Montana Seduction

by Jules Bennett

  Stella sure hoped so because she wanted as much of Dane as she could get. She’d never felt more alive, more powerful than when she was with Dane.

  The way he held her, looked at her, worshipped her, were all so new, so exhilarating. There was no reason not to just take what she wanted.

  Being stranded with a sexy stranger wasn’t something that happened every day, right?

  Before she could continue her justifications, Dane palmed her backside and lifted her up as he carried her toward the balcony.

  “My bedroom is the other way.”

  Lips trailed down her throat. “I want you out in the open, where I can see everything.”

  He stepped out onto the glass-enclosed patio. The one-way windows allowed them to see down to the valley below, but nobody could see in. Still, the idea of being exposed was erotic and thrilling. She knew her guests took full advantage of the various hot tubs positioned on the glass balconies, but she’d had no reason to come out here for anything like this before.

  Dane eased her to her feet and made quick work of stripping her of her clothes. When she reached for him, she fully expected him to push her away.

  And he did, but he grasped her hands in his. Dark eyes held hers and something other than passion looked back at her. There was that heaviness of pain once again. She’d seen that emotion in his eyes before, but never when they’d been on the brink of driving each other out of their minds with want and need.

  “I need to tell you something.”

  His words were coated with a raw, emotional tone she’d never heard from him. Stella turned her hands over beneath his. She might be standing before him completely stripped, but Dane was much more exposed, much more vulnerable.

  “I...I have secrets.” The muscle in his jaw clenched as he glanced down to their joined hands, then back up to her face. “Before this goes further, you need to know that I never expected this.”

  “I never expected finding a sexy stranger, either,” she countered with a slight smile, hoping to put him at ease. “You don’t have to tell me your deepest, darkest secrets. We have no strings.”

  “I know, but...”

  Dane released her hands and stepped back. Stella wished she’d left something on now that she stood there without him so near. But she realized he wasn’t staring at her, he was reaching behind his back and gripping his shirt. With a quick jerk, he had it off and then fisted the material in his hands.

  “When I was in the army, I lost some buddies.” He stared down as he continued to twist his shirt. “There was an accident. Details aren’t necessary here, but the scars are—”

  “Stop.” Stella reached for him and pulled the shirt away. She dropped it to the floor and raked her eyes over his chest. “I don’t care about scars and you don’t owe me any type of explanation.”

  The dark hair covering his chest and abdomen, the tattoo curving over his right shoulder...none of that seemed to hide any imperfections that she could see. She ran her hands over him, up his arms to his chest, down toward the top of his jeans.

  “You feel fine,” she murmured. “You look fine.”

  Without a word, she moved around to his back. Stella’s breath caught in her throat, instant tears burning her eyes. She slid her fingertips over the puckered scars and obvious burns.

  “You don’t have to—”

  “You look and feel fine here, too,” she affirmed, not wanting him to offer her an out. She didn’t need an out. She needed to make him feel that he was worthy of her, that she appreciated the fact he trusted her enough to tell her, show her.

  Dane’s entire body remained rigid beneath her touch. Ignoring his obvious discomfort, Stella stepped into him, resting her cheek against his back and wrapping her arms around his waist.

  “Did you think this would turn me off?” she asked.

  “I’ve never shown anyone,” he murmured. “It’s not exactly a time I want to talk about.”

  Stella pressed her lips to his back, then moved on and placed another kiss, then another. “I wasn’t in the mood to talk anyway, cowboy.”

  Her lips traveled all over until she moved to the front and placed them on that ink over his chest and shoulder. Taking his face between her hands, Stella forced him to meet her gaze.

  “You’re still wearing too many clothes.”

  He kept that dark, pained gaze locked on her. “You don’t deserve this.”

  Stella threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled his lips to hers. “I know what I want, Dane. Now stop talking.”

  Dane surprised her by nipping at her lips, then easing back to slide his fingertip down the valley between her breasts. “Have your way with me.”

  The low, rumbling words filled the space between them and Stella wasted no time in removing those jeans that hugged his lean hips so deliciously.

  Dane may be imperfect in his mind, but to her...well, he was the most perfect, stable, comforting aspect of her entire life.

  Now she had to figure out what to do when he chose to leave.

  Twelve

  “Get down!”

  Dane fell to his stomach, using his elbows to crawl away from the knoll. The blast shook the ground. The air was filled with the sound of men screaming in pain. And then something hit his back so hard, the air left his lungs.

  One second everything was chaos and hell, then it was quiet and hell. His back burned like nothing he’d ever experienced, but he couldn’t lose himself in the pain. He needed to get to his buddies. Reese and Bagger were on the other side of their Humvee. If he could crawl to them, they could somehow get out of here.

  With each pull he took to move himself forward with his arms, the pain in his back seemed to intensify. There was something heavy pressing against him. If he could just get to his buddies, maybe they could help each other.

  But the quiet seemed to grow. Being out in the open, shouldn’t he hear something? Those cries moments ago had stopped, leaving only his own grunts as he dragged himself to the front of the vehicle.

