B00CQUPUKW EBOK (16 page)

She shook her head back and forth, her eyes darting around the room as if she expected Jack to float down from the ceiling.

“Are you afraid of this man, Kaya?”

“No, not really.  He has become a bit possessive after I agreed to marry him.  But we’re not getting married.”

“You’re not?”

“He broke off the engagement.”

His heart danced a jig.  “He did?”

“We weren’t really engaged to begin with.”

“You weren’t?”  He felt like an idiot asking a string of stupid two-word questions.  “I’ve wondered why you aren’t wearing an engagement ring.”

Leaving her chair, she took a few unsteady steps toward the fireplace and stared into the flames.  “Jack asked me to marry him, and I kind of said okay,” she began in an unemotional tone.  “He never gave me a ring, so I never really thought of him as a fiancé, just a boyfriend who I may one day marry.”

He scolded his heart for flipping a somersault.  There was absolutely no reason for her to return to Florida.

“When I told him that I’d inherited the children,” she continued, folding her arms about her, “he took back his proposal.”  She braced a tired smile.  “That was the night you picked up the extension.  You didn’t stay on long enough to hear him dump me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?  I would have handled him differently this afternoon.”

“I was too embarrassed.  And I didn’t know what I was going to do.  I was banking on Jack helping me with the kids.”  She shrugged.  “It’s for the best, anyway.  I’ve known him since we were kids, but I’ve never loved him, and marrying him would have been a mistake.”

Was he the one who’d led her astray, gotten her into trouble with the law?  Jack struck him as the type of jerk who’d use a young girl for personal gains.  How could she be with someone like that?  She seemed intelligent enough to know better, to make better choices.

Bryce balled his hands into fists.  “Then why is he coming to Granite Falls?”

“I don’t know.  The other day when he called, he said he was sorry about the way he reacted to the news of a ready-made family.  He said I caught him at a bad time and that he still wanted to get married and help me raise the kids.”

“Did you tell him anything about me?  That I am their godfather?”

She shook her head, causing her soft curls, now dry and springy, to bounce off her delicate shoulders.  “
He
brought up your name.  Apparently he’d heard about your relationship to them.  He knew stuff about your history with them and their parents that I didn’t even know.  He offered to move up here if it would be easier on me.”

Bryce pushed to his feet, shaking his fists in the air.  “Opportunistic little parasite!  He dumped you when he thought he’d have to dig deep into his measly pockets to support the children.  Then when he learned of my relationship to them, he saw a meal ticket to an easy life.” Bryce closed the distance between them.  “You are their legal guardian.  If he married you, he’d benefit from any financial support I give you.”

“Support me?”  An eyebrow raised in amused contempt.  “I don’t need your support.” 

“It doesn’t matter if you need if or not.  You will have it.  But only if you stay in Granite Falls.”

She took a step back to better glare up at him.  “And if I don’t?”

“Then you may as well pack your bags tonight.  I will not allow you to get any closer to those kids only to break their hearts.”

“What are you talking about?  How will I break their hearts?”

“When you have to leave them here and return to Florida alone.  Alyssa is too attached to you already.”

She slapped her hands against her temples.  “Oh my God, you’re planning to fight me for them.”

“I’m planning to fight for them.”

She flared her hands in the air.  “Semantics, Bryce!  Like you said, I’m their legal guardian.  I have a contract that gives me full authority over them.”

“A contract that will soon expire if you don’t make the right decision.”

Loathe and disbelief sprang from her eyes.  “I can’t believe I thought you were…”

“You thought I was what?”

“Kind.  But apparently I was mistaken.”

Kind!
 She thought he was kind.  He almost laughed out loud.

Bryce’s eyes shifted back and forth between her mesmerizing eyes, stormy with passion and her plump, lustrous lips that resembled two halves of a ripe juicy peach.  He wanted to bite into her, taste her sweet juices on his tongue, feel her soft flesh melting under his touch.  Nothing aroused him more than when a woman he’d set his sights on dared to challenge him.

A log crackled in the hearth, sending a deafening blast and auburn sparks shooting into the air.  Kaya jumped and grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands, momentary fear sparkling in her eyes.  He clasped his hands on the slender portion of her upper arms, offering her security.

