Her jaw flexed with what looked like suppressed irritation. Or anger, even. “I saw you two out at the Courtyard Shops the other day. You looked pretty cozy together.”
Lauren couldn’t help but notice that Gracie almost seemed jealous. Her dark brown gaze nearly cut right through her. She’d never heard of any talk about Gracie and Sebastian, but perhaps the other woman carried a torch for him from her time working for the Wingates.
“That wasn’t Sebastian,” she said, ignoring the shocked expression on Amy’s face as her head hung out from the truck window. “That was Sutton.”
Gracie flinched, her nose wrinkling in confusion. “He was driving his black BMW,” she argued. “That’s Sebastian’s car.”
“Sutton borrowed it, I guess. Maybe his car was in the shop, because he picked me up for dinner last night in his white Audi.”
That was enough. A weight seemed to lift from Gracie’s shoulders. “Oh. I didn’t realize you were seeing Sutton. When I saw you together and Sebastian’s car was there, I just assumed.”
“It’s a relatively new development. But nothing is going to come of it,” Lauren insisted. “Things didn’t go so well last night.”
Regular Gracie returned fully with a sympathetic tilt of her head. “I’m sorry to hear that. Sutton is a nice guy.”
“Thanks. But what about you?” Lauren asked the question lingering on her mind before fully thinking it through.
“What about me?”
Good question. She couldn’t very well say that Gracie seemed super jealous and she wanted to know what was going on with her and Sebastian. So while she wanted to ask, she wouldn’t. “I, uh, haven’t seen you much lately. You usually eat at the truck once or twice a week.”
“Oh,” Gracie said, her expression brightening. “I’m okay, it’s nothing. My stomach just hasn’t been great lately, so I’ve been sticking to chicken noodle soup and crackers. I think it’s just the stress of everything. I’ll be back, I promise.”
“I’m sorry you haven’t felt well. But whenever you’re ready, it’s on the house.”
Gracie smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. “Seriously? No. I didn’t become a multimillionaire to shaft my friends. I’ll be back, and I’ll pay in full,” she insisted. “I’ll talk to you two later.”
Lauren waved as the other woman continued down the street. That was a weird conversation. One that made her glad she hadn’t actually been with Sebastian that day at the Courtyard Shops. She certainly didn’t want to upset one of her friends and best customers.
“I’d really like to wrap all this up and get home at a decent time!” Amy shouted from the truck.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lauren said as she stepped back into the truck to finish breaking down for the night.
She hadn’t even shut the door when Amy spoke up. “So, I’m going to need more information about everything I heard just now.”
Lauren sighed. Her best friend had lured her back under false pretenses. She didn’t care when they got home, she just wanted information. “As long as we can talk and clean, then fine.” They both returned to their tasks and Lauren relayed the prior night’s revelations as succinctly as she could.
“So you’re saying that was Sutton, not Sebastian, that came by the truck that day?”
“Apparently.”
“And which one did you sleep with at the masquerade ball?”
“Sutton.” There was no question of that. Last night as she’d lain in bed thinking about the crazy situation, the pieces finally seemed to fall into place. Things with Sebastian had never made sense, but they’d suddenly changed that day when Sutton showed up in his place. That was when the potent chemistry that had been missing had returned with a vengeance. Things between them had been amazingly good since Sutton had stepped into his brother’s shoes.
At least until last night, when she’d learned it was all a lie.
“And which one is this at the window right now?”
Lauren spun around to look out the service window, where one of the Wingate twins was standing there with a bouquet in his hands looking ashamed. “Oh come on,” she lamented.
“So is that Sutton or Sebastian?”
Lauren felt the familiar butterflies in her stomach. The messy hair, the crooked smile. It was Sutton for sure. But why was he here at her truck after last night? Didn’t she make it perfectly clear that she needed some space?
With a groan, she walked back to the door and stepped into the street. “We’re closed for the night,” she said as she rounded the truck and he came into view.
He turned to her and she got a better look at the bouquet in his arms. It wasn’t a bouquet of flowers. It was a bundle of fresh herbs, like rosemary, thyme, parsley and basil. The perfect offering for a chef.
“I’m not here to order food,” Sutton told her. “I’m here to apologize.”
Lauren wasn’t sure what to do. He’d obviously put a lot of thought into a gift as he came to see her. And the way his eyes pleaded with her made her knees—and her resolve—start to soften beneath her. She’d never reacted to any man the way she reacted to Sutton. She wished she could turn it off, but despite it all, she still wanted him with a fiery passion she couldn’t deny. She supposed she could at least hear what he had to say.
He held out the bouquet and she accepted it. “Thank you,” she said before inhaling all the different aromatics.
“It’s not enough. Not nearly enough. But it’s a start. I know I have a lot of explaining to do, but I really hope you’ll hear me out. I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours trying to figure out how to tell you how I really feel about you. If you’d just give me the chance.”
A thud sounded over Lauren’s shoulder and when she looked to see what made the sound, she saw her purse lying on the curb behind her. Amy waved at her through the window and the next thing she knew, the food truck engine roared to life. Amy left, leaving her with no choice but to listen to him or walk home.
