Bound and Determined (7 page)

When he put it like that, she suddenly felt stupid. “That’s your usual thing, isn’t it?”

He sighed. “For your information, I’ve never been into one-night stands.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I just assumed.”

He reached out and ran his fingers along her shoulder, sending goose bumps skittering in their wake. “You can’t believe everything you hear. I don’t know where we’re going or what we have, but it’s not a one-night stand. At least not for me. The truth is, I’d like to see more of you. Get to know you better. I’d hoped you’d feel the same way.”

Taken aback by his honesty, she didn’t quite know what to say. Panic fluttered through her, but then she reminded herself this was just fun and games, one-night stand or multiple-night stands. Either way was fine. She could handle it. “I don’t know. This came out of nowhere for me.”

“I’m not asking for a commitment. Just say you’ll see me again.”

Since just looking at him made her want to jump him, she figured she could at least agree to that. “Okay.”

“Good. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

Food. She suddenly realized just how empty her stomach was. “Me too. You got anything to eat around here?”

“Always.”

Her eyebrows arched in surprise. “Really? I thought you bachelor types never had any food in your fridge.”

“Not this one. I like to eat.”

He got up and pulled on his jeans. Leaning in to give her a quick kiss, he said, “You can put on one of my shirts, or come down naked. Whatever you like, although my vote is for the latter.”

She called after him. “You mean you’re not going to feed me in bed?”

He was already in the hallway. “Nope, you have to help.”

She pouted, but scooted out of bed anyway. She was starving and the food wasn’t coming to her so down she would go.

She grabbed a shirt out of his closet and after a quick pit stop to the bathroom, headed down to the kitchen to see what he considered edible food.

Chapter Eight

By the time Asia got to the kitchen, Marcus had already gotten a pot of water heating on the stove, dragged all kinds of ingredients onto the counter and was busy chopping onions on a cutting board.

“You don’t waste any time, do you?”

“Milady is hungry and demands sustenance.”

“Damned straight.” She stopped beside him and watched him expertly chopping. “You really know what you’re doing.”

He grinned. “Damned straight.”

She leaned a hip against the counter beside him. “You seem awfully domesticated for a bachelor.”

“You can thank the women in my family for that. My four older sisters insisted that I pull my weight and Mom was in full agreement.”

“You’re kidding. You mean they didn’t wait on you hand and foot?”

“Not even close.”

She grinned, picturing a teenage Marcus having to cook. “Good for them.”

“And for me.”

Surprised at his comment, she asked, “You mean you didn’t resent it?”

He scraped the diced onions into a skillet, added a dollop of olive oil and turned on the heat under the pan. He handed her a wooden spoon. “Stir.”

He washed and cored a crisp-looking red pepper and started slicing it into thin strips. “I won’t lie. I did at first. But after a while I realized that I liked knowing how to fend for myself. And I like it even more now. I never starve and cooking has become a hobby of mine.”

The onions started to sizzle and she dutifully stirred. “I only cook when I have to. I know the basics but my cooking would never wow anyone.” And boy did she know that one for a certainty. Davis had put her down often enough for not trying harder, complaining about her lack of domestic skills.

“Sounds like you haven’t put any effort into it.”

For a moment she was taken aback by his bluntness but then shrugged. Marcus wasn’t putting her down for it, just stating the obvious.

“You’re right. I haven’t. None of the women in my family have been into cooking. Not even my grandmother.”

Marcus grinned. “That doesn’t surprise me. Your grandmother is the complete antithesis of the grandmotherly type. It’s one of the things I like best about her.”

She grinned with fondness, picturing Gram’s many eccentricities. “Me too.”

The water started to boil and he grabbed a couple handfuls of linguine and tossed them in, giving it a quick stir before turning back to the pepper. “You two seem very close.”

“We are. She raised me on her own after my mother died.”

He stopped slicing and looked up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know about your mother.”

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago and I never lacked for love. I did okay.”

He didn’t look at her. “That’s the same thing I tell people when they find out about my dad. He died when I was twelve.”

