Читать книгу Claiming His Nine-Month Consequence - Дженни Лукас, Jennie Lucas - Страница 11
ОглавлениеSCATTERING SNOW AS he twisted his snowboard to a stop halfway down the mountain, Ares straightened, looking back.
The night was clear and dark with stars. He could see his breath in the cold air, illuminated by moonlight and the slow trail of fire-lit torches of skiers zigzagging single file down the mountain. He’d never seen anything so beautiful.
Or maybe he had.
Ruby came to an abrupt stop next to him on her snowboard, pelting him with a wave of snow. Her face was indescribably beautiful as she laughed merrily, her cheeks pink with cold, her eyes sparkling bright.
“For a man who claimed to suck at skiing,” she observed, “you’re pretty good.”
“This is snowboarding. I never claimed to suck at snowboarding.”
“Flying down the hill like that, I thought you’d break your neck. No doubt causing anguish to starlets and lingerie models everywhere,” she added drily.
He grinned. “Don’t forget the swimsuit models.”
Her trash talk reassured him. He knew if she’d been underwhelmed by his snowboarding skills, she would have instead been patronizingly kind. He was relieved, since he’d nearly broken his damn neck trying to stay ahead of her.
Ares looked back at the torchlit parade. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“I’m happy to be here.” Looking at him, she said softly, “Thank you, Ares.”
Hearing her low, melodic voice speak his name, he felt a strange twist in his heart. Was it her beauty? Was it the winter fantasy around him, the sense that he was a million miles away from his real life?
It was excitement, he told himself. Excitement and lust. And triumph. He was winning her over. She would soon be his.
Ruby gave him a sudden cheerful grin. “No one even recognized you.”
Wryly, he glanced down at his vintage 1980s one-piece ski suit, bright blue with white and red racing stripes. He’d almost refused to wear it when she’d given it to him. Then he’d realized it was a test of sorts, and had taken it without complaint, along with the antiquated snowboard equipment, old goggles and a dark beanie hat from the resort’s lost-and-found bin.
“Perfect,” she’d said when he’d come out of the dressing room, her eyes twinkling with glee. “You’ll fit right in.”
And somewhat to his surprise, he had. The other ski instructors participating in Renegade Night were mostly in their twenties, both men and women, all of them fit and reckless. Even with Ares’s height and broad physique, no one had looked at him twice. Not with two Olympic athletes joining them, Star Valley locals who’d won medals in ski jumping and downhill skiing. And also some famous hockey player, apparently. They were the local heroes. No one had looked twice at Ares in his thick goggles.
It was disconcerting. But also strangely liberating.
Anonymity meant privacy. It meant freedom. That kind of invisibility was exhilarating and new.
Even as a boy in Greece, Ares had been constantly under a microscope, the only child of Aristedes and Thalia Kourakis, the glamorous, fabulously wealthy Greek society couple. His mother was famous for her beauty, his father for his ruthless power, and both of them for their tempestuous marriage, a five-year battle that had ended in a ten-year divorce.
And if they were merciless to each other, they’d been even more so to their only son. They’d used him as a pawn, first in the marriage, then in their divorce, in the court of public opinion. Ares had been recognized, and fawned over, wherever he went, if not for his appearance, then for his family’s wealth and name.
Appearance was what mattered. His parents had taught him that well, spending almost no time with him, leaving him in the care of nannies as they tried to outdo each other by buying him ridiculous gifts. The gifts always came with strings. Like on Ares’s ninth birthday, when his father had bought him a Brazilian aerospace company. As Ares had blinked in confusion—he’d dreamed of a puppy—his father had added casually, “And in return for this amazing gift, I expect you to report on the activities of that whore you call a mother.”
Now, as Ares felt the ice-cold wind of the Idaho mountain whip against his face, he realized he’d never had the chance to cast off his name and everything that came with it—fame, power, yes, but also darkness.
He felt strangely free. Strangely alive.
“Why are you just standing there? Don’t tell me you’re already tired,” Ruby said gleefully.
Ares looked at the beautiful, unexpected woman beside him in the snow. Her cloud of dark hair tumbled beneath her pink hat, knit with a red flower. Behind her, he saw the distant torches of the last skiers, as lovely and mysterious as fairy lights.
He wasn’t tired. At all.
