“Protection is good,” she said, and he couldn’t tell if she was being truthful or sarcastic.
“Let’s go.”
Cam grabbed her hand and towed her through the water and up the steps. She came willingly, laughing a little with embarrassment and leaving her swim cap on the edge of the pool. He walked faster and she giggled, jogging after him. Then he picked up his pace, racing down the stone steps and into the pool house. He slammed the door with his bare foot, turned and locked it.
“I thought no one was at home.”
“More protection.” He turned and offered a smile, surveying her tall, lanky body. She had not pulled up her strap and her left breast was displayed for him to see.
Aimee sucked in her gut, standing upright, and slowly pulled down the other strap. Cam caught his breath, holding it, and then expelling it in a whoosh. “Damn!”
Aimee wasn’t quite sure what she was doing here baring her breasts before Camden Brennan, the guy she’d dumped because he didn’t want a relationship. Her mind was clouded with lust and longing and a pent-up need to make love. In a way, Cam was safe. She knew what to expect and what not to expect. That he wanted to protect her was flattering.
Maybe she was just tired of her celibate lifestyle. Maybe she was just horny enough to throw caution to the wind and play for an hour or two.
Cam watched her. His eyes were dark, and his wet hair curled above his ears. She tingled as she gazed back at him, hot with anticipation. Her swimsuit was down around her belly. She left it there to see what he would do.
Without moving his gaze, Cam reached down and loosened the drawstring of his swim trunks. He dropped them to the floor and stepped out of him to stand before her tall and proud. She licked her lips. Oh, my, he was handsome! And ready! And wanting only her!
He crossed the floor and took her into his arms. She felt the zipper open as he ran it down her back, and then her suit loosened enough for her to wiggle out of it. They stood locked in a kiss in the middle of the pool house, the sun streaking through the windows and throwing shadows into the room.
He was so hard and hairy. His body melded with hers and she remembered their times together when she was new and inexperienced. Not that she was old and jaded now, but times had changed. She wasn’t the student, and he was no longer the teacher.
There was a daybed made to look like a sofa. Cam broke away from her and stripped off the long cushion that was propped against the wall. Now it was a bed, bigger than a twin, but not as big as a double. He tossed a red throw pillow down at one end and with his back to her pulled something from an end table. Then he lay on his back, staring up at her. One leg dangled over the side of the sofa bed so that his legs were spread wide and inviting.
He had slipped on a condom.
God, he was sexy. Aimee thrilled at the sight of him—at his long, sleek body ready for her. She was wet and warm, and ready, too. She wanted him hard and fast. She didn’t want to wait.
Aimee dropped down on top of him, over his body, letting hers rest on his, pressing on him, rubbing on him. He groaned. She tormented him, promising delight. He caught her face and kissed her fierce and long, his tongue darting into her mouth. She pressed her hands against his nipples and then ran her fingers down his sides to his hipbones. There, she rose up a little and took him into her hands. He was full and throbbing. She was empty. She throbbed for him.
Pressing against him, she guided him into her.
“Oh, God!” he cried out. “No! Oh, Aimee, no!”
She rode him hard like she rode his horse, bearing down on him, driving him crazing, making him insane as he tried to hold back and tried not to come. She let go of herself, riding on a high she couldn’t describe, only experience. A high that was so glorious and exquisite, and full of passion and wonder.
She came quickly. Her eyes opened. She gulped her breaths.
“Oh, no! Aimee!”
He shouted her name and thrust up inside her and they were one with another for a brief moment. And then they spiraled downward off their climaxes.
Aimee relaxed against him and Cam turned on his side, still inside her. They fell asleep to wake again twice as the late afternoon turned into night. They did it again and again, as if they couldn’t get enough of each other or of the primal desires that brought them together.
Chapter Seven
Midnight
The Pool House
“I’ve got to go.” Aimee struggled to sit up.
Cam didn’t want her to leave. He wanted to lie with her in his arms and keep her warm and safe and comfortable.
But she wouldn’t stay. “I have a job to do,” she said.
He watched her put on her shorts and shirt and sandals. She gathered her swimsuit and flip-flops into her beach bag. He pushed himself up on his elbow. It was dark outside. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
“Like that?”
She couldn’t hide her smile as she surveyed his naked body. He lifted his eyebrows in invitation. Another body part lifted, too, as if on command, and she shook her head. “I can’t believe you want more.”
He swung to his feet over the side of the sofa and stood up. “For some insane reason, I can’t seem to get enough of you.”
“Well, you must control yourself.” There was laughter in her voice. “We’ve got to work together, remember?”
“I’ll never look at you on the back of my horse in the same way.”
“You’d better.”
“Don’t worry. I can be trusted.”
Cam pulled up his damp swim trunks. They felt clammy against his body. Had he really told her she could trust him? Guilt rushed through him as cruel and ugly as a spring thunderstorm.
Turning on the outdoor light, he opened the pool house door for her and followed her outside. “You can leave by the gate,” he said. “No sense going through the house when your car is parked near the fence.”
“That’s fine.”
They walked around the pool. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. Will you?”
