Children of Dynasty

by Christine Carroll

  For a long moment, he remained motionless, pushed in to the hilt. “That’s fantastic.”

  Daringly, she clenched her inner flesh around him. “Better?”

  “Do that again and I’m gone,” he promised.

  Cupping her breasts, he lowered his mouth and captured a nipple between his lips. She closed around him again, this time involuntarily.

  He began to move, carefully slipping out, then back in. It wasn’t possible, but it was even better than the last time. Clutched tight against him on the counter’s edge, she felt his hands set the rhythm. He thrust in deeply, enhancing her sensation of being stretched to the limit. Yet, when he pulled back, she longed for more.

  The mirrored wall in the living room reflected his muscular bare backside, his trousers around his knees. Mariah saw her own face, golden eyes wild, her hair spilling over his shoulders. She’d never seen herself like that before, wanton and wanting with a high flush and her mouth panting open. He turned his head, and their eyes met in the glass, widening with the enhanced pleasure of seeing as well as touching.

  He moved faster, she moaning her assent. Her crescendo spiraled, rising.

  Hot light leaped, and he was in her more deeply than she’d imagined possible. With a hitch in his breathing, he went still. “Don’t move.”

  She obeyed, but with a smile at her power over him, she once more tightened her inner muscles. The feel of him, along with his elemental shout, sent her over the edge. With an answering cry, she watched herself, falling and falling into the eyes of the man in the mirror.

  Still sheathed in Mariah, Rory lifted her from the counter and carried her into the ground floor master bedroom. Without breaking their connection, he let her down onto the bed and propped on knees and elbows to avoid crushing her.

  The faint flowery scent of her hair mixed erotically with the musky smell of sex. Her eyes looked dark in the light that came in from the living room, misty and soft.

  Rory rolled over to lie beside her, one hand propped beneath his head. It had always been this way for them, from the day that had met on Davis’s boat, from their first touch.

  The memory of that night on Privateer, the exotic feel of a woman’s flesh surrounding him naked for the first time … In the midst of it, Davis had dragged him off Mariah. A scene Rory had kept in a dark corner of his mind, now the disaster came flooding back with all its present implications. He’d told her he was going to leave DCI, but he had yet to actually make it happen.

  Soft fingers stroked his cheek. “Don’t think about your father.”

  “How horrible that in the midst of something so wonderful, he can still intrude.” Rory had risked a lot going to Grant Development today, and Davis would certainly find out about it through his ubiquitous channels.

  No matter. Tomorrow morning Rory would see Takei Takayashi at Golden Builders and get his old job back. Time spent doing architectural design, working with the pure lines that transformed space, would set him back on the road he’d once chosen.

  With a plan in place, he smiled. “I don’t know about you, but sex makes me hungry.”

  She arched a brow. “I don’t think the plastic grapes and Brie are going to hold us.”

  They got up from bed and Mariah went into the bathroom. He used some Kleenex from a decorative box, got his pants up, then brought her clothes from the other room and straightened the covers for model home viewings.

  Back at the kitchen counter where the storm had struck, he finished tucking in his shirt and tossed off the rest of the wine in his glass. In a few minutes, Mariah came into the living room with her soft-looking black dress askew, her hair scrabbled into a hasty knot at the back of her head. With an apologetic glance, she asked to borrow his cell phone.

  Rory poured more wine and watched her pace the tile barefoot. She looked so delicious, with one shoulder bare and whisker burned, that he wanted to drag her back to bed.

  “Hello, Dad?” She stopped pacing. “Mr. Pappas?” As she listened, Rory didn’t like the grim look that came over her face. “I’ll go right to him.”

  She punched the button to end the call. “That was our neighbor, waiting for me at our house. Dad’s back in the hospital.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Fear gripped Mariah’s chest as Rory’s Porsche streaked up 101. He drove with both hands tight on the wheel, his eyes alert for openings in the stream of traffic. On the southbound side of the freeway, it was gridlock, a river of oncoming headlights. Rory switched lanes a dozen times, but so smoothly she never felt he was reckless.

