Your Alluring Love (The Bennett Family)

by Layla Hagen

  After successfully fastening my towel, he rests his hand on my inner thighs, very close to my intimate spot. I cock a brow at him.

  “If you’re distracted, I have the advantage,” he explains, and I know this is my payback. Right up my alley. I open my thighs a tad, wiggling my eyebrows at him.

  “If you’re gonna distract me, do it properly.”

  Nate chuckles. “I was saying I’d never just leave. I might not have any ‘boyfriend of the year’ trophies, but I know a thing or two. Since I’m a lucky bastard and have you, I’m going to do nice things for you. Take care of you.”

  “Well look at that,” I say in a rough voice. “You can make me swoon.”

  “Told you. Doesn’t mean I won’t screw up, but”—he holds up one finger, as if saying, pay extra attention to this—“you have good instincts. If you feel a screw-up coming, don’t be afraid to do something about it. But in the meantime, I’m gonna do the right thing by you.” He kisses the tip of my nose and, despite his warning, I sigh happily. It’s all we can do, really. Do our best and see where this takes us.

  Next thing I know, Nate kisses down my neck, undoing my towel, which falls around me, leaving me naked and exposed.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Rewarding myself for being on such good behavior.” He circles a nipple with his thumb. “I made eye contact the entire time, despite these beauties pressing against the towel.”

  “How would you know that if you looked into my eyes the entire time?”

  Nate doesn’t miss a beat. “I have distributive attention.”

  Palming one breast, he pushes me gently off his lap until my ass is on the couch. He lowers his head over my stomach, then trails his lips up and down my skin.

  “Lie back, Alice.”

  His voice has dropped an octave, and damn his bedroom voice is sexy. As I do what he says, he spreads my thighs, his hand inching closer to my center.

  “We don’t have time,” I protest weakly. “Daniel will be here at nine.”

  “We still have plenty of time. I want to make you come, baby. You’re so beautiful when you come apart.” He turns his head slightly, focusing on me. “It’s my favorite sight.”

  Still holding me captive with his sinful gaze, he runs two fingers from my clit to my opening, and my hips buck off the couch. He coats his fingers in my arousal before sliding them in, arching them in a come-here motion that drives me crazy. The heel of his palm presses against my clit, and I become a bundle of sensations. Nate peppers kisses all over my torso, moving from my stomach up to my breast while keeping his hand between my legs. I don’t know how much time passes before my orgasm builds inside me, but I feel like I’m burning up from the inside.

  “I love seeing you like this, Alice,” he murmurs. His voice is all it takes to send me over the edge. I’m only vaguely aware of my fingers tugging at his hair as I cry out, holding on to him, hoping I’ll never have to let go.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Alice

  I grin like a lunatic as Nate and I leave the room some twenty minutes later, taking the bag with sandwiches and salad with us. There are three other guests in the elevator car with us, and they give us suspicious looks. Nate has mussed-up, disheveled hair which could raise questions about his morning activities, but I check my appearance in the metal doors of the elevator and confirm I look perfectly composed. Except for the damn grin. I can’t rein it in, hard as I try.

  We find Summer and Blake in the sitting area next to the reception desk. They stop talking upon seeing us. Summer chuckles, while Blake whistles loudly.

  “What?” I challenge.

  “Anything to share?” Summer asks boldly, her gaze wandering between Nate and me.

  “Haven’t heard from Daniel, no,” I reply, knowing full well that’s not what she meant. I wasn’t expecting an ambush first thing in the morning.

  “Alice, your evasive maneuvers suck when you haven’t slept much,” Summer continues. Next to me, Nate presses his lips tightly together in an obvious attempt to keep a straight face and not laugh. He’s not helping my case at all, the bastard.

  “I slept well, thank you very much.”

  “That smug grin can only mean you had a great night… but no sleep,” Blake says helpfully. Turning to Nate, he adds, “You hurt my sister, you’re a dead man, family friend or not. Just so we’re clear.”

  “Crystal clear,” Nate answers with a smile and a wink.

