If You Need Me: The Ashford Legacy, Book 1 (10 page)

His father thought his younger sister, Carolyn, was the result of an affair. Even after the paternity results had confirmed that Care was indeed an Ashford, Kenton had made it known that millions could easily buy a rigged test. As for Carolyn, if she’d ever needed a father’s love and support it would be now, in the thick of a hellish marriage to a man who’d been one of Ashford’s youngest and most promising CFOs.

If Carolyn thought marrying the asshole would somehow win her father’s approval, she was wrong. Kyle was fortunate in that he’d realized long ago that nothing he did would ever be good enough for his father. Maybe if Carolyn stopped trying so hard she could finally find a bit of that same freedom.

“Where do you think your mother got her nest egg?”

“What?” Kyle paced up and down the alley. He had to keep moving. “Grandma and Grandpa Chesterfield aren’t exactly poor. And Patricia sued your ass, so I suppose after that she was set.”

“Yes…that’s true,” his father replied.

Kyle slowed. Kenton didn’t give in often, and with the low pitch of his voice, Kyle wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what came next.

“She sold you to me, Kyle. She said I could keep you—with sole custody, uncontested—for forty-five million dollars. I thought I’d found a life partner, a loving wife, but all I’d married was a scam artist. Patricia planned on blackmailing me for money once she produced my offspring.”

Kyle sat heavily on the dirty asphalt of the alley. “You’re lying.”

“I’m afraid I’m not. When I visited Carolyn in the hospital nursery and saw that blond hair and those washed-out green eyes, I knew instantly that she was no child of mine. I had Patricia investigated and discovered she’d tried a similar scheme with the man before me, but he left her when she miscarried. I wouldn’t shell out a dime for Carolyn, obviously, so Patricia kept her in order to add child support payments to her already substantial alimony.”

“I—” Kyle tried to speak, but it was just a whisper of sound.

“Don’t take it so hard, son. Forty-five million was a lot of money back then. We’re talking almost thirty years ago.”

He thought Kyle was upset that he hadn’t gotten a higher bid? “Why are you doing this to me? Do you hate me this much?”

“Kyle…” Kenton’s voice took on a different tone, as warm as the man knew how to be. “I tell you this to explain some hard truths. If my first wife—your own mother—could be corrupted by money, who is immune? Even if by some miracle this woman you met doesn’t know who you are, if you pursue this…relationship, or whatever it is, you will have to tell her eventually. And when you do, things will change. They have to. Even if she can get over the billionaire title, she can’t understand the responsibility that comes with a legacy like that.

“One day, you’re going to marry, and you’ll need someone who’s not wowed by numbers but who has the class and the breeding to be your partner, someone who grew up like you did and can truly understand you. Would it even be fair to drag your…” He paused. “What’s her name?”

“Rayna.” The word barely escaped his dry, cotton-filled mouth.

“Yes, Rayna. Would it be fair to drag Rayna into a lifestyle for which she must be completely unprepared?”

Kyle blinked and ran a hand over his eyes. “I gotta go.”

“I’m sorry, Kyle. I know reality hurts. It’s taken a bite out of me a few times in my life too. I’m just trying to protect you, because I…because you’re the Ashford legacy. It’s all on you, son.”

Had his dad been about to say he loved him? Did he stop because he knew the lie would be too easy to see through? “Okay. I gotta go.”

He swiped his finger over the screen and ended the call. After, he wasn’t sure for how long, he simply sat on his ass in the alley and wept like a fucking baby.

His own mother didn’t love him. She’d never acted like she had, but he’d told himself that she simply wasn’t an affectionate woman. Now he knew the truth, and it left a hollowed-out place in his soul.

But then maybe he truly was an empty shell of a human being, like a scarecrow stuffed with thousand-dollar bills until he resembled the shape of a man.

Rayna wore blended mash up to her elbows by the time Kyle knocked on the front door. Bratty was covered; she was covered. She peeped through the hole and opened the door—her amused smile fading when she saw Kyle’s bloodshot eyes. “What happened to you?”