  She’d had to think twice about leaving her car at Bayview, but if she needed wheels, she could have Rory drop her by the house and use her dad’s. He hadn’t driven since his heart attack.

  “You holding up okay?” Rory pulled off the freeway and sped toward the hospital at Cal State.

  “I’ll be all right if you stay with me.” She waited for the familiar guilt at being with Rory to resurface, but it did not come.

  After what felt like an interminable time, they arrived at the information window in the ER. “John Grant?” Mariah said. “I’m his daughter.”

  The woman behind the desk looked motherly enough to bake homemade cookies and her voice was chocolate milk. “Jes’ a second.” She consulted her monitor and lips rouged with red-brown stain curved into a smile. “He’s been taken up to 904.”

  Before Mariah could voice her fear, Rory spoke. “Is that the CCU?”

  “No, sir. Just a regular private room.”

  Mariah leaned into Rory and felt his relief as he hugged her. “Thank you,” he told the receptionist as though she were responsible for their good fortune.

  On the upper floor, they found John’s name on a card outside a closed door. Rory’s arm dropped from around her. “I’ll stay out here.”

  She pushed open the portal with care. Inside, her father lay propped on the hospital bed. He looked the same as he had when she’d left for work this morning, pale and drawn, but not that sick. Above the bed, a monitor showed his EKG, his heartbeat peaking and falling regularly.

  A woman in a loose blue shirt and pants had her back to the door, making an adjustment on an IV. “Now, you ring if your chest pain gets any worse,” she said brightly.

  John’s eyes met Mariah’s and her heart clutched at the eager look on his face. “Daughter.”

  The nurse turned. “He’s doing fine right now. The doctor will be in to talk with you shortly.” Briskly, she left the room.

  “What happened?” Mariah went to the bedside and took his hand.

  “My chest felt tight and I had trouble breathing.” He tried a shrug. “Wouldn’t you know, soon as I get here I feel better.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Since I couldn’t reach your cell I left Pappas at the house to tell you where I was.”

  He coughed and grimaced. “I called Arnold and he was here for a while.”

  Mariah’s teeth caught her bottom lip. With an effort, she said evenly, “I’m sorry I missed him.” Try as she might, she couldn’t think what to say next. Rory waited in the hall, wondering about his condition.

  John squeezed her hand. “Do you remember when I told you about meeting your mother? How I tried to deny my feelings because of Davis?”

  She nodded.

  “You were with Rory this evening.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes.” She didn’t even try to blunt the implication of why two people might turn off a telephone.

  He gave a faint smile. “After he came by the house yesterday, I thought that was probably where you were.”

  The mention of Rory on the stoop in the rain made her wonder when she would get the chance to tell him about “On The Spot.” Or had Arnold beaten her to it?

  She didn’t think so, for surely he would have mentioned it by now.

  “You and Rory …”

  The look of empathy in his eyes made her bold. “There’s someone outside who needs to hear this.” She went to the door.

&
nbsp; Rory turned quickly to her from where he stood with feet planted apart as if to ground himself.

  “He’s okay,” she told him. “Come in.”

  Rory looked uncertain. “Are you sure?”

  “I am. Are you?”

  He hesitated.

  “You don’t have to.” Rory had been okay talking to John on the phone, but maybe he wasn’t ready to face the man.

  As she turned to go back into the room, rapid footsteps sounded on the linoleum floor. “Wait for me.” There was time for him to drop a swift kiss on her cheek and then they were inside together.

  John didn’t act self-conscious, not even in a gown everybody knew left his behind bare, with a tube running into his arm, and his heart’s behavior on a monitor for everyone to see. “Hello, Campbell,” he said, then amended, “Rory.”

  “Sir,” Rory answered. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better, but they’re talking more tests.” His apparent attempt to sound casual came out flat.

  “Well, I hope they all turn out for the best.”

  An awkward silence fell.