“Playing hard to get?”
She stopped and turned toward him. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Cam ran a fingertip over her lips. “But it did, so we have to deal with it. You can’t deny it wasn’t good.”
She let out a long breath and shut her eyes. “Yes, it was good. It was always good. But Cam, I want a relationship. Marriage. You don’t want those things.”
“How do you know?”
“You never did before.”
Aimee was right. He had not wanted to be tied down with a wedding ring—that is until he came up with the scheme to use her to get to her father. Suddenly that motivation turned sour. It sickened him. But of course, he couldn’t tell her that. She would never trust him.
“Maybe I’ve changed,” he evaded. “I’m thirty, you know.”
“Time will tell, won’t it? And we have a whole show season to find out.” She kissed him then…gently…sweetly. “Thank you for a wonderful time,” she whispered.
“The pleasure is all mine.” Was she leaving? He would miss the feel of her—the smell of her sun-drenched skin and the chlorine in her hair. Damn! He’d just plain and simply miss being with her.
“Five-thirty comes early.” She tried to pull away.
“I know.”
“I’ve got to go.”
After one last kiss, Cam released her. He opened the gate to the wooden privacy fence. “I’ll stop by the barn tomorrow to check on my horse.”
“I’ll be there.”
He heard her giggle as she climbed into her Kia Sportage and drove away.
Cam took a big breath and scraped fingers through his hair. “Damn.”
The events of the past few hours had surprised the heck out of him. Not that he’d planned for them to happen. The lovemaking had sort of unfolded. She’d wanted him as badly as he’d wanted her. That passion showed him a new side of Aimee. He had to admit he liked seeing her in a new
light.
Cam shut the wooden privacy gate and walked up the steps to the back deck. A light was on in the kitchen and in the adjoining family room.
His brother was home.
“What are you doing here?” Cam asked from the kitchen.
“Late night. Who’s the pretty blond?”
Cam could hear the smugness in Hank’s voice. He tensed. “You don’t know her.”
Hank turned and glanced at him over the back of the sofa. “It’s not like you to have company at the pool house.”
Cam turned off the kitchen light and came into the family room. “There’s always a first time for everything.”
He and Hank were opposites, and like oil and water, they didn’t mix. Being in the same room with Hal’s biological son was a challenge for Cam. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Hank. He just didn’t understand him. How could the kid be so irresponsible, lazy, and downright disrespectful of his father?
“I’m going to bed,” Cam said. “I’m tired.”
“I bet you are.”
The sneer in Hank’s voice flipped Cam’s switch. He pivoted fighting anger. “What do you want?”
Cam was taller than Hank by two inches. That had always infuriated Hank. Plus Cam’s grades in school had been better. There wasn’t an artistic bone in Cam’s body, which made talking to Hank difficult.
“I need money for art supplies,” Hank said, sitting forward and picking up a copy of Garden and Gun Magazine from the coffee table. He leafed through a few pages.
“Dad gives you an allowance.”
“I’ve run short this month.”
“It’s only the first week of June.”
Hank shrugged. “I had some unexpected expenses.”
“You’ll have to ask Dad for the money. I’m not a bank.” This really burned him.
“What if I told Dad about that new horse you bought?” Hank looked up from the magazine. There was a gleam of “gotcha” in his eyes. “And then I told him about the horse trainer, Aimee Elliott, daughter of Brennan Equipment’s old customer.” He paused as if to draw out the drama. “Blond and beautiful Aimee Elliott, like that looker who just spent the evening with you in the pool house.”
How did Hank know? Oh, that’s right, when it came to extorting money, his brother was ruthless. Cam had been on the receiving side of Hank’s little games all the time they were growing up. He couldn’t do anything about it then, being the outsider. Now he had an edge. He had Hal’s trust. If Hank spilled Cam’s secrets, no telling how the tables would turn.
His gut jerked. “How much do you want?”
Hank smiled a self-satisfied smile. “I thought you’d see it my way, brother dear.”
* * * *
The Monday sunshine streamed through Cam’s office window striking his back and throwing a glare upon his computer screen. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t looking at the computer anyway, but stared across the office, his mind miles away.
Last night had been pivotal for him. Taking Aimee to bed, holding her and making love to her had opened his eyes to the emptiness of his life. He’d been so driven the past few years since his mother’s illness and his rise in the ranks at Brennan’s. The company his father trusted to him was doing well. Cam had seen to that. What he hadn’t seen to was his own wellbeing, his own happiness.
That thought struck Cam and he got up from his desk and walked to the window. Outside in the fenced parking lot surrounding the office building proof of the company’s success was on full display. He saw three off-highway trucks of various sizes, five front-end loaders, a couple of cranes and four large backhoes. Various pieces of used equipment sat in the yard. The company had taken them in on trade over the last several months. As he watched, a low boy pulled into the yard carrying another used front-end loader.
Cam exhaled a big breath. He had avoided relationships because of Aimee. She’d taught him not to get involved. When he’d initiated this scheme, he had not expected things to heat up as quickly as they did. He’d wanted revenge for being dumped. He’d wanted to use her as he felt she’d used him. All that had changed in the space of one night. All that had changed because he suspected he had never quite gotten over Aimee. Never stopped loving her.