Two things happened to Bryce the instant Kaya grabbed him.  One: he felt an overpowering need to protect her.  Even though the threat of danger had come in the harmless pop of a vaporized log shifting in the fireplace, the fact that Kaya was afraid sent adrenaline rushing through his body.  Two: his erection throbbed against his thigh, reminding him it hadn’t been fed in weeks.

He continued to hold her gaze as his hands slowly crept up her arms.  He paused at her shoulders and threaded his fingers through her bouncy curls, loving the feel of the silky strands against his fingertips.  He cradled her small face in his palms.

She inhaled sharply and made a reflexive attempt to break free.

Bryce tightened his hold as she pushed against his chest.  She wasn’t getting away that easily.  She’d subtly enticed him into the web of her allure.  If she wanted him to stop, she would have to be more direct.  He used the pad of his thumbs to massage the soft skin of her throat, her chin, her cheeks, and the outline of her small, sexy mouth, all the while watching the emotions in her eyes shift from surprise, to doubt, to reluctance, and then finally desire.

Her pupils were enlarged, and the amber specks around her irises burned a bright orange glow.  She began to tremble like an autumn leaf about to be shaken from its branch at the slightest wisp of wind.  He increased the pressure of his strokes, deliberately arousing the fervor in her, watching her burn.

Her fingers tightened around his shirt, causing his heart to somersault in his ribcage.  Her chest rose and fell with her shallow breathing, and the thunderous beating of her heart echoed in Bryce’s ears.  He crouched down, way down, aligning his face with hers, his mouth just inches from hers.  He felt the live energy sizzling in the tight space that separated their lips.  With deep breaths he savored her fresh, clean woman’s scent mingled with the faint odor of baby oil and powder.  She was beginning to smell like a mother, and he loved it.

He angled his head and closed the distance.  His lips trailed down her cheeks and lingered at one corner of her quivering mouth.  Because he knew he had control, Bryce hesitated, giving her time to protest, to pull free and run.  He was certain of what he wanted from her, but doubtful of what she expected from him.

The wild pounding of her heart and the erratic rhythm of her breathing echoed in his ears.  He closed his eyes and waited, still giving her time to back out, but then a weak moan escaped her throat, and Bryce knew the battle was over.  They’d trespassed into each other’s forbidden zones and forfeited their rights to resist one another.

With a harsh groan, Bryce drew her into his body and, circling his arms about her lithe frame, he covered her soft mouth with his.

He groaned again when she reached up and linked her arms around his neck and curled her body into his.  A shiver touched his spine when her tongue timidly emerged from the dark recess of her mouth and danced around his in a slow, dreamy waltz.  It was the only encouragement Bryce needed.  He kissed her softly, lingeringly, cherishing the aroma of her warm breath, the softness of her moist flesh, the timid smoothness of her tongue, and the dreamy intimacy of the moment.

With their mouths and limbs locked together, Bryce picked Kaya up and stumbled towards the chair she’d previously occupied.  It was a large chair, with a sturdy back, and the right height for a man of his giant stature to fit perfectly with a woman seated upon it.

He set Kaya on the smooth leather surface and positioned himself between her parted thighs, his inflamed erection pressed against her feminine softness.  He could feel her heat, her moisture through the thick material of their clothes.  He wrapped her legs around his waist, and his arms around her body.  He caressed her shoulders, her back, her hips, and the round rump of her derriere as he rocked against her slowly, boldly simulating the delirious act of copulation. When Kaya’s limps tightened up around him and a series of shivers rippled through her body, Bryce deepened the kiss, sucking, nipping, and licking at her warm sweetness.  

His mouth left hers to nibble at the delicate skin at the base of her neck.  The sexy whimpers from the core of her belly and the pheromones seeping from her skin lulled him into a lustful stupor.  He licked at her as his hands stole under her sweat top to find her bare beneath it. His palms glided around her sides and up along her flat belly until his fingers grazed the underside of her breasts.

She groaned into his mouth.

He sucked in his breath and hers as his hands closed over the mounds of her breasts.  They were the breasts of a goddess—full, firm, and ripe for plucking.  His mouth watered as he molded them in his palms.

