At the Billionaire’s Wedding (42 page)

“Guys like me?”

“You didn’t like what you saw in the park. You liked what you thought I could be if I was with you in a fancy house and wearing a fancy dress, schmoozing with people like you. Well, you’ve had that. I hope you enjoyed it. I’ll leave the dress on the nightstand before I go so you can loan it to your next fixer-upper girl.” She swung around, but his voice stopped her.

“I have enjoyed my time with you. Until about ten minutes ago, it was the best time I’ve ever had.”

The words sounded like a line, but his voice didn’t. It sounded deep and real, the way he’d sounded when she’d been in his arms last night. But he was a hugely successful businessman. Guys like him were experts at selling people lines.

“I don’t know what to think.”

“California.” Her name on his lips was so completely sexy, forceful, but still a little tender. “I wanted to be with you. I still do.”

“This isn’t
real
.” Real wasn’t horseback rides across sprawling estates or limousines or black-tie dinners or a gorgeous guy telling her she was incredible. Real was her sister’s scars. Real was her father’s prison cell. “I realize I should jump at the chance to see more of a guy like you, but—”

“What is this
guys like me
? How about just
me
? How about seeing more of not a member of a category of men you mistrust, but the specific man that is me?”

“You don’t understand.” He’d never met her father when he’d worn thousand-dollar suits. He’d never seen her mother pop six pills at a time because even dressed up in jewels and designer clothes, she was still a waitress inside and never felt like
enough
. “You can’t understand.”

“I understand that you’re a hypocrite,” Piers said flatly. “You want me to see you as a person, but you’re not willing to give me the same courtesy. All right. You can’t see guys like me. I get it. I … get it.” He took a breath that visibly lifted his chest. “Okay. It’s been fun. Thanks. Thank you. See you around.” He stared at her for another few seconds. Then he turned toward the house and walked away from her. His shoulders were broad, his stride athletic, confident, and so unbearably sexy she felt actual pain in her stomach.

He’d thought she was beautiful when she was wearing shapeless clothes and covered in dust. He could talk about English literature in the middle of the night, after sex, without rolling his eyes or falling asleep. And he’d given her the best vacation of her life without attaching any strings to it.

“Piers, wait.”

He halted and his rigid shoulders seemed to ease. He looked around at her.

“I’m sorry,” was all she could manage.

“Are you?”

“About being a hypocrite. You’re right. I’m not being fair.” She was so nervous her words shook. “This…”

He walked to her. “This?”

“This has been the best time I’ve ever had too.”

His mouth relaxed. He surrounded her waist with his hands and bent to touch his lips to her cheek. “It’s about to get even better.”

This couldn’t be happening to her.
Rebound sex
, she silently repeated.
Wedding hookup.
Anything but this surge of real feelings inside.

“Wear the dress tonight?” he asked as he cupped her elbow to guide her toward the big party tent where everybody was gathering for the rehearsal ceremony. “Then you can leave it on the floor of my room instead of the bed table.”

She tried to ignore the pleasure of his touch, so unconscious for him, she thought, at once gentlemanly and possessive. It turned her insides out. Every time he touched her, it made her forget everything except how good he felt.

She disengaged from his hand. “What if I don’t want to have sex with you again? What if I think you’ll say anything to get it?”

“But you do want to have sex with me again. And you can never be sure I won’t say anything to get it.” He looked at her squarely. “You know everything now, California. It’s time to decide to trust me or not. It’s up to you.”

“If I said I’d rather not have sex with you this weekend, what would you think?”

“I’d think you were testing me.”

Not
him
. She needed clarity now. This was about testing herself.

“If I promised I wasn’t,” she said.

“I would have to respect that. I wouldn’t like it. But I would respect it. And I’d know I was to blame for it anyway.”

Throat thick, she nodded.

He smiled, and this time it was a tentative smile. Uncertain. “Will you still wear the dress?”

“Are you sure? It’s very sexy.”

His smile broadened. “I deserve the torture.”

State Rooms & Bedroom

The right shoulder strap of her slinky little black dress kept slipping down. Every time it slipped, Piers’s gaze went there. It made her feel sexy. Desired. Wanted.

Probably the same way her mother felt when she’d met the man she married.

But her mom hadn’t been forewarned. Cali was. She could keep her feelings safe for a few more hours.

Except for those brief, feverish glances at her shoulder, her unofficial date for the rehearsal dinner party was ideal. He brought her drinks when her hand was empty, but didn’t press them on her; clearly he wasn’t interested in getting her drunk. He made interesting conversation with everybody they talked to, always relaxed but attentive. And he stayed with her, not leaving her side. When at times she moved away from him, after a bit she would look for him and find him talking with whomever. But he always knew when she looked at him, and he would come to her again.

When the dancing started, Ideal Date turned into Fantasy Date. First, he didn’t assume she would dance with him; he asked politely. Second, he danced like he’d been taking ballroom dancing lessons since he was five. Third, he held her in all the right places to help her look like she’d been dancing since she was five, too, and close enough that she could smell him and get crazy from it, but not so close that he could cop a feel unnoticed.

He had to know he was a woman’s dream date. Still, when the party was winding down and he walked her to her room, he looked as uncertain as she’d ever seen him.

Without touching her he said, “Would I be crossing the respect line if I asked for a kiss good night?”

