“You can’t command me! I will not be some sexual servant at your beck and call.”
He shrugged. “Take it or leave it.”
The enormity of what he suggested left her raw and bleeding inside. “Why?” she choked out.
“You and your family treated me like shit.”
Hurt, she shot back, “That’s not true—”
“I came from poverty, raised by a single mom who sacrificed everything so I could be here today.” His nostrils flared. “You had it all, the shiny name, the mansion, a rich daddy who gave you whatever you wanted.” Raising his voice, he continued fiercely, “I gave you everything I had to give, but it still wasn’t enough. I didn’t have the credentials your father demanded so I could ‘deserve’ you. Now I do.”
Tears stung her eyes. “I didn’t care about those things.”
“You dumped me and got engaged to a man your father chose for you.” His gaze burned with rage. “I was nothing to you.”
“That’s not the way it happened—”
He cut her off. “All I needed was the chance to prove myself. But you wouldn’t wait. I’ve come back to the island to claim what was denied me.”
“My father was looking out for my best interests,” she defended.
Carter’s arm shot out to indicate the deteriorating state of the hotel. “Great job he did, too.”
She smacked him across the face. “Don’t you dare disrespect him.”
Recovering from her slap, he slowly turned his head so they were face to face again. Animosity sizzled between them.
“I’m the only person who will save you from Frank’s mistakes. I suggest you take my offer,” he stated, his expression stone, his voice devoid of emotion. “You bowed to your father’s wishes. Now you will bow to mine.”
“That includes denying me a choice?”
He shrugged. “You have a choice. Take it or leave it.”
“That’s not a choice! It’s an ultimatum.”
“I don’t care what you call it. I can walk away right now and leave you to your own devices.”
At the thought, terror struck her heart. Without him as the buyer, she didn’t have many options. She didn’t have any options. The truth shriveled her pride, her future fading before her eyes.
“Or,” he continued, “I can take you to my bed and shelter you from the consequences of your family’s failings.”
“I can’t be bought.” The sentiment sounded hollow, even to herself. She’d known the potential consequences of becoming his lover, yet she’d hoped to regain his love and respect in the process. “How can you be so callous toward me?”
“Isn’t that what you’ve set up for yourself? You won’t leave the island. You’re not qualified for any other career. Am I wrong so far?”
She shook her head, fighting to keep tears at bay.
“You’ve put yourself at the mercy of the next owner of the Montgomery Hotel.”
As he confronted her with the reality of her situation, her blood thinned. He’d backed her into a corner, one she’d constructed for herself. She didn’t see any escape.
“I’m the only thing standing between you and the future you want. You need me. Take my offer,” he said coaxed as sensual warmth returned to his tone.
“Please,” she whispered, desperation scraping her insides. “Don’t make me do this.”
“What will it be, Ellie?”
Frozen, her heart crushed by his conquest, she felt the walls closing in around her. Her eyes slid shut.
“Tell me you don’t want this.” His lips pressed against her neck.
He dragged his hot mouth over her skin. Sipping, tasting, fraying her determination and resistance.
“Tell me you don’t miss what we had.”
The stiffness in her limbs eased as his mouth seduced her body. She didn’t want to give him what he wanted, at the cost of what she needed. The price was too high.
“I can give you what you want, what you need,” he said. “All you have to do is say yes.”
One word. So simple, yet so impossible. She shook her head again, even as she felt desire winning the battle over her struggle for self-reliance.
“Give in to me. I’ll take care of you.” His lips trailed up her neck, along her jaw, a fiery path promising pure ecstasy. His warm breath stirred the hair by her ear. His tongue flicked over the rim, probing the canal.
Ellie inhaled sharply. How easy he made the offer sound…
No matter how much she wanted to deny it, she needed him. Despite his devil’s bargain. Temptation battered her judgment. Confusion and carnal need tangled inside her.
“Let me take you.” His teeth tugged at her earlobe, while his hands hand cupped her bottom, revealing his taut desire. “I can give you everything you desire.”
She moaned in surrender.
“Tell me you want me.”
“I—”
“Say it.”
She wanted to lose herself in their sexual synergy. She wanted pleasure to overcome her fears. “Yes,” she whispered faintly.
“Say it again.”
“Yes, I want you.”
“That’s my girl.” He scooped her into his arms and carried her to his suite.
There, he laid her down on the silky sheets. He stood over her as he undressed. The vision of his naked body, muscular and hard and perfect, dissolved her troubled thoughts.
At this moment, he belonged to her as much as she belonged to him. For this brief time, they were equals.
Pulling back the sheets, he joined her. Ellie traced her fingertips along ridges of his flat stomach as he undressed her. He released a sound of encouragement, and she felt emboldened to touch him everywhere, sliding her palms across the smooth expanse of his skin, excited by the way his arms flexed as he unzipped her gown and slid it off her body. Her hands curved around his broad shoulders, embracing the incredible sensuality he delivered, offering the emotional investment that had been missing at the lighthouse.
Within minutes his skin was scalding to the touch. He raised himself over her and settled between her thighs. “I’ve wanted you in my bed for so long. I’ll be good to you, baby.” His words came in hot puffs against her breasts. “You’ll never have to worry about anything again.”
