A glorious feeling beat through her. He’s naked, and all for me. She touched him, widening her eyes with pleasure when she felt his throbbing cock against her soft belly.
Javier pushed her backward. With a few missteps and stumbles across the room, they reached the bed. She laughed when they plopped down, but amusement washed away when she caught his eyes—his dark, lonely eyes—perusing her with undeniable desire. With lust.
At this point, she didn’t care what he offered her. The way her heart raced, the hot tingle between her legs, the raw need that rushed down her body…it all drove her. For this kind of desire, it was worth losing all control.
She wriggled out of his embrace, gesturing for him to lie down. Wearing only a sexy smile, he scooted up the bed with his elbows.
Vivian leaned over him, kissing his neck, tasting his chest. He ran the fingers of one hand through her hair while the other searched for her core. She swayed her hips, making it easier for him. When his fingers brushed against her flesh, she sucked in a breath.
“You are so wet,” he said. His accent thickened the way it always did when he wanted her.
His touch just felt too good, his fingers stretching her walls, exploring deep inside her. If he continued at this rate, she would come in no time and completely lose track of her goal. It was time to drive him insane for once…or twice, if she was lucky. As many times as this last night with him will allow…
She couldn’t resist bucking against him one more time, and the movement put her right on the edge. With a sigh, she slowly retreated, moving down his body. He muttered something in Spanish, adding to her arousal.
“Enough, Vivian.” He propped himself up on his elbows. “I want to taste you.”
“Good things come to those who wait,” she said with a strangled chuckle. She licked his thick thigh while her hand cupped him. She loved how he tensed.
When she raised her head, her eyes found his.
“If you continue at this rate, there won’t be much waiting,” he warned her.
She licked his needy shaft. It swelled even more, and he moaned. She took him in her mouth, her lips sliding across the warm, velvety skin. Her teeth grazed over him before she glided her tongue over his cock and began to suck all of him.
Then, without warning, he lifted her from him. She sat on him, legs spread on either side of his, feeling insanely hot. Insanely ready.
He stretched out his arm and reached for his wallet inside the bedside drawer. He took a condom out and ripped the foil square open with such urgency, she worried he would tear it apart. Still on top of him, she wrapped her legs around his waist. As he closed the space between them, his skin on her skin, his mouth hovering over hers, a throaty sound escaped her lips.
Javier put the condom on, and her fingers ached to touch him. He placed his hands beneath her hips, brought her closer, and thrust inside her. She moved along with his rhythm, wondering how long she would be able to stand the warm ripples of pleasure beginning to form. He thrust into her hard and fast a few times, then she sucked in her breath when he took all of his shaft out, only to penetrate her again even deeper. Even stronger.
Her brain lost the ability to keep up with her body, which needed release, and soon. He kissed her, a passionate kiss that lasted longer than she could bear. When he pinched her nipples, a long, intoxicating wave of pleasure washed through every part of her body.
At the end, it was like a double act on a trapeze, where they had successfully balanced, swung, and danced—with the exception that all they had was each other. No bars. No ropes. No safety nets. And they had made it.
…
Vivian reached for another strawberry and slid it between her lips, still tender from being kissed. She refused to look at the clock, knowing that her time with Javier was coming to an end. In between dozing and making love, she hadn’t left his side. They’d showered together, eaten together, and made love with such passion, she ached just remembering.
Vivian shook her head. It wasn’t time for thinking. Not just yet.
From her position on her stomach beside him, her chin propped on her hands, she glanced at Javier’s glorious body sprawled on the bed beside her. A satisfied smile played over his lips.
“What is it?” he asked.
She said the first thing that came to mind. “How did you get to be so successful? I mean, didn’t you say you left home? I was just wondering.”
His slight frown and the surprise in his eyes indicated she had said the wrong thing.
“I was always good with numbers. I studied economics at university, and my first goal was to work at every opportunity I was given. I wanted to repay my mother for paying for my studies. She didn’t want me to, but I insisted, because the money came from him.” Bitterness laced his voice, the hatred he felt for his stepfather coming through.
“I joined a finance group as an intern, started to work my way up, learned about stocks, and soon I had enough contacts to find investors for my own business.” He swallowed. “I paid them. I don’t owe them anything.”
“It’s hard for you to see your mother, isn’t it?” She remembered the awkward run-in at the ball.
He reached over and stroked the length of her back. “She thinks because they divorced that none of it ever happened.”
Vivian thought of her loving mother and her doting stepfather, who had done the best he could for his new family. She wished she could take away the sadness of the little boy who still lived inside Javier and replace his childhood memories with better ones. “Do you miss her?”
“No.” His fingers made invisible circles on her back.
She ignored the currents of heat traveling through her body and embraced the warmth of this rare moment of shared intimacy. “I miss my parents.”
“Is that why you have those nightmares?” His hot palm closed on her lower back, the gentle tap of his fingers encouraging her to keep talking.
