Читать книгу The Complete Boardroom Collection - Джанис Мейнард, Yvonne Lindsay - Страница 43
Six
ОглавлениеLetting her stew about their destination amused Max for the next half hour. The silence gave him time to mull over what he’d learned about her. He’d known she’d taken care of Hailey and helped her by paying for college. It just never occurred to him how young she’d been when she’d taken on the responsibility of her sister.
As they entered the city limits of Gulf Shores, Rachel sat forward in her seat, her expression growing animated. Had she been back in the last five years? Many times he’d imagined her here. Pictured her long blond hair whipping around her face as she walked the beach or sat having breakfast at Jolene’s Hideaway.
The car streaked past the beach cottages where they’d spent their four days together. Rachel’s gaze snagged on the cluster of pale peach structures, her head turning as she kept her sights locked on them. Curiosity and confusion melded in the turbulent blue depths of her eyes as they came to rest on him.
“We’re not staying there?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
“You’ll see.”
They quickly left the main strip behind, hotels, restaurants and shops giving way to beach homes. Leggy structures built on pilings lined the road, their colors pale representations of the surrounding landscape.
“I thought you said we’re staying in Gulf Shores,” she persisted.
“We are.”
“But the hotels are all back there.” She gestured over her shoulder, indicating the town now a mile behind them.
“I own a house here.” He didn’t need to glimpse her expression to know he’d surprised her. Beside him, her body tensed. “I bought it four years ago.”
A year after they’d met. It made sense to purchase property since he’d taken to visiting the town once a month. All in the hopes of finding her again. Proof positive that he was a fool. She’d been married. She’d returned to her husband. Yet he’d returned to the scene of the crime like some love-struck idiot. Over and over.
When it occurred to him that he was behaving exactly like his father’s mistress—a woman he despised for her weakness—that he was willing to take whatever scraps of Rachel’s life he could because living without her made him miserable, he’d stopped coming to Gulf Shores for three months. But in the end, his longing for her had been too strong.
Naturally, all this was wrapped up in logic and justified by sound reasoning about rising property values and his need for a vacation home. But each time he returned to the beach house, he couldn’t hide the truth from himself. He was here because he hoped Rachel would return to him.
“This is yours?” Rachel’s question broke the quiet. She’d rolled down her window and a light breeze wafted in, bringing the rhythmic crash of surf and the scent of brine. “I don’t get it. Your weekends are filled with racing. Why’d you buy a house out here? It’s a lot of money for something you never use.”
“I like the beach.” More than ever now that she was here. “Let’s go inside, I’ll show you around.”
Max had chosen the house for it’s open floor plan and the location, but as Rachel exclaimed over the granite counter-tops and stainless appliances in the gourmet kitchen, he decided he might have had a woman in the back of his mind when he’d had the kitchen and bathrooms updated.
As they concluded the tour of the main part of the house and headed toward the bedrooms, Rachel tugged her overnight bag from his grasp and marched into the guest bedroom. He saw that she expected him to argue. Why bother when words would have little effect on her? She was afraid of what the chemistry between them would lead to. Oh, not the lovemaking. The hungry look in her eye told him that her desire for him matched his longing for her. But she was worried how their relationship would change after this weekend.
“I’m going to grab a shower,” he told her. “See you in thirty.”
When he returned to the small bedroom, he found Rachel in the midst of unpacking. She’d also showered and now wore a pale blue sundress that bared her slender arms and showed off her delicate collarbones. Her damp hair lay flat against her head, the bright gold darkened to bronze. Tiny silver butterflies swooped below her ears.
“Nice,” he murmured, gaze snagged on the frothy scrap of red satin and black lace laid out beside her suitcase.
“That is not mine.” She shook her head. “And I wouldn’t have packed it for a weekend getaway with you.”
“Why not?” He made no effort to resist a grin.
She rolled her eyes. “Because it wouldn’t have lasted more than ten seconds, so what would be the point in putting it on?”
“Try it on and I’ll demonstrate the point.”
