Harlequin Kimani Romance September 2014 Bundle: Seduced by the HeirSecret Silver NightsSomeone Like YouIndulge Me Tonight

by Pamela Yaye

  “What is it with them?” she asked. “Everyone wants to be heard, no one wants to listen.”

  Tielle studied her ex in-laws for a moment, as well. “You’ve just given a perfect definition of the Clegg family.”

  “Any advice on how you managed to get a word in with them?”

  “Well,” Tielle indulged in a playful smile, “talking with the Cleggs wasn’t really my top priority when I was married to Grae.”

  Valerie’s expression took on the same playful tint then. The tall brunette cast a knowing and understatedly sultry smile toward Grae, who still occupied his seat across the room. “Understood.” She gave her boss a nod and then regarded the rest of the family. “You think they might be up for another session?”

  Tielle gave a woeful grin. “My guess is that it won’t be today.”

  Valerie nodded toward the room’s entrance. “Any thoughts on what the rest is about between the aunt and nephew?”

  Tielle resisted the urge to look over at Grae. “Whatever it is, it’s nothing good.”

  * * *

  “So your scheme to get the family here for repair was really about ripping it apart.”

  “I love my family, Des.” Faro touched a hand to his chest while voicing the declaration. “I’m not interested in ripping it apart, only in ripping out lies.”

  “I see...” Desree observed him with her arms folded and lips parted in disdain. “And how did you come by these...lies?”

  “Kids are told to be seen and not heard. Adults never tell them they aren’t supposed to listen.”

  “You always were a foul child.” Desree shook her head. “But I never would’ve thought you were capable of something so evil.”

  “So telling the truth is evil now, Des?”

  “What purpose will doing this serve?”

  “The same purpose that you signing over that deed will serve.”

  An understanding smile illuminated Desree’s plump face. “So that’s what you want.”

  Faro’s mouth thinned into a belligerent line. “It should’ve been mine anyway.”

  “There was a reason why your father didn’t leave it to you. He knew you were unworthy.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? He’s gone.”

  “Grae will never—”

  “Grae’s days on the throne are numbered, Des. Maybe it’s time you put your trust in another.”

  “Sweetie, you’re getting me mixed up with whoever is idiotic enough to be afraid of you.”

  Menace further shaded Faro’s dark stare. “You’d do well to be afraid. I have no qualms about doing what I have to.”

  “And you’d do it here, of all places?” Again, Desree grimaced. “Tielle was one of the few people who believed in you. She bet her marriage on it. You’d actually let her see it was all for nothing?”

  Faro waved his hand to the side. “Grae’s insecurity busted up his marriage, and I’m sick of being blamed for it. Maybe once he’s relieved of the responsibility of running Dad’s business, he’ll have the time he needs to get his wife back.”

  “Little bastard—”

  “Tsk, tsk, Des. Do you really want to take the conversation there?”

  “I don’t have the deed with me.”

  “Ah...good. You’ve seen the light.” Faro’s gleeful expression merged into a glare. “I believe Leo has your power of attorney. He should be able to collect it from the safety deposit box at your bank with no trouble.”

  Desree’s gasp reinstated Faro’s gleeful expression.

  “My ears have served me well over the years.”

  “Oh, and I’d love to box them for you.”

  Faro’s laughter was fleeting. “Call Leo and have him get the deed here no later than Friday.”

  “That’s two days away! Why would you want to carry on this charade?”

  “Well, Des, there’s not much reason for you to stick to your part of the deal if I have nothing to bargain with.” He moved in close. “Get the deed or the next family therapy session we have won’t end with me being ordered to follow you from the room like a hardheaded child, but with you being left to answer a lot of questions and kiss a lot of wounds.”

  He looked thoughtful. “On second thought, kissing wounds may not be involved. I’m pretty sure certain parties will be way too devastated to accept kisses from the ones who betrayed them.” He brushed past Des. “Two days,” he called.