  Dane looked around the front, fully expecting to see his comrades, but there was only one person. Stella. She smiled at him.

  “Help me,” he cried. “Help.”

  She squatted down and smirked. “Help you? Like you helped me lose everything? You’re on your own, Dane. That’s how you like it anyway.”

  “Stella, please.” He just needed this weight gone. He couldn’t breathe, and the pain had him fading fast. “Stella. Stella.”

  He kept calling for her. Why wasn’t she answering him?

  “Stella!”

  That weight on his back finally shifted, then something kept pounding against him. Over and over. Dane pushed away, tried to pull in a breath, but he wasn’t getting enough oxygen. He was dying and Stella had walked away.

  “Dane.”

  He jerked up, panting. The frantic tone in Stella’s voice had him blinking against the darkness. With the sheet pooled around his waist, Dane gripped the edge of the fabric and attempted to regain some normalcy to his breathing.

  Her hand went to his back and Dane cringed, still not used to the touch there and not ready to be consoled after the same damn nightmare that had plagued him for years.

  No. Not the same. This time the ending was quite different and almost more disturbing than the usual horrendous scene.

  He didn’t have to be Dr. Freud to understand what the dream meant. In it, she’d obviously found out about his plan. She’d discovered he’d been lying to her, that he’d stolen her business from her.

  But it wasn’t hers. Not now, not later. Mirage could never belong to her and he shouldn’t feel guilt when he wasn’t the one who put her in this position.

  Yet guilt still gripped him by the throat and made it damn near impossible to breathe.

  He jerked the covers aside and rose from the bed. His eyes adjusted
easily to the dark; he’d been living in darkness for years so this wasn’t new.

  “Dane.”

  That soft voice, the voice that belonged to a woman who cared for him, who saw his scars and wasn’t bothered by them.

  “I can’t stay.” He searched for his clothes and didn’t look back at her when the sheets rustled. “I shouldn’t have fallen asleep here to begin with. I know what happens.”

  He scooped up his shirt, but couldn’t find his damn pants.

  “The nightmares?” she asked. “You weren’t dreaming of the war. You were screaming for me to help you. So let me.”

  Those slender arms came around his chest, pinning him in place before he could put his shirt on. She wanted to help, but if she knew the truth she’d turn away from him, just as she had in the dream.

  Dane didn’t want to hurt her. Hell, he didn’t purposely want to hurt anybody, except for Robert, but he wanted what belonged to him. Why did all the paths leading to his goal get more twists and turns and roadblocks?

  “I never stay with a woman,” he admitted. “Not since the accident. But you’re...different.”

  “All the more reason for you to quit running.” She circled around to the front and gripped his biceps. “I’m here. I’m not asking you to leave, I’m not asking you to talk about anything if you don’t want to. But I am asking you to give me a chance. Don’t shut me out.”

  Give her a chance? That’s not what he’d come here for, but damn it. He couldn’t help himself and now anything they had was based on a foundation of deception.

  “I wasn’t lying when I said you don’t deserve this.” He fisted his shirt and wished like hell he’d found some other way to get what he wanted. “I won’t be here long and you’re dealing with your father—”

  Stella’s soft laugh filled the room, her warm breath tickled his bare chest. “You know how to ruin a mood. Yes, I’m dealing with my father, but right now, I’m dealing with you.”

  “I’ll go back to my room,” he offered. “It’s best that way.”

  “Best? For you?” she asked. “Because the best thing for me is for you to stay. You obviously trusted me enough to show me your scars. Let me see the ones you’re hiding on the inside.”

  There was nothing else he wanted more than to let her in completely. But they were at odds with each other, though she had no idea who he truly was. This seduction had gotten out of hand, his guilt had grown more and more, and damn it, he actually cared about her.

  There was no way he could prevent her from being hurt. None. Even if he walked away and gave up on Mirage—which he could never do—she’d still be hurt by her father’s callous treatment and failure to keep his bargains. All he could do at this point was either keep going and enjoy this time with her while it lasted, or start to put some distance between them. She would hate him in the end anyway. Did it matter when that started?

  “You can’t want more,” he warned. “I’m leaving when the mountain clears.”

  Stella’s hands fell away. “I know you are. I guess I was just hoping you would stay a little extra time.”

  If only she knew the irony in her statement.

  “I don’t want to get too deep,” he added. “There’s so much we both have going on and this fling...”

  “Doesn’t have to end.”

  She reached for the shirt he held on to and dropped it onto the floor. Taking him by the hand, Stella led him toward the bed. He was utterly defenseless. He was also a bastard. Going back to his room was the smart move, but clearly he’d not been making smart decisions since coming to Mirage because now he had a sinking feeling Stella was falling for him.

  As she lay next to him, with her arm over his chest and leg over his thighs like she dared him to leave again, all Dane could think of was that he’d been too busy enjoying her to pull out the secrets he’d come here to discover.