He wanted to kiss her.
He wanted to do far more than kiss her.
Looking at him, Ruby’s expression changed. Her smile slid away. She looked almost...afraid.
“Come on.” Turning on her snowboard, she took off down the hill. She was reckless, jumping moguls. She was a force of nature. Unstoppable.
Ares watched her. He’d possessed many women in his life. He’d taken them as his due. But for the first time, he’d met one who didn’t seem overly impressed either by his money or his appearance. She accepted him—or not—only for himself. For his actions. For his words. For his skills.
He could hardly wait to win her into his bed.
Chasing her, Ares turned the snowboard down and flew.
She reached the bottom of the mountain first. A roaring bonfire crackled in the middle of a snowy field, next to an icy creek. Around it, young people who’d already finished skiing laughed together, holding steaming mugs.
Ares unlatched his snowboard. Lifting his goggles to his ski cap, he straightened, stepping out in the snow in his borrowed boots. Someone he didn’t know handed him a copper mug.
“Here, man. This’ll warm you up.”
Pulling off his gloves, Ares stuffed them in his pockets and took the mug. “Thanks.”
“I’m Gus.” The red-haired man, who had a lumberjack beard, did a double take. “Nice snowsuit.”
Ares scowled, suspecting mockery. But the other man’s eyes were sincere. So he said, “Thank you.”
“Ruby picked that out for you, right? You’re her friend’s cousin or something from up north?”
“Hmm,” Ares said noncommittally. Sniffing cinnamon and clove, he took a tentative sip from the copper mug. He tasted mulled wine, hot and infused with spices. Sighing in pleasure, he took a bigger gulp.
“Right,” Gus said. “That girl has mad skills tracking down vintage stuff. I keep telling her she needs to start that business. All she needs to do is apply for a loan, but she just won’t.”
“A business?” Ares’s eyebrows lifted. He looked down at his outrageous ski suit. “You think people would actually buy outfits like this? On purpose?”
“Oh, yeah, man. Look around.”
He did, and he saw that most of the young people were indeed dressed in funky, offbeat outfits as outlandish as his own.
“Designer gear is for talentless hacks trying to buy their way into the sport.” The red-haired man considered. “Your suit is cool.”
Ares’s gaze fell on Ruby, who was standing on the other side of the bonfire. A broad-shouldered man was talking to her earnestly. “Who’s that with her now?”
The young man nodded toward them. “You know Braden Lassiter is her ex, right? They were engaged until he up and left for the National Hockey League. He plays for New York.”
Ares’s eyes narrowed. “New York?” He strained to remember anything he’d heard about Braden Lassiter, but he didn’t follow ice hockey. But he didn’t like seeing him talking to Ruby. Leaning toward her. “They were engaged?”
“High school sweethearts. Too bad they broke up. If they had a baby, man, that kid would kill it on the slopes, probably win every gold medal.”
Ares stared at them. A moment ago, flying down the mountain, he’d felt exhilarated, even euphoric. Now he felt ice in his solar plexus. What was it? Irritation? Possessiveness? It couldn’t be jealousy. He didn’t do jealousy.
Finishing his drink, Ares handed the mug back. “Thanks again.”
At least he wasn’t the only one who was annoyed. As he walked toward Ruby, he saw Braden Lassiter walking away from her with a scowl on his face. The man paused to stare suspiciously as Ares approached her.
Turning, Ruby saw him. “There you are.”
Ares jerked his chin toward the departing hockey player. “Was he bothering you?”
“Braden?” She rolled her eyes. “His team was playing in Vancouver and he had a free day, so he dropped in for Renegade Night. So of course the second he sees me with someone, he’s suddenly Mr. Twenty Questions, like he thinks he still has some claim over me.”
“You were engaged?”
“Did Gus tell you?” A strange expression crossed her face. “It was a million years ago. When he became an instant millionaire, he disappeared.”
“The bastard.”
“It was a good reminder of what money does to men’s hearts.”
The snow crunched beneath his feet. “And what is that?”
She looked up at him with big, dark eyes that gleamed against the bonfire’s flickering red light. “It makes them selfish. And cold.”
Ares immediately knew the accusation didn’t only include Braden Lassiter. “Or maybe,” he said quietly, “we were always that way from the start, and money just gave us more opportunity.”