  * * *

  “Oh...sorry I...” Tielle muttered, having rounded the corner of the terrace to find Grae alone and seated on one of the lounges. He stared out past the terrace railing toward the dense brush and trees beyond the rear lawn. Tielle decided to take her leave.

  “Do you remember this place?” he asked. “First time we were out here after we got married?”

  Slowly, Tielle ventured farther onto the terrace. She loved it there—the majesty of the trees already half through their annual shedding of leaves. The wind held a thriving intensity that afternoon that promised to strip the remaining foliage from its branches before nightfall.

  “I remember.” Memories of their wedding reception shifted to the front of her mind. “It was too cold and everybody went back inside.”

  Grae bowed his head, smiling. “Didn’t feel cold to me.”

  “Probably because we were curled up on one of those lounges.”

  “Humph. We didn’t stay there for long.”

  Tielle shook her head. Her gaze fixed as though she were viewing a replay of the scene. “We had our first dance out here...then it started to snow. We didn’t even notice it or that everybody came to the doors to watch us.”

  “Photographers snapping tons of pictures...” Grae laughed. “We only noticed because it’d gotten dark and the flash bothered us.”

  “Ha! Yeah, one of your dad’s cousins said he’d never seen lightning during a blizzard.”

  Grae’s rich laughter seemed to echo. “His wife, Miranda, told him only someone as drunk as him could see that.”

  “They aren’t here for the retreat,” Tielle noted once she and Grae had a long laugh at the couple’s expense. “Are they okay?”

  “Hugh’s had some close calls—heart, liver...Miranda decided they’d sit this trip out. She said it was the first time Hugh’s rotten liver had done her any good and that being around this bunch for a week was a treat she’d had more than enough of.”

  “I always liked them.” Tielle dissolved into more laughter and used the oversized cuff of her knit sweater to dab a tear from her eye. “Guess there’re quite a few of your family wishing they’d made another decision about coming here.”

  “Including you?” Grae turned his head but didn’t make eye contact with her. “Guess I should apologize for asking you to accept Faro’s request to bring us up here.”

  Tielle paced a short path on the terrace. “If being here helps someone get closure, then I guess it’s all worth it.”

  “Humph...closure...I’ve always wondered about that word.” He looked at her. “Whatever can of worms my brother wants to open won’t give anyone closure. It’d just be another load of drama we’ll all have to deal with.”

  “At least it’ll be dealt with, right?”

  He smiled. “You think it’s that easy to deal with things?”

  She gave a lazy shrug. “If all parties are willing to work at it, not just draw lines in the sand.”

  “Humph. Parties like me, huh?”

  “Grae, I didn’t—”

  “Who is he?”

  The question, as out of place as it was unexpected, rendered Tielle quiet for a time. “Grae—”

  “How long was it before you let him in your bed, Tel?”

  “How long before one of your scores of admirers was in your bed?” she countered hot
ly.

  Graedon turned on the lounge, giving Tielle the full benefit of an ambivalent glare. “Getting back at me for something you think I’m doing, Tel? You never played the assumption game before.”

  “There’s a lot I never did before.”

  “Like asking me to use a condom.”

  “Please.” Her eyes narrowed to lovely slits. “Do not sit there and act like you’ve got no clue why I’d ask that. I’m sure the offers to warm your bed started to roll in before you wrote the last G in Clegg when you signed our divorce papers.”

  “The offers never stopped rolling in, Tel,” he growled. “They were persistent, something I got every day of our marriage.”

  She smiled. “How nice it must be that you don’t have it in your way anymore.”

  “Neither do you.”

  “Grae...” She closed her eyes, standing still and counting for calm. “We don’t need to be doing this. You’re handling enough drama in your family without creating more between the two of us.”

  “Creating?”

  Tielle threw up her hands. “The terrace is all yours.”