  Mariah had an idea of something that could ease the men’s discomfort with each other. “Rory is leaving DCI.”

  John gave a low whistle. “What did Davis have to say?”

  Rory glanced at Mariah. “I thought I’d line something else up before I told him.”

  “I’d offer you a position at Grant,” John went on, “but it might not last past the end of the week.”

  “I’ll find something.”

  John gave him a smile Mariah found fatherly. “Before you came in I was talking about her mother. Catharine will always seem superhuman to all of us who knew her, like everyone who dies young. Davis loved her first, but I won her …” He looked sad. “It destroyed the best friendship I’d ever had in my life. Only Tom Barrett has stepped in to fill that role.” He paused and rubbed his chest.

  “Are you in pain?” Mariah looked for the call button.

  “Not so much.” His gray eyes settled on Rory. “In the beginning, I nearly turned away from Catharine because I loved your father. Davis and I were going into business together, but of course that never happened.” John sighed. “For a long time, I told Mariah she should avoid you. Now I know you can no more stay away from each other than I could from Catharine.”

  The door opened to admit Dr. Patel, the surgeon who performed John’s bypass. With a smile for Mariah and a nod for Rory, he went to the bedside, drew down his patient’s gown and exposed his scar.

  Beside her, Mariah felt Rory turn away from the sight of the angry red slash adorned with side stitches. “Looking good,” Patel said, bringing out his stethoscope. “What’s this about chest pain?”

  John ducked his head. “Just enough to get me in here. Then it stopped.”

  Patel completed his examination, asking more questions. He lifted the phone and made a call.

  When he hung up, he said, “Your cardiologist, Dr. Hanover, is not on call this evening. Though your EKG looks fine now, I’d suggest you be our guest for the night and consult her in the morning.”

  As the doctor opened the door to leave, he let Arnold Benton in. Mariah almost didn’t recognize Grant’s financial VP in casual khakis and a ball cap. He carried a sack from a fast food restaurant that gave off the unmistakable smell of beef, onions, and French fries.

  “There you are,” John said warmly. “I was about to faint from hunger.”

  Arnold dumped the sack on the bed tray in a familiar fashion and pulled out a pair of wrapped bundles labeled as cheeseburgers.

  “Dad, you aren’t supposed …” Mariah began.

  “Now, daughter, I missed my supper at home and got here after the hospital served their rubber chicken. The nurse offered me fruit juice or gelatin.” He made a face.

  Arnold brought out biggie fries, sticking every which way out of the top of their cardboard container.

  John snagged one, ate it, and gave Mariah a reproving glance. “After all that boring food you’ve been making me eat, it’s time I had something tasty.”

  Mariah wanted to snatch the high fat treats and dump them in the trashcan. “It’s for your own good, Dad.” She pointed at Arnold. “You should know better.”

  He lifted a shoulder in a dismissive motion. “You heard the man. He’s been on the straight and narrow ever since his heart attack. He’s feeling all right since his chest pain went away and he wants real food.”

  Mariah looked at him standing beside her father’s bed as if he were family. Before she could think of something rude to say, Arnold crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed both her and Rory. “You and Campbell still at it, then?”

  Rory took a half step forward. “What’s it to you?”

  “Benton,” Mariah put in. “This is Arnold Benton, our financial officer who’s responsible for the trouble we’re in with First California.”

  Arnold also moved a step toward Rory, but it was not to shake hands.

  “Stop it, all of you!” John’s voice cracked with the power she remembered in him.

  Everyone froze.

  Her father went on, “Now Arnold and I are going to eat what he brought. Then we’re going to have a game of chess.” Putting out his hand, he encouraged Mariah to come to his other side away from Arnold.

  She went to him.

  He pulled her down and hugged her. “You go along now. I’ll be all right tonight … leave your number and the hospital will call if there’s a problem.”

  She straightened. “Dad, I want to stay.” But did she if Arnold was going to exercise squatter’s rights?

