by Wade, Dani
“Why? You didn’t do it.”
“I know, but…”
“Don’t worry. It can be fixed. I’ll have to charge Daniel’s credit card for the damages, though.”
She turned back toward him. “Where is the woman?”
Max shrugged. “I never saw her.”
Afraid to leave anything to chance, Taylor searched every inch of the suite, including under the bed and the closet. No purse. No ID. “Where did she go?” she mused.
“I don’t know. I assume she’ll be back eventually, since she left all her stuff. The phone on our records is Daniel’s, and I didn’t want to leave him alone, especially after having trouble waking him and finding this.”
Taylor turned to find Max’s hands filled with an empty Jack bottle, a wine bottle, and some other kind of bottle she wasn’t familiar with. She glanced back and forth between them and the man passed out on the bed. “Is he just dead drunk?”
“I’m not sure. He seems awfully out of it for a man who used to drink like a fish.”
“How do you know?” Was that something she’d missed, not reading the tabloids? Was Daniel an alcoholic? He hadn’t seemed like one, only drinking a couple of beers at the party the other day.
“I used to go to high school with Daniel and his brother. We’ve lost touch through the years, of course, but the guys would occasionally come to events here and we’d catch up. Daniel’s always been a nice guy, but he hit a rough patch about five years ago and gained a reputation as a heavy drinker.” He gave the bottles in his hands a bemused look. “But I talked to him later that year, and he said he’d gotten that all straightened out, whatever that means. I assumed it meant he wasn’t hitting it heavy anymore. Or had done some hush-hush rehab. This doesn’t seem like the guy I talked with over the last few years.” He gave the bottles a little shake, then set them back down on the low table.
She shook her head. She hadn’t seen any signs that Daniel was an alcoholic. And heard nothing about him being a recovering alcoholic around the house. The guys had a beer every so often and there had been alcohol at the party, but that was it. No big deal.
She glanced back at the bathroom. This didn’t seem like the Daniel she’d been getting to know at all. “Look, I know you are probably busy and all, but is there any way you can help me get him up, moving, and in my car? I’d rather have him back at the house than leave him here.”
“Hey, I don’t care how busy I am. Daniel and Michael have always been good to me, not acting like I don’t exist just because they’re überfamous and I’m in the service industry.” He gifted her with a slight smile and sincere look in those puppy-dog eyes. “I’m more than happy to help. Otherwise I’d have spilled my guts to the guy downstairs and we’d be on the front page of tomorrow’s rag mag.”
Striding to the bed, she knelt at the side and brushed the hair back from Daniel’s face again. “Daniel,” she said, “time to get going, buddy.”
After a few strokes, the heat from her skin must have gotten through, because those baby blues cracked open once more. “Sylvia,” he whispered before his eyes closed again. “I’m so sorry.”
“What, Daniel?” She patted his cheek a little. “Wake up, hon.” He must have thought she was the woman who had been here.
It took some coaxing and a little more force to her pats to get him awake. Max helped her sit him up and fetched some coffee, though Daniel never did get really steady on his feet.
“I thought coffee was supposed to sober him up,” she complained as they struggled to get clothes on his solid body. Drunk people were a bit outside of her puritanical existence.
“It usually does,” Max said, huffing a little as he tried to hold his old friend steady for her to get his shirt pulled over his head. “Man, those clothes reek.”
“I thought they drank the stuff, not poured it all over themselves.”
“That’s usually the plan with alcohol, but judging from this room, who knows?”
Taylor looked up at Michael’s brother, listing on the bed, not tracking their conversation, while she got his shoes on. He just seemed odd. Had he been drugged? She hadn’t seen any kind of drug paraphernalia. Not that she would know what to look for. The closest she’d ever been to drugs was what she’d seen on television and the antidrug films she’d watched in high school.
He’d known Michael was out of town. How could he let himself get into this condition? Although he probably hadn’t planned on being left alone…
“I’ll go pull your car around to the back service entrance so we can avoid the lobby.”
“Thanks so much, Max,” she said to his retreating back. She had to remember to thank Michael for being such a good guy, not one of those people who got too big for their britches when they achieved stardom. This could have been a publicity nightmare if Max had been a different kind of person. Becca would have been far better equipped to handle this situation.
While she waited, she made one more sweep of the room, looking for evidence of the woman who had left. No toothbrush, no blood, no wallet. Why had she left like that? If she’d been hurt, why hadn’t she asked for help instead of disappearing?
The trip down to the car was probably comical if seen from an outsider. Neither she nor Max were quite tall enough to support such a big man, especially with Daniel unsteady on his feet. But they made it to the back door without anyone falling or crashing into something besides each other.
“Grab the door,” she told Max as they approached the car. He pulled the door open, and she attempted to maneuver Daniel into the passenger seat. A major stumble and she found herself pinned between the car and a half-dead rock star. He slumped, burying his face into the crook of her neck, and she grabbed him around the waist, afraid he’d hit the ground.
Daniel groaned, his breath hot against her neck.
“You okay, big boy?” she asked.
