Wilde Heart (Wilde Women Book 2) (21 page)

Putting his mouth close to her ear, he ground the heel of his palm against her each time his fingers sank deep into the glorious wet heat. In a deep, husky voice, he told her, “When we make love,
milaya,
I’m going to fuck you so hard and so deep that as I come, you’ll feel every pulse and every throb.”

She panted and moaned, “Ah
hhhh.
”

His eyes were unblinking, focused totally on the aroused woman squirming beneath him. When he grunted, “Come for me, sweetness,” she whimpered and arched into him.

Liam sank two fingers deep and used his thumb to circle her hardened clit. She was so fucking wet that her molten desire covered his hand. He massaged a spot inside her that increased the trembling and teased her throbbing nub, latching his lips onto her neck, and bit down.
Hard.

She quivered, writhed, and moaned.

He bit again and felt her shatter in a rush of honeyed warmth that drenched them both.

G
ETTING FROM LIAM’S SUITE AND into the car after it had been brought out by the ubër efficient hotel valet, had been quite a daunting feat seeing as how Rhi was barely capable of walking.
An earth-shattering orgasm will do that to a girl.

For his part, the man looking hot as fuck in his three-piece suit was positively glowing with male satisfaction after his triumph at her complete surrender.

Had she begged him to make love to her? God, she hoped not. Hoped she hadn’t come off as desperately wanting—even though she was.

When they’d come back to earth, he’d removed his fingers from her panties and in an almost reverential way had smoothed the slippery satin material over her sensitive mound. Like the gentleman he was, Liam hauled himself off her body and carefully pulled her dress down, rearranging her clothing in the process. His actions were so tender and solicitous that she almost cried.

Pulling her to her feet, she stumbled slightly until he caught her with his big body. She was a boneless mess. It dawned on her then, that where this man was concerned, she had no willpower whatsoever. Even though her thoughts urged caution, Rhiann’s body had a different agenda.

He was right; they were a long way from being past the lingering effects of their tangled history, and she still wasn’t sure she understood the man he’d become. But that didn’t change the fact that she wanted him. And wanted him to want her just as desperately.
Damn. Did that even make sense?

Her practical, common sense side knew she was in over her head but her heart? Well, his fingers and the magic things he did with them pretty much overrode any possibility of being sensible.

Rhiann had always seen herself as a straightforward kind of girl. Despite the soft romantic core, she’d developed a strong exterior—she lived in New York City, after all! And when it came to knowing how to take care of herself, well . . . she liked to think she had that under control, too.

But stagger-wobbling after Jungle Lord, as he stormed through the lobby like a conquering hero threw her off completely. Struggling with the buttons on her smart little jacket, Rhi cursed him from behind for making her catch up with him, doubling her steps, and practically sprinting to keep from falling behind.

“Ashforth,” she barked. “For heaven’s sake—slow the hell down, would you? Do you want me to face plant on this marble floor?”

He stopped on a dime and whirled around so fast that she nearly ran him down in her haste to keep up with his long strides.

“Whoa,” she grumbled with a startled frown, grabbing one of his arms to help her steady. “Do you
ever
stop to consider that you aren’t alone on this planet?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snapped.

Rhi sighed. What a pair they made. She was jelly-kneed and barely able to string two words together in the aftermath of a shocking orgasm that was somehow
still
pulsing in her core. And Liam? If she was correct, he was dealing with a serious case of neargasm. What just happened between them in his suite was all about her. His refusal to make love to her pretty much left him with a hard-on she couldn’t ignore but that he didn’t act on. Hence the snapping at her.

“You’re kind of cute when you’re flustered.”

He blinked a couple of times—like he was searching for the definition of
flustered
in his mind—and instantly softened.

“Sorry,” he murmured close to her ear as he slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. “I’m not used to escorting a lady.”

She heard the light teasing tone and the way he lingered on the word
lady
and had to hide a grin. What a piece of work this guy was.

“I like this.”

Rhiann turned her questioning gaze to his.
What did he like?

“This,” he told her with a squeeze. “You fit perfectly.”

She blushed and put her hand on the one he had at her waist.

“What?” he asked.

They stood there, arm-in-arm under the towering marble columns in the elegant lobby of the venerable hotel and for Rhi, nothing had every felt so natural. Or so completely bewildering.

Without another word, he guided her swiftly behind a large planter at the corner of two walls and moved her into a shadow. Anyone looking closely could still see them but, for the most part, he’d given them a private moment.

Pressing her against the cold marble wall with his big body, he lifted her chin with two fingers and brushed his thumb back forth across her lips.

“I get nervous when this smart mouth goes quiet.”

Hot tears gathered in her eyes and Rhi wasn’t sure who was the most shocked at their appearance. She or him.

“Okay,” he muttered, his breathing quickened. “What did I do?”

Rhi didn’t avoid his penetrating gaze—she looked straight at him even with the glistening film of tears in her eyes.

“It’s not you,” she whispered past the lump forming in her throat.

The skepticism in his expression was so Liam. She was beginning to understand that despite all the trappings of wealth and the supremely arrogant way he went about things, where she was concerned, he was in a freefall.

