Hidden Pleasures (7 page)

She began walking up the walkway when suddenly the huge front door, which looked to be made of solid maple, was flung open. And there he stood, in his bare feet with a pair of jeans hanging low on his hips, and an unbuttoned shirt that showed a hairy, muscular chest and broad shoulders.

“You’re early. I just got out of the shower,” he said, leaning in the doorway.

She could tell. Certain parts of his skin still looked wet and he had that unshaven look. And as she continued walking toward him, that spark of attraction that had taken hold of her senses six months ago, amidst all her anger and frustration, was back. She’d never experienced anything like this before. Maybe Nikki was right with her hidden-pleasures theory.

He was watching her approach with those deadly green eyes pinned directly on her. He looked as good as good could get and was stirring something within her with every step she took.

“Yes, I’m early,” she found her voice to say. “I didn’t need to shop for as many items as I’d thought I needed.” She felt butterflies in her stomach flapping around. She hadn’t known until him that a man’s presence could do that to a woman. The idea slid over her and for some reason she felt good about it. Maybe what she’d heard about his abilities was true. A part of her hoped so. She would hate living the rest of her life denying the part of her that was woman.

She came to a stop in front of him. A combination of soap and man plus the scent of cactus gave him a masculine aroma. She studied his face. There was a firm set to his jaw, and the smile on his lips, best described as predatory, only added to the activity going on in the pit of her stomach.

“Come on in. I’ll get your things later,” he said, stepping back to allow her entrance. “First, I want to show you around and then I want you to relax.”

She glanced back at him. “Relax?”

“Yes, you’re uptight. I can feel it.”

Brittany didn’t understand how he could feel anything, but he was right. She was uptight. Who wouldn’t be under the circumstances? She had dated Samuel Harold a full six months before they’d slept together and Gilford even longer than that. And here she was, contemplating sharing Galen’s bed when he was a virtual stranger. It didn’t matter one iota that their paths had crossed six months ago. That time meant nothing and the words they’d spoken to each other had been cross ones.

“I promise not to bite.”

A thought occurred to Brittany and she had to fight not to laugh out loud. But she couldn’t stop her gasp when she stepped over the threshold and looked around his house. If she’d thought the outside was beautiful, the inside was downright gorgeous. The Venetian plaster ceiling along with the hardwood hickory and stone flooring looked extravagant in a rustic sort of way. And the design of the travertine stairway was an artistic dream come true.

He led her from the formal foyer into a huge living room with a fireplace. She glanced up. The Venetian ceiling in this room was dome shaped and the back wall was made of glass, a wall-to-wall window that provided a forever view of the majestic Black Mountains and the pristine northeast valley.

“There’s a fireplace in all the bedrooms,” he was saying. “And a view of the Black Mountains can be seen from every room.”

He glanced over at her when he said, “But my bedroom gives the best view of all.”

Brittany kept looking around, refusing to acknowledge what he’d said. Had he added that tidbit for a reason? She followed while he gave her a tour of the downstairs, which included a spacious kitchen with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances, a wine cellar, a huge family room, three guest bedrooms, three bathrooms and an office.

Brittany was impressed with his furniture as well as how orderly everything was. She followed him up the stairs and tried not to concentrate on what a nice backside he had in his jeans. As soon as she reached the landing, she let out a sigh. A huge floor-to-ceiling window in the hallway afforded a panorama of the mountains. The view was breathtaking and one you captured as soon as your feet touched the landing.

She could only stand there and stare out.

“I know the feeling,” Galen said, smiling. “Sometimes in the evenings I stand in this very spot and watch the sun go down. The rugged terrain makes you appreciate not only the land but the entire earth.”

He gestured to a telescope that was mounted in front of one of the windows. “Normally on a clear day you can see up to ten miles with the naked eye, but I use that when I want to see farther than that. I’ve seen a number of bobcats, mule deer, coyotes and fox. It’s quite interesting to observe them in their habitat.”

“I can just imagine,” she said. Back home she’d seen plenty of sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico. It, too, had
taken her breath away. But the only wildlife she’d seen were the ones at Busch Gardens.