She moved to let him pass. It looked like he’d not only found eggs and butter, but two additional overflowing bags of groceries. No wonder he’d been gone so long.

He glanced at Bratty tucked under her arm, and then his gaze took in the sliminess of Rayna’s hands and arms. “What happened to
you
?”

“I asked first.”

He shrugged and set the bags on the counter. “Some crap blew into my eyes. I went into the market’s restroom and rinsed them. I think I got it all out.”

“Oh, Kyle…” She stepped closer to inspect his eyes. Bratty shifted and let out a contented cluck. “Do you want me to have another look? They’re really red. You might be allergic or have something still floating around in there.”

He smiled and kissed her forehead. “I’m not sure the addition of liquefied bird food in my eyes will do any good.”

She snorted. “I was going to wash up first.”

“I’m fine, really. How did the tube-feeding go?”

She held up the arm that wasn’t holding Bratty to display her general filthiness. “It’s not as easy as it looks. The tube popped off the syringe on my second try and blasted us both.”

He chuckled. “I’m sorry I missed it.”

Her hand flew to her hip. “What?”

“No, I mean I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help. I should have gone to the store after we finished feeding her.”

“At least her tummy is nice and full. The trade-off is that now she hates me and will never trust me again.” Rayna walked Bratty to her pen, took off her chicken diaper and let her down to forage for snacks, then she went to the sink to start washing her arms with warm water and soap.

She’d barely finished drying her arms when Kyle’s solid male body pressed into her back and thighs. He moved her hair to the side and brought his mouth to her neck, trailing heavy, wet kisses down the side of her throat. Next thing she knew his hands were wrapped around her front, kneading her breasts almost painfully through her thin cotton sundress. Seeing as her dress was doubling for pajamas, she didn’t have anything on underneath, so she felt every scrape of his jeans against her rump and every caress of his fingers moving over her sensitive nipples.

Her head fell back to rest against his chest, and her pussy clenched. There was something different about Kyle at this moment, but even if she couldn’t put her finger on what it was, she was more than willing to see where this led.

His chest rumbled with a deep murmur, and one hand left her breast to move lower. He lifted her sundress and plunged his hand between her legs, penetrated her with two fingers and used the slick wetness to rub her clit with heavy strokes, his movements rough and raw. Did he know he was almost hurting her? Her pussy, as though trying to help, released a flood of slick fluid. “Gentle, baby,” she whispered.

The pressure of his hand eased, but when he took hold of her arm and turned her to face him, she didn’t see anything gentle in his red-rimmed eyes. “Do you need me, Rayna?”

She was a little confused by the question. She’d expect “do you want me” or maybe “can I fuck you”, because that was clearly what he had in mind. But he looked so vulnerable that she didn’t think this was the right time to clarify. “Of course I need you.”

That seemed to be the right answer because he took both her cheeks in his hands and crushed his lips to hers. His tongue invaded her mouth, conquering until she submitted to the demands of his kiss.

With a sweep of his hand behind her, he sent everything from the counter clattering into the sink. The next thing she knew, he’d gripped her hips and lifted her, setting her bare ass on the cold white tile then stepping into the V of her legs. Hands still on her hips, he scooted her forward until her wet pussy rubbed the bulge in his jeans. “I’m healthy. I’ve been tested. And I know you’re on the pill…”

“Yeah…” She wrapped her legs around his hips and moaned when he yanked her straps down and sucked a pebbled nipple into his mouth. The back of her head rested on the edge of the cabinet. Adrenaline coursed through her, her body trying to catch up to this man’s plans. She’d been tested in the past year, and it had been longer than that since she’d slept with a man before Kyle. “I’m clean.”

“Good, because I don’t want anything between us this time. I want to feel you when I come in you. Do you want that?”

Her fingers sank into his hair when he took the other neglected nipple into his mouth and suckled. “God yes.”