“Okay,” she smirked. “Maybe it
is
you. A little bit anyway.”

“But? Please let there be a
but
. . .”

Rhiann wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight. She saw his grey eyes flare briefly at the possessiveness in her embrace.

“The whole day has been . . . too much. Sorry.”

It all came crashing down on her at that moment. Rhi bowed her head and let her forehead drop onto his chest.

“All the family stuff.” She shrugged as she looked up. “And what happened upstairs.” She was whispering like a conspirator in mid-plot.

Leaning over her, Liam’s hands reached behind and lowered until he had her bottom completely in his grasp.
Oh shit.
Her panties were damp enough as it was. Did he have to make her so aware of how hard his cock was?

Struggling to take a complete breath, she dug her fingers into his waist and stared helplessly at him.

“What happened upstairs?” he purred silkily. “You mean when you were wet and aching?”

Heat exploded in her belly and spread rapidly up across her chest until she didn’t doubt her face was beet red. Rhiann looked up at him and nodded, acknowledging that
yes,
she had been both those things.

Liam snorted out a grunt. “The family may have been too much sweetness, but that? Too much? Not even close. Try for . . . not enough. Not nearly enough.”

He kissed her then, with his hands holding her ass as he surged against her.

“Better?” he husked close to her ear when he was finished laying waste to her mouth.

No. It wasn’t better. Kissing only made things worse. How could she fly apart so easily with him? He’d destroyed her as a foolish teenager and yet she fell into his arms with such ease now. What was wrong with her? With him?

“What are we doing, Liam?” she asked with a worried frown. “This is like playing with fire, and you know it.”

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as his usual scowl softened when he looked at her.

“I’m winning you back, of course,” he crowed.

“How exactly do you win back something you didn’t want in the first place?”

He smirked, not at all affected by the snark in her tone.

“Oh, I always wanted you,
milaya.
It just took me a while to understand how much.”

“And what? You’ve decided and now expect me to fall in line? Don’t I get a say in any of this?”

She wasn’t actually sure why she was bitching at him. She just was.

Liam chuckled and tapped her on the chin. “You had a say, sweetness. About twenty minutes ago. Don’t you remember? I believe your wet pussy made a comment. Quite a memorable one,” he growled.

Well!
There really wasn’t anything she could say to that, now was there?

A sly smile replaced the Ashforth scowl as he murmured, “Come on. They’ve brought the car around. Time to chauffeur you home before I forget why I’m waiting to fuck you and simply toss your sexy ass on the floor right here.”

If this day got any fucking better, he’d have to revisit his long-held disdain for holidays. Even though Rhiann didn’t have an authentically submissive bone anywhere in her body, she was undeniably clay in his hands. Two gloriously uninterrupted hours with her this morning, even though it had ended on a note of tension, and the unexpected erotic interlude of the past hour had taken what was normally a dismal day and turned it into one of the best he’d had in forever.

Business deals, reading the competition, going in for the kill, the thrill of acquisition—all of that shit paled next to the blunt realization that he’d never needed anyone or anything like he did Rhiann.

They drove along through the darkness in calm silence with the satellite radio humming in the background. The blue glow from the dashboard display gave the interior of the car a softness that wrapped around Liam’s nerve endings.

He liked being around Rhiann. Having her safely buckled into the seat beside him just felt right. Knowing she was close enough to touch was enormously satisfying.

And then it hit him. He, Liam Ashforth . . . was driving in a car with a beautiful woman. There were so many eyebrow-raising parts of that statement it was almost funny.

He rarely drove anymore. Part rich man perk and part necessity, he left the traffic headaches and car distractions to others. When he did get behind the wheel, it was usually for pleasure. Like driving a Jeep around Maui or the massive SUV he preferred whenever he visited the mountains.

But driving round trip from New York to Philly?
Completely
out of character. So, there was that.

And he didn’t drive around with beautiful women—like,
ever.
Some society cougar knob-bobbing on his cock in the back of a limo was one thing. But spending actual time with a female? Didn’t happen. He was too damn busy for such crap.

Before the previous thought even fully formed, his conscience was screaming
Bullshit!
Shifting slightly to alleviate the sudden tension in his limbs, he gripped the steering wheel and glanced sideways at his quiet passenger.

Too busy for such crap?
Well, he certainly wasn’t too busy to drop every pressing thing on his schedule so he could haunt the
Passion
offices in the hopes that he’d see or bump into a certain mouthy brunette. He might be too busy for the couple of billion females on the planet but for this
one?
He’d drop everything.

So,
Liam thought.
Let’s review.
He was driving. And by driving, he meant dealing with the headache that is I-95 on a high volume transportation day.

Then—he had a woman by his side. And of her own free will! Snorting silently, he chewed on the fact that he wasn’t exactly a sparkling conversationalist or a welcome companion. Or maybe he was and his long-held belief that he lacked social graces was all in his head. Wouldn’t be the first time a ghost from the past tripped him up.

As for the ridiculous narrative that he never found anyone worth hanging out with? Where in the hell did he come up with this crap? After all, Liam liked Roman. They were more than boss and employee. They were also friends—and equals—despite the paycheck exchanging hands.