Rule's Addiction (9 page)

Maria felt a heady delight at the impact, but before too much more could register, he bumped her face up with his chin and took her lips under his. There was nothing gentle about his kiss. It wasn’t rough, or brutal, but it held no gentleness. He simply took her mouth as if he had every right, as if it were his and his alone, as if he’d been doing it for years and years.

With his lips almost smothering hers, his air of self-confidence enveloped her and she realized all at once that that was the one thing that most attracted her to him. He walked into a room and he owned it. He opened his mouth and he owned the attention of everyone around him. His lips fell to hers and he owned her. His body touched hers and he owned her even more so.

Thank God that was something that only she knew. He’d never know,
he could never know,
not in a million years.

His hands released her and he lifted them to wrap around her face. He tipped her chin, affording himself better access and the kiss deepened. The trembling in her stomach turned into full-blown sexual excitement, and in the recesses of her mind was the thought that if his self-confidence didn’t manifest into such full-blown arrogance, that maybe, just maybe
,
he’d be the perfect man to have for a lover.
Sexy. Dominant. Take-charge.

Certainly her libido was telling her that he was the perfect man as he held her against the wall and continued to kiss her as if it were a given that she’d wind up in his bed. His tongue stroked against hers, learning every inch of her mouth with a dedication and skill that had the oxygen snagging in her lungs. His teeth nipped at her bottom lip, his hand running to her chin and holding her in place as he devoured her. Bottle rockets exploding in her head, she vaguely realized that with him, she was in danger of drowning, in danger of losing her independence, because he was the type of man who’d expect more than a mutually satisfying, sexual relationship. He’d expect to own her, to have full control over her . . . to dominate her.

Under his onslaught, her brain was only half functioning as she had that thought once again. So it was with no small shock that she suddenly found herself leaning against the tiled wall without any support from him. He’d released her and stepped back, and now stood a few feet away. The look on his face seemed to contain agitation or confusion, as if she’d messed him up somehow. Running his hand through his hair, his features tightened and became the same mask that his face usually reflected.

Her heart skipping a beat at the sudden lack of emotion in his eyes, all she was capable of doing was leaning against the wall while waiting for him to make a move.

She didn’t have to wait long. With an intense, lingering look, he swung around and walked out of the room, the door ringing a loud echo behind him.

****

Maria tiptoed around Garrett the entire next day. He was making her antsy, so much so that she couldn’t stay one hundred percent focused on her job, and that worried the crap out of her. Determined to force him from her brain and resolving to do better at her job, she set out to ignore him.

That evening, the Calderon party was in attendance. The family and their friends were in town for the wedding of one of their grandsons, and Maria was determined to make their stay perfect as well as memorable.

The Calderons were a lovely family. They’d lived in Miami at one time and still had family and friends in the area. The older couple had been coming to the hotel for years, more often than not making a vacation of their stay here, and usually, at some point, having their two grandsons in attendance. Maria was well acquainted with both young men, having gotten to know them off and on through the years.

It was Friday night, and they’d reserved the ballroom for a hotel-catered rehearsal dinner before the small church wedding the next day. Evidently not wanting to step on any toes, they’d not only invited the entire wedding party to the dinner, but all of their out-of-town guests as well. The party was a huge affair, with approximately a hundred and fifty guests.

Before the family’s arrival that afternoon, Maria had inspected their block of rooms one last time. Finding a small fault with only one room, she’d called maintenance but one employee was taking a day of vacation and the other man was resolving an issue with the swimming pool pump. Knowing that the pool problem was more crucial than this, but determined to make these rooms perfect, she hadn’t hesitated, but had gotten on her hands and knees to clean the stain from the carpet herself. She didn’t mind helping or the hard work, but the outfit she’d been wearing was now wrinkled and smelled of cleaning fumes.

Glancing at her watch, she slipped to her room to change clothes, knowing that she’d be amongst the partygoers that evening. Letting out a breath, she knew she’d been foolish to think she could have done the cleaning in her best outfit and come out of it unscathed. She’d planned to wear that particular dress tonight; it had been perfect, and
,
as her clothing pieces were limited, it was about her only choice for the event.

Already knowing her small wardrobe by heart, she steeled her spine and pulled out
The Dress
as she thought of it, the one garment that somehow transformed her into someone gorgeous when she clearly wasn’t. It was that once-or-twice-in-a-lifetime article of clothing that should somehow be treasured and only brought out for special occasions. An article of clothing that was timeless, that she could own forever if she treated it lovingly and only wore it sparingly. Looking at it now, draped across her bed, she began berating herself for not finding the time to go shopping for new clothes. It wasn’t as if Garrett wasn’t paying her enough now, because suddenly, she could easily afford to shop if she wanted to.
If she had time.

Refusing to let the small detail of having to wear
The
Dress
unbalance her, she pulled her clothes off and slipped into the shower.

****

Late that night, Garrett returned to the hotel. He’d been gone most of the day, having felt a need to escape from the unrelenting pull he felt toward Maria. While he’d been gone, he’d done some unnecessary banking and visited several properties in the area. His day out hadn’t helped much; he hadn’t been able to fully get her out of his mind for more than ten minutes at a time.

And that only pissed him off. He was beginning to get a nagging feeling in his gut that was telling him that fucking Maria wouldn’t be enough. Refusing to believe it, or in fact to even allow the thought to take hold, he walked inside the lobby with determined steps.
Just one more fucking taste; that should be enough to hold him for the day.

