King’s Million-Dollar Secret (5 page)

Still, looking at Katie's friend, holding her son so closely, reminded him of his own upbringing. Oh, his mother hadn't stuck around or anything. She'd handed him off to an elderly aunt before he was a year old and only showed up for a visit when her money was running out. Ben King hadn't married her, but he'd supported her until Rafe was eighteen.

Once he was grown, his mom had started coming to Rafe for the cash she required to live the kind of life she preferred. He didn't mind paying. It kept her out of his hair.

Now though, watching Nicole and her son brought home to him again how hard the aunt who'd raised him had had it. Oh, she'd had money for plumbing repairs, but she'd been all alone raising a boy. Just as Nicole was. And Nicole didn't have the luxury of calling a King for help.

Lucky for her, there was already a King in the neighborhood.

He looked at Katie and saw the worry for her friend shining in her eyes and he heard himself say, “Why don't you two get the back door open and sweep out as much of this water as you can?”

“Good idea,” Katie agreed. “Come on, Nicole, I'll help you get this straightened up.”

“You don't have to do that,” the blond said. “We'll be fine. Really.”

“Sure you will, I can see that,” Rafe told her with a shrug, not wanting to wound her pride. “But while you two get the water out of here, I'm going to run up to the hardware store. I'll get a new joint in there and have you up and running again.” Katie
beamed
at him.

And he felt as if someone had just pinned a medal to his chest.

Their gazes locked, and the rest of the world fell away for one long, sizzling moment. Every heartbeat felt measured. Every breath a struggle.

Rafe was caught by the emotion on her face. The pride in
him.
The gratitude and the admiration. He had never known another moment like it. It was amazing, he thought, to have someone look at him as if he'd hung the moon.

And all he wanted to do was walk across the floor, take her into his arms and sweep her into a dip for a kiss that would send them both over the edge of hunger. Need was a gnawing ache inside him. He'd never experienced
that
before, either, he thought. Desire, sure. Want, absolutely.

But
need?

Never.

“I can't ask you to do that,” Nicole said, shattering the moment.

Rafe took a breath to steady himself and shook his head, clearing his thoughts, getting a grip on the emotions suddenly churning through him. As he regained control, he mentally thanked Nicole for shattering whatever it was that had so briefly hummed between he and Katie.

Looking at the blonde, he said, “You didn't ask. I offered. And don't worry about it. Besides,” he added with a grin for the toddler, “with this little guy around, you're going to need water, right?”

Katie was still smiling at him as if he were some kind of comic-book hero. And she was still stirring him up inside, so he gave her a smile, then tugged his keys out
of his jeans pocket. Best all around if he left now. “I'll be back in a few minutes and we'll get you set up.”

“Thanks.” Nicole whispered the word. “Really.”

Katie gave her a brief hug, then stepped up to Rafe and slid her hand into his. “I'll walk you to the door while Nicole gets the broom and mop.”

His fingers curled around hers and he felt the heat of her skin zing through his system like a raging wildfire. At the front door, Katie looked back over her shoulder to make sure Nicole was out of earshot, then said softly, “Thank you for offering to help her like that, Rafe. Nicole couldn't afford a plumber. You're really doing something amazing for her.”

“It's not a problem.”

“For
you,
” she said with another smile. “But for a single mom, it's a catastrophe. Or it would have been. Without you. You're my hero.”

Her simple words hit him with a crash. Always before, when people needed help, he wrote a check. Made a donation. It was safe, distant and still managed to salve the urge he had to help those who needed it. He hadn't realized until just now how differently helping felt when it was up close and personal.

“I've never been anybody's hero before.”

She looked up at him and he knew he could lose himself in the deep, summer green of her eyes. Her delectable mouth curved at the edges. “You are now.”

He reached up and cupped the back of her neck with his palm. “Keep that thought and hold on to it for later, okay?”

“I can do that,” she said and went up on her toes to brush a soft kiss across his mouth. Then she stepped away and said, “Hurry back.”

