A Dash of Desire (Spiced Life #2) (15 page)

“How about starting at the beginning? Did you meet in California?”

Riley sat down on the top step, turning his way and leaning her back against the railing. She tilted her chin toward the sky as if unable to look directly at him as she answered. “Actually, no. We met in Nashville. I’d heard of him, of course. Mostly, his name was whispered in awe and horror, but I couldn’t have picked him out of a crowd. Not that you could miss him. Graham has…presence. All he has to do is walk into a room and he commands attention. You hear people refer to him as cutthroat, but I’m not sure anyone truly knows the meaning until facing it.

“Back in those days, I was extremely driven to succeed. I’d just landed Kennedy as a client. I don’t know how much you know about her, but even though she’s an awesome musician, she’s also abrasive as hell. I spent all my free time soothing ruffled feathers. That’s what I was doing when Graham appeared at my side.” Maybe Riley feared Graham, but there was a small slice of her that cared about the man. He could hear it in her voice. Of course, no matter what the years had been like, they had spent them together. He knew from experience, no one was unaffected by the passage of time. A smile hovered on her lips as she turned inside herself, obviously reliving that night in her mind. “I ignored him while flirting outrageously with this older gentleman Kennedy had unintentionally insulted. Graham cut me off mid-speech, by saying, ‘I’ll give you a hundred and fifty thousand dollars and a one year contract if you come work for me.’ I froze. It was the first time in my life I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. I was completely blown away.”

Tristan could just bet. He would’ve been too. “I imagine you were also skeptical.”

A low chuckle left her lips. “That’s putting it mildly.” She wrapped her arms around her knees. “There wasn’t a single hint of emotion on his face. He simply stared at me, expecting an immediate answer. Finally, I asked him what the catch was. I half-expected him to walk away then, but he didn’t as much as blink. He said, be ready to leave by nine o’clock that night. His driver would pick me up. I was to spend two weeks working at his office in California, doing exactly as I was told. After that, I’d be expected to be available whenever he called, and spend at least one week out of every month in California. At his expense, of course. Until that moment, I’d never thought I could be bought. I also never expected anyone to wave my dreams underneath my nose, tempting me to leave my comfort zone.”

“I don’t blame you for accepting. That kind of opportunity doesn’t come along every day. Did he ever intend for you to work for him or was it a way to have you?”

Her hands lifted for a moment before falling to her lap. “It’s hard to say. He has a low tolerance for stupidity and laziness, so I do think he believed me capable of handling the job. On the other hand, he’s successful and a recluse, so he never really needed me.” She shrugged. “As I said, it’s hard to know with him.”

Tristan thought about Emma May calling Riley a kept woman. Once the idea crept in, he couldn’t shake it loose. “Are you still working for him?” He wanted to keep her talking, confessing it all. There was no way he would give her up, but Tristan needed to know what he was facing. Riley shook her head.

“Before the end of our one year contract, he bought a beach house in Orange County for us. Graham moved my things in and I followed. I’m not innocent in this. No matter how badly I’d like to make excuses, I can’t. Before Graham came into my life, I was doing fine on my own. I enjoyed interacting with people. It served me well. When people spoke to me, I was right there willing to chat the night away. I’d never felt as if I’d met a stranger, until I boarded that private jet with Graham, and I met a stranger.”

It was the way she said it. Even though her lips hadn’t shaped the words, he understood what she she’d left out. Tristan knew in his heart Riley was a lot less to blame than she believed. If she held any fault, it was fear. Her captor held her without any visible chains. Graham Whitaker didn’t need them. He’d plucked an unsuspecting woman from the street as surely as if he’d pulled her into a van while she’d been out jogging. Perhaps, Riley’s victimization lacked the flare of a traditional kidnapping, but the damage was the same. Graham’s money and influence seemed almost insurmountable when set next to a small town girl with nowhere to go such as Riley. Tristan also knew he’d never convince Riley to see herself as a victim.