She stared at him for a long moment by the crackling fire. Then she sighed, watching as sparks flew up into the dark, cold, starlit sky. “I wish there was no such thing as money.”
Close together in front of the bonfire, he could feel the warmth of the flames against his body. But it was nothing compared to the heat he felt inside as he looked down at her.
“I’m glad there is,” he said. “Because it’s why I’m here with you right now.”
Her lips parted. “I didn’t bring you here for money!”
“I know. But you’d still be working at the bar.” Gently, he stroked down her cheek to caress her lower lip with the tip of his thumb. “I couldn’t have blackmailed you into bringing me here.”
He heard her catch her breath, felt her tremble beneath his touch. So she felt it, too, then. She felt it, too.
“You didn’t exactly...blackmail me.”
Ares looked down at her lovely face, lit up by the firelight. “I didn’t?”
“No,” she admitted, then took a deep breath. “Maybe,” she whispered, “you’re different, too...”
Burning wood crackled in the bonfire as they looked at each other. He heard the burble of the creek, the soft drop of snow falling from pine trees, the wind blowing through the valley.
The fire glowed in her expressive dark eyes, even as the other side of her dark hair was laced silver by moonlight. Silver and gold, he thought. Why did Ruby continually remind him of a princess from a fairy tale? A sexy fairy tale that ended with them naked in each other’s arms. She obliterated his every thought except need...
Ares cupped both sides of her face, beneath her jawline. Her skin, chilled by the cold air, warmed beneath his hands. He felt her tremble as her delectable, cherry-red lips parted, as if in invitation.
Lowering his mouth to hers, he kissed her.
Sweet, so sweet. Her lips were satin soft, and tasted like sugar. They tasted like heaven. He felt her shiver. Her lips caused a delicious fire to roar though him, building higher and higher, until his body was blazing from within.
Then, reaching her hands around his shoulders, she started to kiss him back.
The fire inside him exploded. With a low growl, he pulled her hard against him, forgetting all the others milling around them, forgetting everything else in the world but the taste of her sweet lips and feel of her curvaceous body against his.
As if from a distance, he heard the low shouts, lazy applause, yelled encouragements and commentary from the people around them.
“Get a room,” someone hooted.
“I thought he was her cousin,” someone else said.
“Who is he?”
“Oh, my God, is that...Ares Kourakis?”
The last words broke the spell, and as a branch snapped loudly in the fire, he felt Ruby stiffen in his arms. But he wouldn’t release her.
Tangling his hands in her hair, Ares murmured, “Let’s get out of here. Come home with me.”
Her face looked stricken, almost dazed, as she glanced around at her friends. Licking her lips, she whispered, “I—I shouldn’t.”
“Just for one drink.”
“I told you. I don’t drink.”
He grasped at straws. “We haven’t eaten anything all night. You must be hungry. Let me make you dinner.”
“You cook?”
Growing up with a house full of servants, Ares had never cooked in his life. But he wasn’t going to admit that now. “I’ll make you something amazing.”
The edges of her lips curved upward. “How amazing?”
He looked her straight in the eye. “The best you’ve ever had.”
Her eyes widened at his obvious implication. Glancing right and left self-consciously, she said in a low voice, “I can’t.”
His dark eyebrows lifted. “I took you for the kind of girl who doesn’t care what other people think. Only about her own pleasure.”
She choked a laugh. “What made you think that?”
He held her gaze. “When was the last time you put yourself first?”
“Tonight. Being here with you.”
“And before that?”
She paused. “It’s been a while.”
Pulling her more tightly into his arms, he looked down at her, relishing the feel of her against him in the cold night. “You can have anything you desire.” He stroked his fingertips slowly against her cheek. “All you have to do is say yes.”
Ruby’s pink cheeks turned redder still. She said unsteadily, “You’re just saying that trying to get what you want.”
“Of course I am,” he said frankly. “I want you, Ruby. I haven’t tried to hide it. Or the fact that I’m selfish and ruthless...”
Lowering his head to hers, he kissed her until she was left shivering in his arms and clinging to him for balance.
“Stop,” she breathed when he pulled away, again to more hooting from her friends. “I’ll come.”
Triumph filled him. “You will?”
She looked at him helplessly. “For dinner. Nothing more.”