His lips were tingling, his breath was still strangling
in his lungs and Rafe was suddenly so damn hard he didn't think he'd be able to walk to his truck without limping.

Some hero.

 

Nicole and Connor joined them for the barbecue.

Katie told herself she was just being nice—Nicole was still upset and they were all tired out from cleaning up the mess in her kitchen. But the truth was, that moment with Rafe at the front door of Nicole's house had shaken Katie enough that she had wanted someone else around during dinner. Not exactly a chaperone, just someone to keep Katie from jumping Rafe the moment they were alone.

Because that's exactly what she wanted to do. He had been wonderful. Honestly, she thought back to her time with Cordell King and no matter how she tried to imagine it, she couldn't see that man diving under a kitchen sink to fix something as a favor. He was too much a suit-and-tie man. Too focused on the bottom line of his company and not so interested in the “real world.”

Rafe though, was different, she thought, watching him gently toss a soft foam ball to Connor. The little boy waved both arms trying to catch it and Rafe laughed with him when he missed. The man was just…

“Amazing,” Nicole said, unknowingly finishing Katie's mental sentence. “What?”

“Him.” Nicole smiled at Katie, then shifted her gaze to where her son was playing with Rafe. “That guy is one in a million, Katie.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Yeah?” Nicole pushed her paper plate aside, leaned
both arms on the weathered picnic table and asked, “If you think so, why'd you have Connor and I come over and horn in on your date?”

“You're not horning in,” Katie argued. In the year she and her son had lived next door, Nicole had become Katie's best friend. They'd commiserated on the rotten tendencies of the men they'd had in their lives and they'd bonded over working from home. Katie had her cookie company and Nicole did the billing for several local companies.

“You're my friend, Nicole, and you're always invited over. You know that.”

“'Course I know that.” Nicole reached out and covered Katie's hand with her own. “You've been great to us since we moved in here. But Katie, this is the first guy I've seen you date in like forever. Don't you want some alone time?”

Katie stared at Rafe as he scooped Connor up and ran across the yard, the little boy chortling happily. “I do and I don't. Seriously, Nicole, I'm not sure what I want.”

“Well I can tell you if he looked at
me,
the way he looks at
you,
I wouldn't have any trouble deciding what I wanted.”

“It's complicated.”

“I know. Cordell.” Giving her hand a squeeze, Nicole sat back and shook her head. “He messed you up bad. But Rafe isn't Cordell.”

“You're telling me,” Katie said on a sigh.

“Do you really want to risk losing a great guy because you're still mad at a rotten one?”

“Have you been talking to Nana?”

Nicole laughed. “No. I haven't. But if she agrees with
me, then we're both right and you should trust us on this. Give it a shot, Katie. What've you got to lose?”

Another chunk of her heart,
she thought but didn't say. But then again, if she never risked her heart, she'd never use it, would she? She'd die an old lady, filled with regrets, still holding on to her withered pride like a trophy with some of the shiny worn off.

Her gaze locked on Rafe again as he lifted the little boy high enough for tiny hands to swat at the glossy leaves of an orange tree. Her still-wary heart turned over in her chest as she watched the expression on Rafe's face. He was enjoying himself. He was relaxed, at ease with her friends, in her tiny backyard. Cordell, in the same situation, would have—never mind, he never would have been in this situation. He had preferred five-star restaurants to picnics and three-piece suits to jeans.

Cordell had swept Katie off her feet because she had never been with anyone like him. Now she knew she should have kept it that way.

But Rafe…he was different from Cordell. He was the kind of guy Katie should have met first.

And if she had, she asked herself, would she have been so hesitant to take a chance on him? No, she wouldn't have.

“Ooh, I can see by the look in your eyes you've decided to take a chance,” Nicole said. “Want me to take Connor home so you can get going on that?”

Katie shook her head. “Not until after dessert,” she said. “Then we'll see what happens.”

She stood up and headed for the enclosed patio and her refrigerator. Behind her, she heard Connor's giggles and Rafe's deep laughter.

