by Tawny Taylor
“Thanks.” He stepped into a good-sized bedroom. “Here you go. You have your own bath over here.” He opened a door on the opposite side of the room. “I’ll get you something to sleep in.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I don’t sleep in clothes.”
He visibly swallowed and the red returned to his face and neck. It was a nice shade, complemented his eyes.
She couldn’t help grinning. “Is something wrong?”
“Not at all. I’ll be in the room at the opposite end of the hall. Let me know if you need anything.” He hesitated, and, her courage fortified by the ample supply of alcohol streaming through her veins, she flattened her body against his and wrapped her arms around her neck.
Ahhh, now that felt good and right. She pressed her ear to his chest. Her entire body thrummed to the steady thump-wump that beat against his rib cage.
He didn’t exactly hug her back at first, which made for a somewhat awkward moment. But a few seconds later, he lifted his arms and wrapped them around her. He even cradled the back of her head in a hand. Oh yes, that was so much better.
She closed her eyes and soaked in all the yummy Dierk loving. His fingers massaged her scalp. His other hand was lower, flattened against the small of her back, and the skin beneath it tingled like it had never tingled before. A steady drumbeat kicked up between her legs. She smooshed herself tighter against him.
There was quite a hard bulge pressed against her, right about her tummy level. Just because she was feeling naughty, she started moving against him. In exchange, he curled his fingers in her hair and pulled, easing her head back.
Their eyes met. His were very dark, his expression a mask of hard male need. She shuddered, literally.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. Slowly, he released her, but that didn’t keep her from feeling like she was going to fall over. He had it all wrong. He wasn’t supposed to leave her now, he was supposed to kiss her until she couldn’t stand, and then he was supposed to carry her over to that nice, big bed and fuck her until she was in heaven. “I shouldn’t—”
She nodded. “Oh yes, you should.”
“No.” He headed for the door, this time looking extremely sure of himself.
“Why?” She didn’t follow him, although she wanted to. “I like you. You seem to like me, if that lump in your pants is any indicator. So why do you keep pushing me away?”
“Because it’s best.”
Her insides were twisting and turning, tying themselves into knots. And acid was burning through her veins. This time she couldn’t stop herself from going to him. She needed to be close so she could look into those dark eyes of his and see if she could figure out the truth. “Best for whom?”
He visibly inhaled, exhaled. “You.”
“If you think you know what’s good for me, you’re wrong. You don’t have a clue.”
“Don’t I?” Suddenly, he grabbed her upper arms and hauled her against him. He looked down upon her face with open passion and longing, and she was captivated, ensnared by the emotion she read in his eyes. He tipped his head, and, expecting a kiss at last, she closed her eyes and held her breath.
She waited.
Waited.
“I told you that first day,” he practically growled. “We can’t do this. It goes against everything I believe in.”
She opened her eyes to glare at him. “I don’t get you. You don’t believe in caring about people? Expressing your feelings? Giving pleasure? I guess I don’t know how to play by your rules, Master. I make a very poor slave. But I can’t deny my heart its deepest wanting.”
“Then you force me to.” He released her, and she practically crumpled to the floor. “I will be leaving soon, returning to the life I left behind. You can’t go with me.”
“Why not? Give me a reason that makes sense and I won’t ever bother you again.”
He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I’m not the man you think you know.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to see that. You’re not brave and powerful and honorable.” Her eyes and nose were burning, but she refused to let herself cry. “You’re a bastard.”
“Yes, I’m a bastard. And worse.” He started to say something more but stopped. Instead, he turned and headed for the door.
“Maybe someday you’ll stop running,” she yelled after him.
He left the room without saying another word, closing the door behind him.
Devastated and furious, she kicked off her shoes and stripped out of the dress. She tried lying down, but, even though she was still pretty buzzed, she couldn’t fall asleep. She opted to take a hot bath, hoping the warm water would help her relax.
Really, she knew there was basically no chance she’d sleep tonight. Not with so much going through her head. But she went through the motions anyway. She filled the tub and soaked. And soaked, and soaked and soaked. Until the skin on her hands and feet was shriveled up like a prune. Still, when she stepped out of the tub, she felt no more ready for sleep than she had been before she’d started.
It was useless.
She checked the closet, hoping to find something to wear, but she found it empty. She searched the dressers. Again, empty. This place, as pretty as it was, had no life. It felt like a model home that had been staged, or, like a movie set, designed to make people believe it was lived in when actually it was lifeless.
With no other option but to put on that dress—out of the question—she fashioned a toga out of the flat sheet and headed downstairs. There wouldn’t be much on TV at this hour, but she hoped she’d find something distracting, maybe a movie on LMN. Those were always good for reminding her how good she had it. Nobody was trying to kill her, she didn’t have psycho family members destroying her life, and she hadn’t been kidnapped and sold into slavery.
She turned on the television—a puny set by today’s standards—and made herself comfy on the couch, the remote in her fist. She clicked a few times and quickly realized Dierk didn’t have cable.
Infomercial.
Infomercial.
And infomercial. Blech.
Something rustled by the hallway. Instinctively, she leaned over to look.
