His Secret Temptation

by Cat Schield

  “I’ve already explained that this whole thing was my fault.” He lowered his head, his lips grazing her cheek. He plucked her purse from her hands and sent it sailing across the room.

  She watched it land before putting her hand on his chest to push him away, but his mouth was already trailing down her neck, tongue dancing against her skin, stoking the blaze that always ignited whenever he touched her.

  “Simon, stop. It’s over.” Beneath her hand his heartbeat throbbed relentlessly, calling to her. “Your family knows the truth. We don’t have to pretend anymore.”

  “Is that what you’ve been doing all this time?” he demanded, his voice soft but intense. He leaned forward, his bright blue eyes holding her as effectively as his hands on her arms. “Pretending? When you kissed me with no one around to see? When I held you in my arms and you cried my name as you climaxed? Was it all pretense?”

  “You said it yourself, Christmas in Savannah is very romantic. Was it pretending? No. But you have to ask yourself if it was real.”

  “It felt real to me.” His breath rasped past her ear. “This feels real to me.”

  When his mouth captured hers, all thought of leaving him vanished. Before he touched her, she might have spent all night arguing with him, but her body betrayed her. Giving him exactly the response he demanded, Caroline moaned in frustration and rubbed her breasts against him to drive the kiss harder, deeper. Inside her the familiar ache began to build. Soft, urgent sounds came from her throat.

  Oh, how she wanted this. To be naked on the bed with Simon inside her, driving her mad with desire. She wanted answers to the conflicting emotions tearing her apart. She wanted to stay in Savannah, live in that gorgeous house on Charlton and have a future with the man who was currently rocking her body and her world.

  “I want you.” She didn’t even know she’d said the words until Simon deepened his kiss, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, a prelude to his body’s complete possession of hers.

  The sound of her zipper could scarcely be heard over the rush of their combined breaths, but Caroline felt her slacks slide off her hips. He skimmed his fingers beneath the elastic of her panties, but left them in place and caressed upward instead, grazing her stomach with his thumbs, making her muscles jump evocatively.

  “You are so incredibly gorgeous,” he murmured. He caressed her skin, sliding his hands around her waist with reverent attentiveness. Cupping her buttocks, he kneaded her flesh.

  Shock waves spread out from her core. Caroline gasped as pleasure heated the place between her thighs that craved his attention. But he had started this sweet torture and seemed in no rush to finish it.

  Beneath her cardigan of poinsettia red she wore a matching red camisole. Her nipples hardened in anticipation of that silk moving against her skin as Simon stripped the sweater off her shoulders. He took his time, fingers gliding over her rib cage, skidding past her breasts, circling but coming nowhere near where she wanted them.

  In the end she pulled off her own clothes, tossing them aside roughly and set to work on Simon’s. Catching her impatience, he pushed aside her fumbling hands and freed his own buttons, removed pants, shoes, socks and underwear. At last he stood naked before her, shaking as her fingers discovered his shoulders, chest and at last his nipples before venturing lower. He stopped her before she could get below his navel and carried her hands to his lips for a hard kiss.

  “I’m going to make love to you properly in a bed this time,” he told her, leading her around the bed and stripping the covers back with a sharp snap of his arm. “No more floors or showers for you until I’m convinced you can be conventional.” His wolfish grin didn’t match the serious intensity of his eyes.

  “How conventional?” she demanded, using her body to push him backward onto the mattress.

  They bounced once before he rolled her beneath him, taking away her advantage of surprise. Their legs tangled. His erection pressed against her belly. She rotated her hips, pressing her most sensitive part against him in an effort to soothe the ache he’d started. He plunged his tongue deep inside her mouth, took her breast firmly in his hand and let her gyrate against him. Her breath came in gasps as she rose higher and higher. Mindless noises rumbled in her throat as her thighs gripped him. It wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. She needed him inside her, riding this rising tide of passion with her.

  “Make love to me, Simon,” she pleaded, her fingers digging into his shoulder. “I need you with me.”

  “Soon enough.”

  With those enigmatic words, he slid his mouth down her neck to her breasts, pulling one taut nipple between his lips, rolling his tongue around and around. He gently used the edge of his teeth and her hips bucked urgently. Her head thrashed from side to side as the pulse between her thighs pounded harder, insisting that she needed him hot and hard deep inside her. He was her master, manipulating her body at his will and she was his helpless slave. Driving her wild seemed to be his only aim as he moved farther down her body, dipping his tongue into her navel.

  He kept going until he settled between her thighs. At the first flick of his tongue against her, Caroline’s eyes flew open. The sight of his bright blue eyes shining with devilish delight mesmerized her as did the sight of his tongue dipping into her core. She almost came then, but he seemed to sense she was close because he left where she wanted him most to nip at the inside of her thigh.

  “Simon, please.”

  Every muscle in her body clenched as he put his mouth on her once again, but he didn’t let her slide into oblivion. Caroline lost count of how many times he took her to the edge before he pushed her right over. She was so overwhelmed by the time the first shudders began she had barely enough breath to cry out his name. Yet cry she did, a fragile, evocative sound that ripped first from her heart and then from her throat.

