Burned Hearts (32 page)

Dane's thoughts apparently mirrored mine, because he fisted the material close to my knee and gathered the long, full skirt on one side and pushed it up to my waist. His fingers skimmed over the front of my lacy thong and my hips jerked in silent demand for him.

His mouth left mine and skated along my neck, down to the tops of my breasts, where he left feathery kisses that teased me further.

“I love how you taste,” he whispered. “Not just here.”

He moved lower. His fingers twined in the thin strands of my panties and he gave a yank, so that I raised my butt.

“These are nice, but they have to go.” He dragged the lace down my legs and tossed the lingerie aside. Then his lips swept over my flesh, up the inside of one thigh, and to my sex.

His warm breath blew across my dewy folds, making me squirm. I spread my legs wider for him. He wedged his large frame in the vee I created and his head dipped, his mouth grazing my cleft.

“Dane,” I muttered as I clasped his shoulder. “Make me come.”

His tongue flitted over my clit, lightning quick. A moan fell from my lips as a searing sensation blazed through me. He tugged on my sensitive flesh with his mouth.

“Oh, God.” My eyelids grew heavy. All previous thoughts fled my mind. “That's so good.”

He used the pads of his thumbs to massage my folds, then the tip of his tongue flickered against that knot of nerves once more. I writhed beneath him as exhilaration raced through me.

I held him close with my hand still on his shoulder and the fingers of my other hand buried in his thick hair. My hips lifted and I pressed myself to his mouth as he skillfully licked and then deeply suckled.

“Dane. Christ. I love this. You are so damn talented.”

He rimmed my opening with his tongue; then it pressed inside me. I gasped. My body jerked.

“Oh, yes. God, yes, Dane.”

He went back to the wicked flicking of the tip of his tongue against my clit. He eased a finger into my pussy and pumped steadily, making me whimper, making my pulse soar.

I quaked under his expert touch, my lids drifting closed. My chest heaved and my breasts felt tender, heavy. My puckered nipples tingled and ached for his attention, but I was held enrapt by the way he diligently licked my pussy. He worked in a second finger and stroked forcefully, pushing me right to the edge.

I let out a throaty moan as the pressure built within me. Dane picked up the pace and suckled my clit again as his fingers drove deep.

“That's perfect,” I rasped. “So fantastic. God … Oh, God! I'm going to come.” The erotic sensations swelled, then burst wide open, burning through me. “Dane!”

I came on a fevered rush that stole my breath and sent tremors tearing through my body. Little white orbs flashed behind my closed lids.

“Holy cow,” I whispered. “Unbelievable.”

I opened my eyes and found him watching me, a hint of satisfaction in his smoldering eyes, but mostly I saw the need to be inside me.

I relinquished my grip on his shoulder and crooked a finger at him. “Come here. Let me show you how much I appreciate the effort you put into getting me off.”

He slipped from the bed and divested himself of his briefs. I crawled toward the edge of the mattress and eyed his thick, erect shaft. I licked my lips, finding him tempting, tantalizing.

My fingers encircled the base of his cock. I ran my tongue along one side of him, up to the tip. Then swirled around the crown, causing him to pull in a harsh breath. I closed my mouth over him and took him deep, sucking hard.

“Oh, yeah,” he said in a gruff voice. “Just like that.”

His fingers tangled in my hair. He rocked slightly, pumping into my mouth.

“Baby. Goddamn, you get me going.”

I cupped his balls and gently rolled as I continued sucking him.

After a few more seconds he pulled away. “I want to come inside you.” His tone was dark and sexy. My pussy ached for him.

I stared up at him and fluttered my lashes. “You can have me however you want me.”

*   *   *

It was the next morning, after Dane had made love to me again, and I lay on top of him, boneless and euphoric, when I said, “I didn't get around to telling you my news.”

His fingertips stroked my spine. I was propped up by my forearms on his chest as I gazed at him.

He said, “I figured you'd get to it after two or three orgasms.”

“Try four.”