  “Can’t wait until Sebastian and Logan hear about this,” Blake continues, and Nate’s smile fades a tad. “Sebastian will be calm, but Logan? Man, oh man.” My brother rubs his palms together like a cartoon character. “I’ll ask for a front-row seat to the show.”

  “I used to like this one,” Nate tells me, jerking his thumb toward my little brother. “Don’t remember him being such a dickhead.”

  “I’m like red wine,” Blake retaliates. “I grow more intense with age.”

  “I bought breakfast for everyone,” Nate announces, though now that he’s in the lion den already, food isn’t likely to help his case much.

  “Oooh, you’re a lifesaver.” Summer reaches for the bag with grabby hands, reminding me of her toddler days when she’d sit on the floor of the kitchen while Mom cooked, reaching up toward her with both hands when Mom was tasting the food.

  “Just make sure Blake doesn’t get anything,” Nate tells her.

  “So, what are your intentions?” Blake asks him.

  “Blake, come on,” I complain.

  “What? It’s good for him to rehearse this. I’ll give him honest feedback if his answer isn’t good enough. Our dear brothers might punch him.”

  Summer holds her salmon wrap with one hand, patting our brother’s chest with the other. “Since when do you actually like it when Logan is in alpha-ninja-brother mode?” she asks Blake.

  “Hey, I like when he’s riding other people’s asses. Come to think of it, I like when he picks on me too, just because I have a reason to give him shit. It’s good for Logan too. Constructive. No one outside the family dares to give him shit. He’d start buying his own hype without me.”

  Ah yes, if there’s one thing you can count on in my family it’s that they’ll keep you grounded.

  “Fantastic logic,” Nate deadpans. “You’d be an excellent salesman, Blake. You could sell ice to an Eskimo.”

  “What did I miss?” Daniel’s voice booms from behind us. I turn around, and Summer immediately hurries to him. I inspect his appearance, cataloguing the long scratch running from one corner of his mouth up his cheek, the purple spot under the other eye. The rest of his body is covered by clothing, but he limps slightly on the left side.

  “Summer, you’re strangling me,” Daniel says after a few minutes pass and our sister still doesn’t let go. Reluctantly, she steps away from him. I want nothing more than to hug the living daylights out of him too, but if I do, I’ll get emotional.

  “Are you okay? Did the paramedics check you again in the morning?” Summer inquires.

  “Yes, they did. They even walked with me right to the hotel entrance.”

  “What happened?” I ask.

  “Wanted to try one of the more challenging climbing routes.” He shrugs and something in the forced casualness of the gesture tips me off that he’s trying to downplay everything.

  “And what happened?”

  “Well, part of the thrill is completing the route without part of the equipment.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Adrenaline,” he says simply. “Some customers pushed for a more extreme variation of climbing, and I wanted to try it out before—”

  Blake swears and Summer covers her cheeks with her fingers, pressing so hard she’ll have marks. Nate shakes his head.

  “Are you mad?” I ask, unable to keep my voice calm. “You could have killed yourself.”

  “Accidents don’t happen often—”

  “You can only die once, anyway.” My throat constricts with worry. I wish the r
est of the group would back me up, but the three of them are silent.

  “Well, I won’t be adding it to my list of offerings yet, clearly,” Daniel says.

  I purse my lips. Damn, I’m so angry I swear I’m half expecting steam to come out of my ears.

  “From now on, you’ll change your offerings to something safe.” I poke my forefinger in Daniel’s chest with every word. Normally, I would do this forcefully, so he could feel the sting, but he’s in enough pain today, so I’m gentle. A good day in my family is one during which I don’t want to kill anyone—for their own good, of course. Today is not one of those days.

  “I am in the business of extreme adventures,” Daniel retorts. “The opposite of safe. What would you have me offer, anyway?”

  “Extreme knitting, or quilting,” I spit. Blake and Nate chuckle. Now they decide to chime in. I have the sudden urge to poke them as well. It wouldn’t be gentle at all.

