She worried her bottom lip but didn’t move to take his hand. For a second he thought she might bolt but she finally came toward him and hesitantly reached out. When her small hand clasped his, he relaxed for the first time in days. There was no conversation as she let him lead her inside and while her silence scared the hell out of him, she didn’t shy away from his touch. At least he hadn’t destroyed that with his irrational behavior and stupid words. Why that should matter to him was something he’d have to examine later.
Once inside, he shut the front door and looked closely at her face. She was motionless, her eyes darting everywhere, taking in the house he’d built from his own design. The huge, contemporary home featured a heavy-timbered ceiling in an open concept with walls of windows that captured the changing light throughout the day. The second floor featured a distinctive walkway that looked down into the main living area. Everywhere you looked there was wood and handcrafted elements that brought a very cool wow factor.
He couldn’t help but smile and feel pride at the approval he saw in her gaze. He wanted to take her on a tour and talk her ear off about every nail and cross-beam, and he especially wanted to show her his master bedroom with its custom designed platform bed underneath a soaring wood canopy that reminded him of a tree house he once saw in his travels. But all that had to wait. Right now he needed to stay focused on the matter at hand.
“Your home is, well- it’s magnificent Draegyn. Truly. Did you design this yourself?” The astonishment and praise in her voice warmed a spot in his chest that seemed suspiciously centered around his heart. When she squeezed his hand, he smiled down into her upturned face.
“Yeah,” he shrugged like it was no big deal. Now that the ice had more or less been broken, some of the tension eased from his body.
“Here, c’mon,” he said, pulling her along. “Let me show you the back deck. We can relax out there and talk, okay?”
Leading her through the main living space and the ginormous gourmet kitchen, he felt like the king of the fucking world. What was it about someone else’s approval that made such a difference? Was it the actual expression of delight or the person giving it? In this case it was both. Drae was proud of his home, how it had been built and the attention to detail that showed in the exquisite craftsmanship. Seeing it anew through her astonished eyes was a powerful thing.
“Mmmm. That chili smells delicious,” she murmured at the exact same moment her stomach growled. Taking that as a cue he reluctantly released her hand and motioned to the wide, open doorway that led to the deck.
“Grab a seat outside, and I’ll bring us some. I’m a beer man when a bowl of chili is on the menu, but I have wine cooling if you’d prefer that.”
She smiled and chuckled softly. “Wine? With Ria’s chili? I think not. Sounds a little like sacrilege! Beer is fine for me, thanks.”
They sat quietly after that, under a huge umbrella strung with tiny white lights over a long wood table, cradling stoneware bowls filled with steaming homemade chili. She was being cautious, he understood that, but he couldn’t help but think that sitting with her just felt so right. Maybe they actually could salvage the budding friendship that had been developing before the shit hit the fan. Out of nowhere he looked at her and said, “I’m thinking about getting a dog. Alex has Zeus and Brody’s been after me for the last year to take one of his Labs.”
“Really? A dog would fit you nicely, I think. Is Brody the guy who trains the agency’s dogs? I’ve heard his name mentioned but haven’t met him yet.”
“Mmm hmm. He’s a Veteran, like most everyone who works for the agency. He goes back east for a couple of months every year. That’s where he is now. He’s got another life away from here. Usually, he turns up in early summer and sticks around till the winter holidays.” He laughed and grinned at her. “Wait till you get a load of the animals he works with. Hope you don’t mind barking!”
She smiled and tilted her bottle of beer at him. “Barking dogs, growling men. What’s the difference, really?”
He threw back his head and laughed at her comment. She was right. “Do you like dogs, Victoria?”
“Absolutely! I love having Zeus underfoot at work, and my mom and I had a puppy for a while. I loved her to death in that way only a child could.”
“Had?”
She frowned and sighed heavily. “Yeah. Had. She was wonderful but we lost her when she was only five years old. Some dog illness I think. Mom was crushed. Another loss of someone we both loved. It was hard.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe you can help me pick out a puppy when Brody gets here.” She didn’t answer, and he wondered what she was thinking.
