Deception (19 page)

She finally managed to wrestle her hair into a pom-pom on top of her head using the rubber band permanently housed at her wrist—thank you, God. For the first time she noticed Julian sitting in a relaxed pose with his arms stretched along either side of the hot tub’s edge. The twinkle in his eyes and the smirk on his lips said he was laughing at her. Was it the attire or her hair? Probably a combination of the two.

“Hi.” Her voice squeaked. The last thing she’d anticipated was finding him in what should be her spot.

He nodded, still smirking.

“I’ll just…” Shit—that chest, those abs. “I’ll just…won’t you give me a ring when you’ve finished?” What was she, in some nineteen sixties version of a romantic tongue-in-cheek comedy?
Ring me when you’ve finished
…she loathed herself.

“There’s plenty of room for both of us.”

Oh, God. That sultry, come-hither voice would be the death of her. Already she could feel her pulse in her ears. If she were to enter a tub full of hot water and a bare, wet-chested Julian, she’d slowly boil until her skin tore loose from her body.

“It’s fine, I’ll just wait for you to finish.”

“Get in the water, Maura.”

Oh no. Commanding, wet, naked, smirking, abs, chest…too many hot attributes to name.

“I don’t have a suit.”

His smirk curved into a full-on sinister smile. “Do you mean to tell me you’re naked under that robe?”

“Not exactly.”

“What then?”

“I’m wearing my nightie.”

“Get in.” His voice rasped.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t already seen every secret part of her. She toed off her shoes and removed the robe, placing it across a bank of chairs next to the tub.

The wind picked up and chilled her to the bone given the scant amount of clothing she wore. Barefoot, she skipped to meet Julian.

“It’s a little cold out here.” He didn’t reply, only scowled. With his tight mouth and furrowed brow, he looked extremely pained, but she couldn’t be bothered with him as she sighed, neck deep, in the water.

“Why didn’t you go to the show?”

She sat up so she wouldn’t drown herself as she spoke. “I don’t know. I’m kind of tired and it seemed like a lot of work to get ready. And this hot tub kept calling my name.”

“What will you wear to bed tonight?”

“What?”

“Your nightgown will be wet. What will you sleep in?”

Hopefully her face was already red from the temperature of the water so that he wouldn’t be aware she was blushing. “It’s not like I’m sharing a room with anyone so…” She cleared her throat, gearing up to change the subject. “I can’t believe the suite has four bedrooms. It’s very pretty. Did you know there’s even rose oil for the bath?”

“You’re a master at changing the subject.”

“I’m trying to ignore the fact that you’re in shorts and I’m in this.” She pinched the wet material between her fingers.

“Who says I’m in shorts?”

“Aren’t you in shorts?”

He shook his head and his eyes remained unblinking as his gaze locked with hers.

“Underwear?”

“No.”

She broke his gaze to look up at the night sky. “It’s beautiful out tonight.”

“Kind of hard to ignore the electricity in the air. By the way, I’m hard as a rock over here.”

“Julian!”

“Come over here.”

What was the use? Trying to ignore him would be like trying to ignore a category five hurricane. Besides, in her quest to bank her passion her body worked against her.

“
Traitorous scheming ho
.” She whispered to her body as she made her way across the large tub.
Screw it
. She went all-in and wrapped her arms and legs around him. Pressing her lips to his she moaned. The evidence of his hardness poked at her backside.

“I’m glad you didn’t go to the show.”

“You could have come with me.” Her fingers found their way into his sandy hair, darker now from the water.

“I don’t want to go to a show.”

“Okay.” Their gazes locked. How could someone’s eyes be so green? “In your childhood pictures your hair is really blonde.”

“Like my mother’s.”

“It darkened.”

“A little. If I get a lot of sun, it’ll get light again.”

She kissed him again, this time exploring his mouth with her tongue. The faint taste of the hot tub chemical water somehow mixed with their own.

He slid the straps of her nightie down, exposing taut breasts. His wet fingers rimmed the hardened tips. He took great delight in driving her crazy as he rubbed so close, but not quite where she needed. Finally his thumb and forefinger squeezed her nipples and she exhaled in satisfaction, causing him to smile.

