me what you’re feeling so I can help.”

  Instead of saying anything, he turned his attention back to the road to stare straight ahead. A few seconds ticked by before he said in a defeated, lifeless voice, “You can’t help, Randi. This is something I have to deal with on my own. There’s a lot that you don’t know.”

  She figured that much was very true. “I know you went to prison. Served three years for something Doyle did because your father convinced you that it was the right thing to do.”

  The traffic light changed and he moved the car forward. Without taking his eyes off the road, he said, “I thought you couldn’t read me.”

  “I can’t and I didn’t.”

  “Then how did you know that? I never told you.”

  “No, you didn’t. Lilly told me. She was under the impression that I knew already.”

  He was quiet for a moment, and then he said in a bitter tone filled with anguish, “You know what’s so fucking funny, Randi? I came here for closure. I came here knowing Louis didn’t give a shit about me. But still, I had to know why so I could move on. Nobody wrote or called while I was locked up. I had the good sense to know it was because they didn’t given a damn. That hurt. When I left prison I refused to let my family hurt me again, so I cut them off. I didn’t let them know where I’d moved. Then Louis hired a private investigator to find me, and I thought that maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe he had cared. I suggested we meet, away from LA or Charlottesville. On neutral ground, so to speak. He refused. And it then became apparent from his phone calls that it was merely about control. He didn’t truly love me, but he wanted to control me.”

  Randi heard the pain in his voice, and a part of her was tempted to tell him to pull to the side of the road so she could wrap her arms around him. Comfort him. Tell him how much she loved him. How much she truly cared.

  “I was determined to move on and make something of my life. I looked toward the future based on the premise that although you can’t choose your family, you can definitely choose your friends. So I chose friends who became closer to me than Doyle ever could. On top of that, I befriended a man who was the type of father figure Louis could never be. I felt I no longer needed the Pattersons of Beverly Hills to be content.”

  He huffed out a frustrated breath and added, “Yet tonight, when I should have found closure, should have been strong enough to walk away and not give a damn, I let the bastard hurt me once again. I allowed him to have that much power over me.”

  Quasar didn’t say anything else during the rest of the car drive back to Malibu, and a part of Randi could feel him withdrawing into himself. Putting distance between them. Even when they reached the house and went inside, he didn’t say anything. After locking the door behind them, he moved toward his godmother’s bedroom. The one they’d been sharing together.

  Before opening the door he stopped, turned to her and in a pained and emotionless voice said, “I need time alone tonight. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  He closed the door behind him. Shutting her out.

  * * *

  RANDI OPENED HER EYES, still unable to sleep. She could hear Quasar moving around in the bedroom below, pacing, as if he was trying to walk off his hurt and pain. She wanted to be there with him. She felt she needed to be there, regardless of the fact that he’d told her he wanted to be alone.

  She shifted in bed to lie on her back and stare up at the ceiling. She didn’t want to think about what an ass Louis Patterson had been. Instead she wanted to focus her thoughts on Quasar. By closing the door on her tonight, he had rejected her. But a part of her understood.

  She moved her head from side to side on the pillow. No, she understood but wouldn’t accept it. She knew he was in pain, but she had to be there for him. What they shared this week counted for something. Granted, she had no reason to think he loved her like she loved him, but she did love him, and she would be there for him. Mind made up, she eased out of bed and grabbed her robe off the chair. He would have to look her dead in the eyes and tell her he didn’t want her. That tonight he didn’t need her.

  Quickly moving down the stairs, within moments she was standing outside the bedroom door. Drawing in a deep breath, she knocked several times. She knew he was in there, and she intended to keep knocking until he opened the door.

  She gasped when the door was snatched open and he stood shirtless in a pair of black boxer shorts. A livid expression was on his face as he braced his arms against the doorway. “What do you want, Randi?” he asked in an angry tone. “I told you that—”

  “I know what you told me,” she said, easing under his arms to enter the room. “But I’m not accepting it. You’re mad. You’re hurt. I get that. But what I don’t get is you not letting me be here with you.”

  He turned, his expression even angrier. “I don’t want you here. I prefer being alone tonight. Is that too much to ask?”

  “Yes,” she said, flopping down on the bed. “I’m telling you that’s too bad, because I’m staying.”

  Suddenly he lunged toward her as if he intended to remove her physically from the room. He grabbed her around the waist, without much effort threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and headed for the door. She was convinced he was about to open the door and toss her out on her ass when he suddenly stopped. Lowering her to the floor, he pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. “I told you I wanted to be alone,” he whispered brokenly. “Why didn’t you listen?”

