Undone, Volume 1 (14 page)

“I don’t know about
that.”

“I do.” Caressing
her cheek, I tilted her head up a bit. “You know what we’re
standing underneath?”

“Yes.” Damn if she
didn’t flush, a tantalizing light pink stealing into her cheeks.
She made this all look so real, so natural. I bet Lola was having a
cow in joy over her performance.

“May I kiss you?”

She looked up at me,
sparkling, almost as if she were enjoying the display, as if we were
having a laugh together, just the two of us. “Yes.”

It was just a kiss,
chaste and quick, staged and recorded in the middle of a party with
all of my relatives. But the warmth of her lips, her yielding
softness, the slight, suggestive curve of her lower back, Anika
mesmerized me. I was the practiced one, the one used to rehearsing
and executing staged moves. But she was the one who kept her head
about her and broke off our kiss, leaning briefly against my
shoulder, almost as if she needed a second to recover herself.

“You’re here!” my
sister, Gigi, declared with glee as she approached us. She looked
like a vision with small white flowers wound into her hair and a
long, pale blue sheath dress. Thank God she always dressed like a
virginal bride, at least when I saw her. I didn’t think I could
handle the sight of my baby sister slutting it up.

“Gigi.” I gave her
a hug, wishing for a moment I saw her more often. I always enjoyed it
when I did. But I was off in my world and she was in hers, pursuing
her college degree, being the good daughter. It would be nothing
short of contamination to mix her up with the kinds of people I spent
every day all day with. Only Ana wasn’t one of them.

“I’d like to
introduce you to Anika.” The two of them began chatting, each
lighting up with an instant liking of the other.

“Asher.” An older
British cousin, second twice removed or something like that, came
over to me, all jowls and disapproval. I forgot his name, but I
certainly remembered his annual habit of taking me aside at the
family party to warn me about living up to the family name. He’d
descended from a duke, he liked to remind me, and used the word
indubitably quite frequently as he gave me the pep talk about family
obligation. No one was less impressed with my stardom than my family.
The Brits, especially, seemed to find it damned inconvenient.

“I’m stealing her
for a minute,” Gigi announced, thrilled with her new friend. Just
as I was about to use Ana as an excuse to break away. “She has to
come meet Kara. She’s adorable.”

Who was Kara? Oh,
right, the new rancher guy’s wife. My sister-in-law. I let the
jowls do the talking for a few more minutes while I made my way
through a fresh drink, then excused myself to go find Lola. Her
visitor’s visa had expired. I didn’t want her hovering around all
night.

But I found Ana first.
That smile. She tossed her head back in genuine laughter, Gigi
actually holding onto her arm with affection as they stood with a
blonde woman I guessed was Kara. My new sister-in-law.

“Where did you find
her?” Colton Kavanaugh, resident killjoy, asked dryly. At. The.
Helm.

“Hey, Colt.”
Instantly, my voice sounded sulky. How did he do that to me so
quickly? It didn’t matter how many stages I’d been on in front of
how many tens of thousands of screaming fans, my older brother still
made me feel like an idiot.

“She’s not your
usual type.”

“What’s my usual
type?”

Colton gave an
infuriating arch of his eyebrow, superior and righteous, as if he
didn’t need to explain anything further. And he didn’t. I knew
exactly what he meant and he was right. I hated Colt.

“Who did you bring
tonight?” I asked. Colton preferred the well-bred daughters of
CEOs, the types who rode horses and ate their inferiors for
breakfast.

“Flying solo.”

Yeah, he did that a
lot, too. The man was an island.

“Asher, about all
this bad press with that girl. It’s a bad time for you to be—”

“Hey, Colt, I’d
love to stay and talk about what a fuck up I am, but…” At exactly
the right moment, Ana turned and met my eye. She looked so damn happy
to see me, so thrilled. She had to be faking it, I knew that. She’d
basically tried to run right out of my hotel room last night. I’d
only shoe-horned her into agreeing to spending a month with me by
pulling out my checkbook, and not even for her, for her freaking
library branch. But it had worked, and she was mine now, for the
whole month. No time like the present to kick things off.