Dierk. In a snug tank shirt and a pair of shorts. He looked amazing. Her heart twisted.
This sucked.
She cut off the TV and set the remote on the coffee table, where she had found it. “Sorry, did the television wake you? There’s nothing on so I’m heading back up to bed.”
“No, I wasn’t asleep. I don’t sleep well at night.” He crossed his arms over his chest, displaying a don’t-get-too-close vibe she couldn’t misread, no matter how much alcohol was clouding her vision.
“Usually I sleep okay.” She bit her lip to keep from saying more. There was no point; he’d made that clear.
He tipped his head. “Nice outfit.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to wake you, but since you’re already awake, do you mind finding me something comfortable to wear? I guess I should’ve accepted the offer when you made it.”
“Not a problem. I have plenty of T-shirts….” He led her back up the stairs and down the hall. At the door to his room, she hesitated, hanging back in the hallway. But from her vantage point, she was able to watch him well enough. This was the most undressed she’d seen the man, and wow, did he have a body. She’d felt those muscles under his clothes plenty of times, but to see them flex as he moved, it was enough to make her warm and tingly all over.
She watched as he bent over to get something from his bottom drawer. Nice ass. She watched as he reached high in his closet to get something from the top shelf. Oh, those shoulders. And she watched as he strolled toward her.
It just wasn’t right that he should be that perfect and yet so unreachable.
When he handed her the clothes, their gazes locked, their fingers brushed against each other, and a huge jolt of sensual energy shot between them. It was almost enough to take her breath away.
He couldn’t tell her he didn’t feel it, too. That
connection. That magic. She could read it on his face, see it in every plane and bulge on his tense body. That only infuriated her more. What could be so wrong with him or his life that he couldn’t follow his heart’s desire?
“Dierk—”
“Please.” He stepped backward. “I don’t want to regret anything I say or do tonight.”
Her eyes were burning again, dammit. She hated this man for making her feel this way. But on the other hand, she adored him for it, too. Until now, she hadn’t realized what true wanting was, what genuine passion felt like. It was absolute hell. And heaven. Bliss. And misery. If she’d married John, she never would have experienced anything even remotely close to it.
“I wish I could understand,” she said on a sigh, backing into the hallway. “And, more than anything, I wish I could tell my heart to stop aching for you.” She turned to head back to her room, but he caught her wrist and jerked her back around.
One instant she was standing in the hallway, Dierk’s clothes folded in her arms, and the next she was flattened against the wall, Dierk’s hot body blocking her escape, not that she wanted to go anywhere. She couldn’t tip her head back to look into his eyes, not with the wall there, but she couldn’t care less. He was close, touching her, his fingers digging in her hair, his knee pushing between her thighs. “Dammit, Wynne. Holy Hell,” he repeated over and over.
She was on fire. Her pussy burned for his touch, and she couldn’t help rocking her hips back and forth, grinding against his leg. The friction only made it worse.
Would he kiss her? Would he fuck her with his cock, not his fingers, not a toy, but that glorious rod? She’d waited so long, dreamed, wished, hoped.
He was trembling against her, his skin searing to the touch but smooth as satin. She stroked his arms, her fingertips mapping the crests between thick muscles and blood vessels beating with life.
He backed up a little and she thought the moment was over. She felt herself slumping forward, having lost his support, but he caught her, scooped her off her feet, and carried her down to her room.
Could it be? Had he decided…?
He set her on the bed and stared down at her with a fierce, dark expression that made her want to whimper. Then he bent down and kissed her and she really did whimper. More than once.
His kiss was soft at first, a reluctant, patient taste. Oh so good. Oh so devastating, as she’d expected it would be.
He didn’t have to use his tongue to make her surrender. His lips were all he needed. She was his to do with as he wished. Body, mind, and soul.
His hands held her shoulders, pressing them down into the mattress while his mouth took her captive. She never wanted it to end, this sweet torment. This was the moment she’d craved, and it was more magical than she could have imagined.
And then he deepened the kiss and she lost all ability to think. His tongue slipped into her mouth and she was at his mercy, powerless to do anything but give everything he asked of her.
This was where she wanted to be: with Dierk, beneath him, giving everything she had and was to him. She hoped, as she poured out her emotions in her kiss, that he wouldn’t run away again.
His hand found an opening in her toga, and soon his fingertip was tracing a line down the center of her torso. Between her breasts, down her stomach, to her shaved mound. She tried to part her legs, but he crawled overtop of her and caught them between his knees. Damn him.
Within moments, she was tight all over and trembling, a hard, steady beat pulsing between her legs, her head spinning, her breath coming in hard little gasps. Still, he kissed her. Still, he teased her with soft touches and strokes.
“Promise me you won’t stop,” she whispered against his mouth. “Promise me you won’t let me go again.”
“I…can’t promise.” He sat back and gazed down upon her. He looked at her lovingly but his eyes were still dark and full of emotion. “You don’t know me. You have no idea who I really am.”
“But that’s only because you haven’t let me know you. You hide yourself in shadows. Why?”
“Because I’m not free to give myself to anyone.”
“Are you saying…you’re married?”
He looked away. “No, not yet.”