Night had come to the desert. With lights from the house illuminating the deck, this was Drae’s favorite time of day. Everything was so still and quiet. Getting up, he walked to a covered control panel and flipped a couple of switches that lit up ground level lights marking the edge of the outdoor space. With another click flames appeared in a gas fire pit on the corner of the decking. “C’mon. Let’s sit by the fire,” he said with an outstretched hand. He was pretty sure she could walk the fifty feet without assistance, but he wanted to touch her again. “Want another beer?”
“Sure,” she answered after accepting his hand.
He led her to a grouping of cushioned chaise loungers gathered near the fire pit and then hurried away to clear their chili bowls and grab the cold brews. Nervousness ticked inside him again. Now that they’d eaten and indulged in some small talk, they’d have to get into more serious matters.
Tori kicked off her sandals and settled on a doublewide chaise, leaned her head back on the soft cushion, staring blankly at the first sight of twinkling stars in the darkening sky. This was something she liked about life in the Arizona desert. There was something magical about the quiet wilderness at night that spoke to her soul. Right now she needed some of that calming power to do more than just fill her head with romantic fantasies. Though she was working overtime trying to appear relaxed, truth was, she was almost jumping put of her skin. Draegyn did that to her. One look from his startling blue eyes, and she was up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
The only thing keeping her from going off on a hysterical tirade was knowing they had serious things to discuss. It wouldn’t help the already surreal situation for her to be unglued. Experience had taught her that. When her world shattered and the paparazzi hounded her every move, Tori clung to the lessons learned from watching her mother’s pageant protégée’s as they struggled to appear unfazed under glaring lights while judges picked apart each word and motion. Right this moment she might appear untroubled, but the truth was a far different story.
At Draegyn’s approach, she sat up straighter and schooled her expression into something she hoped looked composed and reasonable. She suspected he was doing something similar. It was only the occasional eye tic and the way his mouth sometimes compressed into a grim line that let Tori know he had any emotions at all. The man was a sphinx of cool-headedness. She suspected it was second nature to someone in his line of work to keep his emotions and thoughts in check.
Her eyes, which had been marking his movement in her direction, dropped to the bottle he held out and landed on his zipper, which conveniently struck her at eye level. The wicked imp in her subconscious that was urging less restraint was cackling with glee at the sight. Damn her hormones.
Motioning to her, Tori politely clinked the long-necked glass bottle with his as he murmured, “Truce part two?” She hiccupped a startled laugh at his choice of words, pursing her lips in a lame attempt to stop from dissolving into a fit of giggles. Truce? Really? That had worked out so well for them the first time.
“This seems more like a negotiated cease-fire than a truce, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps,” he allowed with a tiny smirk. “I seem to recall your only term being never to speak to you again. At least we aren’t yelling at one another, so yes. A suspension of hostilities in the hope of a truce.” She
had a retort ready for that comment but swallowed it along with a hearty slug of the cold brew. Sometimes it was better to say nothing and wait to see where things were going.
Drae lowered himself onto the lounger next to hers and gathered the thoughts that scattered when Victoria eyed the hard-on he knew was pushing against the front of his jeans. The woman was nothing but temptation and try as he might to reign in his response, he was failing miserably. Her shoes lay on the flagstone tiles and with one dainty foot tucked under the other, he saw that her toes were painted a pale raspberry color that triggered restless thoughts of those same feet digging into his haunches as he pounded into her. Taking a long pull from his beer, Drae tried to focus on the present but it was impossible to ignore those memories when she sat close enough to catch a whiff of her soft perfume.
Silence wrapped around them as he let his thoughts off their closely held tether, imagining tugging those damn jeans down her thighs and chucking them aside until all she had on was the white t-shirt and nothing else. If they weren’t at war with each other he would sink to his knees between her legs and simply feast on her naked sex. Making love to her under the stars seemed like a viable option until he remembered why they were there. She looked sharply in his direction when a ragged sigh escaped his throat.