“So what made you leave?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t have a plan,” she admitted. “One day, I woke up, and put my clothes in the car. It was like I was stuck on autopilot. Once the first basket went into the trunk, another followed. The whole time, I kept thinking I could stop at any point. Even as I stood in the rain, trying to change that flat. I knew I could go home and Graham would be none the wiser. As long as I didn’t have a plan, it wasn’t real.”

Her answer sucker punched Tristan. He didn’t know what he’d expected to hear, and he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what he hated about it, but he did. Perhaps, it was the idea that Riley’s answer gave Emma May’s scornful words credence. In a way, Riley had simply been living in tangent, waiting until it was time to go back to Graham.

“Then you appeared,” Riley said, pulling Tristan from his black thoughts. She still wasn’t looking at him. It didn’t matter. He was in her heart. If Tristan knew nothing else, he knew that much. Riley turned her head, meeting his gaze, and stealing his breath. Her eyes shone with such rage. He didn’t know how she contained it. “The moment I saw you, I was so goddamn furious. I’ve never been so fucking angry in my whole life, because you exist. You are everything good about the world. Life had never been as unfair as it was in the instant I realized what I could never have. That I will never get to say I own you.”

For the first time Tristan truly grasped the magnitude of Riley’s pain. He finally understood what he’d seen in her eyes after they’d made love and he’d shown an ounce of regret—he’d made her fears a reality. There was nothing he could say that would undo that moment, but he could make sure it didn’t happen twice.

“Spend the night with me.” Her lips parted, but no sound escaped. Good. He enjoyed her shock. An off-kilter Riley was an unthinking Riley. “I can’t make you stay,” he added, when she didn’t immediately shut him down. “I could beg. Trust me. I really want to beg, but I know I can’t compete with someone like Graham.” She snorted, making him smile.

“It’s obvious you haven’t met him.”

He chose to ignore her statement, since any response he dredged up would—most likely—be a lie.

“Give me tonight.”

“Tristan, I…”

“Just come inside. Think of this as carrying that first basket of clothes to your car. You can turn back at any time, pretending it didn’t happen.”

Riley stood. Tristan held his breath. There was an excruciating moment where he wondered if she’d bolt. Instead, Riley opened the door, letting herself inside. He forced his feet to follow at a slower pace. The last thing Tristan wanted was to spook her.

The sound of the door closing behind them, shutting out the rest of the world, caused something to snap inside Tristan. He followed in Riley’s footsteps as she inspected each room. He was stalking her. It was beyond his control. The nervous twisting of her fingers was the only indication she gave of the tension in the air. At the doorway of his bedroom, she froze. Following the line of her gaze, he realized she was staring at the bed. Good. She already knew where they were headed.

“I know my timing sucks.” He just didn’t care.

At his admission, Riley switched her attention to him. Her eyebrows rose in question. “For what?”

“To make a confession,” he answered as he crowded her space. Snagging her waist, he hauled her into his arms. “I should’ve never let you believe that I could let you go. I’m a man before I’m anything,” he said before capturing her lips. Riley didn’t protest as Tristan maneuvered her toward the bed.

He ate at her mouth, incapable of taking things slow. Every ounce of desire and longing that had been building since she’d come to town, rushed to the surface. He wasn’t going to stop. Even as Riley’s back hit the mattress, and he braced his palms on either side of her head, a sense of rightness fell over him. The warm body pressed beneath him was his salvation. Without Riley, everything he stood for was pointless. There’d be no rest until he owned her.

His jeans loosened. Cool air touched his erection before the heat of Riley’s palm encircled it. He growled. The sound left his lips without his permission. Lost in a haze of lust, Tristan didn’t realize his hand was buried beneath her skirt and he was tugging her panties down, until Riley shifted to accommodate him. The goal of getting inside her became a mindless act. His emotions were in control while his body was on autopilot.

Tristan pulled away long enough to tug his shirt over his head and rip away her panties. He didn’t bother removing any more clothes. Instead, he chose to shove her dress up her waist and dove between her legs. Riley’s pussy was freshly waxed and gleamed with desire. His mouth filled with water in anticipation of her taste. Her nether lips parted under the pressure of his tongue. His scalp stung as Riley buried her fingers in his hair, attempting to pull him closer. Her hips left the bed, moving closer to his mouth.