Sutton gestured over to a nearby park bench. She grabbed her purse and followed him over there. Sitting side by side, she focused her eyes across the street at the line of closed shops. If she looked at him, she would give in too easily. She needed to be firm. Stand up for herself.
“Go ahead. I’m listening.”
“Being a Wingate is a complicated thing,” he began. “I’m not using it as an excuse, I’m just trying to explain what it’s like. When we were rich and successful, it was hard to trust people because someone always wanted something from you. Whether it was someone looking for an investor, or a handout or a Sugar Daddy, it was hard to tell who was really your friend and who wasn’t.” He cleared his throat. “So when everything fell apart with the business, there was a new layer of suspicion added. Who was behind it all and why would they do something to us like that? It had to be someone we knew. Someone we trusted. It was a hard pill for all of us to swallow.
“That night at the masquerade party, I was not having a good time. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, judging my whole family for things we didn’t do. And then I saw you and everything changed.” He stopped speaking for a moment.
Lauren couldn’t stop from turning to him then. He was looking at her with a pleading gaze. Desperate for her to listen and understand. Fighting the urge to reach out and touch her before she was ready.
“You didn’t look at me like that,” Sutton continued. “You had no idea who I was. You weren’t after a lifetime of alimony payments or someone to front cash for your latest sure thing. You just wanted to dance with me. To kiss me. To give yourself to me. And that felt amazing. I couldn’t wait to find out who you really were. And then you disappeared on me, leaving nothing but a mask to prove you were even real.”
Lauren’s gaze dropped into her lap. She felt guilty for leaving now, even though at the time it seemed like the best thing to do. The real Lauren just wasn’t that ex
citing. Or glamorous. Or so she thought. Was it possible that he was more than interested in her, without the mask and gown?
“I thought I might never figure out who you were,” Sutton explained with a sad shake of his head. “And then my brother told me that the woman he’d had a fling with at the party had showed up on his doorstep. I was so incredibly jealous. But he kept insisting it didn’t feel right. So we started to wonder if there was more to it. Had we both been seduced by a woman or a pair of women set on getting information from us? Was it related somehow to the company’s troubles? We had no way of knowing. So he suggested I go out with you once and see what I thought.
“The minute I laid eyes on you, I knew the problem was that you were my mystery woman, not his. And when I touched you, it was all over for me. I was so excited to have found you, Lauren. Until you called me by my brother’s name and I realized I had a big problem. I wanted to tell you the truth, but I didn’t know how. So I kept my distance. I didn’t want to let things go too far while you thought I was Sebastian.”
She closed her eyes as she realized the truth of why he hadn’t kissed her again since that first night. “I thought maybe you didn’t want me. That without the excitement of the mask and my makeover, you just weren’t that into it. I’ve felt like an obligation since the beginning, especially with Sebastian.”
Sutton reached out to cup her cheek and turn her gaze to meet his. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth, Lauren. I’ve wanted nothing more than to hold you. And kiss you and make love to you again. But when I did it, I wanted you to call out my name, not my brother’s.”
She gasped at his words. They were sincerer, more intense than she ever could’ve imagined. A man had never spoken to her that way before.
Lauren couldn’t resist leaning into him. He met her advance with his mouth, pressing his lips firmly against hers. It was just like she remembered from the club. Passionate. Hungry. He groaned as her tongue slid along his and invited more.
His arms wrapped around her waist, tugging her closer to him on the bench. Lauren ached for the feel of his fingertips pressed into her flesh and the hard wall of his chest beneath her own. She wanted to unbutton his collar and touch him like she had before. But not here, on a city park bench. If she’d learned nothing else from her conversation with Gracie today, it was that people were always watching. She wanted to take him home and do whatever she wanted without witnesses or a hard pool table limiting her.
Lauren pulled away from his lips, near breathless. “I know your name now,” she said with a wicked smile.
Eight
As they drove back to Sutton’s house, Lauren wasn’t entirely sure this was a good idea. He had apologized for deceiving her, and she had accepted his apology, so they were okay there, at least. But she wondered if it was too soon to sleep with him again. She was just coming to terms with him being who he really was.
But in that moment, when Sutton looked at her with desire blazing in his eyes, she didn’t care about whether or not it was the wrong thing to do right now. None of those reasons mattered anymore. She had spent every night since the masquerade ball lying in bed, thinking about being with her big, bad wolf again. When she met Sebastian and her expectations crumbled, she thought she might never have that chance again.
And now here she was, standing in Sutton’s luxuriously appointed bedroom, slipping out of her chef’s jacket. And it was about to happen. She couldn’t deny herself what she’d fantasized about any longer when it was here for the taking.
His green eyes never left hers as he shrugged out of his own coat. He was trying to focus on what he was doing, but she could tell it was difficult for him, with her slowly pulling her shirt up over her head and exposing the red-and-white floral bra she was wearing underneath. She tossed the top over a chair with her coat. Then she reached down to unbutton her jeans.