Max gathered her into his arms and dropped his lips onto hers. He’d meant it to be just a hot, quick kiss, a suggestion of what would come later, but she melted against him and he lingered. He tasted yearning and reluctance in her kisses. Both excited him. He couldn’t wait for that moment when passion torched her hesitation and she let herself go.
Dropping his hands to her backside, he cupped his palms over her sweet curves and pulled her hard against the unruly tension in his groin. Her shiver told him she was on the verge of surrender. His stomach took that inopportune moment to growl.
A different sort of growl rumbled his throat as she laughed and flattened her hands against his chest to push him away.
“Sounds like the beast is hungry,” she said.
Before she could move out of reach, he caught her hand and pressed it over the erection straining against his zipper. “The beast is starving.”
For a series of heart-pounding seconds she cupped him, fingers trailing along his length, and Max found his knees starting to give way. But before he could swoop in for a deep, exploring kiss even hotter than the last one, she twisted free and fled out the door.
“Come on, Max,” she called over her shoulder, cheeks flushed, her half smile taunting him. “You promised me dinner.”
Ten minutes later, her eyes glowed as they drove into the parking lot of the restaurant she’d recommended. Reluctance, eagerness, anxiety and yearning passed across Rachel’s features, and Max wondered what memories this place roused. He took her hand as they started up the steps to the enormous deck that wrapped around the outside of the waterfront restaurant. With spectacular views of the Gulf of Mexico, the deck was wide enough to accommodate two rows of tables set for four and a generous aisle between. Despite the heat, families and couples occupied every table.
Weathered wood boards squeaked beneath their weight as Max held the door open for her to enter the restaurant. Once inside, the cries of gulls and the soothing pulse of the gulf gave way to the chatter of the crowd occupying the tables in the enormous restaurant. Walls of windows on three sides provided stunning views of the beach and offered the opportunity to watch the day draw to a close in spectacular shades of orange and red.
Rachel approached the hostess stand and spoke to the woman who was directing her wait and bussing staff with crisp instructions. “Hi, Mary.”
The woman looked around and her face lit up with astonishment. “Rachel Lansing. You darling girl. Come here and give me a hug.”
At first Rachel looked overwhelmed by the warm welcome, but adapted with enthusiasm.
“Max. This is Mary. She owns the Pelican’s Roost. I used to work here back in my high school days.”
“She was one of our most popular girls.”
“Yes,” Max murmured. “I’m sure she was.”
Mary lifted a disapproving eyebrow at his dry remark. “Not like that. She was a good waitress. Always smiling. Never got an order wrong and she could charm the crankiest customers. And we get a lot of those during season.”
“I wasn’t all that,” Rachel demurred. “Dad taught me the value of hard work, that’s all.”
“Yes,” Mary said with a sigh. “God rest his soul. So, where are you living these days? The last time you were here was five or six years ago, wasn’t it? You were living in Biloxi, I think.”
“I live in Houston now. I run my own business. Lansing Employment Agency.”
“And is this handsome fellow your husband?”
Color brightened Rachel’s cheeks as she shook her head. “He’s a client, actually. We were in Pensacola on business.”
To Max’s bemusement, he resented being described as Rachel’s client. But what did he expect, that she’d announce to the world that they were soon to be lovers? Or ex-lovers? Their relationship, past, present and future, was too complicated to be easily labeled.
“Do you want to sit inside or on the deck?” Mary gathered menus.
“Outside.” Rachel grabbed Max’s hand as the restaurant owner headed off and tugged to get him moving. “Is that okay with you?”
“Outside’s fine.”
He squeezed her hand and shook off his pensive mood. This weekend was supposed to be about two uncomplicated days of sex, conversation and laughter. No need to muck it up with a bunch of pesky emotions that would confuse things. Keep it light. Keep it casual.
“Everything looks good,” he said, scanning the menu with only half his attention. The rest was caught, spellbound, by the whimsical curve of her lips as she set her arm on the railing and peered at the water. “What do you recommend?”