He groaned again, then pulled back a touch and whispered into her ear, “Please, please don’t tell Becca. She’ll be so pissed at me.”
“Aw, Daniel,” Taylor teased. “Are you afraid a little bitty girl will spank you for misbehaving?”
He mumbled something, but she caught the end of it. “If she finds out, she’ll never let me spank her.”
Taylor froze for a moment. Um… She should have known Daniel might have some of Michael’s dominating tendencies, but hadn’t seen any evidence of it in his teasing banter.
Although this could explain Becca’s abrupt departure the day of the party, the hint of panic in her eyes. Taylor had chalked it up to the same uncomfortable feeling she’d had about riding someone’s shoulders. Considering Daniel’s worried tone, maybe it had been about avoiding something more.
She patted his shoulder awkwardly from her trapped position. “Don’t worry, big boy. Your secret’s safe with me.”
Max stepped in and helped free her, then guide Daniel into the car. She only hoped he sobered up some before they arrived at the estate, or getting him inside without anyone seeing just might be hell on her back.
* * *
“Scrambled eggs?”
Was it wrong of her to take secret delight in watching Daniel’s face turn green? Considering that she needed a nice hot bath today to ease the strain in her shoulders and back, she didn’t have an ounce of sympathy.
“Michael didn’t mention you had a sadistic streak,” Daniel said.
She flashed what she hoped was an evil eye. “Just remember that the next time you decide to hook up with a vanishing woman and get drunk in a hotel room.”
Instead of pushing back like she expected, Daniel frowned in silence, rubbing the back of his fingers over the stubble along his jawline. If he thought she was going to apologize for being frank, he was sadly mistaken. She sat across from him at the bar to eat her eggs and toast.
“Something weird happened,” he finally said.
No shit, Sherlock.
“I can’t remember anything about last night.”
She sat up straighter.
“What do you mean? Like after you got drunk and passed out?”
“No.” He stumbled over to the fridge and pulled out some Dr. Pepper, frowning at it for a moment before popping the top. “I mean, I don’t remember anything at all. Who the woman was. How we got to the hotel. What happened there… I remember going to the club, though.”
Her face must have told him what she was thinking.
“Give me a break, Taylor,” he scoffed. “I’ve been drinking in some form since I was thirteen years old. It would take a hell of a lot more than what Max said was in that room to get me shit-faced, I assure you.”
“You called him this morning?” she asked, raising her hand to cover her chewing mouth while she talked.
Daniel nodded. “I had him tell me everything he remembered. The woman hasn’t returned to the hotel. No one has seen her or an abandoned vehicle.” He shrugged muscled shoulders. “I wanted to make sure he understood how much I appreciated his help. He could have just tipped off that reporter and left me to face the music whenever I was conscious again.”
“That wouldn’t have been pretty.”
“Don’t I know it.”
Daniel’s suspicions shed a whole new light on last night…and the trouble he could have been in. “You need to be more careful, Daniel.”
He cocked his head at her. “Aw, Taylor, I think you might care about what happens to me.”
“Of course I do, you dimwit.”
“As long as you care about what happens to Michael and the kids, that’s all that matters.”
The serious turn of his voice had her doing a double-take. Daniel cared about his family as fiercely as Michael. He just showed it in a different way.
She wanted him to know she appreciated the precious gift. “I promise you, they are safe with me.”
Those long fingers of his, so reminiscent of Michael’s, fiddled with the can in his hands. “I need a favor.”
“Another one?”
“Boy, you are bitchy this morning,” he said with a laugh.
“That’s what interrupted sleep will get ya.”
“But I’m not the only one interrupting your sleep, am I?”
Her body flushed from head to toe as memories of her last night with Michael blew through her brain.
“I see you passed the test,” he said, a smirk appearing on those full lips.
“What test?”
The smirk changed to a smile in seconds. “Nothin’. I better head out. Michael won’t be interested in an audience when he gets back.”
And neither was she. A week and a half without the kids or anyone else in the house. She might just be entering a whole new dimension, but fear still trembled inside her. Uncertainty. She wanted this. With Michael, she wanted it. She wasn’t going to let some nerves stand in the way.
Daniel turned to leave the kitchen, but she stopped him. “Daniel? That favor?”
He nodded, though he only twisted part of the way back, leaving his face shadowed and sketchy. “Would you mind keeping what happened last night quiet?”
“You mean, from Michael?”
“Yeah…I’d rather him not know how bad I screwed up.”
The way he drew out that first word intrigued her. “And?”
“Could you not mention it to Becca if you run into her around here?”
She studied him from behind, her gaze tracing the tense set of his shoulders and the angled clench of his jaw. He’d asked her this the night before but probably didn’t remember. “Any particular reason she shouldn’t know?” Not that it was any of Taylor’s business. She was simply…curious.
“Let’s just say, her image of me is twisted enough as it is.”
She nodded even though he didn’t look back, and repeated her words from the night before. “Sure,” she said, “your secret’s safe with me.”
With a quick wave he was gone, leaving her to ponder her questions and anticipate Michael’s arrival.