One hand grudgingly released a breast to seek out the waistband of her sweat pants. Hooking a finger inside, he proceeded to pull it down past the curve of her hips.  She bucked and slammed into him when his fingertips grazed the round fullness of her derriere.  He rocked against her, slowly, boldly, showing her exactly what he would love to do to her.  His sex grew harder with hope, wishing to be freed from the constriction of his trousers and feel something warm, soft, and wet clamped around it.  It was hungry.  
He was hungry
.

His hands glided around to the front of her body, his fingers just inches from her moist heat. 

Bryce swore and stopped in mid thrust as his cell phone chimed.  

Kaya ripped her mouth from his, breaking the spell.  With a firm thrust, she pushed him backward, jumped down from the chair, and automatically pulled her sweat pants back up and her top down.  She pressed her fingers to her bruised lips, her pupils dark with desire as she gazed at him.  “I’m not that easy,” she said. 

Bryce gazed down at her, his heart pounding against his chest so urgently it caused him physical pain.  He silenced his phone without taking his eyes from hers.  “I don’t think you’re easy at all, Kaya.  We got caught up in the moment.  But don’t act as if you didn’t want it, too. You were enjoying me as much as I was enjoying you.  Passion still shimmers in your eyes; your heat still burns through my skin. You can’t deny that.”

In an attempt to hide her telling eyes, she dropped her gaze, only for it to land on his crotch.  He felt the heat of her eyes in every engorged inch of his erection straining beneath the restrictive material of his trousers.  She gasped and stepped back as if she’d stumbled upon a cobra, poised and ready to strike.

He could turn around to save her further embarrassment but he refused to oblige her.  She had made him hot and hard and achy.  Let her deal with it.  Let her fantasize about him thrusting in and out of her tight little body, exploding inside her womb as she crumbled beneath him, or above him.  Either way, they’d be coming together.

She sped past him in a flash and headed for the door.

Yes, you better run, little Kaya.  If you let me catch you, there’s gonna be hell to pay
.

Bryce checked his phone and when he didn’t recognize the number, he slid it back into its clip.  How far would they have gone if the damn phone hadn’t interrupted them?  Would she have let him take her?  Would he have gone the distance?  She wasn’t the “wrong kind of woman”.  So why wasn’t he avoiding her?

Bryce turned and his body ached for Kaya even more when he saw the shiny spot on the back of the chair where her juices had leaked from her body.  He passed his palm across the warm spot and brought it to his nose.  Her scent was intoxicating.  He rubbed his thumb across his lips, tasting the remnants of her essence in his mouth.  He could easily develop an addiction to her.  Perhaps he already had, he thought as her scent lingered in his nostrils.

Bryce sighed, knowing nothing but a different kind of pain would ensue if he’d made love to Kaya.  Sex complicated matters in any relationship, except marriage where it was expected—the strings were already attached.  But sex also relieved emotional pain, even if it was just a temporary fix.  He and Kaya were experiencing the same loss.  They had clung to each other like two shipwrecked souls, lost in a black sea of grief, searching for something, anything that offered an inkling of hope, of light, and refuge from the tumultuous storm that had cast them together.

For the past few years, sex for Bryce had been all about physical release—nothing more, but tonight as he held Kaya in his arms, he knew he wanted more. 

She was different.

She was also vulnerable in too many ways.  She’d just inherited three children who didn’t have a penny to their names, and she’d just learned that the man she’d agreed to marry was nothing but a bloodsucking parasite.  It was enough to drive her into his arms, even though those arms belonged to the man who had threatened to take the children away from her.

Had she seen through him?  Did she really believe he was kind?

Bryce walked over to the safe and pulled out the envelope that contained the report on Kaya.  With one flip of his wrists he tore the envelope and the contents into halves, then went to the fireplace, removed the glass door, and tossed them inside.

“This isn’t the way,” he murmured, as he watched the pieces of paper curl from the heat of the flames and disintegrate into ashes.  He set the door firmly in place and shivered at the memory of Kaya’s eyes staring back at him with hints of fear and susceptibility when she’d spoken of Jack’s possessiveness.