“I know. It’s ugly.”
“That’s the wrong word. It’s just so sad to go from perfect to destroyed.”
“I destroy my face when I cry?” She giggled, glad for the release.
“I’m not good with words.”
“You were pretty spectacular with them earlier.” She rubbed her foot against his and sipped her wine.
“And still you denied me. You have a will of iron, Robyn Tindall.”
If only. Right now, she didn’t know if it was the wine, the sky painted in pinks and oranges, or the fresh air that made her want to take him up on every naughty offer he’d made earlier. If she was going to give him up, she should have something to remember him by. Something like days of making love to him until he couldn’t see straight.
“Now that is a smile.” The waning light reflected off his dark hair, coating everything in a warm pink haze.
“Just daydreaming.” She set her empty wineglass down, twirling a curl around her finger. Whether she was drunk on the sunset, his pheromones, or the wine, she didn’t know. But the anxious side of her decided to turn in for the night, leaving her completely relaxed and peaceful for the first time in months.
“About?”
She stretched in her seat, looking out past the deck to the pool below. The cool water against her skin would feel decadent right now. She looked at Curtis as she rose from her chair, stretching again.
“Sex.” The husky voice didn’t surprise her. She didn’t feel much like herself anyway. Fragments of thought flitted through her head, visions of dreams, but nothing solidified. Nothing compared to reality.
Her desire for him was so powerful it was tangible, like a cord tethering them together. Never had she been overwhelmed with desire to the point of recklessness, but, with her body a snarl of excited nerves, she didn’t see any way to soothe them but to give in to the pleasure promised in his leering gaze.
“Why waste time dreaming when you can make it happen?” His low voice vibrated across her skin.
“Because I’m not going to agree to our arrangement, and you think sex will make me want to.” She stepped to the railing of the deck, looking out at the sun, flaming red as it dipped low, as if Lake Shastina were swallowing it up.
She was so tired of fighting with him, of them each thinking making love might fix things. As if great sex could make him fall in love with her when he never intended to, or make her sell her soul for flashy vacations and expensive dinners. Really, the way to put this whole sordid chapter of their lives behind them would be to remove the bargaining chip.
For so long, she’d struggled with her feelings, riding the roller coaster of hope until she opted off the ride this morning. She’d fought to wipe out the want, negate the need, demolish the desire—to no avail. Even after all that had happened, she still craved his touch, yearned to know him in the most primal way.
She wrapped her fingers around the railing, wondering if it could possibly be any harder to let him go once they’d made love. Wouldn’t it be better to love him fully, completely, if only for a moment?
Curtis cleared his throat, but when he spoke it still sounded gravelly. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. But it’s probably the only way either of us will get any sleep tonight.”
She turned her head, noticing the smile that didn’t quite make it to his eyes. In the last year she’d spent studying him, she’d never seen him look so on the brink of losing control. He was always in control, always knew the answer before he asked the question. But today, she’d pulled the rug clean out from under him. Good. It was only fair after the off-kilter way she felt around him every day.
“There are other ways to burn off your frustrations.” She released the railing and what was left of her moral high ground. She knew what she wanted to do, and by the hungry look in his eye, seducing him would be a breeze.
The stairs down to the pool weren’t steep, yet she held the handrail for balance as her mind whirled with all the things she’d forgotten. A swimsuit, towel, protection. Part of their contract had involved a complete physical and had come with a birth-control shot—so she could relax on one of the three. She’d thought the birth control a bit much at the time, but when he’d explained he couldn’t have her getting pregnant by someone else when she was supposed to be engaged to him, it had become comical. As if she’d be doing this if she could imagine herself with anyone but Curtis.
As she reached the pool, the lights of the house came on behind her, brightening the area. She hadn’t even thought about that, how she would manage to find the stairs again in the dark. Well, if she wasn’t thinking straight, best to go all out.
She turned back toward the deck but saw no one there. She plucked at the buttons of Curtis’s shirt, searching for his silhouette in the windows. “Aren’t you going to come with me?”
“Ladies first.”
Chapter Eight
The house cloaked him in shadow beside the stairs, allowing him to watch Robyn search for him as she unbuttoned her shirt. His shirt. His erection strained against his jeans, reminding him he wouldn’t want to simply watch her much longer. His desire for her burned like a hunger, calling for him to sate his need.
Never had a woman been this potent to him, driven him to this teetering precipice of desire. She’d had him off-kilter since she ran out of the church. If she loved him like she claimed, she wouldn’t have run. It wasn’t logical.
Neither was the intense attraction that surged when she shrugged off the shirt and laid it on the lounge. The ruffled white panties covering her round bottom made his cock twitch. The water in that pool had better be damned cold, or he’d lose it before he even had the chance to touch her.
She tugged the panties from her hips, bending over to pull them off the rest of the way. Long legs stepped gracefully poolside, the glorious curves of her body flowing from her full hips to her narrower waist. Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, hiding her breasts as she turned sideways, surveying the water.