  * * *

  Simon felt wildly powerful as Caroline surged and trembled beneath him. Knowing that he had brought her to this intense orgasm filled him with satisfaction beyond anything he had ever known. The room had grown dim as the afternoon waned. Before the sun reemerged he intended to demonstrate that she belonged to him, completely, irrevocably, forever.

  He slid back up her body until he was positioned at her entrance. He shifted forward and plunged into her, groaning as he sank in. She was so wet, yet so tight it was all he could do to hold himself still long enough for her to adjust. He felt her inner muscles clench around him as her feet shifted on the mattress and her hips lifted to take him deeper.

  He wanted to tell her how good she felt, how hot and wonderful, but he lost the breath for words as she began to move, her urgent cries driving him onward. He withdrew and plunged deep again and again. She caught his rhythm and matched it. Her hands were in his hair, on his shoulders. Her nails dug into his back. An orgasm so strong he thought it might rip him apart started in his groin and spread outward. He slid a hand between them to find the most sensitive part of her. He scarcely touched her before her body arched against his, shaking with the power of her release. With her name torn from his lips and his breath ripped from his body, Simon slid into a heavenly oblivion.

  When his mind floated back to join his body, Simon felt fingertips grazing up and down his spine. Caroline’s inner muscles pulsed around his shaft, wringing a mild jolt of pleasure from his groin. Shocking really when he didn’t think he could move anytime soon, much less do that again.

  He shifted his weight off her and gathered her against his chest, tangling their legs to keep her close. His lips found hers and their breath blended. He brushed sweat-dampened hair away from her cheeks. His gaze traced her delicate features, appreciated her beauty. But even as he smiled in contentment, he saw her withdrawing behind her defenses and knew while their lovemaking had been incredible, it was not enough to convince her to stay.

  “You’re still leaving.”

  “I have to go. I don’t belong here. I never did.”

  She rolled away. Simon caught her around the waist before
she could leave the bed.

  “I’m in love with you,” he said, pulling her stiff body against him, soothing her with lazy caresses and soft, loving murmurs.

  “I’m in love with you too.” She pried at his hands. “But I still have to leave.”

  Although his heart soared at her admission, her stubborn resistance to seeing reason kept his elation at bay. “Why?”

  “Because after what I did, your family will hate me.”

  “They won’t.” He cupped her breast, measuring the weight, memorizing the curve, lightly pinching the nipple between his fingers until she gasped and shifted her hips in an age-old rhythm.

  “They will.”

  Frustrated by his inability to convince her with words, Simon let his newly revived erection ride between the sweet curves of her bottom. With his tongue laving the sensitive skin below her ear and his teeth nipping lightly at her earlobe, Simon parted her thighs and slid into her hot, moist core. She cried out in pleasure as he rocked against her, his fingers plying the knot of nerves between her thighs. Then, as her orgasm broke over her, he bared his teeth in primitive satisfaction before joining her.

  She might be determined to leave him, but he intended to convince her otherwise. Whatever it took.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Where were her shoes? Caroline sat on the floor and stared at the space where they’d been. Every single pair she’d brought with her from Atlanta had disappeared. What was going on?

  She’d awakened this morning to an empty bed and an emptier heart. The urgent need to flee that had gripped her the night before was no less insistent at ten in the morning, but she hadn’t been able to shake the exhaustion pinning her to the mattress. Eventually, however, she’d forced herself out of bed and into the shower. It was only as she’d finished dressing that she’d noticed she had no footwear.

  The bedroom door opened. Thinking it was Simon, she turned around, but her annoyance faded the second she spied Sarah crossing the room toward her.

  “Looking for something?”

  “My shoes are gone.” Seeing the grin Sarah couldn’t restrain, Caroline frowned. “Do you know where they are?”

  “Somewhere safe.” Sarah joined her on the floor. “Hannah and I took them.”

  “Why?”

  “To keep you from leaving. Simon came to us while you were sleeping, half out of his mind because he couldn’t convince you to stay. I suggested we take your shoes until we could talk some sense into you.”

  “Some sense?” Caroline cocked her head and regarded Sarah in some amazement. She needed sense talked into her? “Did you miss my performance last night? I spilled everyone’s secrets. They all hate me. Why would anyone want me around?”

  Sarah slid her raven-wing hair behind one ear. “Did I tell you that I’m almost an only child? By that I mean there’s almost eighteen years between my older brother and me. He was almost done with college by the time I was out of diapers, so I never really had a close sibling. He was more like an uncle. When Hannah and I first got together, she’d tell me all about the fights with Elizabeth and how she could never count on Simon to help her out when she needed something because he was always out of town. Or how Dane always picked on her about how she could do better than the firm she was at. You can imagine how mad I got for her. The first time she brought me here, I was ready to take on each and every one of them for upsetting my girl. Imagine my surprise when I saw how well they all got along. We had a fabulous time, and I couldn’t figure out how they could make her so mad, but she could forgive them so easily.”

  Sarah’s message came through loud and clear. Family forgives past wrongs.

