The Billionaire's Secret Obsession

by J. M. Madden

  Clayton looked at the woman across from him and realized he was looking at something impossibly precious. She had known him only for a couple of weeks, but she was willing to believe in him. He felt some invisible band in his chest snap and all his muscles relaxed. She could have passed judgment on him like everyone else had but she didn’t. “Well, yes, there was a dock master, but my brother had a way of getting through pesky situations like that. Regardless, my mother thought Robert could do no wrong. When she found out I had known about the issue, I was a handy focus for all her anger and frustration. I understood why she treated me the way she did.”

  Sarah thought it was incredibly sad that he was so accepting of being treated so poorly. For a while she thought Clayton just had not had the will to stand up to his mother, but she was beginning to see that, in his own way, Clayton had taken control of the family. And putting up with her anger, manipulations and histrionics was the only way he knew how to keep the family running. Too bad Mrs. Gallagher did not see the motivation behind his actions.

  It certainly didn’t diminish the man that he was.

  Sarah slid off the chair and circled the desk to kneel at his side. How to make him feel better without totally crucifying his mother? Reaching forward, she hugged him tightly around the neck. “But I’m sure it still hurt.”

  For a long, timeless moment, he held himself stiffly away from her, as if wary of the comfort. Slowly, though, his arms wrapped around her back. “Yes,” he admitted slowly. “It did.”

  After a few seconds Sarah sighed and climbed to her feet. “I’m sure it’s not something you get over quickly.” With a wink, she tried to lighten the mood. “I’m also sure your mother will get as much mileage out of it as she can.”

  She was glad to see Clayton’s full lips tip up in a smile. “I think you’re right.”

  After that, they stuck to inconsequential things while they ate their dinner. Clayton was quiet as she talked about the subjects in her art. He did ask about the one on the wall behind him, and Sarah was happy to tell him about the little neighbor girl down the road from where she lived in Ohio, who liked to come up and drink tea with her on the front porch.

  It was several hours later when Sarah looked at her watch and gasped at the time.

  “It’s after one a.m. Where did the time go?”

  Clayton smiled slightly and stood up, reluctant to end the evening. “We do seem to lose track of time, don’t we?”

  Sarah nodded her head happily and gathered up the remains of their cold dinner. Only by looking down at the scraps did she actually remember what she had eaten. Her time with Clayton was so…consuming that she lost track of everything.

  He followed her to the door and opened it for her, but at the last moment he took the tray away and set it on a side table.

  “I can’t help but wonder,” he murmured quietly, “if the first time was just a fluke. If my wanting you for so long has somehow colored my judgment.”

  Sarah’s heart began to pound, and the hard-fought grip on her needs and emotions unraveled. Looking up into Clayton’s stormy eyes, she could tell he was remembering earlier as well, and she watched as he fought for control, then lost. Pushing her back against the doorjamb, his warm hands wrapped around her jaw, tipping her head back. With the sudden pounding excitement between them, Sarah expected him to crush her mouth with his, but instead he bent down and closed the distance between their mouths—almost, but not quite touching—and they breathed each other in. Sarah could feel the heat and the very faintest tickle of his lips against hers, but he held himself away. When she would have closed the scant millimeters between them, he tightened his hands against her jaw, telling her to hold still. The anticipation was killing her, but it also aroused her beyond belief. When he rested his body against hers she thought she would burst into flames. She could now feel his heart pounding as roughly as hers.

  Finally, finally, he settled his lips gently against hers, and began sweeping little nibbles back and forth. Sarah tried to participate, but he still held her head immobile. She moaned her frustration and her need, and her hands swept around his waist to pull him closer. But that was a frustration in itself, because she could now feel how aroused he was, which in turn excited her even more.

  Clayton finally let go of her jaw and a bit of his control as his tongue teased its way into her mouth. Sarah had no hopes of stopping him, had no desire to stop him, but she was very aware of how very vulnerable she was to him. Muscles bulged in his arms, and she had never felt more womanly. She would do anything for him, including give herself over completely. Whole-heartedly.