With a gentle arc to her body, she dove into the water and swam the length of the pool beneath the surface. Instead of emerging at the opposite end, she did a half somersault and twisted her body, pushing off the wall and propelling herself forward at full speed.
She surfaced in the middle of the pool, water streaming from her hair, highlighting the smooth curves of her face. She dipped her head back, her hair slicking to her scalp.
“You can come in, Curtis.” A cheeky smirk played on her pretty lips. She’d known he was watching all along.
She swam around playfully, her moves slow and deliberate, her long legs spreading apart, then coming together so that beneath the distortion of the water he couldn’t see as much of her as he needed. Yet he couldn’t move, mesmerized by the beauty of her naked body and the darkness gradually enveloping them.
Lying on her back, she floated on the surface, her bareness finally exposed to him, wearing nothing but her tight, pink nipples. Water flowed between her lush breasts, making them islands like the one he stood on.
Blood rushed through his veins, his pulse pounding in his ears, chest, and groin until he was overcome by his lust for her. He’d never had his libido overpower his senses in this way, not even as a teenager. Now, all he could see was Robyn’s body bare for him, feel her kiss from earlier still on his lips, crave the taste of her on his tongue, the feel of her soft skin beneath his hands, and the sound of the water sloshing in the pool calling him.
The logical part of his mind reminded him this was Robyn who sat in his front office every day dressed all in black, who hid behind glasses and drowned her frustrations in blended coffee drinks. He knew her as something other than this wanton goddess, and yet the knowledge couldn’t rein in his desire.
He wanted to have her in every way possible. Her ripe breasts beneath his palms, her budded nipples on his tongue, her lush thighs wrapped around his body, giving him complete access to her everywhere.
With all the blood in his body su
rging south, he had trouble getting his fingers to undo his belt, unfasten his jeans. He leaned on the side of the stairs for support as he stepped out of his pants and carefully pulled off his briefs. His body ached for her so deeply it hurt. How was once going to be enough? It would take more than a night, more than this week, to soothe the pain.
Robyn had been the perfect choice for a wife because she was the logical option. Trustworthy, dependable, respected. But she was also the only woman who came to mind when he thought of whom he might marry. No one else even entered his brain. As he stepped from the shadows, he wondered if this was why. If a part of him knew this sensuous side of her lurked beneath the sass and stability.
He liked this side, but he liked the others, too. The way she wouldn’t take flak from anyone, even him. The way she committed to a task and saw it through with complete dedication. Until today, when he’d rushed her into a facade of a relationship without ever considering all it could be.
He’d been willing to settle for a business partnership, but now he saw they could be so much more. Friends, lovers, partners. It was more of a risk than he’d bargained for at first, but he cared about Robyn, cared enough to meet her halfway. He had to keep her. Letting her go wasn’t an option.
Stepping to the edge of the pool, he stared down at her, wondering what she thought of as she languidly floated on the surface. Did she ache for him the way he did for her? Laughter bubbled up in his chest. It wasn’t possible.
Robyn shifted, moving to stand in the water. The moonlight waxing in the distance made her green eyes glow, droplets of water still on her dark eyelashes. Her lips spread in a grin, growing wicked and hungry as her gaze devoured his body inch by inch.
…
The water lapped at Robyn’s body like a hypnotic haze, soothing her desire, drawing out her every sensual reaction. Nearly weightless, she stared up at him, his light eyes shining an intense aquamarine that punctuated the hunger in his gaze. He stood above her, so big, male, and mesmerizing she couldn’t take her eyes off him. His defined chest with a fine spray of dark hair trailing over his flat stomach and lower… She dragged her gaze back up his body, meeting his eyes once more. The only thing that would make him look better would be if he were dripping wet.
She floated back a little to cooler water. She was deep under the spell of the sensations of the currents pushing around her, reacting to her every movement, luxuriating in the arousal.
“You should join me.”
“I will.” He looked at the far end of the pool, then back at her.
“What are you waiting for?”
“I’m trying to think of the best way to get in.”
“What is it? Can’t you swim?” She splashed at him playfully, slightly worried she might have hit the mark.
“Oh, that’s how it is?” He smiled down at her, warm and wicked. He took one step back, then cannonballed into the pool, sending water flying everywhere. Robyn ducked down to avoid the spray, but Curtis beat her beneath the surface, his hands on either side of her face as he pulled her to him, and they met in an underwater kiss.
She gave herself over to the exhilaration, their bodies floating together as their mouths met without friction. Breaking the kiss, he released her, leaving her alone to break the surface.
She swam to where she could anchor her feet on the pool floor, her head and neck above water. She’d made a silly list of fifty things to do in her life back in college, and kissing under water was right below skinny-dipping in the moonlight. She hadn’t thought of the list in years, until he was kissing her, making her wishes come true. Two for two on the day.
Water slid off her hair, across her face, as she tried to find her bearings. This felt real, yet maybe it was a vivid dream. The items on the list sped through her mind.
Fall madly in love. She was crazy to be in love with him, that’s for sure.
Have a fairy-tale wedding. Almost got that one, too.
