Primal Surrender (18 page)

The smile on her beautiful face was one of pure female satisfaction.
So she liked the thought of him riding the edge, huh? Good to know
. Filing away the new knowledge, he dropped a kiss to the soft curve of her tummy, aware most women were self-conscious about having a curvy belly. He hadn’t gotten around to asking her how she felt in particular, but he wanted her to have no doubt he loved every sexy inch of her body.

Using his thumb and forefinger to spread her pussy lips open and up, he inhaled her hot scent deep into his lungs, branding it into his brain forever, and then danced his tongue lightly over her juicy folds. She squealed and wriggled upwards away from him just a bit, but he didn’t let it stop his forward progress. Instead he wrapped his unoccupied arm around her thigh to hold her still and went back for seconds of the delicious treat before him.

She was ambrosia and honey on his tongue. Seductively sweet, and altogether addictive. There was no turning back now, if there ever was before. He felt his cock spurt pre-cum into his briefs and he cursed his own shaky control. With any other woman he would have had no problem staving off his need to be inside her, but with Claudia, the need was like a growing monster in his chest. It consumed all of the oxygen he breathed, and forced him to focus on nothing but sinking into her sweet heaven.

The clamping down of her pussy muscles on his tongue, and the sweet gush of moisture flooding his taste buds, drew a growling sound out of his throat making her shiver underneath him.

“Now!” she whimpered, pleading with him for mercy, and giving him exactly what he craved. Her desire.

Surging to his knees, he opened his jeans and shoved the denim and the now damp fabric of his briefs over his hips, twisting to push them and his boots off before he rose over her on the couch. Her pale skin looked pearlescent against the dark purple fabric of the sofa underneath her, and his cock twitched in his hand.

Rubbing the sensitive crown through the scorching juice between her labia lips, he hissed out a breath of satisfaction as he sunk into her tight pussy. He only made it half way on the first thrust, but a couple of tries later he was balls deep inside of heaven and thanking whatever Gods had brought this woman into his life.

She clung to him, her hands gripping his biceps, and clawing at his shoulders, as she whimpered and moaned her pleasure. The noises drove him harder and deeper. Her legs lifted to wrap tightly around his hips, and he palmed the softness of her ass as she clenched and unclenched those muscles with each thrust.

Just before his balls tightened and exploded he took possession of her mouth again, and drove his pubic bone against her clit firmly, triggering her orgasm. They shattered together, mouths absorbing each other’s screams and pants, breathing each other’s air as they fell back to Earth.

*****

Claudia had only experienced magic like this with one other man, and it stung her soul that she had just betrayed him. How would Mack feel if he knew his own brother was screwing her just two days after their tryst?

Fighting to regain control over her limp muscles, she wiggled underneath the heavy weight of Ryker’s body. She wasn’t ready to think about the comforting heat of him, or the sweet way he held her to his chest, while still bracing most of his bulk with one beefy arm. Somehow the two Thompson brothers had taken control of her senses, and she didn’t like being so off kilter all the time.

There was no future here with them as a unit. They had both made it very clear, and she was fooling herself—or maybe blinding herself with lust. Planting both hands against Ryker’s chest, she pushed him off her.

“Easy, love. No reason to move just yet. I kind of like it where I’m at,” he grumbled, burying his face in her hair and inhaling. He seemed to do that a lot around her. Like he was an animal imprinting her scent for recognition later. “Why a purple couch, duchess? Of all the colors in the world, why purple?”

“It brightens up the room, makes me smile when I see it. I don’t need any other reason. And I need to get up. There’s going to be a wet spot on my sofa, and I need to get it cleaned up quickly before it stains. I don’t want to explain it if I have to have it reupholstered.”

Her tone seemed to click in his brain, and he lifted away from her, watching her warily. A wrinkle marred his perfect brow and his blue-gray eyes looked almost scared of her. “We wouldn’t want that. I would have moved this to the floor if I had known how important the couch was to you.”