Her skin tingled and everything in her awoke to anticipation.

“I
f that dessert was a sample of your cookies,” Rafe said much later, “then I can understand why people are so crazy about them.”

“Thank you. I can give you some to take home if you like,” Katie said.

Rafe tipped his head to one side and studied her. Nicole and her son had gone home and now it was just he and Katie in the backyard. The summer night was cool, the sky overhead swimming with stars. Moonlight drifted down and did battle with the candle flames flickering in the soft breeze.

“Anxious to get rid of me?” he asked quietly.

“No,” she said. “That's not what I meant. I just—oh, for heaven's sake. You'd think I'd never been on a date before.” She caught herself and amended, “Not that this is a date or anything…”

Rafe grinned, enjoying that touch of nervousness. “It's not?”

“Is it?”

His smile firmly in place he admitted, “Well, I don't usually do plumbing on a date, but everything else seems about right.”

Now she returned his smile and seemed to relax a little. The wind lifted her hair like a lover's caress. “It was fun, wasn't it?”

“Yeah, and it's not over yet.”

“Really.”

Not a question, he told himself. More of a challenge. Well, he was willing to accept it. “Really.”

He stood up, walked to her side of the picnic table and pulled her to her feet. “What're you doing?”

“I want to dance with you,” he said simply, drawing her closer.

Even as she went with him, she was saying, “There's no music.”

“Sure there is,” he told her, wrapping his arm around her waist and capturing her right hand in his left. “You're just not listening hard enough.”

She shook her head at him.

“Close your eyes,” he said and she did. He looked down at her, so trusting, so beautiful, and his breath caught in his chest. Her hand was warm and smooth in his, her scent—a mixture of vanilla and cinnamon—filling him. He smiled, thinking that she smelled as edible as her cookies.

“Now listen,” he urged quietly, his voice hardly more than a whisper of sound.

“To what?” she answered just as quietly.

“Everything.”

He swayed with her in his arms and rested his chin
on top of her head. Her body felt perfect aligned along his and he went hard and ready almost instantly. If she noticed, she didn't let him know.

As they moved in the starlight, sounds of the summer night began to encroach. Crickets singing, the distant sigh of the ocean, the wind in the trees. It was as if nature herself were providing a perfect symphony just for the two of them.

She smiled, tipped her head back, and keeping her eyes closed, moved with him as if they'd been dancing together forever. “I hear it now,” she whispered. “It's perfect.”

“Yeah,” he said, coming to a stop, staring down at her. “It is.”

Her eyes opened and she met his gaze. “Rafe?”

His hand tightened on hers and he held her closer, pulling her in firmly enough against him that she couldn't miss feeling exactly what she was doing to him. “I want you, Katie. More than I've ever wanted anything.”

A tiny sigh slipped from her mouth as she confessed, “I feel exactly the same way.”

He gave her a grin and slowly lowered his mouth to hers. “Good to hear.”

He kissed her and the instant their mouths met, Rafe felt a punch of desire so hot, so unbelievably strong that it nearly knocked him over. In response, his arms tightened around her, all thoughts of dancing disappearing from his mind. He wanted to move with her, but dancing had nothing to do with the plans quickly forming in his mind. He needed her, more than he would have thought possible. And he wanted her even more.

His hands swept up and down her spine, defining
every curve, every valley she possessed. She moved against him, her body restless, her soft moans telling him everything he needed to know. He slipped one hand beneath the hem of her T-shirt and swept up, to caress the side of her breast. Even the lacy material of her bra couldn't keep him from enjoying the heat of her. The perfectly shaped wonder of her. His hands itched to feel her skin.

Hunger roared through him and he deepened their kiss, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, claiming everything she had and silently demanding more. She gave it to him, surrendering herself to the passion rising between them. Her tongue tangled with his, her breath sighing against his cheek as she met him stroke for stroke. Her hands clutched his shoulders, holding on tightly as she moaned in appreciation.