She felt like she was fifteen and on her first date again. “No.”

A slight smile. “May I kiss you good night, California?”

“Yes.”

His lips brushed hers, and then briefly covered them. Too briefly. He backed away. “Good night.” His voice was husky.

She reached out and grabbed the lapel of his coat. He took her into his arms and for the first time in her life Cali had an old-fashioned, necking-at-the-door good night kiss.

It wasn’t enough. Not nearly.

How dangerous could it be to indulge one last time? She knew the score now. He knew she knew it. They were both adults. She ran her hands under his jacket, over his ripped pecs.

“I don’t want you to go,” she said.

“Then don’t make me go.”

She tugged him into her room.

He stopped upon the threshold. “Is this because you trust me now?”

“This is because the weekend isn’t over yet.”

His gaze looked so intense, but not pleased.

She shrugged and the strap of her dress slipped off her shoulder. “Can you be okay with that?”

“Yeah,” he said. “For now.”

Without speaking, he laid her back on the bed fully clothed and kissed her throat, her neck, and the valley between her breasts where the dress was cut out in a diamond shape, until she asked him to remove it and kiss everywhere else too. He ran his hands along her body from the hem of the dress to the tips of her fingers as the silk slipped off, and she lifted her hips then her back to allow it. Then she kicked off her panties over her black silk heels.

“These are impressive,” he said, studying a stiletto and trailing his fingertips along her calf, ignoring her otherwise entirely naked body. He was playing with her. Cali wondered if he wanted to make her beg him to touch her, since she’d said she didn’t want to sleep with him.

“They’re dangerous,” she whispered, watching his face.

“For a thunderstorm runner they would be,” he said with a smile. “Do you ever worry about twisting your ankle and falling?”

“I worry about falling. Always.”

His hand slipped beneath her knee. “Why do you chance it?”

“There are three things I love. My sister, because she is the strongest person I know. Books, because”—she sucked in breath as his fingers traced the inside of her thigh—”because they never abandon you. And insanely high-heeled shoes, because the cautious daughter of a careless man needs at least one place to rebel.”

He removed her shoes and placed them beside the bed. Then he bent to her mouth and kissed her until she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“I lied,” she whispered.

His mouth hovered over hers. “You lied?”

“That’s not all I love.”

A moment’s pause. “What else?”

“The people I’ve met on the bookmobile routes. I love them. They make all the bad go away.” She trailed her fingertips along his jaw. “And I love Jane, and now Duke by association. And mocha lattes.” This man tasted even better. “And being picked up at an airport in a limousine, even if I’m not having sex with anyone in front of the sweet old driver.” She smiled against his lips.

His hand curved over her hip. “I’m sure he appreciated your discretion.”

“I have no discretion right now.”

“You don’t need it with me.”

“I need it with you most of all,” she confessed, foolishly. Then she swore off words for the remainder of the night.

When he unfastened his belt, she helped him. When she caressed him, he kissed her as if his hunger for her was constant and could be satisfied only in deep kisses that left her shaking and raw. When she invited him into her, he touched her until she couldn’t bear to be empty for another moment, then he filled her.

“You have a beautiful heart, California,” he said into the profound silence of their locked bodies. “I don’t suppose you would consider giving it to me?”

“What?” she whispered.

“Cali, I’m falling hard.”

She gripped his arms. “Falling?”

“Fallen.” He moved in her like he was savoring her, the powerful, steady rhythm of his body making hers reach for him. But this was wrong. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She was supposed to be able to walk away on Sunday with a day-after smile and a memory of a fantastic fling that would cheer her up when life got especially hard. Sex in a garden—yes. Sex in a stairwell—heck yes. Not beautiful, overwhelming sex in a bed, with him saying unbelievable things. If he did this, it would ruin the fantasy. It would make everything false.

“Don’t say that.” Her voice scraped.

He brushed his lips across hers. “It’s the truth.”

“You don’t know me. I don’t know you. We just met.” Like her parents, married after two weeks, madly in love and a tragic mistake.

“We met months ago. We’ve spent every day together.”

“No.”

He surrounded her face with his hands. “Every street corner, every park, every building, every shop you’ve driven to. They’re my favorite places in the city. The people, my closest friends. You know me.”

She knew his scenery. That was all. She knew only what he wanted her to know.

Aloud, she didn’t argue it. She let him give her body what it needed, and she gave him pleasure in return. When it was over and he held her, she remained awake, gorging herself on his scent and heat. As soon as his breathing deepened, she disentangled her limbs, moved to the far edge of the bed, and turned her face away.

When she awoke to sunlight he was gone and she exhaled a sigh of relief.

She descended to discover the house abuzz with happy wedding day festivities, but no Piers anywhere. She appreciated having the time to settle more securely back into her own head, and sanity. But she wondered where he was. Probably at the gazebo, online, arranging other people’s lives like a chess master, and making them think it was what they wanted.

Jane and Duke said their vows and kissed lovingly, and everyone erupted in cheers and applause. It was beautiful and romantic and perfect and Cali’s heart swelled with happiness for her friend.

Piers still hadn’t appeared, which didn’t surprise her. He’d gone, obviously. She confirmed it with Mark.

“He had a business emergency in the States. The call for him came outrageously early.” Mark smiled. “But I assumed you knew. I tracked him down in your room.”

She’d slept through it. He’d let her.