“Not even a personal best.” He made a soft tsking sound. “I'm slacking off.”

With a smile, I assured him, “Each one was more spectacular than the last. I'm quite pleased.”

He chuckled. “Okay, then. Give me your news.”

I took a few deep breaths, letting them out slowly. “I told you I wanted to give you something, Dane. That something is 10,000 Lux.”

He stared at me, the wheels in his mind clearly spinning, though he didn't appear to latch on to a sane explanation for what I'd just sprung on him.

I said, “I have documentation that shows the land and the hotel were willed to me when you ‘died,' and I gave that documentation to the original engineer and architectural teams and told them I wanted to rebuild the lobby, offices, and suites that were destroyed. I want to open the Lux, Dane. For you.”

He continued to stare, completely at a loss for words.

I gave him a few moments to let my news sink in.

A few more to process.

Several more to form a coherent thought that I hoped wouldn't include
you fucking did what?

“Dane?” I tentatively asked when it seemed a couple of minutes had ticked by.

He opened his mouth to speak. No words came out.

I repositioned myself, sitting up and straddling his midsection.

“Say something,” I urged.

I'd never stumped him, rendered him speechless. Not even when he'd found out I was having his baby. Dane Bax was not a man you caught off-guard or left stupefied. That was his job, actually. Particularly when it came to me.

“Dane?” I waved a hand in front of his face. “You okay? Honey?”

He suddenly came around. His hands clasped my waist and he moved me slightly so that he could sit up, with me still in his lap. “You only call me honey when you think you've done something I won't like.”

“Have I?”

“I don't know.”

My stomach took a dive south.
Shit.
Maybe I should have asked his permission first. Warned him well in advance of my intentions.

What had I been thinking?

He moved me again and climbed out of bed. Did his token pacing while I watched. And resisted the desire to gnaw on my lip or my nails. My stomach stayed hunkered down around my knees, all twisted up.

When I couldn't take the silence any longer, I said, “Look, Amano told me you'd probably mow the whole thing down since the lobby had been destroyed, and maybe that's because it'll never be the same. I mean, even with the same team and the same plans, it's not going to be exactly the same. I had to order specially crafted fixtures, but they're very similar, Dane, and so very, very stunning. I swear. I wouldn't put a trash receptacle on that property if it wasn't the most artistically designed container imaginable. You know I'd never—”

“Ari.” He held up his hand, effectively cutting me off. His tone had done that just as well. “You're rebuilding the Lux?”

“Yes.”

“My hotel?”

“Yes.”

“You?”

“Well.” I let out a nervous laugh. “Not me personally, obviously. But I am overseeing the whole thing remotely. After all, it was constructed once. It's not as though the people I rehired haven't already connected Part A to Part B and so on. Even better, it was determined that the main building is structurally sound. I have certification for it. We're currently rebuilding the center section. No small undertaking, but at least we don't have to—”

“Ari.” Again with the hand. “You're rebuilding my hotel?”

“Am I not speaking English?” I inquired, a bit perplexed.

“Our hotel,” he mused. “You're rebuilding
our
hotel.”

“You did make me sign papers at our wedding that gave me half of the Lux,” I reminded him. “All of it, in the event anything happened to you. And for a while, I did think something had happened to you, so—”

“You are unbelievable.”

I gazed at him, not at all sure what went through his mind. My apprehension mounted. “Is that
unbelievable
in the good sense … or the bad sense?”

“Baby.” He grinned, yet his eyes burned with a different emotion. Not just delight, but … awe. “You never cease to amaze me.”

He joined me in bed again and cupped the side of my face with his hand. I'd seen a myriad of feelings cross his devilishly handsome features over the past year. The expression I thought was reserved strictly for the birth of his child apparently applied to the Lux as well, because Dane was as equally fascinated, grateful, and filled with wonderment now as he had been when he'd laid eyes on our son for the first time.

