Fixing Justice (33 page)

She smiled and tilted her bottle of beer at him. “Barking dogs, growling men. What’s the difference, really?”

He threw back his head and laughed at her comment. She was right. “Do you like dogs, Victoria?”

“Absolutely! I love having Zeus underfoot at work, and my mom and I had a puppy for a while. I loved her to death in that way only a child could.”

“Had?”

She frowned and sighed heavily. “Yeah. Had. She was wonderful but we lost her when she was only five years old. Some dog illness I think. Mom was crushed. Another loss of someone we both loved. It was hard.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe you can help me pick out a puppy when Brody gets here.” She didn’t answer, and he wondered what she was thinking.

Night had come to the desert. With lights from the house illuminating the deck, this was Drae’s favorite time of day. Everything was so still and quiet. Getting up, he walked to a covered control panel and flipped a couple of switches that lit up ground level lights marking the edge of the outdoor space. With another click flames appeared in a gas fire pit on the corner of the decking. “C’mon. Let’s sit by the fire,” he said with an outstretched hand. He was pretty sure she could walk the fifty feet without assistance, but he wanted to touch her again. “Want another beer?”

“Sure,” she answered after accepting his hand.

He led her to a grouping of cushioned chaise loungers gathered near the fire pit and then hurried away to clear their chili bowls and grab the cold brews. Nervousness ticked inside him again. Now that they’d eaten and indulged in some small talk, they’d have to get into more serious matters.

Tori kicked off her sandals and settled on a doublewide chaise, leaned her head back on the soft cushion, staring blankly at the first sight of twinkling stars in the darkening sky. This was something she liked about life in the Arizona desert. There was something magical about the quiet wilderness at night that spoke to her soul. Right now she needed some of that calming power to do more than just fill her head with romantic fantasies. Though she was working overtime trying to appear relaxed, truth was, she was almost jumping put of her skin. Draegyn did that to her. One look from his startling blue eyes, and she was up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

The only thing keeping her from going off on a hysterical tirade was knowing they had serious things to discuss. It wouldn’t help the already surreal situation for her to be unglued. Experience had taught her that. When her world shattered and the paparazzi hounded her every move, Tori clung to the lessons learned from watching her mother’s pageant protégée’s as they struggled to appear unfazed under glaring lights while judges picked apart each word and motion. Right this moment she might appear untroubled, but the truth was a far different story.

At Draegyn’s approach, she sat up straighter and schooled her expression into something she hoped looked composed and reasonable. She suspected he was doing something similar. It was only the occasional eye tic and the way his mouth sometimes compressed into a grim line that let Tori know he had any emotions at all. The man was a sphinx of cool-headedness. She suspected it was second nature to someone in his line of work to keep his emotions and thoughts in check.

Her eyes, which had been marking his movement in her direction, dropped to the bottle he held out and landed on his zipper, which conveniently struck her at eye level. The wicked imp in her subconscious that was urging less restraint was cackling with glee at the sight. Damn her hormones.

Motioning to her, Tori politely clinked the long-necked glass bottle with his as he murmured, “Truce part two?” She hiccupped a startled laugh at his choice of words, pursing her lips in a lame attempt to stop from dissolving into a fit of giggles. Truce? Really? That had worked out so well for them the first time.

“This seems more like a negotiated cease-fire than a truce, don’t you think?”

“Perhaps,” he allowed with a tiny smirk. “I seem to recall your only term being never to speak to you again. At least we aren’t yelling at one another, so yes. A suspension of hostilities in the hope of a truce.” She had a retort ready for that comment but swallowed it along with a hearty slug of the cold brew. Sometimes it was better to say nothing and wait to see where things were going.

Drae lowered himself onto the lounger next to hers and gathered the thoughts that scattered when Victoria eyed the hard-on he knew was pushing against the front of his jeans. The woman was nothing but temptation and try as he might to reign in his response, he was failing miserably. Her shoes lay on the flagstone tiles and with one dainty foot tucked under the other, he saw that her toes were painted a pale raspberry color that triggered restless thoughts of those same feet digging into his haunches as he pounded into her. Taking a long pull from his beer, Drae tried to focus on the present but it was impossible to ignore those memories when she sat close enough to catch a whiff of her soft perfume.

Silence wrapped around them as he let his thoughts off their closely held tether, imagining tugging those damn jeans down her thighs and chucking them aside until all she had on was the white t-shirt and nothing else. If they weren’t at war with each other he would sink to his knees between her legs and simply feast on her naked sex. Making love to her under the stars seemed like a viable option until he remembered why they were there. She looked sharply in his direction when a ragged sigh escaped his throat.

“Stop looking at me like that, Draegyn”

“I wish I could,” he answered with a shake of his head. Shifting, Drae turned toward her with legs spread and forearms resting on his thighs as he fiddled with the beer bottle for no good reason. Words deserted while a frustrated grimace froze on his face. “Okay. Let’s do this, then.” Taking a deep breath he let the information he needed to share with her pour out in a rush.