  Because I love him.

  Chapter Eleven

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  It was no great shock of course. For a long time, especially while working at Clarion, she had felt an elemental pull that told her he could be the one for her. Being in his house and interacting with him almost every day for the past couple weeks had confirmed what her intuition had been telling her. Clayton Gallagher was the one for her.

  But was she the one for him?

  Sarah poured all the love she had into the kiss. Clayton pulled back and studied her curiously, as if he had felt the change, but didn’t know what exactly it was. His confusion made her love him all the more. Sarah could barely stop herself from telling him, but it was much too soon. He was too guarded, too unfamiliar with honest emotion to believe that she loved him after their first kiss.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her softly.

  Nodding her head, she reached up and gently pulled him down to her. If she could not yet tell him, she could show him how much she loved him.

  Clayton’s lips pressed deeply to hers, wedging her mouth open for his tongue. His hands burrowed into her hair, shoving her ponytail holder to the floor. Pulling back, he surveyed her face from forehead to chin, and the swirling dark hair now framing her face. “It is as soft as it looks,” he said softly, happily.

  Sarah smiled as he rubbed several dark brown strands between his fingers. Then he could not seem to help himself as he buried his nose just behind her right ear. “And it smells phenomenal.”

  Goosebumps ran up her arm and back on that side of her body, and she could not help but shudder at the need making her weak. The tension in his bunched muscles made his shoulders rock hard, so she had plenty to hold onto, but there was the faintest tremor in his hands as he smoothed her hair back and tipped her face up to his again.

  Then he claimed her, making her his own. Sarah struggled to live without air as long as she could before finally pulling back with a gasp, her eyes heavy lidded with passion.

  “You need to tell me to stop now,” he grumbled.

  But Sarah shook her head in denial and gasped in perfect honesty, “I don’t want you to stop. I don’t want you to ever stop.”

  His storm gray eyes darkened incredibly as he understood what she was telling him, and he did not give her a chance to change her mind. Without another word, he bent down and swung her up in his arms. Sarah was surprised and, just for a moment, embarrassed. She was not what you’d call a small woman but the effortless way Clayton carried her made her feel as if she were.

  Sarah opened the office door and flicked off the lights as they left, then Clayton charged down the steps. He waited while she opened his bedroom door, then kicked it shut behind him. Sarah had a vague impression of heavy dark furniture and masculine colors before Clayton laid her gently on the huge bed. Standing back, he simply looked at her for several long moments, until Sarah reached out a not-quite-steady hand. For an interminable length of time, she thought perhaps he would not take her hand, but finally his fingers slid into hers, and he lay down on his side next to her, facing her.

  Sarah could not seem to control her hands. For so long she had made do with little touches here and there, but now she was free to touch him however she wanted. First she kissed him, a gentle nuzzling kiss that let her explore the shape of his mouth and what he seemed to like. Sweeping inside, she teased the soft inner ski
n of his lips, then danced past his straight teeth and into the cavern of his mouth. He tasted so good. And he shouldn’t have, because they’d just had dinner and coffee. Yet his mouth was sweet and welcoming, and she didn’t want to leave. She began nibbling across his bearded jaw and down his neck. Her hands were busy on his chest, running over the swells of his muscles. Sarah was distracted at the sweep of his pectorals. Clayton was a businessman. Weren’t they supposed to be on the skinny side and pale? She began unbuttoning his shirt, slowly revealing what she had been feeling. Damn. This man was gorgeous! His chest was covered with a light pelt of hair that arrowed down his body. Unconsciously, her fingers sped up the further down they went. She had to see if it went all the way.

  It did.

  Sarah hesitated for a fraction of a second at his belt buckle. Was this the right thing to do? Could her heart survive if this was all the further it went?