She turned her attention away from the view and back to Galen. She hadn’t known he was standing so close and tried to avoid looking into the depths of his green eyes by lowering her gaze to his chest. That wasn’t a good thing because his shirt was open and all she could see was a sculpted hairy chest. Neither Samuel nor Gilford had hair on their chests and she wondered how it would feel for her breasts to come in contact with it. Or better yet, how it would be to peel off his shirt and then trail her lips down his chest, all the way to where the hair line flowed below the waist of his jeans.

Heat stained her cheeks and she snatched her gaze back to his face, not believing she’d thought of such things. She nervously licked her lips and couldn’t help noticing how his eyes followed the movement of her tongue. The way he was looking at her mouth reminded her of their kiss yesterday. It had been short, but it had left a lasting impression on her.

“So what else is up here?” she asked after feeling a tightness in her chest.

He leaned down and placed his mouth near her ear to whisper, “Right now I couldn’t care less about what’s up here except me and you.”

She figured had she been capable of speech he might not have made his next move. But she hadn’t been able to talk with the warmth of his breath close on her skin. And when she tilted her head to look up at him, he took that opportunity to swoop his mouth down on hers.

This kiss was a lot different from the one yesterday. She still detected a sense of hunger, but it was as if he’d decided he had no reason to rush. They didn’t have an audience and she was not going anywhere. It didn’t take long for her to realize that he wasn’t just kissing her. He was consuming her, every inch of her mouth and then some.

He angled his mouth in a way that provided deeper penetration and swirled his tongue with hers. And then her tongue started doing something it had never done before: it began mating with a man’s. Her world started to spin and she felt grateful when he wrapped his arms around her and brought her body closer to his. Through her blouse her nipples pressed against the cushion of his hairy chest, and just the thought of the contact had her moaning deep in her throat.

Before she realized what he was doing, he had backed her against a wall while his lips and tongue continued to engage hers in a deep, hungry kiss that threatened to push her over the edge of madness. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back while blood roared like crazy through her veins.

She would be the first to admit she was experiencing some of those hidden pleasures Nikki had warned her about. They were coming out of hiding and she seemed incapable of concealing them again. Whether she liked it or not, she couldn’t deny how Galen was making her feel. She stirred with an emotion she had never felt before. Passion. And she knew he was pushing her toward pleasure that only he could deliver.

But it was pleasure she wasn’t quite ready for.

She broke off the kiss and pulled in a deep breath. He leaned over and kissed the corners of her mouth. “Is there a reason you stopped it?” he whispered against her moist lips. And it was then that she noticed his hand was underneath her skirt, actually on her thigh and squeezing it. How had it gotten there without her knowing it?

“Is there a reason you started it?” she countered. The man made seduction a work of art.

He lifted his head and smiled. Those green eyes were sexy as sin, totally irresistible. “Yes, there is a reason. I got a sample of you yesterday and I liked the way you taste and couldn’t wait to kiss you again.” His voice was so husky and deep, goose bumps were beginning to form on her arms.

“Do you always say what you think?”

He flashed an arrogant smile. “I always say what I feel. No need holding anything back.”

She doubted he could do that even if he tried. He had the ability to render a woman mindless, make every cell and molecule in her body suddenly feel wicked. It would have been so easy to let him take her right here. Get it all over and done. But a part of her knew her experience with him would not be like the others. There would be no “over and done.” He would take her slowly and deliberately. She would feel things she’d never felt before. Be driven to want to do things she’d never done before. And heaven help her, she wanted the experience. Yet at the same time she needed more from him. She needed to know more about him.

“You can let go of my thigh now, Galen.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

He let go and took a step back, and her traitorous thigh was tingling in protest from the loss of his touch. “Come on, let me show you the rest of the house. And just in case you’re wondering about that kiss, the answer is no, I didn’t get enough.”

He led the way and she followed thinking, neither had she.

G
alen kept walking, very much aware of Brittany beside him. He had expected her to ask for the legal papers of their agreement before she entered his home, but she hadn’t.

And she hadn’t seemed bothered by the impromptu kiss. He could tell she had enjoyed it as much as he had. A part of him wished she hadn’t stopped things. No telling what they might be doing now if she hadn’t. He could imagine them getting downright naughty and raunchy, hot and sweaty, and tearing off each other’s clothes, doing it against the wall and then moving right to the floor.

