by Jade Kerrion
She poured a cup of coffee and brought it to him. “It’s probably time to start paying attention to my affairs again.” She emphasized the word ‘affairs’ as she walked around his chair to stand behind him. She ran her fingers along his shoulders and absentmindedly began massaging them. “Do you want to run down to Sunshine Bagels for breakfast? I’ve got a craving for a coconut toasted donut.”
“Really?” He twisted his head to look at her.
“Don’t move,” she chided. “I’m working here.” Her deft fingers kneaded his tight muscles. “I’m two pounds under my ideal weight. I can afford to indulge a bit. Are you going to indulge in something sinful with me?” Her tone was coy.
Drew frowned. “Are we talking about coconut toasted donuts?”
Maggie snorted. “You’re so suspicious. When have I been anything except less than perfectly honest with you?”
“Sorry.” Drew dragged his fingers through his hair. It was a nervous reaction, and he knew he was doing it with increasing frequency. He shifted, dragging his chair closer to the table. “Sure, if you want to go out for breakfast—Ow!”
“You’ve got a major knot here.” Maggie shifted both her hands to focus on that tender spot in his back, nestled in his shoulder blade. “What did you do?”
“It’s always tight there. The body compensates in weird ways when one part doesn’t work the way it should.”
“Your left knee?”
He nodded. He didn’t want to talk about it.
Unfortunately, Maggie didn’t feel the same way. “It’s been ten years. Does it still hurt?”
“Only if I push too hard.”
“You’ve been pushing hard, haven’t you?” Maggie asked, her voice lowered. “All those long walks the past few days. I didn’t think…I’m sorry. I’ll get the car keys. We can drive to Sunshine Bagels.”
“No, a slow walk is fine, if you’re not in a rush.”
Her touch turned into a caress. He could hear the smile in her voice. “I’ll walk anywhere with you.”
Drew squeezed his eyes shut. What was wrong with him? Why was he hearing innuendo in every other sentence out of her mouth? He pushed slowly to his feet. “Do you need a jacket?”
“And conceal this dress? Are you crazy?”
Now, that sounded like the Maggie he knew—a model who lived for the spotlight. He grabbed his jacket in case she needed one later and followed her from her house. Hand in hand, they walked down quiet streets that would, within a few hundred feet, open up into the busy downtown area of White Plains.
Maggie glanced down the side street that led to Drew’s parents’ home. “How are your parents doing?”
“They were at the funeral yesterday.”
Maggie stopped and looked at him. “Do you ever answer the question I ask or only provide the answer you think I want to hear?”
He stopped short. “What?” He stared at her as if she were a stranger.
She shook her head. Her faint frown gave way to a brilliant smile. “Never mind. I’d like to stop in to see your parents.”
“They were still asleep when I left this morning.”
“I want to go to your house. I haven’t been there in years.” She looped her arm through his, and then leaned against him to steer him in the direction of his house.
She was in an odd mood this morning, he reflected. But then again, she had just lost her father. Prepared to humor her, Drew let her into his childhood home and stood back as she wandered through the house, her fingers trailing along picture frames and other decorative items. The hard edge of her smile gentled. “It’s been so long, but I still remember the first time Greg invited me over. You were home that day, do you remember?”
He did, clearly. He had been a junior at Stanford University and had come home for Thanksgiving. After the massive mid-day meal, the family was lounging around the living room in various stages of post-feasting stupor when the doorbell rang. Greg, three years younger than Drew, and a senior at White Plains Senior High School, leapt to his feet. “It’s Maggie. She said she would come over to say hi after her family was done with dinner. Be cool, okay, you guys?” Greg’s flush and nervous grin betrayed him.
Drew chuckled. “Right.” Greg considered himself something of a hot shot—he was White Plain’s star athlete and top student—but he was behaving like an overanxious freshman over his latest girlfriend. Must be some girl, Drew thought.
Maggie walked in, and for a moment, Drew forgot to breathe.
She was all of thirteen years old, but her natural poise made her seem older. Although she was not conventionally pretty, her large blue eyes and subtly feline features were striking. Then she smiled.
Drew swallowed hard. Shit.
Somewhere, there had to be an unwritten code that declared it was flat out wrong to be attracted to his younger brother’s girlfriend, especially when she was only thirteen.
Maggie’s laughter drew him back to the present. “You were so distant and unfriendly that day, do you remember?”
Self-preservation. “No, not really. It was a long time ago.”
She turned to him with a smile that was even more stunning than the one that had tumbled him headlong into infatuation ten years earlier. “We’ve come such a long way since then.” She continued down the hallway to his bedroom and pushed open the door. “Wow, quite a change.”
After he graduated from college, his parents had converted his bedroom into a guestroom. His posters, books, and CD collection were shipped out to him in San Francisco. Most of his personal belongings he had subsequently sold before moving into his tiny New York apartment. His former bedroom was now an attractive and impersonal guestroom that he personalized with his half-empty duffle bag and his dirty clothes tossed in a corner of the room instead of into a laundry basket.