That soft sound was enough to push Rafe dangerously close to the edge. He tore his mouth from hers, looked down at her through eyes glazed with heat and need and said grimly, “If we don't stop right now, I'm going to throw you down onto this picnic table and give your neighbors a show.”

A choked laugh shot from her throat. She didn't release her hold on him though, as if she didn't quite trust herself to be able to stand on her own two feet.

“The picnic table's not nearly as comfortable as my bed,” she said, just a little breathlessly.

“Is that an invitation?”

“Sounded like one to me.”

“All I need to know,” Rafe muttered and swept her up into his arms.

“You don't have to carry me!”

“Faster this way,” he told her, nearly sprinting across the yard toward the house.

“That works too,” she said, snuggling close to him, stroking the flat of her hand across his chest.

He hissed in a breath, hit the patio door and stepped inside. “Where to?”

“Down the hall, turn left at the end.”

He was already moving. His body was hard and aching. He could hardly draw a breath without fanning the flames licking at his insides. His heart pounding, Rafe entered her room and strode straight to the bed. Absently, he noticed the window seat on the front wall, colorful rugs scattered across a gleaming wood floor and a squat bookcase stuffed with paperbacks.

But his gaze was locked on the wide bed covered in an old-fashioned quilt. He stopped alongside the four-poster, tossed the covers back to reveal smooth white sheets and dropped Katie onto the mattress.

She bounced, then smiled up at him. It was all the encouragement he needed. Tearing off his clothes, he watched her as she did the same. In seconds, they were both naked and he was leaning over her. Rafe had been thinking about this moment for days. Dreaming about it every damn night.

She was haunting him, this woman who so hated the King family. She had somehow reached him in a way no other woman had and though that admission bothered him, it wasn't enough to keep him from enjoying what she was offering.

Reaching up to him, she plunged her fingers through his hair and drew his mouth down to hers. Their mouths melded and her taste was as intoxicating as ever. Her kiss sizzled inside him, making the ache in his body almost overpowering. Everything in him urged him to hurry. To take. To ease the need clamoring within him.

But the urge to savor was just as strong. His tongue
entwined with hers, he slid one hand down the length of her body, relishing the glide of her skin beneath his palm. So soft, so curvy. So just right.

Reluctantly, he broke their kiss, shifted position slightly and took one of her hard, pink nipples into his mouth. She gasped and arched against him as he suckled her, using his teeth and tongue to lovingly torture her. He felt every breath she took, heard every sigh and wanted more. Rafe inhaled her scent and lost himself in the glory of her.

She held his head to her breast as if afraid he might stop. But Rafe was just getting started. He moved to give the same attention to her other breast, feeling her heartbeat quicken, as anticipation rolled through her. He smiled against her skin, then lifted his head and looked up into her passion glazed eyes. “I've wanted this since the first moment I saw you.”

“Me, too,” she admitted, licking her bottom lip in an action that caused everything inside him to clench.

His fingers and thumb continued to tug and pull at her nipple, making her squirm and her breath catch in her throat. When he touched her, he saw exactly what she was feeling on her face. He loved watching her expression shift and change as she gave herself over to him and Rafe knew there was something more here than want. Something dangerous.

Yet he couldn't have pulled away and left if it had meant his life.

That thought stark in his mind, he leaned over her again, stared down into her green eyes and asked, “What are you doing to me?”

She laughed a little and cupped his cheek in her palm. “At the moment, it's
you
doing something to
me.
”

Staring into her eyes, he felt that kick of something he didn't quite recognize and after a long second or two, he let it go. Now was not the time to be thinking.

“So it is,” he agreed, dipping his head for one brief, hard kiss. He felt it again. That something
more
between them. That extra jolt he'd never known before. A part of Rafe worried that he might be getting in deeper here than he had planned. But there was no way out now. No other answer but to have her. To feel her body welcoming his. To delve into her heat and take them both where they had been heading from the first.