“I haven’t had them for a long time. I guess after Molly’s death and being away from home… I dream of them going away in a car and not coming back. Even when I run after them and call them from the street, they just look at me in slow motion and keep driving away.”
Javier’s arms tightened around her, wrapping her as if he wanted to protect her from her sad thoughts.
A new awareness tugged at her heart.
She had broken the promise she’d made to her mother never to look for her biological father, and that had ended in an even worse heartbreak. She’d wondered, for years, if maybe her father had changed his mind about her. After her mother’s death, it had made sense to reach out to him, but she’d been terribly disappointed. He had turned out to be indifferent to her, and even a bit bothered by her looking for him.
Could that be the reason for her nightmares? Were they about the promise she’d broken to her parents, and her conflicted feelings about the vow she’d made after Molly’s death?
“Enough thinking,” he said. His fingers ran through her hair, and when they began to massage her scalp, all the tension inside her melted.
…
“The tea is lovely.”
Javier simply nodded, stirring his black coffee in the small white cup as he looked anywhere but in her eyes. Since waking up, he had avoided her. He’d used the bathroom before she was out of bed and left for the restaurant a few minutes ahead of her.
Now he focused on the space above her shoulder as he bit into his toast. Vivian turned around to see what he was looking at. There was nothing but the flowery wallpaper of a virtually empty restaurant.
It was as if he had carefully engineered this distance to make it hard for her to talk to him. Watching the way his long fingers outlined the coffee cup, the way the tight black shirt clung to his muscles, made her fingers ache with wanting to touch him.
“Are you done?” He glanced at his watch.
“Yes.” Not if I can help it.
She followed him out, covering a yawn. Only when they had returned to hiking toward Laura’
s campsite did she speak to him again. “Javier, you’ve been silent all morning. What’s wrong?”
“I’m focusing on getting to the right place,” he said in a clipped tone. Although he had refused to see a doctor, Javier had taken another ibuprofen this morning. She could tell by the way he moved and his slower pace that his foot was still bothering him.
“You don’t have to be monosyllabic. I asked you what the time was earlier, and you didn’t respond.”
“It’s nine o’clock.”
“It doesn’t matter now. My point was, I get it that you can’t wait to be rid of me, but you don’t have to be hostile.”
“Hostile,” he repeated with sarcasm, his head tilting from side to side as if he didn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Since it’ll be all over soon, why keep trying, right? Why try to make it civilized?” Perhaps he wanted to make sure she didn’t expect any more than he was willing to give. He was done with her, and instead of letting her down easily, he’d chosen the more effective route of trying to drive her away.
“You think I’m avoiding you because I don’t want you anymore.”
“It makes sense, doesn’t it?”
She had barely finished speaking when he slammed her against a thick tree trunk and closed the gap between them. Vivian gasped.
“You are what’s wrong with me, Vivian,” he said. There was an unveiled intensity in his dark eyes. “I can’t stop wanting you.”
Swiftly, Javier leaned in and kissed her hard, almost as if in punishment. She fought to breathe, raising trembling fingers to his chest. His heartbeat matched hers. He looked down at her, his eyes blazing with desire, his deep gaze a promise and a challenge. He wanted her surrender. She linked her arms around his neck as she almost stumbled, her knees weak and shaky with yearning. Javier only embraced her tighter.
“I’ve got you,” he told her, and she didn’t know exactly what he meant. What she knew was that right or wrong, guilty or free, she wanted—no, needed—him.
“Come.” He guessed her thoughts, took her hands in his and led her deeper into the woods. Although it didn’t take him long to find a quiet spot where the trees arched closer together and boulders created a bit more privacy, for her the minutes went on forever.
Chapter Eleven
The thump of the backpack falling to the earth let her know he’d found the right spot against a heavy tree trunk. They were alone in the middle of the woods in daylight…about to make love.
An escalating quiver spread through her body when his fingers unbuttoned her jeans.
“Clothes off,” he demanded, squatting down to remove her panties and jeans. He got to his feet. Taken over by an instinct that was new to her, she raised her arms up so he could take her tank top off.
She glanced around once again, but a blackbird singing in a nearby tree was their only witness.
Javier pulled her bra aside. His fingers found her painfully hard nipples. Propping her against the tree trunk, he lifted her from the ground as she wrapped her legs around him. She noticed how he sucked in his breath and suppressed a groan. Was he in pain? Her lips parted to ask him, but he kissed her, nibbling on her lower lip as his tongue swirled with hers. She matched his urgency, her fingers splayed on his large chest, her thumbs caressing his nipples through his shirt. If his foot still hurt, he didn’t care. She saw in his eyes that all he wanted was to bury himself inside her.
“Javier, please,” she begged. Her fingers dipped down to his waist, outlining his bulge and sending a wave of heat through her system.
He found her entrance and thrust inside her, pumping so hard that they both moaned. Vivian hugged him as tight as she could. He held her at her waist, moving his powerful shaft in and out of her, making her insane with desire as the tree branches swayed overhead and the blackbird took flight.
