Find Her, Keep Her (23 page)

I think she’s directing that nasty comment at me and the actress, but I don’t think either of us takes it personally. Pete puts his hand on my thigh, and I think Belmont notices because he shifts uncomfortably in his seat.
 

“What about you, Daisy?” Belmont asks loudly. “Who would a wishy-washy person like you have voted for?”

“I’m not wishy-washy,” I say defensively. “Politicians say what they have to say to get elected, just like men say what they need to say to get laid. Have you ever done that, Jack Lord?” I narrow my eyes at him. If he wants to go there, then I certainly can and will. He glares at me, and I cower under the power of his eyes and look down into my lap.
 

“Can we just vote for the one with the biggest dick?” Mandy says with her eyes pinned on Belmont, seeking to take his attention off of me.
 

The table erupts in laughter. Pete laughs too and cozies up to me, pressing his shoulder against mine.

 
“Are you two together?” Belmont blurts out harshly, shifting a finger between Pete and me. He’s angry, and it shows.

Pete is trapped. He didn’t see that coming.
 

I narrow my eyes at Belmont, warning him to stop. I’m embarrassed because all of Thelma’s guests are watching us. “No,” I finally reply.

“The question is, are
you
two involved,” Morticia says, regarding Belmont and me.

“Then why are you letting him put his hand on your leg?” Belmont growls, ignoring the woman’s comment. He’s singled-minded at the moment.

“You mean like this?” Mandy squeezes him beneath the table before I can respond. Belmont tenses as his eyes expand. “Wow! Is that for her or me?”

Belmont grabs her hand and smashes it onto the table. “Stop it.”
 

The moment is awkward. It’s quiet, and Mandy frowns at me, blaming me for what he just did to her.
 

“Jack, the senator told me recently that he admired your clean water projects in West Africa and Central America,” Thelma says in an effort to win back the table.
 

I’ve never seen him so angry. He’s the one who kissed his date, and I’m thinking they’ve done much more since they showed up for dinner together. He’s behaving as if he doesn’t want her to touch him. I know they didn’t live through two days without sex–that wouldn’t be like the Belmont Lord I know.
 

“What about it?” he grumbles at Thelma while keeping his eyes trained on me.
 

“Jack?” she calls louder and snaps her fingers to get his attention. “Tootles, over here!”

He rips his eyes away from my face. Suddenly, I can breathe.

“Do you know Jack?” Pete whispers. I nod stiffly. “It’s him? The guy you were talking about earlier?”

Again, I nod.

“Shit,” he curses under his breath.

“What?” I’m eager to understand his reaction.

“I work for him.”

“Oh…”

“What do you do?” Mandy asks Pete to both of our surprise. Her eyes flirt with him.

At first Pete hesitates, and then he mutters, “I’m an architect.”

“Really?” She sounds genuinely interested and goes on about a house she just bought in Vail that she wants to renovate from top to bottom.

It’s funny, but the more they talk, the more Pete leans into me. I’m not sure if he’s a naturally touchy-feely person or it’s his way of letting me know that he’s still interested after learning that I was once involved with his boss.

Belmont is stuck in a conversation with a man seated near the head of the table beside Thelma.
 

Thelma smiles at me, and then she gets up and walks behind her guests to squat between me and the publisher. “Pete told me that you nearly drowned this afternoon?” As soon as I gasp over being betrayed, she smiles. “Don’t be upset with him. He’s powerless against me when it comes to keeping secrets. I’ve been his aunt for thirty-seven years.” She winks. “Jack Lord stopped by the library today.”

I glance at Belmont. He’s saying something about purchasing equipment by way of fund matching. Actually, I want to hear what he’s talking about. It’s interesting. He’s interesting. I’m impressed by the casual way he speaks about his remarkable work. He’s not bragging or seeking acclaim. Actually, he looks like he really doesn’t want to discuss it at the moment, which I’m sure he doesn’t.

“I know all about the two of you. I hope you’re fine with him being here,” she says, but it sounds like she’s asking me.

“It’s fine,” I mutter. “I just wish he wouldn’t have brought her.”

“Mandy Hill?” she whispers, surprised. “Don’t you know who she is?”