Maggie glanced at the queen-sized bed. “Much more comfortable than the twin you had in here before.” Her gaze drifted to the window on the other side of the bed. She stiffened and a puzzled look flashed across her face. It vanished moments later, though, and her smile returned.
She was smiling way too much, and for some unfathomable reason, it made him nervous. She reached around him and shut the bedroom door, locking the both of them in.
“Maggie?”
“I remember going home crushed because you didn’t notice me.”
“What?”
“Ten years ago. You bruised my ego, Drew. Aren’t you going to kiss me and make it better now?”
“Stop it.”
“I know you want me. In the kitchen, this morning, you wanted me.”
Drew fought to bring his racing heartbeat and heaving breath under control. “No, I—”
“Why are you overcomplicating this? Isn’t that the woman’s job?” Maggie reached around the back of her neck and loosened the knot that held her dress up. Silk slithered off her body
His throat, among other things, tightened. “This isn’t funny.”
“Oh, trust me. I know it isn’t funny. I’ve spent the past five years in a muddled haze trying to interpret your mixed signals.”
“My mixed signals?” He kept his eyes focused on her face, because there was no other safe place to look. The tiny scraps of red lace that passed for her bra and thong showcased a slim yet curvaceous body.
“Oh yes.” She stepped forward on her matching red heels, her prowl reminding him of her arrogant strut down the catwalk. “You won’t touch me unless I initiate contact, and even then, you keep me at arm’s length. You refuse to acknowledge how good I look in all the dresses I’ve bought to impress you—other than to point out that they blew my budget. I might have thought you were uninterested, except that you manage my money without taking your fair cut, and you travel half the length of Manhattan to bring me roast pork buns each time we meet.”
“How did you—?”
“How did I know that the pork buns came from the Jade Palace?” Maggie smiled. “You were deliberately obtuse when I asked you where they came from. You do t
hat when you’re trying to lie without lying.” She looked up at him. Her smile faded, but the intent look in her eyes was even more compelling. “Why didn’t you want me to know that you were willing to go great distances to keep me safe, to make me happy?”
She was so close he could feel the heat radiating from her body. Her fragrance filled his lungs, until she was the only thing he could see, smell, hear, and touch.
She leaned in, her lace-covered breasts brushing against his cotton T-shirt. “Why didn’t you want me to know that you love me?”
~*~
Maggie held her breath. She had always known the risk of pushing Drew to the edge. The man who had had the willpower to resist her for ten years would have no trouble stepping back from the edge.
Drew released his breath in a shuddering sound. It grated against the jagged edge of his self-control. “Oh, God. Maggie.” He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to him.
The rush of her desire overwhelmed her quiet relief as her lips parted for his kiss. He was all she could see, smell, hear, taste, and touch, and she wanted all of him. Her tongue tangled with his; she took as much as she gave. His grip anchored her when her senses spun.
His hands slid down to press against her lower back. She arched forward, her legs spread, to straddle his denim-clad thigh. The coarse material rubbed against her though the thin lace of her thong. A coil of pleasure speared upward. Moisture dampened her lingerie.
“Hurry,” she chanted into the kiss.
He broke the kiss and chuckled. His low voice shot a thrill of anticipation along her spine. His breath tickled her throat. “I don’t think so. I’ve waited too long for you to rush you through this.” He ran his hand through her hair; the golden strands spilled like silk through his fingers. He wound his hand around her locks and pressed a kiss to them with a reverence that pricked Maggie’s eyes with tears. The bulge of his erection pushing against his jeans told her how much he lusted for her. The tenderness with which he seduced her told her how much he loved her.
He breathed kisses down the side of her neck and along her collarbone before dipping into the valley between her breasts. Maggie leaned back against Drew’s hands until he alone held her up. He made it easy for her to close her eyes and surrender to the demands of his mouth and the strength of his embrace. Only he could envelop her in security and make her tremble with sexual need at the same time.
Maggie almost sighed with relief when he unhooked the clasp of her bra, but she sucked in her breath sharply when his mouth closed upon her nipple. His flutter of his breath against her skin taunted her as much as the suction that teased her nipple into a painfully hard nub. She arched against his mouth, demanding more. “Please, Drew,” she pleaded, although she wasn’t certain what she was asking for. She ground her hips against his thigh, her damp panties soaking into his jeans.
“Almost there,” he promised as he eased her down to the carpet. He lavished attention on her other breast as his hands caressed up and down along the length of her body, teasing her into a sensitized bundle of nerves.
The soft piles of the carpet rubbed against her back as she arched into his touch. “Hurry, damn it.” Her soft laugh was almost a sob.
He shifted lower. She trembled, waiting.
A gasp tore from her lips when he licked along the core of her need through the lace of her thong. A swirl of sensations churned through her, a wave of pleasure cresting, then falling, each one pushing her ever closer to the edge of a free fall. She wrapped her fingers in his hair to keep him close when he eased her thong down her legs. For a moment, the realization that he was fully clothed while she was completely naked bothered her, but all conscious thought vanished when he lowered his head to the liquid heat between her legs.