  “But I’m not part of this family,” Caroline protested, her emotions running a twisting labyrinth of hope and despair. “Look at how Hannah and Simon feel about Francine. They can’t stand her, and she was going to become a part of their family. Simon and I were faking the engagement. What possible reason could they have for forgiving me?”

  “Why don’t you let me answer that question,” Simon said from the door.

  Sarah winked at Caroline. “I think that’s my cue to leave.”

  Caroline tracked Sarah’s journey across the room, afraid that if she looked at Simon, she’d burst into tears. She kept her gaze fixed on the ceiling as he sat beside her, her breath an unsteady rasp as she struggled to maintain some semblance of calm.

  “When I woke up this morning and you were still in bed beside me, I knew I’d do anything to keep you from leaving.” He set his forefinger against her jaw and turned her face toward him.

  She saw warm affection shining in his eyes and her heart did a backflip. “Even steal my shoes?”

  “I have to admit, Sarah’s beginning to think more and more like a Holcroft every day.”

  “And this is a good thing?” she grumbled, resisting the entreaty in his eyes, but only just.

  “You’ll be happy to know Dane and I had a long talk this morning.”

  She searched his face, looking for bruises, but found none. She half expected the brothers to come to blows after she told about Francine’s visit to Simon’s condo. “Just talked?”

  “Well, there might have been a little good-natured scuffling.”

  “How good-natured?”

  His eyes danced at her low murmur. “Let’s just say we worked out a lot of pent-up hostility.”

  “And now everything’s okay between you?”

  “They’re better.”

  “What about him and Francine?”

  “Apparently they’ve been having problems for about a year. He’s going to Atlanta tonight to end things. I can’t say he and I settled all our differences, but we agreed to be less competitive going forward.”

  A little of her heartache eased. “And you’re going to talk to each other? Think of how much could have been avoided if you’d just told him what was going on from the beginning.”

  “But then Francine would never have come over to my condo, and I never would have told her you were my fiancée.”

  “And I never would have come here and made such a mess of things with your family.”

  He picked up her left hand and stroked his thumb over the bare spot on her ring finger. She noticed the dent where the engagement ring had rested, marveling that something she’d worn for such a short time could have left such a lasting impression.

  “Mom gave me this today.” Reaching into his pocket, he brought out a ring. “It’s my grandmother’s ring. She thought I should give it to you.”

  The diamond sparkled enticingly on Simon’s palm. Caroline tried to wrap her mind around what it meant. “I can’t accept that. It looks like an engagement ring.”

  “It is. I want you to marry me.”

  “You do?” Of all the things she’d thought might happen today, this wasn’t even on her list.

  “I’ve gotten rather used to the idea of having you beside me for the rest of my life.”

  Her breath lodged in her chest. “That’s what I want too. More than anything, but how can I ever face your family again after what I did?”

  “I love you. And I love my family. But you have to know that if you force me to choose between them, I’ll choose you.”

  “What? Are you crazy? They mean everything to you.” Despite her protests, warmth flowed through her, dispelling some of the chill from her heart. “And I’d never make you choose.”

  “I’ll have to if you don’t accept that they’ve come to love you and want you in their lives.”

  “But yesterday…” She trailed off with a shudder. “What I did was so awful.”

  “Look, they’ve put up with Francine’s bad behavior all these years. I’m sure they won’t hold a little thing like you spilling everyone’s deepest, darkest secrets against you for too long.”

  “This isn’t funny,” she complained, tugging at the hand he still held.

  “It is a little. Thanks to you, Dad confessed that at his last doctor’s appointment he found out his cholesterol is h
igh. He’s supposed to be on a special diet. Mom is furious that he didn’t tell her.”

  Caroline felt her lips twitch despite the serious nature of her situation. “You are making fun of me.”

  “You’re going to join this family, so you’d better get used to it.”

  When he smiled at her like that, how could she resist him? Hope burst free. Her love for Simon unfolded like a sail, catching the wind and propelling her toward her future.

  “And you should know Mom’s holding your shoes for ransom. She said she’ll give them back to you only when you promise to marry me.”

  “Oh, really?” Caroline cracked a small smile. She stuck out her left hand. “Then I guess I’d better say yes. I really like those shoes.”

  Simon took her left hand and slid the engagement ring onto her finger. He turned her palm up and kissed the base of her ring finger as he had so many times before. She trembled as she had each time he had placed his lips there. Abruptly the gesture took on a greater significance. When had he first meant it?

  She burrowed her fingers into his hair and pulled his lips to hers. Her soul flooded with pure, sweet joy as she met the thrust of his tongue and opened herself to his every caress. He drank from her sighs and feasted on her mouth. When he let her come up for air, his wide grin looked as foolish as hers felt.

  “Now what about our new house on Charlton Street? Are you comfortable living five blocks away from my parents?”

  “You want to live here?”

  “Are you kidding? Ever since I saw your face light up in that house, I knew that’s where I wanted us to begin our life together.”

  At his words her heart expanded, threatening to leave her lungs no room to draw in air. All her dreams were coming true.

  “Are you sure about this? Marriage, house, moving to Savannah? This is what your mother wanted for you, but are you certain it’s what you want?”

  “I love you, Caroline. I want to live in that house on Charlton, raise children with you and grow old together.