“I’m having the raw oysters, followed by the pan-fried grouper.” She leaned forward and whispered, “Don’t tell Mary, but it’s not as good as my dad used to make.” Then, she resumed speaking in her regular tone. “And for dessert, peach cobbler because nobody makes cobbler like the Pelican’s Roost.”
“Sounds good.”
And it was. Thirty minutes later, Max set down his fork after cleaning up every last peach cobbler crumb and exhaled. “Everything was fantastic. Why didn’t we come here five years ago?”
“We had a hard time getting dressed and going anywhere,” she reminded him with a cagey grin.
That was true. They’d been insatiable. But looking back with a clearer head, he remembered it was Rachel who’d resisted his offers to investigate the local restaurants. The one time they had gone out for dinner, she’d directed him to a town fifteen miles farther along the coast. He realized now that she hadn’t wanted to explain being with a man not her husband.
Then it struck him that this was how Nathan’s mother must have felt. Always hidden away. Always coping with the fact that she was the dirty little secret in her lover’s closet. Max had spent most of his teenage years hating his father’s mistress, blaming her for the problems in his parents’ marriage. With twenty years of resentment propping up his perception, he was dismayed to feel a twinge of sympathy for the woman.
As he drove back to his house, Rachel’s nerves became more and more obvious. She half jumped out of her skin after he parked the car in the driveway and touched her arm.
“How about we take a walk on the beach?” he offered.
“But I thought …?” she began, obviously flabbergasted.
“That I was going to pounce on you the second we got back?” He wrapped his arm around her slim waist and pulled her snug against his side. He had no intention of telling her that his body was revved up to make love, but his emotions were playing sentimental tricks on him. “I thought you’d be more receptive after a sunset stroll.”
“How thoughtful of you to consider my romantic needs.” Beneath her dry tone he heard a throb of anxiety.
Max dropped a kiss on her head. “Just shut up and enjoy the moment.”
Her chuckle vibrated against his ribs, easing the tension. They shed their shoes by the beachside stairs that led to his deck and stepped onto the warm sand. Fine white grains slipped between his toes as they strolled along the beach. The moon had risen early and shone as a narrow, white crescent against the deepening blue of the eastern sky. Max estimated it was somewhere close to low tide because they were able to walk on the hard, packed sand near the water’s edge. The breeze was too light to push the waves onto the beach with any force.
“Thank you for bringing me here this weekend,” Rachel said. “I didn’t realize how much I missed the beach until now.”
“Why’d you move away?”
She paused so long before answering, Max began wondering if she’d heard his question.
“After Dad died we went to live with his sister in Biloxi.” She settled into her story like someone perched on the edge of a soft couch, too afraid to get comfortable. “Hailey wanted to stay and graduate with her friends, but I insisted we’d be better off if we were close to family.”
“So, you don’t have any family around here? What about your mother?”
“I barely remember her. She left when I was four and Hailey was two. Didn’t have much use for us. At least that’s what Daddy said.” She slipped into a drawl that sounded very much like the local accent.
That’s when he realized she’d stripped as much Alabama out of her accent as she could at some point since leaving here.
“And you never knew your grandparents?”
“I never knew anyone from Mom’s side of the family. Sometimes it felt as if Hailey and I had been left on Daddy’s doorstep.”
“What about your other grandparents?”
“We met them a few times. They lived in Iowa and came down to visit from time to time until my grandmother got Alzheimer’s and had to be put in a nursing home.”
This was more of her background than she’d shared before. Five years ago, she’d sidestepped every question he’d directed at her. She’d been so accomplished at keeping the conversation focused on him that he hadn’t been aware how little he knew about her until she was gone.
What had prompted her to open up to him now? Was she starting to trust him a little? Trust him enough to tell him about her problems?
They walked west in companionable silence, enjoying the play of rich oranges and purples across the sky. The clear night allowed the sun to glow red for a long time before it disappeared below the horizon. As daylight faded, they retraced their steps.