  * * *

  Grae pushed off the lounge. Going to the railing, he folded his hands over the wrought iron and squeezed. He prayed for restraint, commanding himself to listen to the voice that told him not to follow Tielle’s departure but to let their budding disagreement die. The voice failed in its task.

  “To hell with it,” he muttered and bolted a heated path from the terrace.

  * * *

  Tielle resisted the urge to slam her bedroom door when she beat a clear trail there from the terrace. She tossed down the work she’d intended to handle and watched the folders, pads and her tablet slide across the wide antique pine desk in the corner.

  She stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. In fewer than twenty seconds, she dissolved into a puddle of laughter. The argument with her ex and how it all started was the catalyst for her amusement. She dropped to the bed and was still laughing when Grae barreled into the room.

  * * *

  Finding his ex-wife overwhelmed by laughter diminished whatever argument he’d come to deliver.

  “I’m sorry, Tel,” his said in one rush of breath. “It’s none of my business who you see or—or sleep with—”

  He swallowed back something distasteful that followed those words. “Even so, I won’t lie and tell you it doesn’t piss the hell out of me to even think about it.”

  His words had a sobering effect on Tielle. “There’s no one else, Grae.” She shook her head. “Not only don’t I have the time, but I’ve got no desire for any other man. Humph. I’m an unbelievable idiot for telling you this, but you’re kind of a hard act to follow.”

  He gaped at her. “And you think you’re not?”

  “Not sure.” Tielle’s cognac gaze faltered, and she studied the bed comforter’s elaborate stitching. “It seemed pretty easy for you to walk away from me before.”

  “Easy? You thought that was easy, Tel.”

  He stated the last as fact, and Tielle could see the upset filtering his stirring gaze. “Grae,” she said, scooting to the bed’s edge, “we shouldn’t talk about this now, not after the day we’ve had.”

  Hurt pooled his expression. “You really think I’m that much of a pig that I could have another woman warming your place in my bed just like that?” He followed the declaration with a snap of his fingers.

  “Grae, I’m sorry.” She left the bed. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Damn straight you shouldn’t have.”

  His words had reclaimed their growling intensity. He looked totally unapproachable, yet Tielle remained undaunted.

  “You need to calm down. It’s been a crazy day.” She ran her hands over the chorded bulges of his arms defined beneath the sweatshirt he wore.

  “It’s been a crazy day...” she soothed as much for his benefit as hers.

  Tielle thought she was making headway given the change in his expression. She discovered that she’d completely misread him when he captured her upper arms. Effortlessly, he took her off her feet, settling her flush against him so that they were eye to eye.

  Again, Tielle realized she’d mistaken his mood. The steadiness of his glare screamed hostile.

  “Grae—” His name was the last word she was allowed to utter before her tongue was otherwise engaged. He occupied her mouth in an act of seeking exploration, bruising and sensual in its intensity.

  Tielle may have criticized herself for the whimpering moans that escaped her lips were she not so terribly in need of what he was giving her. Languidly, she drew her legs up around his hips while simultaneously winding her arms up over his shoulders and locking her hands about his neck.

  * * *

  Grae’s moves didn’t harbor the same fluidity. Need for her overruled any possibility for finesse. He was of the single-minded intention to take her to his content. His tongue filled her mouth with a force that could have snapped her neck, but she met it with equal heat. Grae treated her to an array of potent lunges before dragging kisses of similar intensity down her throat. He paused to infrequently gnaw the supple flesh of her shoulders and the base of her throat. The V-necked cashmere slipped and shifted as Grae went on, exposing more of her skin. The loose material revealed the silk cami she wore beneath.

  Keeping her sealed against him, Grae still managed to disrobe her, peeling away the delicate undershirt. His strong teeth against her flesh was soothed with a gentle bath from his tongue.

  Tielle felt the bed against her back for only a moment before Grae put her on her stomach. He finished freeing her of the cami. The gravelly tones originating from his chest caused a shiver to rush along Tielle’s spine, yet she craved to be free of her clothes.