“Later.” I left
Colt behind and traded up, way up, wrapping my arm around Anika’s
waist. “I have to steal her back,” I explained to Gigi, who
actually looked pleased with my possessiveness. I had some unfinished
business with Ana. And it wasn’t going to happen under the
mistletoe.

“Your sisters are
fantastic.”

“Sisters?” I wound
us through the crowd, expert at making my way through a throng while
not making eye contact.

“Gigi and Kara.
They’re so fun.”

Sisters. I was going to
have to get used to that, plural. Not that it was ultimately going to
have that much impact on my life. I only saw my family a few times a
year, and even that probably wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for
Gram’s insistence.

There it was, our
escape hatch, the side entrance not even the catering staff used.
Even before I’d become famous, I’d always kept my eye open for
the back door, the way out. Slipping away had long been one of my
favorite pastimes. And this time, I got to do it with delicious Ana.

“What’s this?”
she asked as I pulled her into an empty corridor.

“Shh.” I pressed a
finger to her full, inviting lips. “It’s a secret passageway.
Don’t tell a soul.”

She smiled. “You’re
so mysterious, Ash.”

“I know all the best
secrets.”

“I bet you do.”

My mouth down on hers
in an instant, I pressed her against the wall. That bare shoulder,
her long slender arm, I trailed my hand along it until I reached her
wrist. Then I brought it up over her head and pinned it above her.

I devoured her neck, so
soft, so delicious. The way she moaned as I sucked on her, her
eyelids fluttering closed.

“You know what I keep
thinking about, Anika?” Her free hand roamed my chest, pressing
into my muscles as if she’d been wanting to do it since the second
she saw me. Up at her ear, I captured her lobe between my teeth, then
licked as she shuddered. “I keep thinking about the sounds you made
last night.”

I liked the feel of her
touching my chest, exploring, clearly liking what she discovered. But
I’d like the feel of her trapped beneath me more. In a swift
motion, I captured her other wrist and brought it up above her head,
then pinned them both beneath my hand. Her eyes flew open, looking up
at me as I pinned her beneath me.

Teasing, I traced a
finger down her upstretched arms, down to her shoulders, down along
her side.

“Ash, we’re not
supposed to—”

“What?” I loved how
breathy she sounded, how agitated. And I’d only just begun.

“The contract we both
signed.”

“No sex, yes, that’s
right.” One shoulder on, one shoulder off, I liked this dress. I
brought my mouth to her exposed collarbone, licking her skin,
whispering my way down to the top of her dress. With my fingers I
traced the edge along the top of her breast, drawing her attention to
the barrier, the border that kept her covered. “But that contract?
It said nothing about this.”

In one motion, I pulled
the side of her dress down, her strapless bra along with it, exposing
her creamy, full breast. She gasped as I did it, then gasped again as
I groaned and dropped my mouth to her. So soft, so lush, I licked and
kissed my way along her mound, sucking and stroking, still keeping
her wrists fastened above her. Her eyes closed, she dropped her head
back against the wall, arching her back and offering her breast up to
me. Yes, I liked her like that, surrendering into the pleasure, to
me.

“Ah, Anika.” I drew
back, keeping my fingers on her, circling around her nipple but not
touching. Aching, pointed and dark pink, it testified to her arousal,
her growing need. “You’re so responsive.” Watching her as I did
it, her wrists trapped under my large hand, her eyes already closed
in desire, I brought my fingers to her peaked nipple. And I pinched.

Her mouth opened more
and she moaned, one of the deep, throaty moans she’d made last
night. The sound I’d kept playing for myself all day, hearing it in
the shower while I stroked my long, thick cock until I came. Down
again with my mouth, I took her sensitive tip into my heat and
sucked, then licked, then bit. She shivered, starting to pant.

“Ash,” she moaned.
I liked hearing her say my name like that. I planned to hear it a lot
more during the next month. “We could get caught.”

“Yes, this is really
dangerous.” I swept my hand along her side, down to the high slit
of her dress. No nylons, nothing but creamy, soft skin as I slipped
my hand along her inner thigh. “We could get caught any second.”
Her breath hitched in her throat as I worked my way up, feather-soft,
up her thigh until I brushed against her sex.