As peaceful as he felt with a soft, curvaceous Rachel relaxed against his side, the closer they got to his beach house, the more anticipation tightened his nerves into bowstrings. His earlier decision to take things slow now became the biggest mistake he’d made in months. Why had he taken Rachel first to dinner then on this long walk on the beach when they could have grabbed takeout and eaten dinner off each other’s naked bodies?
Need tightened his gut as he watched Rachel dust sand off her feet on the deck. Patience snapping, he caught her hand and pulled her into the house.
“I can’t wait another second to kiss you,” he said, closing and locking the sliding glass door. Putting his arms around her, he tugged her hard against his body.
A breathy laugh escaped her. “Then I guess we’d better get started.”
His lips captured hers in a fervent kiss that paid homage to her vulnerability while giving her a glimpse of how waiting had fueled his impatience. She met his demand with no sign of her earlier hesitation. Her arms came around his neck. He cupped her head and held her still for a deep, exploring kiss hotter than any they’d exchanged. She arched her back, pushing her lower half against his erection, letting him feel her urgency.
“Make love to me, Max.” She tugged his shirt free of his pants and found his skin burning for her. “The romance has been nice, but I need you inside me.”
In complete agreement, he drew her down the hall toward the master bedroom. Flinging aside the comforter, Max stripped off his shirt and kicked off his shoes. Despite the cool air blowing across his naked shoulders, he felt feverish. Kissing Rachel set him on fire. Making love to her threatened to reduce him to ash.
“Max.”
He turned at the sound of his name and caught Rachel staring at him, her hand behind her, sliding down the sundress’ zipper. The look in her eyes stopped his breath. The uncertainty lurking in their velvet blue depths was gone, replaced by confidence. She looked radiant in the rapidly fading evening light.
The smile she offered him was equal parts bold and encouraging. “Are you going to stand there and watch or help?”
She didn’t need to ask twice. He brushed the straps off her shoulders and the dress fell to a pool at her feet. Clad in a lavender bra and matching panties, she stood still for his inspection, her chest heaving with each ragged breath.
“Beautiful.” He played his fingertips along her collarbones and then dragged reverent caresses along the bra straps to the edge of the bra. “Your skin is like silk.”
She placed her palms on his abs and fanned the fire banked these five years. But he’d promised himself he’d take it slow. He wanted to learn every inch of her skin again.
Her fingers crept down his stomach, past his belly button to the low ride of his waistband. Beneath the buttons that held his jeans together his erection strained toward her questing touch. A groan erupted as she freed him. His hard length speared at her belly, searching for the soft, hot sheath that awaited him. Before he guessed her intentions, she grasped him in her hands.
Sensation exploded through him. A guttural moan tore from his throat as she closed her hand around him. The years fell away. There was no awkwardness in her caresses. She remembered exactly how he liked to be touched. Before her ministrations could cause a premature end to their fun, he swept her into his arms and deposited her on the bed.
“I get to play first,” he told her, rolling her beneath him and pinning her hands above her head.
Her thighs parted as he inserted one leg between them. She bent her knee and rocked her hips, grinding her pelvis against him in a slow, sexy wiggle that short-circuited his willpower.
He captured her mouth with his again, his tongue easing past her full lips to sample the exotic pleasures that awaited him beyond. Frantic mewling noises erupted in her throat as she tugged to free her hands. He released her, having better uses for his fingers than holding her captive.
“Better,” she murmured, hands riding his shoulders and back with provocative flair.
Taking his time, he drove her mad with feather-light kisses across her soft, fragrant skin. Inch by inch, he eased his way down her body, revisiting all her ticklish spots and the ones that made her gasp. Five years had gone by, but he knew her body as well as he knew his own. Maybe better.
His teeth latched on to the lace edge of her bra. Tugging at the material caused her to hiss impatiently through her teeth. He buried his smile between her breasts, trailing his tongue up one round curve just above the line of silk. He wrapped his fingers around her straps and eased them off her shoulders, but made no attempt to draw the material lower. Her breath came in erratic pants as he retraced his tongue’s path, this time dipping below the fabric.