  Grae’s thinking ran along the same lines. Impatient to have her bare to his gaze, he pushed his hand beneath her belly to expertly undo the button fastening on her jeans. Once he’d freed it, Grae didn’t tug the jeans down her legs. Instead, he slipped a hand between the zipper’s teeth, easing his hungry fingers along the dampening crotch of her panties when she shifted to open herself to him.

  “Grae...” His name sounded ragged when she spoke it into the pillow cradling her cheek. Her sharp gasp accompanied the slight tear he made in her panties as he pushed her thighs farther open to accept his fingers inside the lacy undergarment.

  Tielle moaned his name again.

  That time, Grae covered her with his weight. He cupped her jaw, angling her head to kiss her again. Tielle raised her head a bit to improve their positioning. She went weak all over, unable even to thrust her tongue with any real effort. His middle finger ceased its tormenting rubs up and down the dark caramel-toned petals of her sex and plundered beyond.

  Her persistent moans of his name held no volume behind the word. Grae steadily explored her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers before charting a journey across the ridge of her teeth. He tasted the roof of her mouth, reengaging her tongue when she hiccupped a gasp.

  Grae’s fingers played a scandalous melody upon her body. Eventually, Tielle was so drugged with sensation that she could no longer take part in the erotic dance between their tongues. She rested her head on the pillows and gave herself over to the delight his touch drummed inside her. Shamelessly wanton, she moved with an alluring grace upon the covers, tangling them beneath her body.

  “Grae please...more...” she begged until he had her totally naked.

  “More what?”

  Tielle smiled at the actual question he’d managed. “Everything,” she moaned.

  “Specifics, please.” He drove his middle finger high and rotated it slowly.

  “Mmm...th-that...”

  “Just like that?”

  “More...Grae...please...” she whined when he stilled his fing
er. “More fingers,” she urged, nudging her bare frame into his massive one, which smothered her in the most delicious way. “Take off your clothes...”

  He chuckled. “You’ve got me a little busy right now.” He’d added his index and ring finger to the X-rated massage.

  Tielle ended her begging and accepted the ecstasy claiming her. Her gasping breaths and low moans were meant to encourage Grae. She didn’t want him to stop until she’d achieved every bit of her satisfaction.

  Grae unraveled the French braid she wore, needing to feel the coarse beauty of her hair between his fingers. The sound of her hitched cries and panting ushered in a hint of jealousy from Grae. He wanted to experience more of the joy she was capable of giving him.

  With hungry determination, he dragged his mouth across her skin while jerking out of his clothes. He took his mouth off her only to pull his sweatshirt over his head. He worked his tongue between her shoulder blades while kicking out of his boots, socks, jeans and boxers.

  Tielle luxuriated atop the covers; a messy tangle then. She caught the edge of a pillowcase between her teeth, hoping to silence the gurgle of her delighted screams. He was tonguing the small of her back and at the same time encircling her hips to apply a dual-thumb massage to her center.

  “Grae, no...”

  He deprived her of his touch, putting her on her back. She complained until the feel of condom packets sprinkling her tummy sent laughter tickling her throat.

  “All for me?” she asked.

  “Only you,” he confirmed, covering her body with his and gently nuzzling his tongue into her mouth. There, he began a kiss that transitioned from sweet to lusty in the space of a heartbeat. Her small, ravenous whimpers had him muttering curses in criticism of his hands. They were shaking from need and anticipation.

  Grae managed to ease the erratic movements by clenching his fists. Winning the battle over the shaking allowed him to apply their protection.

  Tielle kept her fingers clenched in the glossy mass of curls covering his head. A surprised and smothered grunt mingled into the kiss they shared when the wide head of his shaft teased her entrance.

  With maddening slowness, Grae invaded, stretching and spreading her as he overwhelmed, filled and pleasured. Tielle’s hands slid from the dark cloud of his hair to fist against his broad pecs.