“How long have you lived here?”

He glanced over at her the exact moment she was pushing a lock of hair out of her face. The brightness
of the sun coming in through the window was making her squint, but he thought at that moment she had to be the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. In a way he found that hard to believe because he’d been involved with a number of gorgeous women in his lifetime. He still found it rather strange that Brittany Thrasher hit him on such a visceral level.

“I’ve lived here for four years,” he replied. “Although my partners and I have a suite downtown, it’s only for window dressing to make our business appear legit. Few would imagine we do most of our work out of our garages.”

She glanced over at him. “What kind of work do you do?”

“I design video games.”

“Video games?”

He turned to her, studied her features to decipher what she was thinking. His occupation got mixed reaction from people. Those who didn’t know about the millions he made annually considered his occupation frivolous, certainly not a career a man of thirty-four could take seriously. Of course no one in his family agreed with that assessment, especially because they knew the vast amount of his wealth as well as the hard work it took to create and design a successful video game.

“Yes,” he finally said. “That’s what I do for a living.”

He’d noticed that a smile would first start in her eyes and then extend to her lips before spreading over her entire face. Understandably, he hadn’t seen that side of
her in New York and hadn’t really seen much of it here, except for when he’d witnessed that little reunion with her friend at the auction mart. Now he was seeing it again and the transformation sent his pulse throbbing.

She lifted a brow. “So, are you any good?”

He couldn’t help but throw his head back and laugh. This woman was something else. He really liked her spunk once she stopped being angry and uptight.

“Well, are you?”

He shook his head as he finished off a chuckle. “There aren’t too many things I’m not good at, Brittany.”

She frowned. “It’s not nice being conceited, Galen.”

A smile touched his lips. “Bad manners?”

He could tell she was fighting hard not to return his smile when she replied, “The worst.”

Their gazes tangled and he had to admit he was enjoying the moment. “I guess that’s something I need to work on.”

“I suggest that you do. Now back to the video games. Are there any out there that have your name attached to them?”

He started walking again and she fell in line beside him. There was something comforting about having her here with him. “There are a few. You ever heard of Time Capsule?”

“Yes.”

“What about Wild Card?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of that one, too.”

“And what about Turbine Force?”

“Of course.” She stopped walking and turned to him.

“Are all those yours?”

“All those are SID’s, a corporation that I own along with two college friends. All three of us can claim success of the company.”

“See there,” she said as a huge smile touched her face.

“You’re a fast learner. You could have been conceited and taken all the credit for the success of your company, but you didn’t. You shared the spotlight. You remembered your manners. I’m proud of you for doing so.”

Galen shook his head. For the first time in a long time a woman had left him speechless.

So instead of saying anything, he began walking again while wondering for the first time what he had gotten himself into.

Brittany couldn’t help but notice that Galen had suddenly gotten quiet on her. Just as well because she needed to think a minute. One thing she’d learned over the years was to respect another’s need for a quiet moment. So while Galen seemed to be indulging in his, she glanced around, thoroughly pulled in by the appeal of his home.

It had a charm about it that spoke volumes. Whether Galen realized it, his house revealed a lot about his personality. A segment of it at least. She doubted very few, except those close to him, knew the real Galen Steele.

She’d never considered herself an outdoorsy person, but evidently Galen was. Most of the paintings on his
wall indicated his appreciation for nature, in that they captured the natural beauty of the outdoors. And then she couldn’t get over the view outside the window they were walking by. It literally took her breath away. In Tampa she was mostly surrounded by water, but here in the desert, she was surrounded by mountains. Mountains out of which Galen had mapped his space. One he was comfortable with. One that was totally him.

He stopped when they came to another room and she did likewise. When he stood back she stepped inside. It was another bedroom and Brittany thought it just as nicely furnished as the others she’d seen so far.

She glanced over at him. “You have a lot of house for only one person.”

“I like my space.”

She’d figured as much and wondered if he was giving her a hint. But then she dismissed the idea when she recalled that her being here was his idea. She had offered to stay at the other house, but he’d turned her down.