  “I’m sure people searching for adrenaline would line up,” Daniel says dryly.

  “Make them knit while they also have to balance a ball on their nose. That would get their blood spiking,” I volley.

  “Alice, relax!” Daniel insists.

  “I can’t.”

  Daniel gives me an exasperated look. “Why can’t you be more like Summer? Hug me, pet me?”

  Blake intervenes. “Oh, but one month from now when you get crazy ideas again, Alice’s voice will still be in your head. Your ears will probably still be ringing. I know mine will.”

  “I’m so happy I amuse both of you. I just want you to be safe, Daniel.”

  “I am safe. It was just a scare.”

  I swallow, crossing my arms over my chest. “But what if next time it isn’t just a scare?”

  “Then it will serve as a lesson to someone, and they will offer quilting.”

  “Not funny,” Summer says in a low voice. It dawns on me that she might have kept quiet all this time because she was still emotional from seeing Daniel. “Just promise you’ll think about ways to make this safer, okay?”

  “Sure.”

  “Promise,” I insist.

  “Fine, I promise.”

  I run a frustrated hand through my hair. He’s just saying this to placate me. I have to let this go though. I’m far too stressed to come up with intelligent arguments instead of emotional ones, but I’ll circle back to this topic later. We all have a stubborn streak in us, but even Daniel must know this isn’t a game. It’s flat-out dangerous.

  “Did you have breakfast?” I ask him.

  Daniel’s expression relaxes, clearly relieved to be off the hook. “Nah, had them bring me right here to meet you guys.”

  “Nate here brought breakfast,” Blake tells him. “He hooked up with Alice, thought we’d go easier on him if he brought food.”

  Daniel points at Nate. “You hurt her, you’re a dead man.”

  Nate’s jaw ticks. “Got it. It’s the family tag line, apparently.”

  ***

  After breakfast, my siblings and I decide it’s best if we head back to San Francisco. We were supposed to leave tomorrow, but between Daniel’s ankle and the family worrying, we agree to cut the trip short. Nate will remain here the entire day, since he has plans with his team.

  After we check out, Nate walks us to Blake’s car. Blake and Summer lead the way. I’m right behind them, and Nate and Daniel are a few good feet behind me. Even so, I catch their conversation.

  “I know a lot of people who’re into extreme adventures. Some just for the camera, some behind it too. Accidents happen more often than you think,” Nate says.

  Daniel replies in a whisper too low for me to catch.

  “It’s a line of work that always keeps your family on edge,” Nate continues. “I’ve seen wives of hotshot TV stars who made a living doing extreme stuff for the camera. They worry constantly, and it’s not pretty.”

  “I can’t change gears now or start over. I want to see this through,” Daniel replies, and something clicks in my mind.

  My siblings get in the car first, and I linger outside to say goodbye to Nate. Not wanting three curious stares on us, I pull Nate out of sight behind another car.

  “Oy,” Blake’s voice comes through. “Don’t overdo it with the kissing. We don’t want to be late for dinner.”

  I roll my eyes, even though Blake can’t see me. Mom asked us all to come by for dinner this evening.

  “Pity you can’t join us tonight,” I tell him. “Even though you received enough threats from my brothers today.”

  “I’d rather spend the day with you and your crazy clan, but work calls. I still have to look over what the London office sent me too.”

  And cue the heartburn. Shit, I have to stop reacting like this every time London is mentioned. He’s here now, and that’s all that matters. Fisting Nate’s shirt with both hands, I tug him toward me, giving him a hint. And he takes it. Tipping my chin up, he seals his lips over mine in a kiss that leaves me breathless and worked up.

  “Great kiss,” I say afterward.

  “Has to last until next time. I’ll see you. I’m coming in late tomorrow, but I’ll call you.”

  “Okay. Oh, and thank you for talking to Daniel. Full confession? I was kind of mad that you didn’t back me up in the lobby.”

  “You were doing a fine job by yourself. Told you, you’re a force of nature.”