“You know how much 10,000 Lux means to me,” Dane said as he stared deep into my eyes. “It was my dream—my only dream. Until I met you. What happened to the resort … It devastated me, Ari. Not as much as losing you would devastate me, but I couldn't bear to think about it, envision it in my mind, consider what the hell I'd do about it, without wanting to kill Horton and Vale.”

I sucked in a breath. “You know how I feel about that, Dane.”

“I didn't do it, did I?” he said. “But I wanted to. I've spent endless nights lying in bed plotting my revenge. The one thing I didn't strategize was how to revive 10,000 Lux. I really couldn't bring myself to consider it.”

“You don't have to,” I assured him. “I'm not saying I totally know what I'm doing, but again, I'm working with the people who
do
know what to do. And once it's structurally complete, Amano can help with all the functions that will bring the hotel back on-line. Dane, we can still have our grand opening. You can still have your dream hotel.”

He fell silent again. My tension didn't ease.

“Are you happy about this?” I finally asked.

“Hell, yes, I'm happy,” he said emphatically. “I'm just … blown away. My God, is there anything you won't take on?”

“I think we already know the answer to that.”

“Rattlesnakes and scorpions,” we said at the same time.

He shook his head. “Jesus, Ari. I'm just floored. I can't even fathom how you've managed to do this.”

“It's only a start, Dane. Don't get too excited.”

“Doesn't matter,” he told me. “The fact that it means enough to you to do this—”

“It
does
mean a lot to me, Dane. Because it means a lot to you. And because I love the Lux, too. I couldn't stand the idea of it abandoned and left sitting to rot. Or being completely demolished. That broke my heart. I had to do
something.
”

He kissed me fiercely. I was breathless when he pulled away and he said, “I honestly didn't know how I would face the Lux when the thought of what happened makes me so irrational and—”

“Not homicidal.” I pressed my finger to his lips. “I'm not saying you don't have the right, but you know how that disturbs me. Greatly.”

Pushing my hand away, he said, “I know. Doesn't mean I'm not going to feel it, though.”

“Vale is dead, anyway. And Wayne Horton will get what's coming to him. The society members you cut from the Lux have no vested interest and are going to prison as well. The only thing you have to figure out is what to do about Ethan, Qadir, and Nikolai. Jackson doled out the equal amounts of insurance money, based on their percentage of investment. I don't know how it works going forward, since you all were committed together at varying degrees, but now—”

“Shit, Ari.” He scooted away and stood again.

“Yeah, I get it. They might still hold an interest in the hotel, but Jackson will—”

“No, wait.” Dane dragged a hand down his face. “You just hit on the one thing we didn't look for yesterday.”

I eyed him curiously. “Sorry. Not following you.”

“My father's investments.”

“We did talk about that. He had strictly corporate holdings under his own umbrella.”

“Sure, for his major businesses. But maybe there actually were joint investments I never knew about.”

I caught on quick. “Like investments he might have held with other society members? Or … Ethan?”

“I know Ethan's conglomerate names and investment groups. Where's your iPad?”

I slipped from the bed and rushed to the sofa in the corner where I'd left my tote bag. I pulled out the tablet and handed it over. Dane settled in next to me again and started surfing. I kept quiet, not interrupting or sidetracking him, because he looked like a man on a mission.

I watched him plug in names on various state incorporation sites. Owners' names popped up, but nothing connected to his father. Dane continued for an hour or so, clearly racking his brain for all the possibilities he could recall. Then, suddenly, his fingers stopped tapping. His entire body stilled.

I'd just emerged from the shower. “Dane?” I asked. “What?”

“I found it,” he said. “The investment group they all belonged to—all of them, the entire society. Formed in 1978.”

“Ethan knew your father that far back? And never said anything?” I could strangle the man myself. “Asshole.”

“I think it's worse than that.”

I stared quizzically at him. “Why?”

“This is about more than just an investment group.”

“Sure, the secret society—”

“And the fact that no one has mentioned to me, in twelve years of being with the society, that my father was previously a part of the faction. That he was a member as well. I
am
a generational member.”