  “I couldn’t,” she said softly, holding on to him as tightly as he was holding on to her. “No matter what you said, I couldn’t let you be alone, hurting. I wanted to be with you. I always want to be with you.”

  For the longest time they said nothing as they stood there, holding each other. He reached down, lifted her chin with his fingertips and said in a fragmented voice, “I need you tonight in a way I’ve never needed you before, baby.”

  She held his gaze as his term of endearment washed over her, making the need to love, protect and soothe him an urgency that plowed through her. “And I need you to need me tonight, Quasar.”

  Randi figured what she said didn’t make sense to him, but maybe it did. He suddenly swept her into his arms and moved toward the bed.

  The moment her body touched the bedcovers, he removed her robe and was frantically pulling her nightgown over her head, leaving her totally
nude. She saw a look of need and hunger in his eyes as he raked his gaze over her naked body. And then, as if he couldn’t take any more looking, he was quickly shoving his briefs down his legs and climbing on the bed with her.

  She went to him. He was speaking in Spanish, and she understood everything he was saying, warning her of all the things he intended to do to her tonight. His words were raw, carnal and arousing.

  He lifted her hips and buried his head between her legs. Before she could catch her next breath, his tongue had slid between her womanly folds and captured her clit, and he began sucking hard. Her juices flowed while sensations tore into her. He greedily lapped her up, only to start the process all over again.

  She grabbed hold of his shoulders to push him away when the pleasure became overwhelming, but in the next instant she was straining, pushing her hips closer to his mouth. He’d never gone down on her before with this much intensity, greed and hunger as if this would be his last meal. His ravenousness was stoking her own, stirring it, multiplying it and generating even more desire and passion. She felt the increase in every pore, and the wildness of the sensations made her dig deep into his back with her nails.

  She felt the first signs of orgasmic heaven when he began swirling his tongue around inside her with a tempo that had her vagina throbbing mercilessly. He made her moan. Made her say a few of her own lascivious words in Spanish. When he began sucking hard on her clit again, she couldn’t stop from screaming when her body exploded in pieces.

  As if he was addicted to her taste, he kept his mouth locked to her until the last spasm left her body, lapping her up and making sounds like he was enjoying every second doing so. When he finally pulled his mouth away, he licked his lips while pulling her up and turning her body around so that she faced the headboard.

  She felt the thick head of his shaft rubbing against her backside and thigh before unerringly finding the target between her legs. Her feminine mound was still pulsating from the intensity of his tongue. She felt like she was on fire and needed him to put out the flames.

  “I love you this way,” he said, sliding his engorged erection inside her. He kept going deep until his groin was smack up against her buttocks. She could feel the thatch of hair covering him as he rubbed against her backside, causing an arousing friction. He kept a firm grip on her thighs as if to lock his body inside hers. He didn’t move, giving her body time to adjust, and she understood why. She felt him grow even larger inside her, pushing against her inner muscles, pressing them in a way that had her senses reeling.

  Then he began moving, slowly at first in long, languid strokes. Suddenly he picked up the beat, moving faster, pumping hard, hammering deep and thrusting his body into hers. She moaned and groaned. Said his name over and over, shuddering hard under the force of an orgasm that kept on coming and coming. Multiple climaxes ripped into her, making her tip her hips up for him to go deeper inside her. And deeper he went, holding tight to her hips as he repeatedly drove hard into her.

  She heard him shout her name at the same time hot semen shot into her, coating every muscle inside her body in a heated warmth that had her groaning in ecstasy. He kept pounding right into another hard erection, and her inner muscles clenched him for more. Within seconds he ejaculated inside her again, and she whispered his name in total satisfaction. He slouched down in bed, pulled her into his arms and held her close with his penis still embedded within her. She felt his warm lips against her neck, and he spoke more Spanish softly in her ear, telling her not to be surprised if he awakened her later to make love to her again. Smiling at his warning, she drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  QUASAR BREATHED IN Randi’s scent as she lay asleep in his arms. They’d made love again. And he had unleashed all the desire he felt for her. The more she gave, the more he wanted. And the more he got.

  She had to be the most giving woman he knew. In his eyes she so was special, so damn special. He couldn’t help but recall the words she’d whispered before drifting off to sleep. Words he doubted she’d intended for him to hear.

  I love you.

  The sad thing was that he didn’t want her to love him. He was a man a father couldn’t even love, so why would she? He didn’t need love and didn’t want it. Especially from a woman. He’d been there before, and wouldn’t ever go there again. And to think Lilly assumed he still loved her after all she’d done.