But that was a lie, and he knew it. The way she’d kissed him, she had to know full well that food would barely be an appetizer on their sensual menu. But if her pride needed that ridiculous self-deception, he’d be the last man to argue the point.
As she gathered her gloves and said a quiet thank-you to her friends, he watched her hungrily. He could still feel her mouth against his. Still taste her lips. Waiting was agony. Every moment they weren’t naked felt like eternity.
Tucking both their snowboards under his arm, Ares followed her down the short path to the quiet, snowy lot where her beat-up truck was parked. She hesitated, giving an unsteady laugh as she looked back at him.
“I don’t think I can drive.” She lifted a hand to her forehead. “I feel a little wobbly. It’s been a long day. Maybe I have low blood sugar. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“I’ll drive.”
“You were drinking.”
He gave a low laugh. “Two sips of scotch, half a beer, and a mug of mulled wine, over four hours.”
“My truck can be tricky—”
He took her keys. “I’ve got it.” Unlocking the back, he tossed in the snowboards. He opened her door and helped her climb onto the bench seat, next to a canvas duffel bag filled with their regular clothes. Touching her hand, he felt her tremble. Or was he the one trembling?
He stomped on the thought. It was ridiculous.
Ruby Prescott was just another woman. A woman like any other. Once he possessed her, once the attraction was consummated, he would be satisfied. He could leave for Sydney tomorrow and not give her another thought.
Ruby was different from the rest, yes.
But not that different.
* * *
Ruby had never believed in fairy tales. She couldn’t. Not growing up as she had.
Her mother was the kindest, best person on the planet. Bonnie always saw the best in people and believed good things were just around the corner. She believed if you worked hard, had faith in your dreams and took care of others, you would be happy.
Her mother had been wrong.
In spite of being so good, in spite of being so kind, Bonnie had suffered bad luck and misfortune. Her parents, Ruby’s grandparents, had died before Bonnie was nineteen, leaving little savings. Unwilling to leave her hometown, she’d become a waitress the summer after high school. She was trying to save for college when she was swept off her feet by a resort guest, a handsome millionaire visiting from Buenos Aires. Bonnie had thought it was true love, just like she’d always dreamed of. But when she became pregnant with Ruby, instead of being delighted and proposing marriage as Bonnie had hoped, the man had screamed in her face, tossed a few hundred-dollar bills in her face for an abortion and left the country, never to return.
Bonnie had moved into a trailer with cheap rent, temporarily she’d thought, trying to raise her baby daughter on minimum-wage jobs, still hoping she could improve their situation. Instead, when Ruby was five, her mother had fallen in love with another wealthy hotel guest, this one a Texas oilman ten years Bonnie’s senior, whom she hoped might be a good father to Ruby.
Over the course of an entire winter of visits, he’d told Bonnie he loved her. He hadn’t always wanted to use a condom, and believing they’d soon be married, she’d reluctantly acquiesced. But when summer came and she discovered she was pregnant, he wouldn’t marry her. “I’m married to my comp’ny, darlin’,” he’d said with a smile, in his charming cowboy drawl. And as for child support, he’d taken her in his arms and tenderly asked her not to make any legal claim. “Just wait a little while. Till this next oil field pans out. Then I’ll take care of you and that lil’ baby, don’t you worry.”
But he never did. He just stopped coming to Star Valley, and ignored Bonnie’s increasingly frantic messages. Before Ivy was even born, oil prices suddenly collapsed, and his overextended company was forced into bankruptcy. Unable to face the total loss, he drove his car into a telephone pole, in a fiery death the coroner obligingly marked “accident.”
After that, Bonnie had learned her lesson. She’d told her daughters again and again never to trust anything a rich man might tell them.
And look what good it had done, Ruby thought. Ivy still dreamed of hooking a rich husband. And Ruby herself, as a foolish eighteen-year-old, had nearly married Braden, who’d abandoned her the second the ink on his NHL contract was dry.
Fairy tales weren’t real. Romantic dreams were poison. Men who seemed like handsome princes were just lying, trying to lure sensible young women into love—and doom.
What had love ever done for her mother except destroy her ability to follow her own dreams, leaving her heartbroken and poor?
What had it done for Ruby other than leaving her alone and humiliated at the altar?