I shake my head. “His wife?” I nearly gasp, hoping that’s not the case. I mean, who else could she be?

“
The Bloom is Off the Rose
?
Summer Lust
?
Tag Along Rider
?” she asks as if those titles should ring a bell. I still shake my head. “You don’t watch movies?”

“Not many. The last ones I watched were
Lord of the Rings
, and that was on DVD.”

Thelma tilts her head back and lets out a delightful chuckle. “I’m too old to sit like this. Yoga can only take a body like mine so far.” She finally stands. “Sweetheart, Jack Lord came here alone,” are her last words before moving down the table to talk to another guest.
 

Right after she said that, Pete laughs at Mandy’s comment, lifts his arm, and rests it on the top of my chair.

Belmont grinds to a halt mid-sentence. Suddenly, he shoots to his feet like an arrow. “Daisy, come.” He stomps off as though he expects me to follow like a puppy in training.
 

Once again the table turns silent. My skin burns from embarrassment. They’re watching and waiting to see what I’ll do next. Keeping my face down, I scoot back my chair. I look at no one as I tiptoe out of the sunroom and into the main house. Belmont stands right there in the tight foyer. He grabs my hand and pulls me along. I hear the guests erupting in laughter. There’s no way I can return to that table after this.

However, he’s touching me again, and we’re so close to each other. I find that so satisfying. He leads me out the way I came in. I watch the effortless way he walks. He must be wearing part of a Tom Ford suit. I admire the way the pale gray, pinstriped pants shift with his sexy legs and the gray vest hugs him around the waist. He’s wearing a crisp white shirt under it, rolled up at the sleeves. I hadn’t noticed how stylishly he’s dressed because I was trying like crazy to avoid his blazing stare. His outfit, of course, turns me on even more.
 

“Did you lock the door this time?” he asks as we approach the guesthouse.

“No,” I answer. I wonder what he means by “this time.” Earlier today, that familiar scent I smelled was his!
 

Belmont opens the door and tugs me into the house. Once we’re inside, he holds me tightly, and his mouth attacks mine. He’s kissing me hard; even if I wanted to stop him, I couldn’t.
 

The backs of my legs hit the edge of the sofa. I fall back, and Belmont is on top of me. His mouth hasn’t broken away from mine. Jeez, I can’t think. I can only taste his tongue and the sweet chemistry of his saliva.
 

We moan and grunt as we kiss, kiss, and kiss some more. Our hands squeeze here and grasp for dear life there. Belmont gathers a handful of my hair and turns my head to bite down hard on my neck.

“Ah!” I gasp from the pain and pleasure.

His lips find mine again. We tumble off the sofa and onto the floor. He shoves the coffee table away, and it goes flying. Coasters and trinkets hit the carpet.

How long can we do this? The minutes tick by. His hands are more confused than his tongue and lips. He’s lifting my skirt, caressing my crotch, then my butt, then my hips, then my waist, then my breasts, then my neck. Then he starts all over but not in that order.
 

“Shit, Daisy,” he whispers.

He’s back to wrapping his tongue around mine and sucking on my lips between kisses, enjoying my mouth as much as I’m enjoying his.

“Daisy,” he tries again. His forehead is pinned against mine, and the sides of our noses are pressed against each other. “What the hell went wrong?”
 

“Everything,” I whisper. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”

He lifts his face, leaving my skin longing for his touch. “What have you done?” He sounds worried.

“Not what you’re thinking, Belmont,” I assure him. “I didn’t do anything with Pete.”

“You went swimming with him?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing happened?”

“Well he kissed me once…”

“That fucker,” Belmont glares toward the main house. “What else?”
 

I want to say that’s it, but I want to divulge the whole truth and nothing but the truth. “Then I drowned.”

“You drowned?” he roars.
 

“But I didn’t die,” I say to calm him. It does the opposite.
 

“What the hell, Daisy! You shouldn’t have been out there without me in the first place.”

“Pete’s a good swimmer. He saved me.”

“What?” Again, that makes him angrier.
 

“He had to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

“Daisy…” He shakes his head. I can usually take Belmont’s temperature by the density of his hard-on, and so far, it hasn’t lost any of its vigor. “I hate that you chose to spend time with Pete.”