Chapter Ten
If Michael had been any more eager to be inside Taylor, he doubted he could have appeared even close to stable when his driver picked him up at the airport after a four-hour flight delay. Not that he didn’t get a few questioning looks, but he managed to hold himself together pretty well. And keep his hard-on at half-mast.
Until he found her asleep in his bed.
The moonlight shone in a concentrated shaft across her sleeping body, causing the wisp of a nightgown she wore to shimmer in the dark. It looked just like what he imagined she would wear—sheer and stretchy across her breasts, holding them high and firm enough to make his mouth water. The fullness of the bottom draped lovingly over curves to brush against her midthigh, hiding the parts that made her self-conscious while revealing the mouthwatering muscles of her petite legs. His body throbbed its approval.
She might look like a sexy angel lying there, but his plans for tonight made her more tempting than the devil.
She didn’t stir as he eased onto the bed. His cock throbbed as he straddled her. Whatever her dreams, he intended to invade them, transforming her world into a place of sensual sensations where she gave him control and he pushed her every button to the extreme.
He crouched forward, clasping her wrists and pulling them toward him. He was careful to hold his weight in his thighs, not wanting her to awaken and be afraid because she was pinned down. Whatever had happened to her in the past to develop those fears and insecurities, he didn’t want it having any part in their time together.
Just him and Taylor and the pleasure they could bring each other.
Steadily he increased the pressure on her wrists, drawing her to consciousness, into awareness of him. She pulled back a touch, letting her feel the simple restraint. Then her body arched against his, her barely conscious mind reaching for what it wanted. She settled after a moment, and he started again, easing her from dreamland to waking.
When her lashes flickered, he bent to tantalize her mouth with his. He played around the edges until her lips parted, coaxing her where he wanted her to be. Then the kiss deepened, stealing his breath with its intensity. How could this woman make him feel more with one kiss than all of his partners throughout a lifetime? Within seconds she had him shaking.
Incredible.
In his excitement he crowded closer, rubbing his groin against the softness of her lower belly. She stiffened. After a moment, she pulled hard at his hold, struggling to break free. The nightmares had come out to play.
She simply confirmed what he’d suspected all along. Someone, somewhere, had made her afraid of the very thing her body wanted, her mind needed. Taylor’s submission was about stepping outside of her worries, her fears, shutting them off so she could only feel. Some asshole had taught her that letting go, turning that control over to someone else, led to pain.
Well, she’d learn differently with Michael. He spoke to her in the dark. “Taylor, be still.”
She froze, her chest rising and falling with her panting breath. He could almost feel her mind come online, fully awake and afraid.
“Who am I, Taylor?” He didn’t release the clasp around her wrists, wanting to anchor her to the present.
She blinked at the insistence in his voice, giving him his first glimpse of her forest-colored eyes in the darkness. A few deep breaths, then he sensed her attention zeroing in on his face. He held still, letting her look her fill, measure the feel of his body against hers.
No shadows between them tonight. No mistakes.
“Michael,” she breathed.
Of its own volition, his body rubbed against the silk of her nightgown once more, rewarding them both for her answer.
“Again,” he growled.
“Michael.”
He bent closer, his mouth sucking along her collarbone, down to the bound treasures. “Again,” he demanded against her skin.
“Michael,” she cried as his mouth found the erect tip of her breast through the stretchy lace.
He groaned, the feel of her trembling beneath him building his
own need. But he wasn’t giving in. Not this time. Their first night had come and gone too quickly. Tonight he would make her feel every second.
Every inch.
Slowly he brushed his body along hers, absorbing the silky slide of the gown, the softness of the skin at her thighs, the slight rasp of the lace. Her body heat burned him through her clothes, enticing him closer.
He returned to her mouth. She opened immediately. Good girl. Slipping his tongue inside, he played, coaxing her to follow him, teaching her how to please him. He explored the landscape of textures. He sucked her full, moist lips, then once more skimmed his tongue along the inside.
His excitement built like their first time. Their first kiss. He growled in frustration, needing his hands. He would touch every inch of her before the night was through, inside and out.
Raising her arms above her head on the mattress, he pressed firmly. “Stay.”
His movements choppy, he retrieved the straps from his bedside table and secured her spread-eagle in the middle of his king-size bed. This time she didn’t struggle but instead watched him through wide eyes that seemed to absorb every ounce of moonlight in the room. Walking from one side to the other, he studied her from every angle.
He’d never seen anything sexier.
The light tan of her skin faded to pale cream in the dark, even creamier against the bright blue of her nightgown. The material shimmered as she moved, drawing his eye to all the secret places it settled. Places he couldn’t wait to revisit in more detail.
Finally pausing at the end of the bed, he waited, knowing how badly she wanted him to move. Not yet. “Baby, you are so sexy like this.” Slowly, he fisted his cock with his hand, giving her a chance to watch it all.
“Look what you do to me.” Stroke by tight stroke. He grew harder under her avid gaze. Her hips shifted on the mattress as best they could while strapped down, need overriding her fear of exposure.