How long had she wanted this, wanted him? Far too long. Her body writhed on the razor-sharp edge of an orgasm. Drew kept her there, slowing down when she got too close to finding release, then driving her up against the edge again when she thought she had regained control of the situation. Her pleas became incoherent whimpers. If he tormented her a moment longer, she was going to lose her mind, and then after that, she was going to kill him.
“Drew,” she moaned. Her fingernails dug into his scalp as she wrapped her legs around his shoulders. She ground against him. She was close…so close—
“Now, baby. Come for me.” His teeth scraped against her in the same moment he plunged two fingers into her moist heat.
Raw spikes of pleasure pierced her. Like a breaking wave, her orgasm crashed through her body, blanking her mind. She felt as if she were falling, but she did not fear the landing. Drew would catch her. He would always catch her.
The sweet and utter certainty of that fact did not diminish even when reality intruded. When conscious thoughts began flickering through her mind once more, she found herself limp and languid, spooned against Drew. He was still fully dressed, and his unfulfilled need was a hard bulge in his pants. He pushed up on one elbow as Maggie twisted to lie on her back and reached up to caress his face. “What about you?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t have any condoms here. Making love to you wasn’t part of my original weekend plan.”
“Did you really think I would set out to seduce you without coming prepared?” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m on birth control, and I want you in me. Nothing between us.”
“There’s a great deal standing between us,” Drew said quietly. “No amount of wishful thinking will change it.” A sad smile curved his lips. “I treasure your friendship, Maggie, and I don’t want to lose it if you ever regret anything you’ve done with me. So, let’s wait.”
“Wait?” Maggie flung her arm out, a gesture that encompassed the room. “I’ve been waiting for a decade. Ten years ago, I fell in love with you in this room, Drew, and I’m done waiting.”
He stared wordlessly at her. The vulnerability in his eyes stunned her. She waited for him to speak, to agree, to relent, but he said nothing.
Fear lodged in her heart, a tiny pinprick that drove a chill through her. “Drew?”
He turned his face away.
She cleared her throat and hoped her voice would hold steady. “I love you, and I think you love me. So what is the problem here?”
Drew shook his head. “Ten years ago, you were too young for me, Maggie. You’re still too young now.”
“I’m twenty-three, not thirteen.”
“And you’re too young to really understand what life and love can cost. Until you realize what I can give you and what I can’t—”
“Love isn’t a goddamned trade.”
Drew shook his head. “Only the young see it that way. Everything costs something, Maggie, and sometimes, it can cost more than you can pay. I’d rather live without your love than live with your regret.”
Maggie’s eyes widened. “You don’t think you’re good enough for me?”
Drew inhaled deeply. When he spoke, his voice was even. “I think…you have a wealth of choice. Few have the opportunities you do. You need to make the right decision for you, for the long term.”
Maggie stared at him. The defiant tilt of her chin counterbalanced the sinking feeling in her heart. Drew was going to be stubborn. She had hoped he wouldn’t be, but he was right—there was a great deal standing between them, not the least of which were the irrational promises he had made to her father. She would have to grind away Drew’s nobility, but now that she knew exactly where he stood, she would have a much stronger chance of moving him off his ridiculous stance.
She smiled up at him as if she had put aside all the conflict between them. “Of course, I’ll make the best decisions for me in the long term, but you’ll hold me, won’t you, for now?” He would not resist her—he could not; no man could resist her.
Drew released his breath in a soundless sigh. “Of course.” He pushed to his feet and offered her his hand. “Whatever you want.”
I want you. Only you.
And I will have you.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Where the hell have you been?” Brandon demanded the moment Maggie and Drew walked in through the kitchen door.
Her brother’s harsh tone punctured Maggie’s bliss. She and Drew had spent the better of the day in his bedroom cuddling on the bed, watching old movies, and snacking on popcorn. The simple pleasures gave her a glimpse of the uncomplicated relationship she could have had with Drew if her father’s meddling and Drew’s inconvenient sense of obligation hadn’t gotten in the way of an easier kind of love.
Maggie narrowed her eyes at her brother. “What’s bitten you?”
“Not keeping abreast of the news, I see.” He brandished a computer tablet at her. “Armani just announced that you voided your contract with them. Apparently, there’s some kind of anti-nudity clause—”
Maggie paled. “That’s ridiculous. What happened with Tyler…it was an accident. I didn’t even know he was taping me.”
“That’s not what he’s telling his social media followers, and since you’ve been quiet—”
Her fingers tightened around Drew’s hand. “I was burying my father, damn it!”
“Nobody cares. You haven’t told your part of the story, so Tyler’s story trumps yours.”
“I’ll call Tyler. Get him to retract his story.” She grabbed her smartphone from her handbag and searched for Tyler’s number.
Tyler picked up on the fourth ring. “Well,” he said, “you certainly took your time calling.”
Her tone chilled. “My father had a heart attack the day you posted that video. He died late that night. I’ve been out of town for the funeral.”
Silence met her words. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Tyler said finally, his voice tight. “I didn’t know.”
“Armani cancelled my contract with them.”
“I heard.”
“They think I did the video willingly. You have to tell them I didn’t.”