“I didn’t choose to. He saw me in the window and…” Jeez, I’m saying too much.

“He saw you in the window? Were you naked?”

“No,” I say emphatically, and then I sigh because I still haven’t told the whole truth. “He saw me topless.”
 

“He saw your tits?” His eyebrows are severely ruffled as he lifts himself higher to search my body in the dim room.

“What are you looking for?” I ask.

He responds by tugging at the tie of my dress. He unwraps the cashmere material to expose my pink silk bra and panties. He sucks air between his teeth as he unhooks the front clamp of my bra and watches my breasts fall out. He sucks and bites the tips of my nipples. I gasp from the sting. He does it over and over and over. The longer he does it, the deeper his mouth consumes them and the harder he bites. I cry out and dig my fingers into his back. Two of his fingers slide under the crotch of my panties and inside of me.
 

He gasps and stares at my face. “Your tits are mine, got it?”

“Actually, they’re mine, got it?” I’m only half joking.

He smirks. “I’ll just have to buy them from you.”

I smirk. “Name your price?”

“Daisy…” The way he says that sends my heart racing. I watch his hand dig into his pocket.
 

“What are you doing?” I ask anxiously.
 

He sets a black velvet ring box right between my breasts. “I’m going to put this right here. Don’t let it drop.” His naughty eyes narrow before he kisses, licks, and nibbles his way down my sternum, past my abs, then my belly.

“Oh, Jack,” I sigh when he arrives at my pleasure spot.
 

I’m inside of his warm mouth. At first I think he’s happy to be back down there because he’s all over the place. He sucks one of my lower lips and then the other. He thrusts into me with his soft, hot tongue. I whimper as he works. After making me wet and soft, he latches onto my pulsating clitoris. I feel his eyes studying me in the dusky room as I suck in air and moan in my attempts to bear his all-too-consuming yet pleasurable assault. My climax is building, sparking deep inside of me. The closer it comes, the louder I get.

“Not yet,” Belmont whispers thickly and stops cold turkey.

“Huh?” I’m confused. Every sensitive spot on my body has risen to the occasion.

“Just give me a minute, Daisy,” he pleads. “Don’t drop that box.” He rests on his back beside me with his eyes closed. I know what he’s doing: he’s quieting his lusts. “I’m handling this all wrong.” He presses the back of his arm against his eyes.

Here I am lying on the carpet with a ring box between my breasts and my panties pulled down to my thighs. I feel like I’ve been ravished and left to simmer in this incomplete state. “Handling what wrong?”
 

“You,” he shouts. “You!”

“How did you want to handle me?”

He takes his arm off his eyes to dig his fingers into my vagina. I release a long breath as he presses his thumb on my clitoris and draws circles. “Not like this. You were at the wedding, weren’t you?”

“The other day, yes,” I moan.

“You like that, baby?” he whispers.

“I do,” I confess.

“I’m going to give it to you all night, all week long, but first we have to go home. I don’t want to do this here. I want you to come in our bed.” He removes his hand, takes the ring box off of my chest, and puts it back in his pocket. “Say good-bye to Thelma’s house.”

Chapter 16

Found Her, Kept Her

This is it.
 

My mind is racing.
 

We left the keys to my rental car on the kitchen counter in Thelma’s guesthouse. Belmont boldly returned to the table to thank Thelma for inviting him. He informed her that he’s taking me home and someone will stop by in the morning to pick up the Mini Cooper and return it to the rental office. Venturing back into that room after the way we behaved… He’s braver than I.
 

We’re in Belmont’s BMW. Belmont strokes my thigh, my shoulder, and then his hand wraps possessively around my neck. That’s where he keeps it.
 

“Your skin is warm,” he comments as the car stops at a sign. He pulls my mouth to his to give me a deep and passionate kiss that leaves me dizzy.

I want to say a lot, but I’m hesitant. It’s probably not wise to bring up the night of that awful dinner with Adrian and Maya. “Belmont?”
 
My word is muffled by his mouth.

“What, baby?” he breathes.

“I’m still hungry.” Actually, I’m starving. I planned on eating Thelma’s five-star dinner tonight. Obviously that didn’t happen.

“What would you like to eat?” He’s nibbling on my neck.