Just inside the lobby, there was a large gilded frame set up on an easel, in which a beautiful scripted font announced the Calderon party’s rehearsal dinner. That name hit him; the memory of Maria laughing with the man over the telephone the night he’d met her hit him full force with a punch of jealousy that, had he allowed himself to acknowledge it, would have disturbed him.

Unannounced and uninvited, not giving a shit, he walked inside the ballroom. It was late, the catered-meal was over, and now people were scattered all over the room, talking in small groups, some of them swaying to the soft music that played in the background. The open bar in the corner was still manned by one of the hotel bartenders, but the atmosphere in the room told him that around now, the party was about to break up, the guests needing to prepare for the wedding that would undoubtedly take place the next day.

As he glanced around the room, it didn’t take five seconds before Garrett saw her.

And when he did, his ire rose up, almost swallowing him whole.

She held a glass of champagne in one hand, and a masculine arm was draped over her shoulders. A man was leaning over her with a smile as he laughed at something she said, and then he reached up with his other hand and touched her cheek.
Touched her fucking cheek
. The move put her within the circle of the unknown man’s arms, and Garrett felt a wave of fury rise up and inundate him.

As he stilled just inside the double doors and watched, it took everything he had not to go over there and physically rip the guy from her side. Breathing deeply, even from this distance, he could see the blush that stained her cheeks as she shook her head, her eyes filling with a teasing laughter.

Garrett took in the blush right before he noticed the dress she was wearing. His heartbeat flew off the charts as his cock hardened and jerked against his fly. The anger and jealousy running through his veins only made his erection more potent. There was nothing wrong with the dress,
per se
. On a mannequin, it would have been impressive. But on Maria, the dress took on a life of its own. The allure of sexiness that she’d been ramping up the last few days dimmed in comparison to the way the dress enhanced her figure. The garment was black, came a few inches above her knees, but it clung with a tenacity that seemed to make it show off every feminine attribute that she had.

And she had attributes in fucking spades.

At that moment, a waiter carrying a tray of champagne passed them, and the man she was with reached out and snagged only one flute, as Maria’s was still full. When the fucker let go of her with one hand to accomplish the feat, Garrett was only mildly appeased that she seemed to take the opportunity to gracefully dance out of the man’s reach. As she made the move, she glanced over the party with that precise eye for detail that told Garrett she was still on the job. As her gaze traveled around the room, he prepared for the moment when her eyes would meet his.

Expecting the punch to his system, he braced himself, feeling his lips flatten. When her gaze hit his, it was like a shot of electricity that almost knocked him over. Her allure only irritating him more, with a sharp tilt of his head, he motioned for her to join him, knowing damn good and well that if she refused, the outcome wouldn’t be good. For either of them. He wasn’t in the mood to tolerate any bullshit this particular evening.

It became apparent immediately that she was refusing him. He fought both his anger and his arousal, as he turned and stepped just outside of the ballroom. Turning his head, he kept one eye on her, fully prepared for the moment she’d have to make use of the elevator to get to her room.

With his eyes on the double doors of the ballroom, he leaned back against the wall and waited.

****

Maria was silently panicking. She’d seen and heard Garrett pissed before and for whatever reason, she wasn’t ready to face his anger tonight. His anger . . . and his arousal. There’d been no question looking at him earlier, the man was pissed. And an aroused, pissed off Garrett Rule was not someone she was up to fighting with tonight.

She wasn’t scared of his anger, not really, and she wasn’t scared of his arousal, at least, not at the moment. She took a breath and then admitted what she was afraid of: she was scared of her response to him. And of what she might not be able to stop from happening if she was alone with him tonight. And there was no question, from the fire smoldering off him, she knew his intentions were to get her alone. She needed to stay away from him, especially tonight. It wasn’t as if she was tipsy, because she’d been nursing the single flute of champagne the entire night and it was still half-full. So, inebriation wasn’t the problem.

Her nerves were upset, because she didn’t seem to have any control over her shifting emotions where Garrett was concerned. She’d realized that fact when she had no reaction to Luis Calderon. The younger Calderon grandson, the one who was still firmly single, was ridiculously handsome. She’d had a small crush on him off and on during the years. In the past, she’d enjoyed his flirting repartee . . . had even been tempted to start something with him, as he’d always indicated they should. But she hadn’t, mostly because he was a guest at the hotel and her professionalism precluded that anything might happen between them. But tonight she hadn’t felt a shred of temptation. Her head had been filled with the image of another man.

The image and the memory of another man’s taste. Of his touch. Of his power over her.

And then she’d looked up and there he was, staring her down as if she were betraying him, as if she’d done something that was immoral, unethical
,
something that she’d be severely punished for when he got his hands on her.

And then he’d called her over to him with that damn arrogant tilt of his head that she detested.
No way
. Not tonight. For some reason, a reason that was stronger than it had ever been since Garrett had arrived in Miami, she didn’t feel up to a contest with him, sexual or otherwise.

She made her escape from Luis’s side when one of his cousins came and joined him. She wished them both a goodnight and told Luis she’d see him later. She took a few steps forward, and was able to sneak a peak at Garrett as he leaned against the wall in the vestibule just outside of the ballroom, his intention of ambushing her as she left the room more than obvious.

Refusing to be caught in his hold, she decided to take the service stairway, which she was her preference over the elevator anyway, and missed it completely when Garrett turned his head and saw her make the move toward the obscure doorway that housed the steps.

****

About to round the corner of the landing leading to the fourth floor, Maria’s nerves jolted when she heard the sound of the door above her opening and then closing with the loud, echoing slam of steel against steel.