Standing, her weakened leg muscles swayed for just a moment before she was able to take a step forward and away from him. “No problem. Neither of us was thinking clearly. I’m going to jump in the shower first. Please lock the door behind you when you leave.”

Refusing to look back, she embraced her flight response and made her way upstairs leaving a silent Ryker naked and alone on her sofa. Hopefully by the time she came back he would have gotten the hint and disappeared. It was bad enough she had betrayed the sweetly honest relationship she’d had with Mack, but she couldn’t stomach lying to Ryker about how she felt about him right now. She knew that if she told him she didn’t want him, he would walk away, but she couldn’t do it now. Not when their shared cum spilled down her thighs, and a faint bruise from his teeth adorned her breast. Not now.

Chapter Ten

She had a bag packed and she was on the road by eight a.m. the next morning. As she had hoped, when she returned to the living room almost an hour after going upstairs, Ryker was gone. There was no note, and no pleading, just empty lonely silence to solidify her feelings of guilt.

Instead of facing her troubles in Stone River, she fled for Austin, determined to face her troubles there first. They certainly seemed less intimidating in light of her new problems. Being in love with two men never would have crossed her mind as a possibility for her life a week ago, but now she was faced with the prospect of losing them both along with her job.

It was the one thing she hadn’t told them when they asked about her next step. She hadn’t revealed that her father was a hard-ass about business, and would be gunning for a scapegoat because the project fell through. Sure, he would have a backup plan, but the question was, whether or not she would be the scapegoat of the backup plan.

Walking into his office brought back vivid memories of her childhood. Since she was knee-high she had come and gone from the Schmidt Properties corporate office with a freedom only the boss’s daughter was entitled to. Assured in her position and her right to be there, she would smile warmly at the employees and greet the ones she knew by name. Today, though, she walked with her eyes straight ahead, and her hands fisted at her sides. She’d failed her father, and the taste of her failure was as bitter on her tongue as the betrayal still tingling in her pussy from last night.

Gaven Schmidt wasn’t an imposing figure. He stood an average five foot ten and his middle was pudgy from the sweets he loved to enjoy between his meals. Balding and jowly, he was certainly not what most people would consider scary, but she saw him through a child’s eyes. She heard his commanding presence even if she didn’t see it anymore. Within his sharp honey colored eyes he was a lion like predator that very rarely softened into a purring pussy cat. The smile on his face as she stepped through his door did nothing to reassure her, but she forced her feet to move forward anyway.

Taking a seat while he finished his phone conversation, she looked around the familiar space. A wide cherry wood desk dominated the space in front of a ceiling to floor picture window that allowed him to view almost all of downtown Austin from his seat. On the credenza against the wall was an oversized
Keurig
coffee pot she had purchased for him last Christmas. It was surrounded by photos of her and her mother from the last thirty-five years. So many special moments captured, and frozen in time. Her first birthday, cake smeared over her chubby baby cheeks, and crusting in her pale blonde curls, sat next to a photo of her and her mother on a beach in Cabo from just a couple of years ago. It was like looking through a scrapbook of her life, but in each frame she only saw what was missing.

Her father had always been working. Too busy to take a two week trip to Cabo, too much to do to spend a Tuesday evening at Bass Concert Hall for her ballet recital. She was the star of the show that year, but the triumph had felt as empty as the seat next to her mother.

The phone clicked into its cradle and she jerked her head around as her father rose to greet her. “Claudia! I was wondering when you would make it back. You look too thin, peanut.”

Peanut. A childhood nickname that once grated her nerves, and today only added to the pain of her failure. “I’ve never been too thin in my life, Daddy. Did you get my email?” She accepted a tight hug from him, and then turned to face him as he took the seat next to her instead of going back behind his desk.

He nodded, and grimaced, “I did. The town doesn’t seem to understand the value of investment. I’ve already placed a call to Mayor Edwards, and I fully intend to bring the issue before the planning board again next month. I think we’ll up the ante by throwing in funding for a new school, and possibly some park space. What are your thoughts?”