  Darkness transitioned into light and Dane continued to stare up at the ceiling. Stella had fallen asleep, but now she stirred. He’d been lying here too long with his thoughts, with his damn guilt that gnawed a hole in his gut.

  How was lying to this innocent woman honoring his mother? That’s not the type of person Lara Anderson had been. She’d been kind and caring and so giving and loyal. She’d been perfect and Dane, well, he was anything but.

  “I want to buy Mirage.”

  The words were out before he could talk himself out of admitting the truth—or at least a partial truth.

  Stella’s hand pressed against his chest as she lifted slightly to look down at him. Her hair flattened against one side of her head where she’d slept against his side, her heavy lids shielded half her eyes.

  “What?”

  Dane swallowed and tucked one arm behind his head. “I want to buy Mirage.”

  “Yeah, I heard you.” She shook her head as she sat all the way up and shifted to face him. “But it’s not for sale.”

  “Everything is for sale for the right price.”

  She stared back at him as if seeing him for the first time—as if she was finally seeing the man beneath the facade. But she still didn’t know the truth.

  “My father is turning this over to me,” she told him as she let out a laugh. “And I’m certainly not selling it.”

  Dane remained still. “Are you certain your father is going to give this place to you?”

  A flash of irritation followed by determination crossed her face. Stella tipped her chin and shoved her hair away from her face. “I won’t settle for anything less. I know I’m not what he envisioned for this business or any business of his, really. A son would’ve already had his choice of companies. I ask for one and I’m jumping through damn hoops to secure it.”

  So her father’s issue was that his only child was a girl? What the hell kind of backward thinking was that?

  Dane clenched his teeth and eased up onto one elbow. “Your father won’t be the one keeping this resort,” he vowed.

  Stella’s brows drew in. “I’m not following you this morning. You didn’t get any sleep, did you?”

  He reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “This has nothing to do with last night.”

  A total lie. This had everything to do with last night. He’d let her in, deeper than he’d let anyone. He’d seen a side of her he hadn’t expected and damn it, he respected her.

  None of this was going according to plan and now he was just winging everything and he hoped like hell his goals didn’t vanish forever now that they were finally within reach.

  “Your father will not be the owner of Mirage for much longer,” Dane reiterated. “I promise.”

  “I still don’t get it,” she muttered. “Do you know something I don’t? And if you say you know my father, that you actually do work for him, I will throw you out into that blizzard—”

  “No. I don’t know him.” Not personally anyway. “And I certainly don’t work for him. But I’ve dealt with men like him before. He won’t hold on to this place and he won’t turn it over to you because all he cares about is money.”

  If he cared half as much about his daughter, that would be a nice step in the right direction.

  Dane didn’t want to ask more questions, didn’t want to get more involved emotionally than he already was. But he couldn’t stop himself.

  “Were you two always at odds?” he asked. “When you were growing up, what was he like?”

  Stella shrugged and took her fingertip to the back of his hand. She drew imaginary circles around his knuckles as she seemed to be contemplating her words.

  “He wasn’t around much. My mom died when I was born, so he hired a nanny.” She chewed on her bottom lip as she went around another knuckle. “When he was there, I was never good enough at anything I tried. I loved skiing and would take my thoughts out to the slopes. One lesson turned into another and years later I found myself
competing at national levels.”

  Dane knew that was the extremely shortened version because anyone who competed at that level had worked their ass off for years, giving up most of their social life for the ultimate goal.

  “I think he blames me for her death,” she went on, emotion lacing her tone. “He’s never come right out and said so, but he’s hinted enough.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. You know that, right?”

  Stella remained silent as she glanced away.

  “You’re not responsible for her death,” he stressed as he sat all the way up. “Listen to me.”

  Dane took her bare shoulders and turned her to face him before he framed her face and forced her to hold his gaze.

  “Whatever you grew up believing, whatever he said or just implied, you know nothing was your fault.”

  Stella stared back and shrugged. “It was not exactly my fault, but if I hadn’t been born maybe she and my dad would still be married. Maybe they would’ve had other children. Boys—to fulfill all the requirements to be a Garcia heir.”

  Dane couldn’t wait to take this resort back and get Stella out from under her father’s ruling thumb. She might hate Dane in the end, but at least she’d be saved from one bastard.

  “You don’t really believe that.” Dane wanted to shake sense into her, but he’d only known her a handful of days and he couldn’t exactly reprogram her from over twenty years of dealing with her father. “You’re stronger than your father. You wouldn’t be here if you were weak. Being a woman is actually your strength. Women think in a different way than men and this resort needs you.”

  Stella attempted a smile. “Nobody has ever acted like I’m needed here or at any other business, for that matter.”

  “Then everyone is a damn fool.”

  He meant every word. She was valuable, and she’d done wonderful work here. The only problem was that he just couldn’t have her take his resort.

  “You’re a sharp businesswoman and if your dad can’t see that, then stop beating yourself up and go out and make something of your own without worrying about how he’d react.”