“You’re being awfully darned slow about getting me naked,” Rachel complained, arching her back to reach her bra catch.
It loosened, but kept her covered. She pushed hard on his shoulder, rolling him onto his back. He grabbed her hips and brought her with him. The bra fell, exposing her small, perfect breasts.
Max palmed them with a sigh of sheer joy. Her bra sailed somewhere off to his left as he began relearning the shape of her. Already her nipples had peaked into dark buds. Max half closed his eyes in satisfaction at the hitch in her breath as he fondled her.
Below where she sat, his erection prodded against her lavender panties, seeking entrance. She leaned forward and rocked her hips. His sensitive head slid against the silk of her underwear, so close to her heat he thought he might go mad with wanting.
She reached behind her and seized him. Max’s mouth fell open in shock at the intense pleasure that washed over him. A groan ripped from his chest as her fingers played over the head of his erection. His focus narrowed to her hand and the acute agony denying himself the satisfaction his body craved.
He pulled her hands away and meshed her fingers with his. He closed his eyes to block out her happy smile and the passion glowing in her half lidded gaze.
Not one of the women he’d been with since the day she’d left had brought him to the edge this fast. Control had never been a problem for him until Rachel had entered his life. Max sucked air into his lungs, struggling to clear the fog of passion before something happened they would both regret.
“Condom,” he rasped out.
“Where?” She sounded as impatient as he felt.
“Front pocket.”
She stabbed both hands into his pockets and plucked out a condom. “You came prepared,” she said, dismounting.
The bed sagged to his left. Max shoved down his pants and opened his eyes in time to see a naked Rachel rip open the foil packet with her teeth and poise the condom over the tip of his erection. Clenching his teeth, Max let her finish the task without his help while his hands fisted into the bed sheets.
The time for subtlety and patience ended. With his heart thundering a frantic cadence, Max sat up, flipped Rachel onto her back and slid into her with one long thrust.
The perfection of Max buried deep inside her robbed Rachel of breath. Five years was a long time to go without being complete. And complete was how she felt in Max’s arms. No other man reached past her defenses and captured her heart the way he did.
“You feel amazing,” he said, voice husky and raw as if overused. The timbre rasped against her nerve endings with delightful results. “I’m sorry I didn’t take it slower. I wanted to.”
“You always wanted to delay the good stuff,” she groused, but couldn’t hide her smile.
He dropped a kiss on her mouth. “And you were always rushing me.”
“Like this?” She placed her feet on the mattress and rocked her hips into his.
“Exactly like that.”
But he began to move with her and the incredible slide of his thick length in and out of her body transported her beyond speech. She peaked fast, the climax shocking her with its intensity and duration.
“What the hell?” she muttered as his body continued to move against hers, stronger now. “Where did that come from?”
“Where they all come from.”
He kissed her hard and long, the play of his tongue mimicking the movements of his lower body. To her intense disbelief, pleasure began to spiral upward again. Impossible. She was sated, exhausted by the intensity of her orgasm, yet another loomed on the horizon. Max slipped his hand between their bodies, finding the knot of sensitive nerves and plying it to great effect.
“Come for me again,” he demanded. “Come hard. I want to hear it.”
Faster and harder he thrust. Teeth bared, breath coming in heavy pants, he moaned her name, sounding as if it ripped from deep within his soul.
“Yes,” she clutched his shoulders, driving her nails in as another orgasm rippled outward from her womb. “Yes, Max. Now.”
And he came. She watched it unfold. Her inner muscles clenched in aftershocks as he bucked against her, wild and ferocious in his release. It thrilled her that she’d done this to him. For him.
He collapsed onto her with a gush of air and rolled them onto their sides. With Max still locked deep within her body, she bound his legs with her thigh, needing to keep them connected as long as possible.