Finding the tiny bud that brought her so much pleasure, he teased it with the lightest pressure, making her squirm. The harder she fought to force him to give her what she wanted, the lighter his touch became until he was barely flicking his tongue over her clit. Her nails scored his back.

“Please Tristan? I’m always aching for you.”

At Riley’s confession, he took mercy on her, becoming relentless in his ministrations. She pumped her hips against his face, attempting to get off on the friction even as he sucked hard on her clit, drawing it between his teeth. Dipping lower, he dove his tongue inside her channel. Her feminine salt coated his taste buds, making Tristan’s stomach growl. He’d been starving for Riley for too long.

Her muscles tensed. Tristan gripped her ass, holding her in place as he drove forward impaling her with his tongue before quickly moving back to her clit. With one stroke, a scream tore from Riley’s throat. Her muscles jerked. Tristan didn’t let up until the final aftershock had long passed. He’d made the mistake of giving her time to come down from her high the night before. There was no way he’d make the same misstep twice.

With Riley’s knees still hooked over his shoulders, Tristan crawled higher until his cock brushed her entrance. Palming his dick, Tristan rubbed the tip through her juices, wetting his crown before using it to tease her clit. She moaned. Her hooded gaze held his. A flush covered her skin, making Riley’s eyes shine even brighter. Her lips were swollen from his biting kisses. It was an expression he craved—could become addicted to having. Perhaps, he already was.

The desperate need for her to know who claimed her body was the only thing that drove him to go slow as he slid inside her channel. When he was fully seated, and barely hanging onto control, Tristan finally allowed her legs to slip down his arms. He wanted to be free to hold her.

Moving in close, Tristan brushed Riley’s hair away from her face as he rocked against her. The slight hitch in her breathing said more than the loudest cries of pleasure. Thoughts and emotion jumbled inside his brain, fighting for control. He wanted to tell her that she was beautiful, and how her lips tempted him to fuck her mouth. Her tight pussy squeezed, milking his cock. Tristan wanted it to go on forever. He thought to tell her all of those things, but the pleasure was too much. Not to mention, none of those things were powerful enough to express the way he’d felt from the instant he’d pulled in behind her car and stood with her in the rain.

Pressure built in his shaft. His balls drew up tight. Lowering his head, he heard the confession fall from his lips as he captured her mouth.

“I’m completely and hopelessly in love with you.”

***

There was no way in hell Riley was going to be able to sleep. Her nerves were too far gone. Life was so fucking unfair. Tristan loved her. Where did she go with that? Why did she have to find the man she’d always dreamed of having when she couldn’t keep him? But she’d called it. She’d told Tristan that she knew exactly how karma intended to get her, and she’d been right. Tomorrow at two, she’d be the sacrificial lamb once more, and she do it with a damn smile on her face as long as Tristan could continue doing what he loved—reputation intact.

Since she’d given up the idea of sleeping, Riley stared at the pictures sitting on his dresser. They were all of him and Harmony. Wedding photos and vacation photos. They looked happy. It took her a few minutes to figure out what was missing. Once she did, it took several more minutes to figure out why she’d never asked about it before. If she was being honest with herself, she knew the answer. She hadn’t wanted to dig into his past, opening the door for him to do the same. Now her door had been kicked wide open and she wanted to know more about this man. After tonight, she’d never get to speak to him and those unanswered questions were going to eat her alive.

Tristan was breathing steadily but she didn’t think he was sleeping, more resting his eyes than anything. Occasionally, his fingertips brushed down her arm, letting her know he still hadn’t departed to dreamland.

She rolled toward him, using his chest as a pillow and he welcomed her with open arms. She waited until he was snuggling against her before she struck.

“Where are your parents? I mean I’ve met your grandmother, but there’re no pictures here other than your time with Harmony. Do you not have a family?”