It was at that point that Sutton froze in place, no longer able to undress himself while watching her at the same time. She supposed this time was different for them both. They not only knew each other’s names, but the lights were on. They could see everything the other had to offer. All of the things they’d felt, but not seen, were on display.
Despite how much she wanted to quickly slip out of her clothes and press up against him, she was going to take her time. She turned her back to Sutton, giving him a full view of her rear end as the denim peeled away and exposed the red cotton bikini-cut panties she wore beneath them.
She hadn’t had seduction on her mind when she dressed this morning, but he didn’t seem to mind. Sutton groaned aloud as she bent over and stepped out of the pants. And when she turned back around to face him wearing nothing but her bra and panties, he was standing exactly as she’d left him.
Walking over to him, she pushed his shirt off his shoulders until it slipped to the floor. She let her hands run over his bare chest and arms, something she hadn’t been able to do before, and enjoyed the firm muscles that twitched beneath the silk of his skin. He seemed to almost be holding his breath the entire time she touched him, yet still cooperating with her exploration until Lauren reached for the button of his trousers. Then his hand came to hers, covering her fingers and keeping her from going any further.
“Not so fast,” Sutton growled. “We’re not in a rush tonight.”
Lauren pouted for a moment but had to admit that she was looking forward to a long, leisurely night of lovemaking in a real bed with all of their clothes off. The quick, passionate tryst they’d had at the club was the kind that sacrificed comfort for a driving need, but tonight, they could do anything and everything they wanted without interruption or discomfort.
“Wait for me in the bed and I’ll be right back,” he said, giving her a playful slap on the behind as he walked away.
Lauren sauntered slowly to the bed, knowing he was watching her. She slipped off her bra and panties, fully nude at last, and then pushed aside the steel-gray comforter before she crawled onto the soft, welcoming bed.
When she was settled in, he tossed aside the last of his own clothing and disappeared into his bathroom. He returned a moment later with a handful of foil packets in his hand. Her eyes widened as she tried to count how many, but gave up when he tossed them into a pile on the nightstand.
Lauren crawled to the edge of the bed and perched on her knees as he stood beside it. She ran her hands over him again, toying with his chest hair and following the line of it down his stomach with her fingertips. At that point, her cheeks flushed. His desire for her was fully on display in the well-lit room. Her palms tingled with the need to stroke him, but he was just out of her reach. She knew she would get in trouble again if she pushed it.
As if he sensed her devious thoughts, he took a step back. Sutton flipped on the lamp on the dresser, killing the overhead fixture. The harsh glare disappeared, casting them in a dim, romantic glow. He returned to her then, pressing forward until she tumbled backward on the mattress and he was covering her body with his.
The heat and the weight of him against her bare skin was soothing. When he dipped his head to kiss her, the fall nip in the air seemed to disappear. His touch heated the very blood in her veins, the spreading warmth amplifying with every pound of her heart in her chest. She relished the slide of his tongue along hers. His every caress was expertly targeted to her most sensitive parts as though he’d managed to memorize her body in that single night together.
When his thumb brushed over the hard peak of her nipple, Lauren gasped. Then he sucked it into the scorching heat of his mouth and her back arched sharply off the bed. He was relentless in his pleasurable assault, teasing her with his teeth and tongue even as his hands glided down her hip and dipped between her thighs.
“Sutton!” she cried as he made explosive contact with her feminine center.
He lifted his head and looked down at her. “Say it again,” he demanded with his hand still slowly circling over her flesh.<
br />
“Sutton,” she repeated with a desperate edge in her voice.
“I love the sound of my name on your lips. I’m going to make you scream it all night, if I have any say about it.”
He smothered her response when he kissed her again. His tongue echoed the movements of his hand, slowly sliding in and out of her mouth. She squirmed beneath him, panting as he drew her ever closer to the edge of her release, again and again, always backing away before she shattered.
Then Sutton reached for the condoms he’d left on the nightstand. He sat back on his knees to roll the latex sheath over himself, then slipped back between her thighs. His mouth found hers again and with a subtle shift of his weight, he was pressing against her entrance. But there he stopped.
A whimper of disappointment caught in her throat. Lauren couldn’t wait any longer for him. She cradled Sutton’s hips between her thighs. Impatiently, she gripped his hips and drew him forward. He moved with her and, before she knew it, she got what she wanted. Every thick inch of Sutton was buried deep inside of her. The moment was everything she’d remembered it to be and more with the visual of him hovering over her.
Sutton eased back and thrust into her a second time with a sharp hiss. Lauren lifted her hips, taking in all that she could. Her body strained and flexed around him, her muscles tightening their grip until he groaned into her throat.
Leaning down, he kissed her and started moving at a quicker pace. Eventually, Lauren had to tear her lips from his so she could cry out with each pleasurable drive into her.
They fell into an easy rhythm, her hips rising off the bed to meet his every advance. The pleasure easily built up inside her again, this time with more intensity than before. She clawed futilely with her nails at the blankets beneath her. Trying with all her might to find something to hold on to, something to keep her anchored when her orgasm hit like a tidal wave.
And she was almost there. She closed her eyes as her whole body tensed and her whimpers increased in intensity.
Billionaire Behind the Mask Page 9