Javier increased his speed, and soon she moaned louder. An overwhelming climax burst inside her, overpowering her, and she bit her lip to keep from screaming his name out loud in the middle of the woods. His pleasure followed hers, and they both collapsed to the ground.
Vivian could have stayed there forever, with Javier still semi-erect and pulsating inside of her, their bodies linked, her head resting on his shoulder. But the forest had other plans. A group of ants tickled behind her leg, and she moved, shaking the ants away. Javier stood and pulled his pants up.
The sound of his zipper reminded her she was stark naked, and embarrassment heated her cheeks.
What had just happened? She had never given herself to someone with such abandonment and need in any setting, let alone a public place.
Javier looked around them and leaned down to retrieve her clothes. Her jeans, her top, her bra…her panties, for goodness’ sake! He deposited all these items in her lap without daring to face her, then offered his hand to help her stand up.
Vivian rose to her feet, avoiding looking at him, and put her clothes on as quickly as her trembling fingers could manage.
“I apologize,” he said under his breath. She smoothed her top down with her hands and met his disappointed eyes. “It wasn’t my plan to take you like this. I lost control.”
Vivian simply nodded, faking a strong front as her mind worked overtime to assess what had happened. She supposed he had taken the easy way out. He’d taken her in the wilderness, hot and intense, and then apologized. The apology unsettled her as much as it surprised her.
She couldn’t keep her mind from racing.
I want you in my life, Vivian, he had said the previous day. Somehow, in the tumult of everything that had happened since then, his proposal had vanished from her brain.
They returned to their hike, Javier leading at a slightly slower pace. It was easier for her to follow now, yet she preferred to stay a couple of steps behind him. She had too much on her mind to face him now.
After a long hour of silent walking, she spoke, blurting out her question before she could lose her courage. “What did you mean when you said to me the other day that you wanted me in your life?”
Javier’s body stiffened, and he stopped walking. Vivian held her breath, waiting for him to turn and answer, but he strode off without speaking.
“I’m not asking if the offer still stands,” she called. “I was only curious about what you meant.”
“I thought we could explore this attraction. I would have set you up with a nice flat in London. We could have gone on trips, taken in shows, and enjoyed each other’s company,” he replied.
Vivian frowned. “I already live in London. Why would you set me up with a flat?”
“Because you could live somewhere nicer and closer to my office, giving me easier access when I am in town.”
Of course. His proposal—even before he had hated her as he did now, hated how she made him feel—had always been surface-deep. She would be his modern concubine, one of many.
Vivian crossed her arms defensively. “You wanted me to be your mistress.”
“That’s not how I see it.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter how you see it. It wouldn’t have worked out.” She gave him a dismissive shrug. “I could never be satisfied being one of the many women you have at your beck and call.”
“I doubt there will be more than one of you.” His voice was flat, yet when her eyes met his, she saw a fleeting touch of sadness.
Vivian shook her head. Enough with imagining things. “Somehow I don’t take that as a compliment.”
His hand tightened around the strap of the backpack. “Take it as you like.” He strode off again, and she followed.
Soon, they approached the campsite. The tall trees gave way to smaller bushes and more colorful vegetation. Groups of hikers and campers strolled through the park, some taking pictures. The soft breeze caressing her face did nothing to relieve her anxiety.
“Can you see her?” Javier asked.
Vivian glanced around, paying more attention to the faces. She was about to say no when a petite brunette in her fifties emerged f
rom a tent.
Vivian pointed. “I see her.”
…
“And that’s why we’ve come.” As Javier finished explaining, he raised his smartphone close to Laura’s face to record their conversation. “We wanted your take on what happened. I sent money to cover her funeral arrangements through my office, but I have never spoken to you before.”
They sat on rocks apart from Laura’s friends. Vivian wrung her hands. “I’m sorry to surprise you like this,” she said. “It must have been hard for you. You left England so quickly after the funeral.”
Laura Richardson crossed her arms, a self-protective gesture. “Molly and I didn’t share everything,” she said after a long silence. “We didn’t have the typical mother-daughter relationship. But she always came to me when she was in trouble.”
“Is there a chance she invented the threats against her?” Javier asked.
“No. She was in trouble.” Laura sighed. “Molly always enjoyed the nice things in life. She often got into debt and dipped into her savings account. But when her debt increased and Roger—I mean Easton Finn—offered her money to get some information to him, she took the opportunity.”
She accepted money?
“So this wasn’t revenge against Javier, like she told me,” Vivian said.
She lied to me.
“She didn’t mean to deceive you, Vivian. She just didn’t want you to know how deep in league with Roger she was.” Laura gave her a sympathetic smile. “As she started to work for you, Javier, I guess she became involved with you, and that affected her task.”
“How so?” Javier asked.
“She told me she had the opportunity to give Easton some important numbers, but she began to question what she was doing.”
The blood drained from Vivian’s face, and a chill formed in the pit of her stomach. “Easton got mad at her then,” she said. “Frustrated. I bet he hired the men to stalk her.”
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