“I’d forgotten how it was,” he murmured, his palm damp against her sweat-soaked cheek.
She laughed then. It burst from her like the trill of a happy songbird. “So did I.”
Time and self-preservation had dulled her memories of him. Of this. How else could she have gotten on with her life? And now that she’d tasted the amazing passion between them again, how was she supposed to walk away a second time?
When he pulled out of her arms and headed into the bathroom, she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in the pillow. The sight of so much male perfection had aroused her all over again. She tingled with glee at the thought that he was hers, and hers alone, all weekend.
And after that?
The question clawed its way out of her subconscious and roosted in the front of her mind. Max was never going to marry. Even if his father’s infidelity and mother’s acceptance of it hadn’t given him a sour view of the institution, there’d always been misgivings lingering in the back of his mind. Hesitations that had bloomed into full-blown skepticism after she’d made him an unwitting participant in betraying her marriage vows. Which meant, even if he changed his mind about marriage, he’d never change his mind about her.
Sunday morning, Max leaned his forearms on the balcony railing off the master bedroom and watched the rising sun shift the color of the sky from soft pinks and lavenders to a bright coral and gold. The wind had picked up overnight, and blew against his face, carrying the scent of brine to his nostrils. A jogger went by, nodding to a couple walking hand in hand as he passed. Farther east along the beach, a black lab chased a stick into the surf, bounding into the water with great enthusiasm.
Behind him, Rachel slept like someone who’d spent an exhaustive night making passionate love. He caught himself grinning. He’d worn her out. And she’d worn him out, but not enough to still the thoughts circling and bashing together in his head like bumper cars.
Last night, his mother had called. She was working on the seating arrangements for her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary party next weekend and wondered whether or not he was bringing a date. He should have told her he was flying solo; that had been his plan when he’d first learned his parents were renewing their vows and planning a big celebration.
His thoughts coasted to the naked woman slumbering in the room behind him.
If he asked Rachel to accompany him, the invitation would alter the texture of their relationship. No longer could he pretend that his interest was purely driven by sexual need. If he introduced her to his family, they’d be approaching something that resembled dating. Is that what he wanted?
Five years ago, before finding out she was married, he’d been ready to head down that road. Four short days with her had caused him to consider what his future would be like with her in it.
This weekend wasn’t supposed to be about starting fresh. It was supposed to be about settling old business and Rachel seemed on board with that. Why alter course and sail into a storm when the skies before him were a calm blue?
He could tell himself that he was simply taking her for moral support. Both his brothers would be accompanied by their wives, and there was something about the way Sebastian and Nathan regarded him these days that felt a whole lot like pity. As if life was so much better for them. Both of their wives had them wrapped around their slender fingers. With children on the way, they were as trapped as two men could be. So why the hell did they seem so damned blissful?
Slender arms circled him from behind. Against his back, the soft press of Rachel’s breasts, encased in thin silk, jump-started his body. Her hands played over his chest as her lips trailed over his shoulder. He closed his eyes, savoring the sweet seduction of her caresses until her teeth grazed the tender skin below his armpit and her fingers dove below the waistband of his pajama bottoms.
Lust surged, but instead of losing himself in sensual oblivion, he caught her wrists to stop the sexy exploration and trapped her hands in his. “Come with me to my parents’ anniversary party next weekend.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Her body tensed as he dragged her around to face him. “You don’t want your family getting to know me.”
No, he didn’t.
“My mother thinks I’m bringing a date.” He drew a fingertip along her spine and felt her shiver.
She pushed against his chest. “I’m sure you can find someone to take in the next few days.”
At her resistance, every bit of his ambivalence vanished. “I asked you.”
Bending down, he hoisted her onto his shoulder and strode back toward the rumpled king-size bed, her fists hammering on his back all the while. He dumped her onto the mattress and slid his gaze from her ankles to her well-kissed mouth and stormy gaze. Gorgeous.
He set his knee on the mattress beside her right hip and pinned her in place with a stern look. “And we’re not leaving this room until you agree.”