She pulled at his T-shirt, sliding it up his back and watching the play of the muscles along his abdomen. When she got it up under his arms, he broke away from her breasts and allowed her to pull the shirt over his head. He hadn’t showered yet this morning, so she could smell the faint musky scent of his skin. It was better than any cologne in existence.

He undid his belt and dropped his jeans and boxers. She looked down and caught her breath. In the bright morning light, he was a spectacle to behold. All hard, angled planes of muscle and soft skin with a light smattering of sandy brown hair. And his cock. How could she be this lucky? She didn’t need to touch him to know how hard he was for her. She could see it in the way his shaft stood away from his body, stretching his skin so tight it looked like one touch might make him burst.

She reached down and took him in her hand. There were so many things she wanted to do to him. Suck him. Rub him. Get him off between her breasts. She would never get enough of him. But after a few firm strokes of her fist down his length, he grabbed her hand and lifted it above her head, pressing it against the cabinet door. With his other hand he grasped her hips and yanked her forward, impaling her on his rigid shaft.

She moaned and her head fell forward, meeting his shoulder. She gave in to the urge to bite him, just hard enough to feel his skin against her teeth. He released her hand and clawed his fingers into both her hips, using his grip to drive her onto him with every hard thrust. He kissed her cheeks as he took from her, his breath hot against her skin.

Her hands now free, she brought them to his head, using her legs to hold on to him. “Kyle…” she gasped. She didn’t need to say more or instruct him. He was bringing her body straight over the precipice all on his own.

He pulled back and watched as his cock plunged into her, reemerging again, slick and glistening. “You feel so good. I’ve never—”

“Never…what?” she panted, her words punctuated by the jarring of her body as he thrust.

“Never ridden a woman bare like this. I was raised to be careful, to wait.” He cupped her chin between his palm and his thumb, staring into her eyes. “You are who I was waiting for.”

Kyle Ford melted her, body and soul. How could she tell him everything she was feeling for him? How could she admit that the way she loved him terrified her?

She tilted her pelvis higher, wanting as much of him inside her as she could get. Her pussy was greedy for him. She’d never wanted someone else’s release even more than hers, but she wanted Kyle’s. She reveled in the fact that even now, the first dewy drops of his essence were moistening her channel.

“Come in me, Kyle. I need you.”

His breath was coming in rough pants now, like a man wrestling with a beast, caught in a fight to the death. “God, I love you, Rayna. Don’t say anything. Just hear it, because I have to say it.
I love you.
”

The cords of his neck strained and his cheeks went splotchy as he drove into her. She hoped he was close—thought he was—because she was losing it. She wanted to stay in control, at least enough to witness him coming undone inside her, but she was lost. Kyle loved her, and she loved him so much it was a dull ache in her chest.

“Please…” she whimpered. The slide of his bare cock against her heated flesh was utter bliss. Her pussy began to tighten around him, clutching at his shaft as her whole belly clenched in waves of fiery ecstasy.

“I’m coming,” he told her, pounding impossibly harder into her core.

“Yes,” she answered.
Take me. Fill me. Love me.

And a moment later, he clutched her so tightly against him her breasts flattened and her lungs couldn’t draw a full breath. But she didn’t care. She could drown in him. Was drowning. And for once she wanted to give up the fight and simply let it pull her under.

Chapter Nine

Kyle didn’t let go of her for a long while, and she didn’t mind. She clutched his head against her breast, holding him tight, until lust faded and thought returned and she started to wonder at the change in him. He’d said he loved her like he meant it. Should she say something or wait to see if he brought it up again? And what had happened on the way to the market that had him so upset? He went to call his boss and came back almost broken.

“Oh my God.” Her sudden outburst had his head snapping up. “You were fired. They fired you! I knew you shouldn’t have jumped on a plane and traveled across the country on a whim like this.”

He chuckled and kissed the tops of her breasts before taking hold of her hips again and setting her on her feet. “I’m not fired. You need to stop worrying about that. You think I’m plotting to move in here and live off my sugar mama?”