Slowly, I drew a finger
across her panties. Wet and hot to the touch, my Ana, so ready for
me, so eager. I growled deep in my throat. Pushing the strip of silk
to the side, my fingers found her slick sex. She gasped as I did it,
twisting under my grasp.

“You’d better keep
quiet, Anika.” I slid my fingers along her pussy, working her,
coaxing, circling at her swollen clit. “You don’t want to get
caught.”

“Ash,” she moaned
again, this time more throaty, more urgent.

“Have you thought
about how I did this to you last night?” Inside of her, I drew a
finger up, deep. So hot and tight, so dripping wet for me. I couldn’t
wait to do more, bring my tongue down to her, feast on her. She’d
taste so good, I knew she would. And what would it feel like to
plunge my hard cock deep into that soft, soaking heat? To take her
completely, her legs wrapped around me as I thrust into her all the
way to the hilt?

She started moving now,
tilting her pussy slightly toward me, pressing into my touch, needy.
“You like how I touch you, don’t you?”

“Oh!” She turned
her head to the side, flushed, shocked at my dirty talk, at the
responses I drew from her.

I hissed as I felt her
slick heat. “I can’t wait to taste you. But right now, I want you
to come on my fingers.” She moaned as I stroked her, deep and
intimate. “Are you going to come on my fingers, Anika? The way you
did last night?” Faster, harder, I fucked her with two fingers,
sensing that was what she wanted. She needed me to pin her down and
make her come for me, hard, right there, in the hallway up against
the wall.

“Do you want to come
for me?” Up inside of her, hard, two fingers, I thrust in her pussy
while pressing on her clit. She was so sensitive, so wet, so
desperate, the sounds she made as I stoked her desire.

“I’m…we…”

“No, we shouldn’t
be doing this.” I watched her as I spoke, her eyes closed, lips
parted, breath coming in harsh pants. I’d never seen anything more
beautiful. “And you shouldn’t come on my fingers. But you’re
going to, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she cried
out, her nipple so hard and aching for my touch, but I wouldn’t
free her to do it, not yet. I’d keep her trapped, one hand on her
wrists, the other on her pussy and enough distance between us I could
watch every second of her gorgeous face when she surrendered into her
orgasm.

“Come for me, Anika.”
Plunging two fingers deep up inside of her, I could feel her
shuddering, her quivering build and then break under my command,
swelling up and cresting over her as I pressed into her clit.

“Oh! Ash!” she
called out as she came, obeying my order, coming hard and full on my
fingers, her juices dripping down my hand.

“That’s it,” I
praised her and she shuddered again. I brought my mouth down to hers,
drinking in her cries as the waves hit, the intense pleasure wracking
her body as I continued to stroke, drawing every last ounce of it out
of her that I could. With Anika, I was a greedy man.

“So good.” I kissed
her throat, letting her hands drift down, dreamy, to my shoulders.

“Oh, Ash, I can’t
believe…” She couldn’t really speak, couldn’t manage to
string together a coherent sentence. Exactly how I wanted to keep her
every second of every day for the next month.

“There you two are!”
Lola burst through the door. My body shielding Ana’s, I let her
dress fall back down and quickly tugged the top back up. “Save it
for the cameras, kids. Don’t waste it on an empty hallway.”

“What are you still
doing here?” I didn’t like how guilty Ana suddenly looked, upset
and even a little scared about getting caught. She had to know, she
was with me now. I didn’t have to follow the rules, and neither did
she. She was with a rock star now, baby. It was playtime any time we
wanted.

“It’s family photo
time!” Lola sang out. “You two have got to get front and center!
Chop chop!”

Groaning, I drew a hand
through my hair and adjusted myself. Ana had come but the raging
erection tenting my pants still strained for release. Ana smoothed
her dress, tugging and pulling.

“You look perfect,”
I assured her, and I wasn’t just saying it. The slightly tousled
look to her hair, the pink flush to her skin, nothing like an intense
orgasm to take her glow and turn it up an impossible additional
notch.

“Come!” Lola
beckoned us at the door.

I couldn’t resist. As
I pressed a hand to Ana’s lower back, guiding her toward the door,
I leaned down and murmured in her ear, “You already did.”

She blushed
appropriately. And, happily, even with our schoolmarm hustling us
away, she still looked pretty pleased. As well she should.