The urge to hug him and place a soothing kiss on his neck was overwhelming, but she didn’t know how he’d take it, so she held back. Instead, she reached out and briefly touched his shoulder. “That had to be hard.”

“It was, but we survived it and grew closer as a family.”

Knowing what it was like to lose a parent, Asia nodded. Marcus was downplaying it, but she understood just how hard it must have been. “It’s a wonder your mother and sisters didn’t spoil you rotten after that.”

He grinned. “It was of supreme importance to my sisters and my mother that I not grow up to be one of those guys who thinks women are put on this earth to serve them.”

Remembering how Davis was exactly like that, Asia shuddered. “Heaven forbid.”

He laughed. “That’s how they all felt about it too. I think they’d still slap me upside my head if they ever thought I wasn’t treating a woman right.”

Asia wished all mothers would train their sons to be that way.

He gave the linguine another stir, grabbed a colander from the cupboard and placed it in the sink. Then he grabbed plates and cutlery and set them on the other side of the island where the barstools were. “Do you feel like some wine?”

“I’d love some.”

Wine glasses were placed on the counter. Next, he grabbed a bottle of Riesling out of the under-counter wine cooler. Uncorking it with efficiency, he poured some into each glass.

Turning back, he took the wooden spoon from her. “Have a seat. I can take it from here.”

She relinquished the stirring duties to him, sat on a counter barstool and took a sip of the dry white wine with relish. “Mmm, this is good.”

She watched as he turned off the heat under the onions and peppers, checked the linguine for doneness and dumped it into the colander. Every movement he made was sure and efficient.

There was something truly sexy about a man who knew his way around a kitchen. Especially when his jeans hugged his outstanding ass like that.

He took the drained linguine and dumped it into the onions and peppers and tossed the whole thing around. “It’s ready.”

Oh yeah, she was ready all right. Ready to jump his bones again. But it would have to wait until she fed her persistently growling stomach. “It smells fantastic.”

“Tastes even better.”

He dished it onto their plates and put what was left back on the stove. He spooned on some parmesan cheese, placed a plate before her and sat beside her.

He twirled his fork in the linguine until he had a mouthful and held it to her lips. The moment it hit her tongue, she groaned in bliss. It was pure heaven. “Oh my God, this is fabulous. You are a genius with pasta. I think I’ll keep you around.”

The second the words left her lips, she froze. She was afraid to look at him to see his reaction, but when she finally did he seemed totally unconcerned.

In fact, he grinned back at her. “I get that a lot. I’m a better cook than my sisters.”

Between his superior gorgeousness and his fame as an author, she didn’t doubt that he
did
have tons of women who wanted to keep him. A weird feeling of unease fluttered in her gut but she shoved it down. Good thing she wasn’t one of those saps. Nope. Not her.

They ate in companionable silence for a bit before she spoke again. “So what made you decide to move way out here to Forsythia Falls?”

“I got tired of city life. I grew up in a town not much bigger than this one.”

“I didn’t know that. Why’d you leave?”

“The usual reason young people leave small towns. I wanted excitement and I figured the big city was the best place to get it.”

“You stayed there for quite a while, so you must have liked it. What changed?”

He shrugged. “I think I just grew up. And I missed the more laidback kind of life that I had in my childhood.”

“Why didn’t you move back to where your family is?”

He grinned wryly and shook his head. “My sisters can be a bit smothering, so I wanted to keep a bit of distance between us. If I had moved back there they would’ve been dropping by all the time, and although I love seeing them and spending time with them, it would have interfered with my work. This way, they’re only about an hour and a half away. Close enough to see them as much as I like, but not too close.”

She took another sip of wine while she considered his answer. “Sounds like you put a lot of thought into it.”

“I did. Besides, when I saw this place up for sale, I couldn’t pass it up.”

“You must have seen something most people didn’t. It was up for sale for quite a while.”

He nodded. “It needed a lot of work. But I had no trouble looking past that once I saw the house. It was the wraparound porch that did it for me.”