  “It’s better if you and Rory go,” he urged. “I don’t need him and Arnold at each other’s throats.”

  Rory cleared his throat. “I can take off.”

  John smiled at him. “Buy my daughter dinner.” He squeezed her hand. “Arnold will stay a while and go home.”

  “But what if you get worse during the night?” She tried to tamp down the sense that John was favoring Arnold.

  “You didn’t spend nights the last time I was in,” John said.

  Much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She had slept at home, even during the worst of his recuperation from surgery. The medical staff had encouraged her to get enough rest, and she had the company to run.

  “Come back in the morning and hear what Dr. Hanover has to say,” he suggested.

  Arnold chomped a French fry and smiled as Rory led Mariah out the door.

  Once in the hall, she vented. “I can’t believe Dad lets Arnold near him! It’s all his fault the company is being threatened and he brings cheeseburgers.”

  Rory paused with his finger halfway to the elevator button. “Arnold doesn’t like us being together.”

  “He probably came in disapproving because he thought Dad was.”

  Rory raised a brow. “John did disapprove until recently.” On the way down the hall toward the exit, she was struck by how fast things were moving. Her father had looked at Rory with a new trust, had clearly seen the two of them standing together as a declaration. How did Rory feel about that?

  As if he heard her thoughts, he put an arm around her and snugged her against him.

  “With your Dad on our side, all we have to do is win over Father.”

  They went out through the hospital’s automatic door into the parking lot. In a pool of orange light beneath a pole lamp, a dark Taurus sat in the drive.

  Mariah felt a clutch of alarm as a man inside watched them approach, raised a camera, and started filming their walk toward the Porsche.

  “Dammit.” Rory ducked his head and tried to shield her. “That must be ‘On The Spot.’”

  She recognized the black-haired, hawk-faced man as the one who’d been following her when she left Rory’s townhouse after returning from Big Sur. While it was a relief to know he hadn’t been out to do her physical harm, she didn’t want to see her position at Grant undermined further. And Rory didn’t need more press about being a shift
less playboy, not when he was going to be looking for a job.

  He opened the car door and held it for her. As she turned away from him to get in, he detained her with a hand on her shoulder.

  She looked up and found a boyish grin spreading over his face. “What the hell. In for a penny …”

  Before she could figure his intent, he brought his mouth down on hers.

  She gasped and tried to push him away. “This is for TV!” Mortified by their first appearance, she couldn’t imagine what he was thinking.

  Rory drew back and she saw determination in his eyes. “Let my father see this. Let the whole world.”

  With a nudge of his thigh, he moved her against the side of the car. Her arms went around his back and one hand slid up into his hair, pulling his mouth down harder on hers. He loosened the silver clip in her hair and let her curls tumble around her shoulders.

  She sighed, almost a moan, and capitulated. There’d be no more wondering if Rory had told Davis about them.

  With the knowledge and joy swelling in her, she lifted her hand and placed it in his hair above his collar where it grew a little long. Her fingers combed through, teasing the back of his neck.

  Let everyone see this and know. Now and forever she wanted Rory, to let the swift current that flowed between them sweep her away. She heard his ragged breath as his promise to take her someplace she’d never dreamed of reaching, a place where they might be joined at the heart.

  CHAPTER 19

  Several hours later, Mariah wasn’t feeling as confident. Sitting cross-legged and naked on the bed with Rory in her apartment, she watched the opening for “On The Spot” come up.

  “Here we go,” said Rory. He lounged against the headboard, eating a bowl of spumoni ice cream he’d brought from their dinner at Little Joe’s on Broadway. Mariah shot a glance at the VCR, where she’d inserted the infamous tape to add this to the Sunday night story.

  When the hospital parking lot filled the TV screen, Rory sat up straighter.

  “This evening, an update on the Grant-Campbell story,” said the voice over. “It looks as though there may be a happy ending after all, as Mariah and Rory visit her father in the hospital. The elder Grant checked in late this afternoon, complaining of chest pain, but is reported to be resting comfortably in a private room.”