She sighed, and blinked back tears. “I know I should have been able to convince them. I didn’t realize how mired in tradition the townspeople were. They are good people though. They welcomed me into the fold quickly, and they weren’t nasty when they voted no, but they were very firm. I don’t believe they will accept the Granite Estates project anytime in the near future.”

“Hmm. Well that’s not the news I was anticipating.” His forehead wrinkled and he rubbed his chin in thought. “What moves did you make to convince them?”

“I laid every possible positive outcome on the table. From new tax income, to future growth as a suburb of Austin. They weren’t interested. I’m sorry I failed to land my first big project. I’m sorry I failed you.”

Surprise filled his eyes, and he shook his head, “Your mother warned me that you were in a mood. You’ve never failed me, peanut. This is business. Sometimes a project goes through without a hitch, but most times you have to jump a few hurdles.” He watched her silently for several seconds, and then let out a huge sigh. Reaching out, he took her hands in his. “I’m afraid it’s I who has failed you, Claudia. I’ve done you a grave disservice if you can even for one moment think I would take my frustration out on my own daughter. Did you think I would attack you for not convincing a small town they wanted to become a big city?”

Tears leaked from her eyes, and ran down her cheeks, and she felt her hands trembling in his grip. “I don’t know. I guess. I just wanted to seal this deal for you so badly. I wanted you to be proud of me.”

“Oh, Claudia, I’ve never been prouder, but you fight for this company as though your life depends on it, and to tell you the truth it scares me.” He rose to his feet and began pacing the room.

She was so shocked that all she could do was stare back at him through teary eyes. “Scares you? Why?”

“Forty years ago when I married your mother I was just starting my own company. Our finances were tight, the bills were big, and I honestly didn’t know if I would be able to provide a good life for my new wife. By the time you came along five years later, I had built up a thriving corporation. I was bringing in money hand over fist, and my work became more important to me than anything else. I figured if I paid for every possible lesson and activity, it would help offset the fact I wasn’t there for you and your mother. Instead of going to your tumbling practices, I went to business meetings. Instead of watching you win the spelling bee, I went to a board luncheon. I was a terrible father, and I look back now and regret those moments I’ve lost.” He paused in front of the credenza and picked up a photo of her holding the trophy for her first place win in the spelling bee he spoke of.

She didn’t even try to hold back her tears now. They streamed down her face unchecked as something inside of her broke open. “You weren’t a terrible father. You were trying to give me the best of everything. I had amazing opportunities because of all of the work you did.”

“But I taught you that business is more important than the people you love, and that’s where I went wrong. I honestly didn’t realize it until your mom told me about your phone call.”

“She was supposed to keep it private,” Claudia grumbled under her breath.

“Well it’s a good thing she didn’t, peanut. I needed to hear what’s going on with you. For months you’ve had your nose to the grindstone like nothing else in the world mattered. You’ve become me. It’s not a good thing, trust me.”

“You’re a skilled businessman, Dad, why wouldn’t I want to be you?”

“Because being skilled in business has cost me some of the best years with my family, and I can’t get them back. Don’t ever come into my office thinking I won’t love you with every fiber of my being, peanut. I will never see you as an employee. You are my daughter first and foremost.”

“But you said this project had to go through when you left me a voicemail,” she argued, mystified. For years she had been trying so hard to impress him and win his approval, and she had it all along. It was mind-blowing.

He laughed, “Oh yes, I’m sure I did. I tend to get a little carried away when I’m in work mode. Claudia, you’ve been working here since college, you’ve devoted almost ten years of your life to the company. You started from the bottom and you have worked your way to the top. How could you think I would be upset with you for one project falling through?”

“It was important. I was going to prove I was worthy to hand the reins over to,” she said in a small voice.

Her father remained silent for several moments. “Do you remember when you were in college, and you mentioned you wanted to be an artist, what I said?”

Claudia grasped at the faint memory. Dinner at her parent’s house, an explanation of her current classes, and then a side mention of her hobby, but her father hadn’t seemed to take notice, or had he? “No, I don’t remember.”