Kiss Me Book 1 (9 page)

“
If you’re
sure.”

“
I am.”

Taking the key, she
hurried down the stairs. She didn’t make it far out the bay doors
when she heard Amar bellow at his brother. “You’re lying to
her.”

As Amy hurried from the
gallery, tears streaked down her face. As far as mistakes went,
this one would go down in the history books as massively
epic.

***

Amy woke up to a rather
persistent pounding in her head. Groaning, she rolled over and
looked at the clock. It was closing in on eleven o’clock. The
mixture of wine and the night’s events made every inch of her body
ache, but honestly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the ache that she
felt beating in her chest. She’d been naive to think that Christian
was any different. Why would he be? He was a sexy artist, ripped
from one end to another. He was living the life he wanted and could
have had any woman.
He did get the woman
he wanted, and when he was done he kicked her
aside
, she thought glumly.

Her phone started buzzing,
and she looked at the display. It was her sister. She hit ignore
and rolled over, not in the mood to deal with her—or anyone, for
that matter.

Deciding she needed
coffee, she slid from bed and made her way down to the kitchen. Her
muscles protested as she slowly walked down the stairs. As she
walked past the front door, a loud knock caused her to
jump.

“
Shit,” she said, clutching
at her chest. Pushing her wild and tangled hair out of her face,
she stood on her tiptoes to see who it was. Relief as well as
disappointment washed over her as she disarmed the security system
and slid the locks free.

She opened the door,
screwing on the best smile she could muster.

“
Hello,” she said,
squinting as the sun assaulted her sensitive eyes.

“
Hello Amy. How are
you?”

Amy sniffed and forced her
emotions down. “I’m good. I’ve got the key to your car in the
kitchen. I was just about to make some coffee. Would you care to
join me?” she asked. She didn’t particularly want to talk to Amar,
but he’d been surprisingly nice to her, so she felt somewhat
obligated to return the favor.

He smiled a smile that was
a lot like Christian’s. She backed away from the door and allowed
him entrance.

“
You’ve got a lovely home,”
Amar said, looking around.

“
Thank you. This way,” she
said, beckoning him to follow her down the hall and into the
kitchen.

“
Did you decorate
it?”

“
I did. I had some pieces
imported from Italy,” she said as she moved around the counter and
filled the carafe with water.

“
Yes, I noticed the
banisters when I walked in. Very finely sculpted and designed.
Beautiful wood that can only be found over there.”

Amy’s eyes met his blue
ones. She couldn’t hide the shock she felt. “You know about
décor?”

He chuckled and removed
his suit coat and draped it over the back of a chair. She noticed
he was impeccably dressed in an expensive suit. “Our mother was
Sophia D’Ltera.”

Amy’s mouth fell open and
her eyes bugged out. “Your mother was Sophia D’Ltera?” she asked,
repeating what he’d just said.

“
Yes,” he said with a
chuckle.

She could hardly believe
what she was hearing. Sophia was world famous in the interior
design field. She’d often catered to A-list celebrities and leaders
all over the world up until she passed away five years before with
a rare form of Leukemia.

“
Sorry, I’m just. . . wow!”
was all she could manage as she continued to prep the
coffee.

“
Yeah. We all took her
death pretty hard, but Christian took it the hardest.”

At the mention of
Christian’s name her gut clenched. Her hands began to tremble. She
tried to calm her nerves. “I was deeply saddened by her death. I am
so sorry for your loss,” Amy said.

“
Thank you,” Amar said with
a single nod.

She could tell he wanted
to say something, but she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
Even though he and Christian had been fighting the night before,
and Amar had accused him of lying to her, she couldn’t deal with
anything Christian-related.

“
So, Amar, what is it that
you do?” she asked as she plucked a blueberry muffin from the
cabinet. She offered it to him, but he waved it away.

“
I am a defense attorney,”
he said simply.

“
Which would explain why
you’re dressed like you’re ready to hit the runway,” she said
playfully.

“
I have a certain image to
uphold, but honestly I’d much rather be on the beach,” he said
honestly.

“
The beach?”

“
Oh yes, I love to
surf.”

Again her eyes widened.
They lived in California, so it wasn’t all that uncommon for an
older man to surf. She just didn’t expect it to be him.

“
That’s nice,” she
said.

Silence grew between them
as the coffee pot puttered and sputtered as it brewed. It was Amar
who finally broke the silence.

“
I owe you an apology,” he
said.

When she looked up, she
realized that he looked a bit sheepish and found it endearing.
“It’s truly okay,” she said. She couldn’t hold what he’d said
against him, even if she’d wanted to. He was trying to protect his
brother. She understood.

“
It’s okay,” she said,
patting his hand.

He shook his head. “No. I
was out of line when I abruptly interrupted your . . . well, I was
unnecessarily rude to you. It was Chris who I was pissed at, and
unfortunately you got caught in the line of fire.”

“
Do you fight often?” she
asked as she pulled down two ceramic mugs and filled them with
coffee. “Cream or sugar?”

“
No thanks. Our
relationship is complicated, at times.”

“
Complicated?” she said and
handed him the cup. He took a sip.

“
Yes. Christian is the baby
of the family. We have two sisters who are older than we are. Allie
and her husband live in Italy while Yasmeen and her girlfriend live
in Spain. Even at close to forty, he still struggles with growing
up sometimes. He is an incredible businessman and friend, but he is
a lot like our mother. If he sees something he wants, he goes after
it, no matter the cost or the damage it may do. I’ve spent the last
several years cleaning up a mess he got himself into when he was
younger.”