Her blood chilled. She curled her fingers into tight fists. The air in the room thinned. She couldn’t breathe. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’m engaged.”
Certain now that she would cry, she grabbed two corners of the sheet and pulled them around herself, encasing her body and arms. She swallowed a sob. “Well, I guess that explains a lot.”
“I do care about you. You know that. But I have promised…I can’t back out now.” Ironically, he backed away from her, moving off the bed. He rubbed his kiss-swollen mouth with his hand.
“I see.” She was going to be sick. Her insides felt like they’d been slashed through with a knife. “I’ve never seen you with…her. Oh wait. Please tell me it isn’t Tabitha.”
“It isn’t Tabitha. She was interested in becoming a member of Twilight.”
“Oh, I think she was interested in more than that,” she snapped, letting her anger slip through in the sarcastic comment.
“I had a suspicion. My brother set her up for disappointment. He doesn’t approve of my…” He took yet another step backward. Another, and another. At the door, he paused. “I wish I’d known.”
“Known what?”
He didn’t answer right away. “How it felt to be with you.”
“I guess I’m sorry for you then.”
His expression hardened. “I’d rather have your rage than your pity. That’s why I couldn’t tell you before now.”
She dragged her hands over her eyes. “Sorry. But that’s all you’ll get from me.”
17
“He’s what!” Kristy screeched. She clapped her hands over her ears and moaned. “It’s too early for this kind of shock. I need caffeine. Lots of it, and then you’re going to tell me what happened last night.” Barefoot and wearing a pair of cropped sweats and a Duran Duran T-shirt, Kristy shuffled into the kitchen.
Following her, with the intention of getting a big glass of water and some aspirin for her hangover, Wynne muttered, “I never would’ve guessed.”
“Me neither. If I had, I wouldn’t have encouraged you to go after him.”
“I know.”
“I asked around, but nobody knew much about him, outside of his relationship to Rolf.” After filling the coffeemaker and switching it on, Kristy gave her a long hug. “I’m so sorry. Engaged? The bastard.”
“But that’s just it. He isn’t a bastard. He didn’t do anything to encourage my feelings. Exactly the opposite, he kept discouraging me. Right from the beginning, he’s been avoiding me. Until last night…” Wynne sat at the kitchen table, plunked her elbows on the tabletop, and dropped her chin on her fists.
“What happened?” Kristy looked so miserable, it made Wynne feel worse.
“Um…nothing,” she lied. She just couldn’t tell Kristy everything, knowing it would make her friend pity her more. “He took me to his house and let me sleep in his spare bedroom. I was wasted, and I was an idiot, but he didn’t try to take advantage of the situation. Not once.” She sighed. “I think it’s time to adopt some cats and retire from the dating scene.”
“Oh, honey…” Kristy, a full cup of coffee in her hand, sat beside her. “Maybe a trip to Twilight’ll make things better?”
“I don’t know.” Wynne shook two aspirin out of the bottle. She raised her glass. “I gave in and made an appointment with Rolf for tomorrow night, but I think I’m going to cancel it.”
Kristy lifted her coffee cup. “Fair enough. I won’t try to change your mind if that’s what you want to do.” She tapped her cup against Wynne’s. “To mending hearts.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
That bastard was meeting someone today, and Dierk was pretty damn sure he knew who that someone was. This was why he’d punched the hole in the
wall. This was also why he’d decided it was better if he stayed locked in his office with the monitors shut off.
If he saw them together, he would have no choice but to do something about it.
His plan would have worked if only he’d been able to avoid leaving his office. But fate, being the bitch she was, had thrown a wrench in his plans. He’d had to go out into the main dungeon and he’d seen them.
One minute, he was standing a safe distance away, discussing a problem with his security manager and the other, he was in an up close and personal staredown with Rolf. There was no way in hell he was going to lose.
Wynne looked annoyed, or maybe angry. She had every right to be. So did his fucking brother, but he couldn’t help himself. She was his, dammit. His. No other man could adore her as much as he did. Worship her. Love her.
He ached to tell her. At least then she’d know. But he couldn’t, dammit. It would hurt her too much.
“What are you doing, brother?” Rolf said through gritted teeth. His eyes narrowed into a hard glare. “I am a member in good standing and have broken no rules.”
“I know,” Dierk snapped.
“Dierk, Rolf?” Wynne set one hand on each of their shoulders.
How he hated her touching any man but him. The sight made his insides coil into hard knots. Practically trembling from the effort of holding in his building rage, he cupped her cheek and stared into her lovely eyes. “Wynne, it’s okay. I need to talk to my brother for a minute. Only a minute.”
Rolf gave her an assenting nod.
She stepped back and wrapped her arms around herself. “O-okay. I’ll go get a drink at the bar—”
“Anything you want. It’s on the house.” Dierk jerked his head toward the door.
Rolf followed him back into his office but, even after a succinct and no doubt less than friendly invitation to sit, he stood just inside the door. “We’re alone now. So what’s this all about?”
“Wynne.”
“Yeah, I kinda guessed that much.” Rolf leaned a hip against a chair. “What about her?”
“You can’t play with her anymore.”
“What gives you the right to tell me that?”