Damn, what was he doing thinking about relationships? It was so unlike him.
Cam left the window and sat down again. He rifled through a stack of papers, trying to focus. When the phone rang, he picked it up thankful for the distraction.
“Brennan?” The brusque voice on the other end commanded attention. “I’ve made up my mind. Your company gets my business. I’m sending the contract via Fed Ex today.”
“Mr. Elliott?”
“Damn right. Don’t know what you did, Brennan. Getting my daughter up here to that damn party was a brilliant ploy. You think I didn’t see through it? Ha! But congratulations for a good job! I like that kind of gutsiness.”
“Mr. Elliott, I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. Just sign the damn contract. I’ve got another call. I’ll talk to you later.”
Cam replaced the receiver and stared at his computer screen. He had won the biggest contract in company history, besting Vince Clayton in the bargain. But the news didn’t bring him joy. Instead, his conscience jarred him, making him sick to his stomach once more.
He had not been truthful. In fact, he’d misrepresented himself and his motives to Aimee. He was a big, fat liar and it didn’t make him proud of himself.
Cam dropped his head into his hands, elbows on the desk, and shut his eyes. What was he going to do? Not only was guilt over the contract weighing him down, but he had his brother to deal with. Hank had somehow guessed the truth and dug deep enough to find out the facts. Hank would betray his own mother, if she were still alive, to get what he wanted. He had no compunction about betraying Cam.
What am I going to do? What in the hell am I going to do?
If he continued as if nothing had happened, he’d close the deal with Elliott, prove himself capable to Hal and provide added relief to the corporate bottom line. When she found out, Aimee would hate him.
If he told Aimee the truth, he risked losing her and the contract. Aimee would still hate him.
What if Hank got to her first and told her? Then he would look even worse in her eyes. He’d look like the biggest jerk in the universe.
Which was what he was, wasn’t he?
Chapter Eight
Holt Stables
The barn was quiet in the late afternoon. Training in the arena had ended for the day and the show horses had returned to their stalls. Cam found Jimmy in the tack room.
“She’s down the shed row,” Jimmy remarked, hardly looking up from where he cleaned a bridle.
Cam didn’t have to ask where to find Aimee. Jimmy knew what he wanted. Wasn’t it odd that he and Aimee were already linked together in Jimmy’s mind? Cam turned from the tack room and walked down the aisle.
The barn was Aimee’s environment. To Cam, it was a foreign place, but he was beginning to like its atmosphere. There was something elemental about the dirt under his jogging shoes and the smells and sounds of horses in their stalls.
He found Aimee with Wedded Bliss. The horse greeted Cam with a questioning snort.
Wedded Bliss was cross-tied by two ropes attached to both sides of his halter and the opposite walls. Aimee looked up from where she was wrapping the horse’s hind leg. She stood from her crouching position and came toward him, placing a hand on Bliss’s copper neck.
Aimee blew him away standing there beside the horse. She wore a trim, white polo shirt, gray Kentucky jodhpurs and paddock boots. Her long blond hair was pulled back from her face, delineating her features—the arc of her eyebrows, the angle of her jaw.
“Will he bite?” he asked.
“I haven’t found him to be nippy.”
“Okay.” Cam rubbed the horse’s nose.”
“But there’s always a first time. You need to be careful and respect him.”
“Respect is important,” he said mostly to himself.
A quizzical look came into her eyes. She didn’t understand is aside. “It’s late. I thought you wouldn’t come today.”
“I told you I’d be here.”
She shrugged and stepped nearer. “I know.”
It was as if she was telling him he was still on parole and had to prove himself. Cam searched her blue eyes, longing to touch her again and rub his hands up and down her body. He reacted physically to the thought, almost hating himself for it.
“Is there a place where we can talk?” he asked. The tension or whatever it was, chemistry maybe, between them was electric. He pulsed with it. Her eyes clouded with what he read as desire.
“How about the lounge?”
“Great.”
Aimee unhooked the crossties from the halter and the walls and turned Wedded Bliss free in the stall. She carried the ropes out with her, picking up the wrap and liniment she’d been using.
“I’ll meet you there after I drop these off in the tack room,” she said, shutting and securing the stall door.
All of his self-confidence had deserted him, and Cam was as antsy as a kid in preschool. This wasn’t going to be pretty, but he had to do it to salvage whatever self-respect he had left.
Entering the lounge, he stared at the photos on the wall of past champions. He didn’t really see them. His eyes blurred, not focusing. The door opened and shut. Cam turned.
Aimee looked at him, curious. She was relaxed and smiling.
“You forgot this.” Cam pulled the white swim cap from his pocket.
She blushed. “Thanks.” Taking the cap from his outstretched hand, she glanced up and grinned shyly. “Last night was good, wasn’t it?”
“It changed my life in a lot of ways.” His voice was husky, not deep and commanding. He was on new ground here and he didn’t know what to expect. “Let’s sit down.”
Kentucky Bride Page 6