Moments later after showing her three other guest bedrooms, several spacious bathrooms and an upstairs library stacked with numerous books and video games, they walked down a hall that jutted into a wing that was basically a separate extension of the house.

Galen glanced over at her and said, “In addition to my space I also like my privacy. I have five brothers and once in a while we get together and play video games until dawn. When I want to retire for the night I prefer not hearing their excitement from winning or
their strong, colorful expletives from losing. They tend to be rather rowdy.”

“You and your brothers are close.”

“Yes, although we pretend not to be at times. Tends to be more fun that way and with us, there’s never a boring moment, trust me. Our parents are our rock. They have a strong marriage, a solid one. And I think what I admire about them most of all is that they’re best friends.”

“That’s impressive.”

Galen nodded. He’d always thought so, and he knew his brothers had, as well. But to hear an outsider confirm it pretty much validated their feelings. He hadn’t asked her anything about her family and he couldn’t help wondering if she found that odd. No odder than her not asking for those papers when she had insisted on them just last night. He couldn’t help speculating why.

He pulled in a deep breath wondering if she knew how good she smelled. He guessed it didn’t matter, because he did. He covertly studied her profile and wondered why he was even bothering when he was used to openly checking out any woman he was interested in. Any woman he wanted. But he wanted to watch her when she wasn’t aware she was being watched.

It didn’t take long to decide the side of her looked just as nice as the front. Her nose seemed rather short, but her full lips made up for it, and when you tacked on a sexy-looking chin, what you got, in his opinion, were nearly flawless features.

His gaze returned to her lips and lingered, and he remembered the feel of them pressed against his while
he took her mouth in a kiss that even now had him aching. He was so engrossed in her lips that it took him a moment to realize they were moving and she was asking him a question.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

She met his gaze and there was an inquiring look in them when she repeated her question. “Does this door lead to your bedroom?”

He then noticed they had reached his bedroom door. “Yes, this is my private haven, but I give you permission to enter it at any time.”

She gave him a weak smile. “Do you?”

“Yes.” He wanted to reach out and touch her, to see if this moment was real. Had he really just given her something he’d never granted another woman—the right to invade his space whenever she wanted to? That was so totally unlike him.

He opened the double doors and then stepped aside. He wanted to see her reaction. He smiled when she glanced around, totally in awe of his bedroom. It had a masculine overtone while at the same time captured so much of the outdoors with the one solid wall of glass that showcased the beautiful mountain scenery. And then there was his see-through ceiling where he could wake up any time of night and look up at the stars.

He followed her gaze up after seeing the look of astonishment on her face. At that moment he could imagine her sharing his bed beneath those same stars. He would love making love to her one night while lightning flashed in the sky or the rain poured down.
He had seen such a ceiling in his travel to Paris one year and knew he had to have one for his own. When he had the house built, this ceiling was the first design he made sure was in the plans.

“This is truly awesome, Galen. I’ve never seen any thing like it before. I bet sleeping in here is an adventure.”

He could only smile at that assumption. “Yes, you can say that.”

He then watched as she crossed the room to take a closer examination of his bed. His bedspread was white, not the usual color a man would choose, and he hadn’t. His mother had. In fact after buying the house, he had gone skiing one week to come back and discover she had decorated his bedroom.

It had taken a while for the white coverlet to grow on him and those days when it didn’t, he would swap it out with a black one he kept in one of the closets. This morning while making the bed he’d decided to go with the white, thinking it would make a better impression. He propped against his bedroom door wondering when he started caring about making an impression on a woman.

He looked at her and knew it had been since meeting her. His first impression hadn’t gone over so well, so now he was trying to win her over. That was even more so unlike him.

There was a momentary silence as she turned around slowly, taking it all in, the furnishings and the view
outside the window. She then turned to him and said, “This room is simply beautiful.”

“I’m glad you like it. This is where you will sleep every night while you’re here.”

She stared at him. “Why do you want me in here?”

Without taking his eyes off her he moved away from the door. There was no way he would tell her that the thought of having her in his bed was an arousing one, even if he wasn’t in that bed with her. “Do I really have to go into details as to why I want you in here, Brittany?”

She broke eye contact and looked out the window. She returned her gaze to his and said, “No.”

“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go bring in your luggage.”