Rule's Addiction (15 page)

A look came over his features, and at any other time, Maria knew this would be a fight that she’d lose. But she was about to win, because somehow, she knew he wouldn’t want to upset her anymore than she already was. She didn’t know exactly how she knew that fact, but when he pushed away from the doorway and said, “I’ll be right back,” it didn’t surprise her in the least.

But it did send a feeling much like warm molasses sliding through her veins.

“Garrett?” she barely formed the whisper.

He stopped and turned back, a look of concern on his features.

“Top drawer.”

He nodded his head and turned to do her bidding.

****

Thirty minutes later, Garrett sat beside Maria in the swirling water, a pair of board shorts his only clothing. He would have gotten into the water naked, but he’d known his nudity would only upset her more, so he’d retrieved his trunks when he’d left to get her swimsuit.

He’d asked her what she wanted, Cognac or wine, and at the slight tilt of her head, he’d opened the wine bottle and poured two glasses.

As they sipped the wine, Garrett studied her where she sat across from him, and as she continued to do nothing but look into the water, he asked with a grimace, “It was pretty rough, huh?” At her silence, he continued, “You don’t have to say anything. I’m not looking for answers.” He paused and continued, “People have fears. That’s normal. Claustrophobia is fairly common . . . we don’t have to talk about it.”

She pursed her lips and glanced at him before looking away again and mumbling, “That’s good.”

He smiled, more to himself than at her. The girl was hardheaded, he’d give her that. He supposed that stubbornness was something he was attracted to.

After a few moments of quiet, she glanced back to him. “Have you ever been afraid of anything?” she asked in a quiet voice.

The question jolted him; he hadn’t expected her to try to make conversation. But he needed her to keep talking, to forget what had happened to her, or at least to move on from it, so he thought about her question. “I don’t have a phobia, if that’s what you mean. At least, not one that I’ve discovered as of yet.”

He paused before deciding to open up. What he was about to tell her wasn’t something that he felt the need to talk about, but he’d do or say damn near anything at this point to wipe that still-shocky look from the depths of her eyes. If it meant talking about himself, when that was usually something that he never did, then so be it. So he took a breath and began. “But there was a time in my life when I was afraid, yeah—my father died when I was in college. It was unexpected . . . a massive heart attack. In addition to the pain of losing him, the debt we found out he owed was damn near crippling.” He paused and saw that her eyes were clinging to his. “You want me to go on?”

She nodded her head, the look in her eyes sincere.

Garrett let the memory wash over him. “It was scary as fuck and I was petrified. My mother had never worked outside of the home, and Erin, our sister, was still a teenager, about to leave for college that my brothers and I had no goddamn idea how we were going to pay for. We found out that it had all been a smokescreen—the lifestyle we’d been living. When my father died, the bank called in all the loans, both personal and business, and the house we’d grown up in looked like it was going to go on the auction block without a serious input of cash . . . cash that we didn’t have. Damian and Nick, my older brothers, were adamant—they were going to find a way to send Erin to school . . . to keep our mother in the home she’d been in since she’d married our father, and frankly, forming the Rule Corporation with my brothers was one of the hardest things I’d ever done in my life. I was still in school . . . and suddenly my future was decided for me. And what made it worse was that I didn’t feel as if I had anybody to discuss it with. My dad was gone, and my brothers, for whatever reason, didn’t want to burden our mom with how bad things were. I’ve never figured that one out . . . she’s a strong woman, but I guess she’s got such a soft touch that you really can’t see beyond it and they felt the need to protect her. Anyway, for that reason, I couldn’t talk to her either and I felt totally alone. Alone and forced to go along with my brothers when I had no fucking clue what we were getting ourselves into.” He took a deep breath and pushed the memories aside. “Of course, it all worked out. We worked our asses off and the thought of our family losing everything isn’t even a consideration anymore. But let me tell you . . . we had some dark days.”

His words came to a standstill. The flush of color on Maria’s face told him that he’d done the right thing by getting her mind off her recent experience.

She licked her lips. “I’m sorry.”

One corner of his mouth lifted in a twisted smile. “Thanks . . . not your fault, though.”

“My dad left my mom and me when I was a little kid,” she said softly.

He hadn’t known that. “That sucks, baby.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “It is what it is. We survived.”

“Where’s your mom now?”

She let out a tiny, wistful smile and he was damn glad to see it. “Fort Lauderdale. She married a real estate adjuster she’d met who was in the area after the storm. I worked part-time here during my senior year of high school, and when I graduated, I was offered a full-time job with a suite, so I moved in and she sold the house and left.”

“So you went to college and worked at the same time?”

“Yes.”

He found his eyebrows coming together. “Do you have hard feelings about your mom leaving the area?”

“No, they wanted me to come with them, but I had big dreams, you know, and I already had this crazy affinity for the hotel that I can’t seem to shake.”

One side of his mouth lifted. “Why is that?”

She lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know. It was my first job . . . and I’ve always loved being here . . . loved the people . . . loved the building.”

“So I guess it came as a shock when the family sold out?”

“Not then, because I already knew that Mrs. Duncan’s heart wasn’t in it. The shock came before that . . . when Mr. Duncan died.”

“I’m sorry about that, baby.”

“Yeah? I don’t suppose it’s really your fault.”

He half-snorted a laugh. “That’s true. I didn’t kill the guy. Never even knew him.”

“He was a good man.”

A moment of silence pulsed before he said, “And if he hadn’t died when he did, you and I wouldn’t have met.”
Why in the hell had he said that?

Her eyes lifted and clashed with his. A strange emotion filled the air as a loud, thunderous silence beat between them. “Come here,” he whispered.