His lips followed his fingers, closing around her, and then his teeth squeezed, sending big, bold sensation straight down to her sex. She was so charged for him she caressed his erection, using her hips to slide back and forth—the water making each pass easy, but the contact was too light.

A frustrated sigh escaped his lips and it was her turn to smile in triumph.

“Maura.” His voice was strained.

“Julian, I need you.”

His hand slipped beneath the water. He cupped her and then slid in his finger. Deep and fast it massaged inside her, priming her G-spot.

He pulled his finger out and fisted his cock. “Ride me.”

Maura slid the silky material aside and aligned herself with the head of his cock. Using her feet against the bottom of the hot tub pushed against him as he thrust up. Swiftly he filled her, both of them moaning when he was fully sheathed.

They were in sync—his thrusts met with her efforts and their bodies aligned perfectly to bring exacting pleasure right where it was needed.

God she loved him, but she meant what she’d said—she wasn’t going to live unaccepted in his world, constantly anxious she’d mess up. No, his insecurities were a product of his negative experiences.

A few more just-right thrusts had her ready to climax. Was he there? She had that ever-enduring raw desire to please him.

“Julian?”

“Maura, you always feel so damn good.”

“I need to come.”

“Go ahead, baby.” His hand clasped the base of her neck and massaged.

“I don’t want to without you.”

At her words his thrusts increased and she became lost in pleasure. Upon the last pulsing wave through her body, Julian’s climax started. She watched as his face contorted in pleasure. His eyes closed and his forever scowl was replaced with smooth, young and dewy skin. His mouth parted and she felt his heavy breath on her skin. His luxuriant green eyes opened and pierced her to the moment where nothing else existed but the pleasure they gave to one another.

It was the only time he ever let go and she wondered if he did it every time he climaxed or just with her. As his climax waned he bit his lip and his mouth curled into a smirk so hot it shot straight to her nicely-used feminine parts.
Holy hell.
She loved being the one to put that satisfied look on his face. She smiled, hoping to look as sexy as he did.

“What?” Julian asked.

“Nothing.”

“Something happens when we get together.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, but it’s raw. Potent. When we’re together everything else is stripped away.”

“Has this happened to you before?”

“No. You?”

She shook her head.

“The feelings come back too. Sometimes at the worst times. Like when I’m in a conference at work.”

“Oh?”

“Since I’ve met you, I haven’t been as productive. I spend a lot of my minutes—hell, my hours thinking of you.”

Maura placed her palm on his heart. “Your heart beats, mine answers.”

“Devers?”

She shook her head. “Douglas.”

He didn’t move, neither did she—their gazes locked. It was true: the beat of his heart beneath her hand was timed so that hers answered.

***

The next morning they all sat in the suite’s dining room and shared breakfast.

“It’s going to get interesting when you go in to make the withdrawal,” Everett said.

“I’m going to explain that I’m liquidating the account.” Maura thumbed through her notes on the legal pad. “I’m going to have the contents made into cashier’s checks. And this will pay off the four big investors?”

Julian nodded. “Dad and Everett visited the four who stand to lose the most. Turns out, their investment accounts for about ninety percent of the funds.”

“That’s right.” Everett confirmed. They’re prepared to wait for a check from you. The thing is”—Everett leaned forward in his chair—“they are prepared to meet you at the bank.”

“They are?”

“Yes. You’re going to give them their money back in person.”

“What if they’re”—Maura shrugged—“mad at me? I could go to federal prison.”

Julian squeezed her hand, “Trust me, my father has taken care of it. Focus on your task. It’s important that it go exactly as planned.”

“Of course I’ll do it, I’m just scared.”

“You’ll do fine.” Everett relayed. “There is one more thing…Alan is going to receive a call from the bank to let him know you are presently withdrawing all the funds from the account.”

Maura turned as white and as still as a snow-capped mountain. She didn’t blink or seem to be breathing.

“Maura?” Julian rubbed her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m going to go to prison.”

“You’re not, but Alan is.”

“Dad told me Jake Brooks and Albert Bellamy have already contacted the FBI. Everett has even spoken with an agent. They’ve been trying to build a case against Alan for years. All four investors confirmed your lack of involvement. Like I said before, as long as everything goes according to plan, you’ll be cleared.”