That vow alone held tremendous appeal. No one had taken care of her or looked out for her best interest in years. Surrounded by self-centered and self-destructive men since Carter left, she desperately missed that sense of security, of effortlessness, that he dangled in front of her.
His mouth closed on one nipple, his tongue flicking, teasing. She sighed, sliding her hands into his hair. He tended to her breasts one at a time, licking and sucking, driving her mad with desire. His mouth traced the underside of her breasts.
Then he traveled down her stomach, his tongue dipping into her navel. Descending further, his teeth scraped her hipbones. Her hips rolled forward, begging for more.
With a low laugh, he murmured, “Soon.”
His mouth explored her legs. He nibbled her ankles, kissed the arches of her feet, swirled his tongue along the backs of her knees. He tended to her exclusively, making her feel precious, cherished.
“Please,” she begged, spreading her legs.
She felt him smile against her inner thighs. “Your wish is my command.”
Then his mouth was there. Licking, tasting, and sucking on her, driving her toward abandon. She squirmed under his exquisite attention.
He held her down.
She moaned. “Don’t stop...oh, God.”
Tremors trickled through her. He cupped her backside, held her against his face, and didn’t stop until a piercing burst wracked her body with delicious spasms.
Ellie whimpered. Still, he didn’t stop until she couldn’t take anymore. Arching and writhing, she wanted to feel him inside her. “I need you, Carter.”
In the light of the moon, his silver eyes gleamed with triumph. “It’s about damn time you admitted it.”
Carter lif
ted himself above her. Arms outstretched, hands flat on the mattress, he settled his weight in the cradle of her thighs.
With a searing thrust he entered her to the hilt. Ellie cried out as he filled her completely.
Carter lowered his arms to curve around her. One hand cupped her neck. The other pressed against her lower back.
And he made slow, sensual love to her.
It felt so right being with him, her hips rolling to meet his thrusts. No man had ever reached her the way Carter did. He wrapped around her soul and refused to let go.
Moonlight illuminated his smooth skin. She marveled at his muscular silhouette, the way his body moved with hers. “I’ve missed you,” she admitted in the heat of passion. “I’ve wanted you back since the day you left the island.”
“You have no idea...” His thrusts deepened.
Her body reveled in their mutual surrender. He rocked with her. Seconds, minutes, hours passed as he drove her to the peak again and again.
For the fourth time, Ellie felt the culmination building inside. “Carter,” she begged, unsure if she could handle more of this devastating pleasure. She reached another soaring climax. Coming down from the high, she drifted in peaceful waves of bliss. She wanted him to experience the same unbelievable fulfillment he’d given her over the past several hours. She wrapped her legs around his waist.
That seemed to send him over the edge. His drives became faster, more powerful. His body tensed. Breath coming in ragged bursts, he squeezed her tight. With a powerful roar, he hit climax. He pulsed and throbbed inside her until he went still, absorbed in their mutual satisfaction.
Perspiration coated them. Sheets tangled around them. With a final groan, Carter collapsed in ecstasy.
After a few minutes of resting his head between her breasts, he pulled out, rolled onto his side and gathered her against him.
“You’re mine.” His statement hung in the air as they succumbed to sleep.
Twice more he reached for her in the night, woke her with kisses, and made love to her. Incredible , she thought, warm and safe in his embrace, wishing they had never parted. But when rays from the sunrise slanted through the blinds and struck her face the next morning, Ellie shot up in bed.
Carter slept soundly. He looked magnificent, his muscular physique and tanned skin glowing in the sunlight.
A sleeping lion .
The fact that he posed the greatest threat to her dreams—yet was the only one who could make them come true—hit her hard.
Untangling herself from the sheets, she slipped out of his bed. Dressing quickly, she gathered her things. Then she glanced once more at Carter.
The attraction that brought them together the first time, when they were young and naïve, had been based on respect and love. What he was asking of her now defiled everything he’d ever meant to her. And he’d meant so much...
But this was not the young man she fell in love with years ago. The new version of Carter was bitter, angry, vengeful.
Anger and frustration consumed her.
I will not be used as a means to your end .
Heart aching, she left his room. If he wanted her so badly, he would ask for her surrender—not demand it.
She raced back to her room before anyone caught her exiting his suite. Weary, aching in intimate places, she pushed aside memories of their night together. She glanced at the events on her calendar for that day.
The liquor and wine collection would be shipped to Neville in the next hour. A bubble of excitement rose in her chest, bringing with it a glimmer of hope.
When she saw what else awaited her, she groaned.
Arnoff Applestone would also arrive within hour. This was the last thing she needed complicating her life. Yet her uncle insisted she cater to each investor, in the hopes of winning a bid on the hotel that would erase her debt and secure her future.
Carter’s proposition, while achieving both aims, would not allow her any sort of freedom. She would be beholden to him, every move she made directed by him, scrutinized and judged. And what happened when Carter grew tired of their long-distance affair? What if he took up with another mistress, and decided to sell the hotel later on? The notion burned through her stomach like acid.