“That was always my favorite part too. You’ve done a great job with the renovations. It’s surpassed anything I could’ve imagined.”

“You can thank my sister for that. She’s the designer.”

“Oh really.”

“Yeah, she’s brilliant at what she does so I nabbed her services. She helped with all the major decisions so that I didn’t end up with a mess.”

She grinned. “I gather interior design isn’t one of your many talents.”

“I know what I like, but it’s been nice to be able to run things past my sister first. She steered me away from making a couple of huge mistakes that would’ve cost me a fortune to fix.”

“So you admit you’re not good at everything.”

“Not even close. I have a gift for words, and a few other things.” He slanted her a suggestive look, letting her know exactly what
things
he was referring to.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed you’re particularly gifted in one area for sure.”

He laughed. “You’re pretty gifted in that area yourself.”

Asia didn’t agree but let it go.

When they’d finished eating, Asia stood and started gathering their dirty plates and cutlery.

“Leave them. I’ll clean up later.”

“You cooked, I’ll clean up.”

He didn’t argue, but he followed her over to the sink with their wine glasses and set them on the counter beside her.

Hugging her from behind, he nuzzled the super-sensitive spot just below her ear. A direct line of heat sizzled down to her core. “If you’re determined to help me out, I have this problem no one else can rectify.”

He nudged his erection against her backside. She smiled and leaned back into him. All through dinner her mind had kept going back to their wild afternoon of sex and now she wanted him with an intensity that worried her.

For some reason, she couldn’t seem to keep her hands off him. He was like a drug and she was already seriously addicted.

What was it about him that flipped her sexual switches so fast? One thing was for certain, he was turning her into a sex fiend. Making her want him too much.

Maybe she should take a break and get away from him for a while. Catch her breath. And figure out exactly how she felt about everything that had happened. “I should go home.”

He slid his hand under the shirt and cupped her breast. The other strayed between her legs. “You should
stay
.”

God, he felt
so
good. His hard cock nestled into her, his hands working their usual magic. “I need a change of clothes.”

She didn’t sound convincing even to her own ears.

“I guarantee you won’t need any clothes tonight.” He worked his hand past her mound and unerringly found her clitoris. “Besides, it would be a shame to waste this. See how hot and wet you are for me?”

She groaned and pushed her ass back against him, her determination wavering. He had a point, damn him.

He kneed her legs farther apart. With slow, deliberate movements, he inserted a finger into her vagina, teasing her with his touch as he worked it in and out of her tight sheath. It felt
so
good, but what she wanted was his cock inside of her.

He rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and her vagina clenched in response.

She whimpered.

“You know you want to.”

She gripped the countertop as if it would keep her grounded to sanity. “I really
should
leave.”

He shook his head, nipped her shoulder. “No, you really should
come
.”

Oh yeah, coming sounded real good right now. The familiar pressure was building hard and fast. With his finger fucking her and his cock’s impressive girth so close to where she wanted it, all she could think about was coming.

All of a sudden he removed his hands, and she almost cried out at the loss of contact until she realized he wasn’t stopping but rather trying to pull off the shirt she wore. Overwhelming relief washed over her. Who was she kidding? There was no way she could deny him, or herself, this pleasure.

When she was naked, he growled. “God,
yes
.” The rasp of his zipper sent a thrill coursing through her, building her excited anticipation. He slapped a condom on the counter beside her.

Startled, she laughed. “Do you keep some of those in every room in the house?”

He prodded her ass with his cock. “That’s not a bad idea, but no. I shoved one in my pocket before I came down.” He tweaked her nipples and she gasped. “I used to be a boy scout, you know.”

“Always prepared, are you?”

“Since I can’t seem to get enough of your sweet body, I pretty much have to be.”

Thank God for that, since she couldn’t seem to get enough of his either.

All thought fled when he used his knee to spread her legs, and leaned into her, his engorged velvety-hot cock resting between her butt cheeks. He ran his hands across her breasts, over her hips, down her belly, feathering through her curls and then away, not touching her where she needed him most.