Ruby was just relieved that Braden had left her when he had. When their love was still innocent. Before they’d married, or worse, had a child. But she had no intention of ever trusting a rich, ruthless man ever again.
Then, tonight, Ares had kissed her.
It was the kiss Ruby had dreamed about, even while telling herself that romantic dreams were lies. The kiss she’d been waiting for all her life.
He’d held her tightly beside the flames of the bonfire, beneath the cold, bright stars, and when his lips had touched hers, she’d forgotten all her sensible plans and promises.
There was only this.
Only him.
Now Ruby glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as he drove her old truck down the snowy road. Her gaze lingered on his sensual lips, and she felt her own tingle in memory of his embrace.
Her eyes traced unwillingly over his strong arms, as he changed gears; over his strong thighs, as he pressed on the gas. She’d never let anyone drive her truck before, but she’d had no choice tonight, because her own knees felt so weak, for reasons that she knew had nothing to do with hunger or snowboarding.
Ares was right. She was hungry. After so many years being strong for everyone else, she felt like she’d been starving for years, on a treadmill of unending work. There’d been no color. No joy.
I took you for the kind of girl who doesn’t care what other people think. Only about her own pleasure.
A shiver racked Ruby’s body. But she couldn’t let herself be tempted. He’d already told her outright that he was selfish and ruthless. He didn’t do complicated. Why would she be foolish enough to believe any love affair between them, even a one-night stand, could end any way but badly?
And yet...
Staring at him, her heart was pounding. She felt danger. Pleasure. Excitement. In this moment, she couldn’t think straight. All she could do was feel.
She was tempted. Even knowing herself for a fool. She wanted him. His kiss had overwhelmed her senses. Her toes still hadn’t uncurled in her boots.
Ares glanced at her. His black eyes glinted in the darkness, and heat flooded her body. Then he turned away as he steered the truck onto a small private road, and she exhaled.
All right, so maybe she’d become a modern-day spinster, a twenty-four-year-old virgin who worked too much and, as her little sister had pointed out, who had apparently given up on her dreams. But if Ruby truly wanted to change that, if she wanted to take her first lover, it would be better to proposition Monty or even Paul Vence himself rather than let herself be seduced by the selfish, arrogant Greek billionaire everyone else wanted. Whom even her baby sister had wanted.
As if on cue, Ruby heard her phone ringing from her canvas duffel bag. Digging through neatly folded clothes, she looked at it and saw Ivy’s number. Guilt rushed through her. After the way she’d prevented Ivy from sleeping with Ares, the word hypocrite didn’t even seem large enough to describe how her sister would see Ruby’s actions right now. She pressed the button to decline the call.
“Everything all right?”
Ares’s voice was sensual, low, and it did crazy things to her insides. “Everything’s fine.” Biting her lip, she took a deep breath and said in a rush, “But I think I changed my mind about dinner and I should just go home—”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Is that what you want?”
“Yes—it is—”
Ares stopped the truck abruptly in the middle of the dark, empty road. Turning off the engine, he looked at her.
“You’re lying.” His hot dark gaze pierced her from across the worn bench seat. “There’s no way you want to go home. Not after the way you kissed me.”
She shrugged, trying desperately to play it cool. “I guess the kiss wasn’t totally bad...”
“Bad?” He looked incredulous.
“...but it was just a kiss.” She was proud of the way her voice held steady, as if his embrace beneath the winter sky hadn’t twisted her body inside out and turned her heart upside down, leaving her weak and yearning.
“We both know it was more.” His voice held an edge. “You felt it. I felt it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He looked astonished, then angry. Moving across the truck’s bench seat, he grabbed her by the shoulders, looking down at her fiercely. “Before I met you, I felt bored by everything and everyone. But now there’s one thing I can’t stop thinking about. One thing I have to have. At any price.”
Ruby’s heart was pounding. He was saying everything that she felt, deep in her soul. Trembling, she choked out, “I thought you didn’t do complicated...”
“This isn’t complicated. It’s simple. I want you to come home with me tonight. And I know you feel the same. Why are you trying to deny it?”
As their eyes locked, her phone started to ring from her bag. Glancing down, she saw it was Ivy again. Ruby looked from the phone to him, torn between reason and desire.
I know you feel the same. Why are you trying to deny it?