  Clayton felt her hesitation and stopped his own roaming hands. “If you want me to stop, you have to tell me now, Sarah.” Shivers danced down her spine at the sound of his arousal-deepened voice.

  Clayton’s determination to do what was right for her won her over. This was a man she could love for a lifetime. There was no way she was stopping from reaching for that chance at happiness.

  Nimbly, her fingers unfastened the belt buckle, then his pants. But his hand grabbed hers before she could explore the bulge she had revealed.

  “No,” he told her, with a devilish smile, “now it’s my turn to explore.”

  And that’s exactly what he did. Rolling her onto her back, he levered himself up onto one elbow and raised her hands above her head. Sarah wriggled with excitement. The position itself built several different scenarios in her head, but none of them were as good as what he was actually doing. Closing her eyes to feel more deeply, she could almost see his long fingered hands gliding across her stomach, then breaching the edge of her t-shirt and slowly gliding upwards. For a fraction of a second, he stopped at the edge of her underwire bra, but when she wiggled impatiently, he pushed it up, out of the way of his hands.

  Sarah’s whole body clenched as Clayton explored first one puckered nipple, then the other, gently scraping a nail back and forth over the peak. She couldn’t hold back a moan. It felt so good. Her breasts had never been especially sensitive in foreplay and it surprised her that she was responding so strongly to Clayton’s touch. He sat her up and whipped her shirt and bra over her head, but left them bound around her wrists. She began to struggle with the restriction, but Clayton knocked all thought from her head as he took her right nipple into the heat of his mouth and eased her back down. Sarah gave herself up to the sensation. What a spectacular feeling! Every time he pulled her deeper into his mouth, it was like he was pulling on an imaginary string connected to her clenching lower body. Without conscious thought, Sarah turned more toward him and let her knees fall open. Clayton seemed to get the idea, because he unsnapped her jeans, then began to lower the zipper, very slowly. That was a torture in itself, Sarah discovered. The waiting. She was sensitive enough now to feel the individual bump of each tooth as the tab slid down. Tipping her hips toward him she struggled against the clothing around her wrists, and his left hand. Why wouldn’t he let her go? She wanted to touch him. She needed to touch him.

  Clayton finally released the hold on her tangled wrists, but only to move above her to draw her jeans down her legs, dragging her panties and socks with them.

  Sarah’s eyes widened as he shoved his own pants and shorts into a pile on the floor beside hers, and threw his shirt in the general direction before turning to stare at her, with his mouth slightly open. Standing at the bottom of the bed, his eyes burned as they roved over her. Once again, Sarah thought she should be embarrassed but she wasn’t. It felt too right. He felt too right.

  “My God. You are beautiful,” his voice sounded almost choked when he said this. “There is no other word to describe you.”

  Sarah’s heart felt like it was going to burst inside her chest. He was so very unconcerned with his own nudity, too busy surveying her body. Everywhere his eyes touched, Sarah could feel goose bumps marching across her skin. Her pink nipples were peaked as hard as they could be, and her thighs quivered as his gaze finally lowered. She found her own gaze dropping to the impressive erection he fisted as he climbed back over top of her. Gently, he lowered his weight until they were eye-to-eye and hip-to-hip.

  “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this,” he sighed.

  Sarah smiled and brushed her lips to his. “Oh, but I do.”

  Reaching down between them, Sarah stroked his erection, and used it to stroke herself. In the back of her mind, she knew she had never been this aroused by anyone or anything. Her arousal was beyond anything she’d ever imagined. She wasn’t alone though. Clayton didn’t seem to have control over his own movements, and Sarah gasped as he slid home, knocking her hand away. For a long, timeless moment, Clayton held himself quivering above her. Sarah could not help but clench her inner muscles, making him groan and shift inside her. Sarah ran her hands down his back to his ass, and pulled him into her even deeper. Finally, finally, Clayton began to drive himself into her. At first, his movements were slow and controlled, but when Sarah raised her knees even higher against herself, he began to speed up. And within seconds, Sarah gasped and writhed beneath him as a climax burst over her. Distantly, she felt Clayton slow for a long moment as he felt her clench around him, and Sarah was surprised when he stopped moving altogether, holding himself above her. He shuddered and panted, obviously trying to regain control. Sarah clenched her inner muscles again, and was rewarded with a rough male gasp and involuntary shiver.