He'd worry about consequences later. Wonder if this had been a good idea another time. For right now, there was nowhere he'd rather be.

Sliding one hand down the length of her body, he stroked her core with the tips of his fingers until she lifted her hips into his touch. Her gaze never left his. He watched passion flare and sparkle in her eyes and pushed her higher, faster. Her breath came in quick gasps. Her body trembled in his arms and he felt her pleasure as if it were his own.

Rafe couldn't get enough of looking at her face. Every emotion so openly displayed. Nothing hidden. Nothing held back. He'd never been with a woman so honestly enthusiastic. Always before, the women in his life had been controlled. As if playing the role they thought he wanted from them.

Even his ex-wife Leslie had held something back from him, as if she couldn't quite trust him enough to confide her deepest feelings and reactions. But there was no artifice with Katie.

She threw herself into the moment and in so doing, drew him with her.

“Come for me,” he whispered, dipping his head
to taste her mouth. He caught her breath as it passed between her parted lips. She tasted as sweet as the cookies she was known for. “Let go, Katie. Fly.”

She choked off a half laugh and held on to him, one arm draped around his shoulder. Her hips rocked into his hand and when he dipped his fingers in and out of her heat, she groaned and arched high off the bed. “Rafe…”

“Shatter, Katie. Let me watch you shatter.”

Her gaze locked on his, she expelled a breath, took another and did as he asked. Her body shook as she cried out his name, her gaze never leaving his. She allowed him to see exactly what he was doing to her. What he was making her feel. And his own passion exploded in response. She bit down hard on her bottom lip and rode the wave of completion he gave her and all Rafe could think was, it wasn't enough. He had to see her face etched in pleasure again and again.

The last of her tremors had barely faded away when he pushed off the bed, grabbed his jeans off the floor and dug into the pocket.

“What're you…” She stopped and smiled when she saw him pull out a foil-wrapped condom. Stretching her arms back over her head, she sighed and said, “Pretty sure of yourself tonight then, weren't you? You came prepared.”

He ripped open the foil, sheathed himself and turned back to her. “Not sure of myself. Just hopeful.”

He leaned over her and Katie's arms encircled his neck. “I think, Rafe Cole, that you're
always
sure of yourself and tonight was no different.”

Couldn't really argue with that, he thought. But the truth was, he had just wanted to be prepared. Unlike his father, Rafe didn't run around the world leaving
illegitimate children in his wake. In fact, he had no intention of ever having children and he for damn sure wouldn't create a life because he was too lazy or too selfish to wear a condom.

None of which Katie needed to know.

Bending his head to claim another hard, fast kiss, Rafe looked into her eyes and said, “I'm not so sure of myself around you, Katie. And that's the truth.”

She smiled, a slow curve of her mouth, then reached up to stroke her fingertips along his jawline. “I like hearing that.”

Wryly, he said, “Thought you would. Women love to know when they've got a man dazed and confused.”

“Are you dazed?” she asked, moving against him.

“With any luck,” he told her, “I'm about to be.”

He parted her thighs and settled himself between them. He looked his fill of her then, stroking her center with long, leisurely caresses until she was writhing with the tension.

“Yeah,” he whispered, more to himself than to her, “dazed, all right.”

Outside, the night was cool and quiet. In this room, the only sound was their ragged breathing and the thundering beat of their hearts. All that existed was this moment. This near-electric current of passion was flooding back and forth between them and Rafe knew he couldn't wait one more second to claim her.

For more than a week, he'd watched her, laughed with her. He'd spent more time with Katie Charles in the last week than he had with his ex-wife in the last year of their marriage. And he'd enjoyed it more, as well. She was smart and funny and talented and so damn sexy; one look from her green eyes was almost enough to floor him.

She parted her thighs wider in acceptance and sighed as he touched her. Rafe felt the slam of that soft sound ricochet inside him and ignored it. He didn't want his heart to be involved in this, so it wouldn't be. He wouldn't allow any more connection than the physical between them. And that would be enough, he assured himself.