“Stop looking at me like that, Draegyn”
“I wish I could,” he answered with a shake of his head. Shifting, Drae turned toward her with legs spread and forearms resting on his thighs as he fiddled with the beer bottle for no good reason. Words deserted while a frustrated grimace froze on his face. “Okay. Let’s do this, then.” Taking a deep breath he let the information he needed to share with her pour out in a rush.
“There’s good news and not so good news. I’ve had my lawyer look in to our uh, predicament.” Instantly wishing he could rephrase that or at least take back the biting way he’d said it, Drae continued. “Besides the obvious reason why an annulment won’t work.” He watched her squirm at the reminder and plowed ahead with all the finesse of a bull in a china closet. “The other consideration is much more straightforward. According to Ted, enterprising paps keep an eye on marriage filings and annulment requests that crop up soon after. Apparently, that sequence of events happens a lot. He suggests keeping a low profile for now so as not to arouse the attention of the media who are constantly on the look-out for a good story.”
In a tone that sounded less than friendly she asked, “Is that supposed to be the good or the bad news?”
“That’s for you to decide, I suppose. Ted seemed to think that for now anyway, the press hasn’t picked up on our situation. Garry and Shawn’s surprise Vegas nuptials hit the gossip mongers almost right away. So far, no one has looked beyond that particularly juicy story.”
Putting her beer on the ground, Victoria slid from the chaise and turned away from him, going to stand near the edge of the tile patio. From behind, her body language suggested she was wrapped rather tightly at the moment. “Continue,” she bit out while keeping her back to him.
“Keeping this under wraps is going to be the best bet moving forward. He suggests not letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Eventually, he’ll file for a dissolution based on mutual accord. Should be simple and better all around this way. I can’t have my family finding out.”
Tori considered killing him just then, the arrogant, son of a bitch. True to form, it was all about him. What his lawyer thought. His family couldn’t know. And better all around for whom, exactly? Him? Jesus.
Clearing his throat, he kept talking as if they were discussing the weather. “Buying some time is best, don’t you think? After all, if you turn up pregnant….”
Turn up pregnant? Was he kidding? He made it sound like she’d made all this happen by herself. She didn’t wait for him to finish the thought. “Yeah. I’m not.”
“What,” he quickly asked. “Do you know that for sure, Victoria?”
Fuck him, she thought. Would serve him right if she just stormed out of there without another word and let him stew in his own conceited juices. Unfortunately, behaving like a twit wasn’t going to help so she reluctantly responded as she turned his way. “Well, no. Not exactly,” she answered in a hurry. “But really, it was only one time. What are the odds?”
The look on his face suggested he thought the odds were not in their favor. Remembering the desperate, primitive way he’d taken her that first time, Tori shuddered at the notion that nature had been calling the shots.
With both of them reliving that fateful moment when sense had flown out the window and they’d fallen on each other with all the finesse of animals in heat, the temperature on the patio started to soar. He’d been horrified afterward at the way he’d treated her but Tori hadn’t regretted any of it. Her female core twitched remembering desperate moans and the way he’d plunged inside her, over and over until she’d been shuddering and crying. When he’d come, she’d been beyond turned on as her orgasm finished him off with powerful contractions that had milked every drop from his body.
Suddenly, the desert air was infused with raw carnality. She was breathing a bit too rapidly with arms clutched across her chest as if to shield her puckering nipples from his view. She saw his hands clench at his sides where he stood just feet from her with a look on his face that let her know he was fighting his own battle for control.
“Shit. Victoria,” he groaned. “I can’t…” And just like that they were on each other. Tori didn’t know who moved first, and it really didn’t matter because the explosion that went off when their mouths connected made her mind go blank. Greedy sounds of want and need ripped from her throat as voracious tongues dueled and swirled. With a hand tangled in her hair, he pressed against her head so she couldn’t pull away as Draegyn devoured her mouth. Where a minute ago she’d been ready to tear him a new one, now she was writhing desperately against him, clutching at his shoulders as he held on to her tight.