Water rippled behind her, warning her before Curtis was there, sliding up her body so close she could feel the heat coming off him without his even touching her. One large hand snaked around her middle, pulling her back against him, so near she felt every muscle of his hard body, including the straining erection at the small of her back.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he whispered against her ear, nuzzling her neck.
“You didn’t.” Her hand drifted down, against his firm thigh, the sparse hair the only friction between them. “I just remembered something.”
“What?” He peppered her neck and shoulder with hot kisses, the warmth moving down her body, anticipation building between her thighs.
“I made a list of things I want to do.”
“Am I on it?”
She couldn’t help but laugh, looking through the water to watch his hands drift up her body until they palmed her breasts. Having his hands there eased the ache until he started to caress her, and it began to build again.
“Am I the only thing on it?”
“You are so arrogant.” His laugh vibrated the water around them, turning her desire up another degree. “I wrote it before we met, in college. I haven’t thought of it since.”
She couldn’t stifle a moan as he expertly caressed her breasts, his fingers attending to her beaded nipples. She rested her head back against his shoulder, letting him support her before she continued.
“Skinny-dipping in the moonlight was on the list, but I didn’t think of it until you kissed me underwater.”
“I didn’t think it would take my breath away. We can try it again tomorrow. Right now I’m too worked up.” He ground his erection against her back in emphasis. One of his hands snaked lower, cupping her mound. “Forget everything. It will be there tomorrow.”
He was right. Reality never left, but fantasy was fleeting. “I wanted to kiss in the rain, too, and beneath a waterfall.”
She turned easily in his embrace, the water making her slippery and slick. Her arms went naturally around his neck, his chest hair teasing her beaded nipples as she pressed against him. He took her lips between his, capturing them in a heated, promising kiss. She barely noticed as he lifted her up, her feet drifting as he moved them to the side of the pool, pressing her up against the wall. He pulled his lips away, taking her breasts in his hands.
“I wanted to make love in a pool.”
He grinned, wicked and dark, before dipping his head to run his tongue around the hardened bud of her nipple.
“And on the beach.”
He flicked his tongue across the peak, his other hand attending to her other breast.
“And in the rain.”
Again he rewarded her with more attentions, more pleasure.
“A bed of roses.”
She tried desperately to remember the list, to keep the pleasure coming at a steady stream. “On a train. Under the stars.” She writhed against his onslaught. “On a yacht. A rooftop. On the grass.”
Oh sweet heaven, he switched to the other breast, and she was done with that part of her list. She closed her eyes and envisioned all the places she’d ever wanted to knock him to the ground and take him.
“On your desk.” The moaning need in her voice must belong to someone else. “In your bed.”
“Yours is better.” He barely moved, the tension swirling deep in her belly.
“It is?”
“Trust me.” He played with her breast with one hand, the other roaming her body, awakening all her sensations. “Is that all?” he asked, barely letting up. “Because we can have all that done before the end of the week.”
Think. It was nearly impossible when she was about to come undone. “On the kitchen table.”
“In every room of that house.”
“There are twenty-seven rooms in that house.” She undulated against him, fighting the urge to wrap her leg around his back and grind against him to find her release.
“It will barely take the edge off.” His hand slithered down her body, cupping her bottom and pressing his
erection against her.
He had a point. She had nearly a year of frustration to work out. The house was just the beginning. “On a trampoline.”
He released her breast, straightening up. “Where do we get a trampoline?”
She was not thinking logically just now. “I was fantasizing.”
He shook his head. “This is a planning session. You want love, Robyn, we’ll make it.”
He caught her mouth, trapping her in a kiss before she could explain that wasn’t what she’d meant by love. But she knew it was the best he had to offer, the closest she’d come to having him love her. And while it wasn’t nearly enough for a lifetime, it was enough for a night.
…
With her arms wrapped around his neck, her hardened nipples pressing mercilessly against his chest, her mouth hot and insistent beneath his, he pressed his dick against her warm body. The slide against her supple flesh made him even harder.
She released her grasp on his neck as he pushed her back into the wall, thinking of nothing but finding the release they both needed so desperately. No one held the upper hand here, the desire between them might have ignited into flames if they weren’t under water.
Soft hands slid over his shoulders, down his chest, reaching between them. Her fingers found the little separation, grasping his cock. She stroked him, slow and sure, moaning into his mouth.
The time for waiting was past them, but he knew water was not a friend to lovemaking. As much as he wanted to take her now, he knew the only way to get them both there was to be slow. Maybe she’d opted for the pool and skinny-dipping just to drive him mad with lust. What a beautiful idea.
Lifting her off her feet, he turned them around so he had his back to the pool wall. He reached one hand down to her sex, finding her lips plump and engorged, ready for him. He teased one finger between, her entry slick and pulsing. She lifted one leg, and he grabbed for the other, crossing them behind his back.
A thrill shot down his spine as she stretched her hands across his chest, her thumbs circling his nipples. With a low groan he gripped her bottom, pressing his hardness against her willing entrance.
The Billionaire's Runaway Fiancé (Invested in Love) Page 11