Would Arnoff be different? Would he allow her to keep her dreams and her freedom, with fewer strings attached?
Releasing a tense sigh, Ellie realized she was about to find out.
*
As Carter roused from slumber, he instinctively reached for Ellie. All he found were cold sheets. He sat up, scrubbing a hand down his face, and stared at the empty place beside him in bed. His hands fisted.
“This was not part of the deal,” he seethed.
Uncontrollable fury ignited in him. Did she think he’d let her slip away, after she gave him her word?
She thought wrong .
Exhausted from their amazing night of sex, but fired up by her absence, Carter levered himself out of bed. He threw on jeans and a t-shirt, without bothering to shower or check himself in the mirror. He was in no mood to care.
Finger-combing his hair as he stalked down the hallway, he approached her room and knocked with his fist. “Ellie, if you’re in there, open up.”
No response.
“Don’t mess with me, little girl. You won’t like the way I play.”
Someone moved toward him in the hall. He turned to find Matilda. She assessed him coolly. “Miss Montgomery is not in her room, sir. You’d do better to look in the dining area. Last I saw, she was having breakfast.”
“Thank you.”
She gave a curt nodded.
Carter took off in the direction of the dining hall, his blood boiling. If she had waited, he would’ve ordered breakfast in bed. And lunch. And dinner. Andre would’ve delivered the meals personally, so they never had to leave the room. Carter wanted her right there beside him, or under him, always within reach.
One night wasn’t enough. Not nearly. It’ll take a lifetime to get my fill .
Carter was too pissed off to give that thought much consideration. Bottom line—she was his. And he wanted her back in his bed. Now.
Disheveled and not giving a damn, he paused in the dining area’s open doors until he spotted Ellie. She sat with her back to him, and across the table from her was one of the ugliest guys Carter had ever seen. His teeth were yellow and crooked—Carter could tell when the guy smiled at Ellie. Thready strands of hair swept over his bald head from a steep side part. His eyes were slightly bugged out, his nose flat and wide. He looked like a genetic experiment gone wrong.
How dare he sit at the same table with Ellie? That spot was reserved for Carter alone.
Prepared to stake his claim, he advanced on them. He heard Ellie speaking to the man cheerfully, in a careless ramble, as if she hadn’t just signed herself over to Carter, body and soul. As if they hadn’t spent the entire night making love and fulfilling each other’s every desire.
Carter stopped in front of them, pinning Ellie with a hard stare. “Did you think it would be that easy?”
Ellie’s teacup clattered to its saucer.
“You should know me better by now, sweetheart.” He held out his hand for her to accept. “You have an appointment. With me.”
She ignored his gesture. “Arnoff Applestone, I’d like you to meet Carter Stratton, the other investor interested in buying the Montgomery Hotel.”
Carter pointed at Arnoff. “This guy?”
Primly, she folded her hands on the table and explained. “You will be bidding against each other on Friday. I hope in the meantime we can leave our egos at the door and save the competitive spirit for the auction.”
“He is my competition,” Carter deadpanned. Yeah, right . “Come with me, Ellie. We need to finish nailing more details of our negotiation,” he said tongue-in-cheek.
Arnoff spoke. “The lady seems quite content in my company.”
“Who the hell are you to say what she does or doesn’t feel?”
“Carter
, don’t make a scene,” Ellie hissed. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
“Then talk to me out there.” He pointed to the hallway.
Ellie offered a pained smile as she said, “Arnoff, please excuse us a moment.”
With a smarmy grin, he replied, “I’ll be here waiting, dear.”
Dear? Territorial instinct kicked Carter in the gut. He whipped back around to set this idiot straight.
Ellie grabbed his arm, dragging him toward the exit. “Carter,” she said in a warning tone, “if you want to talk, let’s talk.”
When they reached the hallway, Carter switched their roles, leading Ellie into a shadowed nook beneath the curving staircase.
His hands flattened above her head, his body trapping her against the wall. “You think I came all this way for one night?”
“I don’t care what you came for. That’s all you’ll get from me.”
He chuckled low. “I don’t think so, honey. You agreed to my terms last night. You belong to me.”
“I agreed because I felt trapped. Now there may be an alternative.”
He stared incredulously. “The dude that looks like a toad? You’ve got to be joking.”
Eyes slitted, she notched up her chin. “If I’m going to subject myself to someone’s mercy, I want to explore my options.”
Dragging his thumb across her pink lips, he smeared her lipstick. “Did you wear this for him?”
He didn’t give her time to reply. He sucked her bottom lip, then her top lip, removing all traces of lipstick before he swirled his tongue into her mouth.
Ellie’s breathing turned rapid. Her hands went to his chest, but her shove turned into a caress as he kissed her more deeply.
Then his cell phone rang.
Cursing, he grabbed his cell and checked the caller ID. Neville . “I need to take this.” His eyes narrowed on her. “Don’t go far.”
The second she saw an opening, Ellie bolted. She shut herself in the women’s bathroom across from the dining hall.
“Neville,” Carter answered. He went upstairs for privacy. “Anyone ever tell you, you have the worst timing?”
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