Collapsing onto the double chaise, Tori sprawled inelegantly on top of him as he thrust a muscled thigh between her legs while their needy groans split the quiet, nighttime air. He kept one hand on the back of her head as their kiss deepened, while the other hand cupped her jeans clad bottom, pressing her ever more intimately against him.
He is the devil, she thought, only to have that thought evaporate under the sensual onslaught of his wild kisses. Rocking her hips against his thigh, she whimpered into his mouth as a need so powerful and big that she couldn’t contain it burst to flaming life inside her. With his hand controlling the fevered grinding of her hips, she felt a sensation in her center that was so hot, she was sure he could feel it through their clothes.
Drae was lost. This is what she did to me, he thought. No matter how hard he tried to remain in control around her, one touch, and he was a goner. He hadn’t meant to kiss her but the reminder of that first time when she’d been so responsive in his arms had destroyed his carefully thought out plan to just talk to her and nothing else.
Yeah, right. So much for letting cooler heads prevail. With her grinding against his thigh and their tongues swirling in a sensuous dance that made him think of another, more intimate dance, he was on sensory overload. They shouldn’t be doing this but they were.
How long they lay there with her draped over his body, he couldn’t tell. All he knew for sure was he had a raging hard-on that was painfully surging against the snug fit of his jeans where it pressed into her belly as she gripped his thigh with her own. At their point of contact he experienced a fiery heat that fed the wild lust raging through him. She was writhing and moaning, her hands touching every part of him they could reach.
Shock and undiluted satisfaction surged through him when she shuddered on top of him as the frenzied grinding triggered a climax that he felt rip through her in waves. He wanted to slide his hand into her jeans and search out the wet heat he knew would greet his fingers. The need to taste her overwhelmed his senses, momentarily blinding him to what happened next.
Completely
engulfed by her sweet response it took a minute for Drae to realize she had wrenched her mouth free of his. Having yanked his shirt from the waistband of his pants, she’d shoved it high on his chest so she could press wet, fevered kisses across his upper body. His neck arched and his head felt like it weighed a ton as he closed his eyes and absorbed the tongue-lashing she was subjecting him to. When she licked his nipple and nipped at the beaded flesh it felt like he was falling into a desire so greedy he could only groan and hang on for dear life.
As her small hands roamed his torso, he felt her fingernails digging into his flesh while her insatiable mouth wrecked him completely. She licked, bit, kissed, and suckled every inch of skin she’d uncovered while scoring him with her nails in an animalistic offensive that went beyond just sex. It seemed so primitive, so very basic, as if she wanted to devour him in her need.
Drae considered stopping her with the last, half formed thought of sense left in his brain when he felt her hands struggling with the snap of his jeans. She overrode his thoughts with greedy desperation, quickly unzipping him and tugging his pants down with determined hands. He felt the cool nighttime air on his wildly surging cock as she freed him from the confines of his clothing a second before her fingers wrapped possessively around him. “Oh my God,” he groaned, his heart thundering in his ears when she settled between his thighs and pushed his legs open wide.
Tori couldn’t believe what she was doing but that didn’t stop her from finishing what she’d started. Her panties flooded with moisture from the orgasm she’d stolen from him and all she could focus on at the moment was the primal instinct that had her in its grip. She desperately needed to taste him. Fill up her senses and her mouth with his beautiful body, experience his essence in a way even more intimate than taking him inside her. She had no idea what she was doing, never having dared anything like this before, but that didn’t stop or slow her down in any way. Through eyes that felt hot with desire she studied his erection, marveling at the surprising beauty of his maleness. Wrapping both hands around his impressive length, Tori slowly stroked every inch in an intimate inspection that stopped at nothing.
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