  “Didn’t do much good.” I shrug as Nate pushes two strands of hair behind my ears, and then his hands rest at the back of my head, the pads of his fingers pressing gently on my scalp.

  “People don’t like to be cornered, Alice, especially not in front of an audience. If you want to convince anyone of something, you must be calm and rational. Give solid arguments.”

  “Yeah, knitting and quilting weren’t my brightest ideas.”

  “You were emotional. But you’ll figure it out. You’re smart.”

  He pulls me to him again, kissing me long and hard, and I have to remind myself where we are so I don’t climb him. I want to memorize every sensation coursing through me, soak up all the goodness of this moment.

  Is it normal to feel like you’re wrapped in a cloud just because your man is kissing you? Is this what a real relationship is? To feel that you’re a team with someone that you can talk about things, find solutions together?

  Ever since last night—minus my morning freak-out—I feel like I’m dreaming. If it is a dream, I don’t want to wake up. If it’s real, I want to know how to make it last.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Alice

  My siblings grill me about Nate for half the trip. The rest of the time, we grill Summer about Rome, making thinly veiled attempts to convince her to return to San Francisco sooner, although my attempts are less veiled than my brothers’.

  During dinner at my parents’ house, the entire family is too happy that Daniel’s safe to admonish him. Remembering what Nate told me about cornering, I keep silent on the subject. But something Daniel told Nate keeps nagging at me—that he’s started on this path and now he wants to see it through.

  I also keep quiet because we’re all enjoying Summer‘s visit, and the spotlight is on her the entire time. She’s heading back to Rome all too soon, unfortunately. She leaves in three days, and who knows when she’ll visit again.

  After dinner, I ask Logan to come by one of my restaurants when he has time because I want to ask his advice about some financial issues, which is true. But I also want to ask for his help with Daniel.

  Over the next week, Nate and I talk on the phone for hours every evening, but we have dinner and spend the night together only twice.

  On Friday, Logan visits me at Blue Moon. We have lunch in my back office.

  “This looks very promising.” We’re sitting at my desk, and he’s inspecting the numbers on my laptop’s screen. “I don’t foresee any liquidity problems if you keep up like this.”

  I let out a breath of relief, resting my elbows on the desk. As the CFO of Bennett Enterprises
, my brother is a whiz with numbers, and I like picking his brain whenever he has time.

  “And if you do have problems, we can always bail you out,” he continues.

  “It’s not what I want, you big oaf.”

  In the beginning, I tried to do everything on my own, then realized asking my brothers for counsel was a good thing because they’re brilliant. Sure, they often accompany advice with an offer to bail me out should anything go wrong, but I’ve learned how to push against their alpha tendencies without biting their heads off.

  They want the best for me and are sometimes overprotective. I want to be independent. We’ll always clash and make up, but that’s what family does.

  Taking a spoonful of my tiramisu, I grip the plate possessively because my brother is eyeing it hopefully. He already finished his. While enjoying the exquisite sweetness, I become aware of the tightness in my neck.

  “Is there something else on your mind, Alice?” my brother asks. “You look tense.”

  I haven’t given him a heads-up that I want to talk about Daniel. He would’ve just worried needlessly.

  “I do want to talk to you about Daniel.”

  Logan pinches his brows together. “What about him?”

  “Well, ever since the incident, I’ve been worrying more than usual about the extreme adventures part of his business.”

  “Me too,” Logan says, leaning back in the chair, lacing his fingers on top of his head. My stomach relaxes a tad at his response.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I spent those hours we were waiting for your call researching anything that can go wrong in a situation like Daniel’s. Then I fell into the rabbit hole and read about all kinds of accidents during extreme adventures. It’s a nightmare. Why are you laughing?”

  “I did exactly the same thing.”

  “Well, we are related.”

  “Have you ever talked to Daniel about this?” I continue.

  “Nah, I didn’t bring it up. What good would it do? He never listens to what I say.”

  I’m silent for a few seconds, waiting for the punch line. Then I realize Logan is serious. Can he really be so far off base?