  “Hold still, Sarah.”

  Ignoring him, Sarah reached up and nibbled kisses along his jaw, then began rhythmically clenching her inner muscles and bumping her hips up into his. She felt the exact moment his control broke, because he began to rock into her as deeply as he possibly could. His hips moved as if they wanted to pound through her, but she was good with that, because it brought on a second, rolling orgasm that arched her against him.

  For several long minutes Sarah basked in the warmth of a job well done for her mate, and satisfaction in her own pleasure. At one point Clayton tried to move his weight to the side, but Sarah tightened her arms, unwilling to let him go. Clayton seemed just as reluctant, and merely settled his elbows at her sides to take some of his weight off her.

  Finally though, he did roll off of her, but only long enough to pull the blankets out from beneath them and cover them up. Once he had the sheet up around his chest, he turned on his side to look at her in the feeble light from the bathroom, with his head on his hand. “I did not plan to do this.” He took a deep breath that fluttered the sheet. “I don’t regret it, but I did not plan it. Sarah,” he paused, “are you protected? We didn’t take any precautions.”

  Sarah smiled at the censure she heard in his voice. Clayton was a very strong man, and he may not have liked it that she had pushed him over the edge, but he would be more cross at himself for letting her push him over the edge.

  Reaching up, she ran her hand over his beard-roughened jaw. “Yes, I am protected,” she told him quietly. “I’m on the pill.”

  Although a secret part of her wished she wasn’t. Images of faceless babies with dark hair danced in her mind and heart. After watching his interactions with Tory, Sarah already knew Clayton could be a wonderful, attentive father.

  “I know you didn’t plan this. I’ve been hoping for this for a while now,” and she grinned widely, chuckling. “And I do not regret a millisecond of it, either.”

  Clayton narrowed his eyes and thinned his lips, trying to look severe, bet he couldn’t resist smiling with her, then leaning over and kissing her once again. Sarah could not resist wrapping her arms around him and deepening the kiss, until she could feel him growing against her hip. She shifted against him, letting him know she was more than agreeable to a second round. Apparently he was too, be
cause he positioned himself over her and glided inside. They were both still wet from the first time, and Sarah was still very sensitized. She began twitching as soon of the head of him slid into her.

  Clayton was much more in control this time, building her up and flinging her over the edge twice before finally allowing himself to slip over with her. Sarah was aware they slept for a few hours wrapped in each other’s arms before he roused her again with wandering hands and lips. Just before dawn, he tugged her into the huge glass walk-in shower. Once there he began massaging her to within an inch of her life. Sarah was stunned at the gentleness and caring he showed her, and tried to reciprocate as best she could. But Clayton seemed intent on making her the center of his attention.

  “Hold still. Let me do this.” This was gently washing the slickness from between her legs and thighs. Sarah was stunned. She could never have imagined that the strict businessman with the dysfunctional family could be so caring. But she adored it. And him.

  It was so hard to leave his bedroom to start the day. For several long minutes, they stood at the doorway, prolonging the moment as long as they could. Sarah rubbed her hand up and down Clayton’s right arm, from wrist to shoulder. He accepted the contact, but his expression was a bit quizzical. Sarah did not think he was used to post-coital touching. It didn’t help that they were in the hallway either. His demeanor had changed as soon as they opened the door, she watched his face take on that familiar shuttered expression, closing down completely. Clayton pulled away gently, and, it appeared to Sarah, reluctantly.

  “I would like to see you tonight.”

  Sarah smiled saucily. “You will see me tonight. After dinner.”

  Clayton narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning against the bedroom doorjamb. “That’s not what I meant.”