“There’s good news and not so good news. I’ve had my lawyer look in to our uh, predicament.” Instantly wishing he could rephrase that or at least take back the biting way he’d said it, Drae continued. “Besides the obvious reason why an annulment won’t work.” He watched her squirm at the reminder and plowed ahead with all the finesse of a bull in a china closet. “The other consideration is much more straightforward. According to Ted, enterprising paps keep an eye on marriage filings and annulment requests that crop up soon after. Apparently, that sequence of events happens a lot. He suggests keeping a low profile for now so as not to arouse the attention of the media who are constantly on the look-out for a good story.”

In a tone that sounded less than friendly she asked, “Is that supposed to be the good or the bad news?”

“That’s for you to decide, I suppose. Ted seemed to think that for now anyway, the press hasn’t picked up on our situation. Garry and Shawn’s surprise Vegas nuptials hit the gossip mongers almost right away. So far, no one has looked beyond that particularly juicy story.”

Putting her beer on the ground, Victoria slid from the chaise and turned away from him, going to stand near the edge of the tile patio. From behind, her body language suggested she was wrapped rather tightly at the moment. “Continue,” she bit out while keeping her back to him.

“Keeping this under wraps is going to be the best bet moving forward. He suggests not letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Eventually, he’ll file for a dissolution based on mutual accord. Should be simple and better all around this way. I can’t have my family finding out.”

Tori considered killing him just then, the arrogant, son of a bitch. True to form, it was all about him. What
his
lawyer thought.
His
family couldn’t know. And better all around for whom, exactly?
Him
? Jesus.

Clearing his throat, he kept talking as if they were discussing the weather. “Buying some time is best, don’t you think? After all, if you turn up pregnant….”

Turn up pregnant? Was he kidding? He made it sound like she’d made all this happen by herself. She didn’t wait for him to finish the thought. “Yeah. I’m not.”

“What,” he quickly asked. “Do you know that for sure, Victoria?”

Fuck him
, she thought. Would serve him right if she just stormed out of there without another word and let him stew in his own conceited juices. Unfortunately, behaving like a twit wasn’t going to help so she reluctantly responded as she turned his way. “Well, no. Not exactly,” she answered in a hurry. “But really, it was only one time. What are the odds?”

The look on his face suggested he thought the odds were not in their favor. Remembering the desperate, primitive way he’d taken her that first time, Tori shuddered at the notion that nature had been calling the shots.

With both of them reliving that fateful moment when sense had flown out the window and they’d fallen on each other with all the finesse of animals in heat, the temperature on the patio started to soar. He’d been horrified afterward at the way he’d treated her but Tori hadn’t regretted any of it. Her female core twitched remembering desperate moans and the way he’d plunged inside her, over and over until she’d been shuddering and crying. When he’d come, she’d been beyond turned on as her orgasm finished him off with powerful contractions that had milked every drop from his body.

Suddenly, the desert air was infused with raw carnality. She was breathing a bit too rapidly with arms clutched across her chest as if to shield her puckering nipples from his view. She saw his hands clench at his sides where he stood just feet from her with a look on his face that let her know he was fighting his own battle for control.

“Shit. Victoria,” he groaned. “I can’t…” And just like that they were on each other. Tori didn’t know who moved first, and it really didn’t matter because the explosion that went off when their mouths connected made her mind go blank. Greedy sounds of want and need ripped from her throat as voracious tongues dueled and swirled. With a hand tangled in her hair, he pressed against her head so she couldn’t pull away as Draegyn devoured her mouth. Where a minute ago she’d been ready to tear him a new one, now she was writhing desperately against him, clutching at his shoulders as he held on to her tight.

Collapsing onto the double chaise, Tori sprawled inelegantly on top of him as he thrust a muscled thigh between her legs while their needy groans split the quiet, nighttime air. He kept one hand on the back of her head as their kiss deepened, while the other hand cupped her jeans clad bottom, pressing her ever more intimately against him.

He is the devil
, she thought, only to have that thought evaporate under the sensual onslaught of his wild kisses. Rocking her hips against his thigh, she whimpered into his mouth as a need so powerful and big that she couldn’t contain it burst to flaming life inside her. With his hand controlling the fevered grinding of her hips, she felt a sensation in her center that was so hot, she was sure he could feel it through their clothes.

Drae was lost.
This is what she did to me
, he thought. No matter how hard he tried to remain in control around her, one touch, and he was a goner. He hadn’t meant to kiss her but the reminder of that first time when she’d been so responsive in his arms had destroyed his carefully thought out plan to just talk to her and nothing else.

Yeah, right
. So much for letting cooler heads prevail. With her grinding against his thigh and their tongues swirling in a sensuous dance that made him think of another, more intimate dance, he was on sensory overload. They shouldn’t be doing this but they were.

How long they lay there with her draped over his body, he couldn’t tell. All he knew for sure was he had a raging hard-on that was painfully surging against the snug fit of his jeans where it pressed into her belly as she gripped his thigh with her own. At their point of contact he experienced a fiery heat that fed the wild lust raging through him. She was writhing and moaning, her hands touching every part of him they could reach.

Shock and undiluted satisfaction surged through him when she shuddered on top of him as the frenzied grinding triggered a climax that he felt rip through her in waves. He wanted to slide his hand into her jeans and search out the wet heat he knew would greet his fingers. The need to taste her overwhelmed his senses, momentarily blinding him to what happened next.