  He rubbed a hand down his stubbled face and felt himself weakening where Randi was concerned. It was getting harder and harder to resist her, to keep her away from his heart. She could be the one woman who was his downfall. The one who could tempt him to love again. And he couldn’t let that happen. He needed to put space between them. He needed to think and regroup, and there was no way he could do it here. Not while her scent surrounded him, her beauty captivated him and his sexual need for her overpowered him.

  Slowly easing from the bed, he knew what he had to do. He headed for the bedroom door and refused to look back.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  RANDI CAME AWAKE at the feel of someone touching her shoulder. She opened drowsy eyes to see a fully dressed Quasar standing beside the bed. The bit of light shining through the window told her it was the predawn hours.

  She pulled up in bed and pushed her hair away from her face. When she focused on his features, she saw an intensity there that worried her. “Quasar? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”

  Leave? She blinked, trying to grasp what he was saying. “You’re leaving?”

  “Yes.”

  “Going where?”

  “I’m returning to Charlottesville.”

  She rubbed sleep from her eyes, certain she hadn’t heard correctly. “But why?”

  “There’s nothing for me here.”

  I’m here, she wanted to scream. “But—but we have two more days to spend together.”

  He shook his head. “Trust me, you’ll enjoy things more without me here. I wouldn’t be very good company.”

  What he was saying didn’t make sense. What would she do here without him? “But this is your house. You can’t just leave me here.”

  “Sure I can, and you’re welcome to stay. I left Paul’s number on the kitchen table. Let him know when you leave so he can call the cleaning crew. And I’m leaving you the car. Just turn it in at the airport. The bill was prepaid. I’ve called a private car service to come take me to the airport. I’ll be on standby.”

  Randi shook her head, not believing what he was saying. “But what about last night?”

  He lifted a brow. “What about it?”

  “We made love.”

  He shrugged. “We make love every night. What’s the big deal?”

  That question pissed her off, and she was out of bed in a flash to stand in front of him, not caring how she looked. “The big deal is that I thought... I had hoped...that I was beginning to mean something to you.”

  He took a step back. “Whoa! Hold up. I never told you that. In fact, I distinctly remember telling you the same thing I tell all women I bed. I don’t do serious.”

  All women he beds? She shook her head, wanting to believe his words were no more than a front. It had been more than sex between them last night. It had been solace, and it had him running scared, falling back on old habits.

  “Look, Randi,” he said, breaking into her thoughts. “Evidently you got the wrong idea about a few things.”

  “Yes, evidently,” she said, refusing to lower her pride for any man. Even one she thought had been fated to be hers.

  “I enjoyed my time with you. It was great.”

  She broke eye contact with him or else he would see her wounded look. The sun was coming up now, and she thought of how they would sit beside each other near the water’s edge, holding hands, leaning into eac
h other while they watched it rise. She pushed the memory out of her mind.

  His cell phone went off, and he pulled it from his jeans pocket and checked it. “My driver is here. When I get back to Charlottesville, I’ll be working a lot, so I won’t be able to attend your brother’s birthday celebration with you, after all.”

  She nodded while hurting deep inside. He didn’t mention not taking her to Striker and Margo’s wedding, but she figured she would eventually get notified about that, as well. He was washing his hands of her. This was final. “Alright, I understand,” she said, and this time she really did.

  “Great. I’ll see you around.”

  “Okay.” Then, deciding to save him the trouble, she said, “And I just remembered I have something to do the weekend of Striker’s wedding, so I won’t be able to make it.”

  He nodded, and Randi thought she saw relief flash in his eyes. “Alright.”

  His phone went off. “That’s probably the driver calling again. I’d better go. Take care of yourself.”

  She merely nodded. “You do the same, Quasar.”

  He walked out the bedroom door. She held her breath until she heard the sound of the front door opening and closing behind him. Then she fell back on the bed and started crying.

  * * *

  SPECIAL AGENT RIVIERA stared at the man sitting across from him. If anyone had told him that one day he and Wallace Conway would be on opposite sides of an interrogation, he would not have believed it. As far as he’d known, Wally had been a fine agent. Dedicated. Loyal. And as honest as honest could get. It had been hard for him and some of his fellow agents to accept that Wally was none of those things. That he had betrayed them in the worst possible way.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Jarez,” Wally said in a defeated voice. “You’re wondering how I could have let Levan Shaw get to me. I have always been a clean agent.”

  Riviera nodded slowly. “Yes, that question has crossed my mind. But I figured the answer is obvious. Money.”

  “Yes, and the fact Levan was my cousin.”