Her eyes widened and she stayed exactly where she was, so he attempted to soothe, “I’m not going to do anything. Want to hold you, that’s all.”

Her eyes appeared troubled, but after a stilted moment, she left her seat and came about halfway to him. When she stopped, he reached out and took her hand with his and then pulled her into his arms.

She shuddered and he lifted her until she was straddling him, her stomach against his chest. Her body was softly trembling, and Garrett lifted a hand and ran it down the honeyed contours of her back. He felt as if a stroke of magic hit his guts when she laid her head on his shoulder.

“I almost came unglued when I saw how freaked you were,” he said into her ear, nuzzling her gently.

She let out a shaky breath. “It was pretty bad.”

“Shhh. . . I know, baby. You’re okay,” he said, his hands running up and down her spine.

“Garrett?”

He heard his name whispered in that sultry tone straight out of his dreams and his cock instantly engorged. Taking a couple of deep breaths to get himself under control, he asked quietly, “Yeah?”

Her head lifted from his shoulder and her eyes tangled with his. “Will you make me forget?”

He felt as if an arrow hit him straight through the heart. “If that’s what you want, sweetheart.”

****

Maria stared into deep brown eyes that were swallowing her whole. She felt a dip in her stomach before her heart quickened its beat. Garrett’s fingers trailed up her back in a spine-tingling wave of heat before landing on her shoulders and taking a moment to caress her there. Leaning in, he kissed her gently on the lips, his mouth remaining closed on hers. “You’re so sweet,” he whispered, his lips moving to her ear as one arm wrapped around her middle, the other wrapping around her face and cupping her cheek.

She closed her eyes and let the amazing scent he exuded slip over her senses. She took a deep breath and tipped her head to the side. Her action worked, his lips slipped down to her neck and he began to trail a line of kisses over her wet skin. She let out a tiny moan, and the second it slipped from her mouth, the arm around her waist tightened a bit.

His lips trailed down between them, coming to her wet cleavage. His hand slid down and she felt her breasts lifted, as his mouth came down to the top swell of her skin. Slow and infinitely gentle, his lips moved back and forth between each breast, before he groaned and lifted his mouth to hers.

When his lips met hers, his fingers found the turgid tips of her nipples and he began stroking her there, just as his tongue slid inside her mouth and began stroking her in that place, too. A thousand lights went off in her head as a river of temptation made her lift her hips and push into his torso.

The arm he held around her midriff pressed her closer. She began panting under the perfection of his kisses, and his hands ran up to her shoulders and slowly, giving her time to deny him, he peeled the shoulder straps of her swimsuit down and off her arms.

Without releasing her from his kiss, he pushed her swimsuit down until her breasts were bare, and then his hands ran up and down her sides, coming closer and closer to her breasts until finally, she was wriggling and pushing against him, begging for his touch there.

He accommodated her with a deep groan, his hands coming between them and lifting her fullness there. She felt her nipples pebble and as his thumbs stroked over them, back and forth, her hips began pushing against him in time with his tweaks. His kiss became ravenous, and she returned it, completely lost in the sensations coursing between them.

“Maria, baby, I’m going to take your suit off now, okay?”

She mewled an affirmative answer; it was all she was capable of. His hands dropped to her sides and as he pushed her swimsuit down and off, she wriggled for him, helping him, wanting only to feel her wet naked skin against his.

He tossed the swimsuit up on the side of the hot tub, and when his hands fell down to her naked hips and he took them in his hands, she moaned as a feeling of intensity shot down her spine. She pressed her hips against his stomach, and one hand left her hip to come around between them, pressing against her mound, cupping it in his hand with a degree of possession that was making her head spin.

His fingers found her clit, and his mouth fell back to hers. As he stroked inside her mouth, her hands fell to his shoulders, his slick, wet fingers performing magic as they danced over her clit. Her hands came to his face, and as they kissed, as she pressed against him, in the recesses of mind, she knew what she was experiencing was pure magic. It was as if they were one, together and the same, and she felt as if he could feel every stroke of wonder and desire that she was feeling. As if reading her mind, he suddenly lifted her up, swiveled her around until she was out of the water, sitting on her butt, only her legs hanging over the edge.

He turned until he was on his knees between her legs, and with his hands running up and down her wet limbs, an emotion came over his features that she couldn’t exactly read. As his hands slid up the inside of her sides and separated her folds, he groaned, “You’re not too cold?”

She shook her head from side to side as his mouth fell to her most intimate flesh. He kissed her there, his tongue and teeth running over her clit, lapping at her, licking her repeatedly until she began whimpering in the back of her throat. “I want you to come for me, Maria. I want you to come on my tongue. I need to taste you.” She mewled again, and in answer, he slipped a large, blunt finger inside. It was like a delicious stroke of fire, and it had her lifting her hips up and searching for more, and then he inserted another finger to join the first. With his tongue and lips on her clit, combined with his fingers in her core, sensation radiated down her spine in a thousand waves of electric heat until with a moan spilling from her lips, she exploded in ecstasy around him.

He gave her a moment to come down, and then he surged from the water and dripping wet, he picked her up and carried her through to the bedroom. He laid her on the bed, and through a wave of satiated euphoria, she was aware that he dropped his board shorts and rolled on a condom that he’d retrieved from his jeans. He came down on the bed on top of her, and pushed between her spread thighs.

“You okay?” he asked, his words grave.

“Yes,” she whispered back, and two seconds after that, he surged inside with a single stroke, holding her in his spell.

He lifted to his elbows and wrapped his hands around her face as he stared down into her eyes. “I don’t ever want to see you upset again.”