“
What mess is
that?”

Amar shook his head. “I’m
sorry, but that is not my story to tell. Christian needs to be the
one to tell you because in a roundabout way it affects you and your
current situation.”

She frowned and said, “How
is that possible?”

“
It just is. He will tell
you—don’t worry about that. Once he gets a chance, he
will.”

Amy shook her head and
stared down into her coffee. Tears were threatening to fall. “I’m
sorry, but there aren’t going to be any more chances. I just want
my art back, and that’s all. I can put all this behind me and
forget this ever happened.” The last part came out as a whisper as
her eyes filled with tears. She didn’t want to cry in front of him,
one, because she didn’t want to be
that
girl and two, she didn’t want
to admit that she’d fallen hopelessly in love with
Christian.

When she looked up Amar
was looking at her with sympathetic eyes. “Don’t write him off just
yet.”

“
He doesn’t care for me.
The only thing he cares about . . . is what I . . .” she said but
stopped the sentence. There was no way she was going to talk about
having sex with his brother. It didn’t matter if he’d seen every
inch of her in the shower, grinding her ass against his brother’s
cock. It just wasn’t going to happen.

Amar finished his coffee
and rose to his feet. He shrugged on his jacket, and she handed him
the key to his car. He took it and covered her hand with his. “Give
him just a bit of time.”

She frowned as she looked
at him. This was not the man she’d heard arguing with Christian the
first night they’d slept together. This was not the man that had
barged in on them in the shower. This was a man full of honor and a
strong sense of family. This was a man she knew she could count on
and trust.

“
What is it that you see?”
she asked.

He chuckled and patted her
hand. “That he loves you.”

He didn’t give her a
chance to respond as he turned and left the kitchen. She just stood
there, absorbing everything he’d just said to her. Christian was in
love with her?

“
Well, he sure as hell has
a weird way of showing it,” she said as Amar walked out the door.
She moved to the window and watched him drive away.

***

For the remainder of the
day, Amy locked herself away in her office, burying herself in her
work. She’d chosen not to go into her office because she didn’t
feel like getting dressed. However, she had changed from
Christian’s shirt and boxers because his smell, mingling with
fabric softener, was lingering, distracting her. Every time she
took a breath she could smell him.

Her phone rang for the
fifth time, and she picked it up and looked at the screen. With a
roll of her eyes, she finally answered the call. “What?”

“
Shit, what the hell pissed
in your cheerios this morning,” her sister said.

“
No one. I’m just busy with
work. I figured you would have gotten that by now when I didn’t
answer your texts and ignored your phone calls,” Amy said
acidly.

“
Okay wow, you’re being a
real bitch right now. What the hell?”

“
Nothing. Did you need
something, or did you just call to pester me?” Amy said and winced
at her harsh tone. It wasn’t her sister’s fault she’d fallen in
love with a man who was so wrong for her.

“
I was calling to see if
you wanted to grab a late lunch, but I’m thinking it might be a bad
idea.”

“
Sorry, just didn’t have a
great night and not having the best of days.”

“
What happened?” The frosty
tone in Carrie’s voice melted and was replaced with
concern.

Amy sighed into her phone.
“Nothing that I really want to talk about. I just really want to be
left alone for a couple days, if it’s OK with you.”

“
Sure. Just call when you
decide you’re ready to talk.”

“
Thanks sis. Love
you.”

“
Love you too.” The line
went dead, and she dropped her phone back to her desk. Looking at
the clock, she realized that she hadn’t had anything to eat all
day. She’d meant to eat a muffin, but the bomb that Amar had
dropped on her left her feeling a little less than
hungry.

Scooting away from her
desk, she climbed from her chair. Slowly, she stretched and rolled
her aching muscles. Making her way into the kitchen, she pulled out
stuff to make a sandwich. However, a sandwich sounded less than
appealing. After putting everything away, she grabbed a banana and
her favorite book. Deciding that a little relaxation in the sun
would be perfect, she made her way to the back patio. The beautiful
blue pool sparkled back at her in the heat of the July
sun.

When the house was built,
she insisted a ten-foot-tall privacy fence be built around it to
keep eyes from prying. She shimmied out of her clothes and
stretched out on one of the chairs. The sun warmed her bare
skin.

As she let the tension
from her body slip away with the rays of the sun, her mind began to
drift back to Christian. He’d been so cold as he sat on the couch
staring at her. He seemed like he genuinely did not give a shit
about anything that had just happened between them. Her ego was
stung, and her pride was wounded. She’d allowed herself to be
vulnerable for the first time in a very long time, and it had come
back and bit her in the ass both figuratively and quite
literally.

The thought of ass biting
took her thoughts in an entirely different direction, though.
Behind her closed eyes she could see Christian’s hands as they
played over her body as if she were an instrument, ready to be
plucked. With each stroke and strum she was left humming and
purring under his touch.

“
Ugh,” she groaned as she
threw her arm over her face.

She saw his mouth on her
nipples, tugging and pulling them with his teeth. Each sharp tug
pulled a cry of pleasure and pain from her. Seemingly without
thinking, her hand moved over her left breast and began to pinch
and roll her nipple between her fingers. Pleasure began to bloom
between her thighs as she squeezed and groped her tit.

She could still feel
Christian’s mouth against her slit as he ravaged her with his
tongue, driving her to the very peak of her existence. Her hands
stilled, and she sat up with a start, unsure of what had broken her
from her thoughts.

Looking around, she saw
Christian leaning casually against the door that opened into the
house.