“You’re saying that like I’m a criminal right now.”

“What Julian is trying to say is that nobody remotely suspects you. That’s why you haven’t been approached. I related your information and now they just need the money. I’m trying very hard to keep you from having to testify against your ex-husband.”

“Thank you, Everett.”

***

At the bank Maura nervously fidgeted as she sat next to Julian in the office of one Mr. J. Hamilton, Account Representative. That was a banker’s name if there ever was one. He was appropriately stuffy in his suit with Burberry bowtie, and he was surprised by her request.

“Mr. Douglas was very clear that this money be set aside for you to access when needed. I don’t believe he intended for you to withdraw all the funds at once.”

“I’m not withdrawing the funds, I’m redistributing them.”

“Nevertheless, I’d like to give him a call.” Mr. Hamilton suspiciously eyed Julian. Maura knew that upstairs Mr. David was entertaining the four investors in a private room, along with the bank’s president, Mr. A. S. Klamfoth.
Seriously, what was with all the initials in bankers’ names
?

Mr. Klamfoth had said he’d purposely kept Mr. Hamilton in the dark, therefore, Maura knew his course would be to telephone Alan. However, it didn’t make her any more at ease.

“Do whatever you need to do.” Mr. Hamilton exited the room. As they sat waiting Maura knew that upstairs along with the investors there was an FBI agent hoping and waiting to cart Alan off to prison. She too hoped it all worked out, but knew so many things could go wrong. Maura peeled her fingernails from her fingers until they stung. Why was
she
so nervous? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Except for her stupidity in signing the papers she was innocent. “Julian, did you ever for even a moment suspect I was somehow involved in this ponzi scheme?”

“No, I never did believe you were involved. But it doesn’t matter what I believe or even what I think to be the truth. Did you know you can feel truth? Something in the atmosphere snaps and when that happens everything I thought that I knew about you, about us, changes. Everything flips upside down and I’m left standing dumbfounded, preyed upon, and then felled by a piano dropped on my head from five stories above.”

Maura frowned. “What? Julian, what’s wrong with you?” He made no sense whatsoever.

“I was in love with a ballerina, or so I thought. It was perfect. We were cast as Romeo and Juliet. Everything about her was designed to make me want her. The graceful line of her movements, the silky sway of the fabric against her skin, the sweet melodious lines she uttered.”

“You loved her?”

“No, I despised her.” He stood and paced the moderately sized office.
How bloody wonderful!
Maura had tried and tried to pry information from Julian about his past only to be shut out, but he was choosing this venue to bare his soul? Really?”

“I was in love with the role she played as my Juliet.” His hand balled into a fist as he held on to something that no longer existed.

It seemed high-stress situations loosened Julian’s tongue.

“The petty politics of the ballet company had already started getting to me by then, but on that stage, under those lights I really felt we would ride off to meet each other in a world where all the strife no longer existed. He stopped pacing and turned to look into her eyes. “She was a prima ballerina. Do you know what that means?”

“No.”

“The idea of prima donna comes from the designation
prima ballerina.
” He enunciated every syllable like it brought him pain to do so. “Nobody knows or cares about the lead male, but everybody knows who the prima ballerina is. The truth is once I started to garner better and more reviews she insisted she could no longer work with me and my role was recast.”

“Even though you had better reviews?”

“
Prima ballerina.
”

The way he fisted his hands and sinisterly uttered sounds would have frightened her if she didn’t know him.

“Prima ballerina—all taking, never giving.” His face contorted with pain. “But you, Maura—you’re different. You don’t care about yourself. I’ll bet if that shitbag ex-husband of yours needed your liver you’d offer it to him, wouldn’t you?”

“Julian.” So much pain. He’d definitely redirected her anxiety from the task at hand, but now she ached for him. “I try to look for the good in people instead of immediately honing in on the bad. If you go looking for darkness and pain, you’ll surely find it.” Maura looked through the clear glass walls of the banker’s office. The portion of the long and winding lobby she could see was slow, empty almost. It would be easy to see if Alan came through the door. She felt restless and a little like a sitting duck. If it weren’t for Julian’s presence she would have left by now. Despite his certifiable trust issues, she knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.