Give Me All Of You (8 page)

Feeling her eyes on him, he turned.

Desiree stared confidently back, her eyes bright, her cheeks flushed with satisfaction.

Sh
e reached for him, he caught her hand in mid-air and squeezed in warning. She paled, childish indignation leapt into her brown eyes. Hunter flung her wrist away and swung his legs off the bed.

“Hunter,
it’s just sex.” The whiny pout had returned to her voice, his body shuddered for a completely different reason.

He would laugh
if his situation wasn’t so pathetic, but he felt used, dirty.

He turn
ed, his eyes narrowed. “For someone like you, I don’t doubt that’s all it is. I’m one in a very long line aren’t I?”

She met his gaze unflinchingly, “Yes, but you were by far the best I’
ve had in a long time,” she licked her bottom lip sensuously.

He fumed, and turned away before he did something he’d n
ever done in his life and strike a weaker being.

Desiree
was not the first of her kind that he’d encountered. A woman who craved sex the way drug users pursued their next high. She had been willing to use her knowledge of his real identity to force him between her thighs.

How could he have fallen for her dinner party
cover? At the picnic her face had scratched his memory but he’d dismissed it. He’d seen countless pretty blonds before.

Her phone call had confirmed that
she wasn’t just one of the crowd. She’d slept with Rogan, one of his former business associates and one of the worst womanizers on the planet.

She was a
cultured, well informed whore who got her kicks from screwing powerful men.

He lunged to his feet
, naked and furious in the artificial light of her bedroom. He needed an acid bath.

Desiree scampere
d from the bed. She drew close, her eyes heating up once more, her breathing was hitched.

He
recoiled, clenched his fists. He stared straight ahead unable to trust himself to look at her. “If you break your word and breathe a word of this to Mina, I will destroy you, your family, your friends, everything you hold dear,” his voice was deadly quiet.

She muffled a
high pitched cry of distress, the sheet slid conveniently from between her fingers to the floor, bearing her naked body with jutting breasts to full view.

Eyes fastened
greedily on him, she touched herself, rolling a nipple enticingly between her fingers. Her head fell back onto her shoulders, her mouth opened wide, tongue snaking languorously around her lips.

He grimaced in
horrified distaste, and looked away. She’d begged him to suck and bite her breasts, among other throat gagging instructions, urging him on with words that could only come from the most hardened nymphomaniac.

He’d blocked her out an
d only gave her the rutting she’d begged for. She peeked sideways at him. Noted his look of distaste, dropped the act and without a backward glance, flounced from the room.

Hunter
closed his eyes against another, far more dangerous lie that he’d have to perpetuate. And it was immeasurably worse because as he’d pounded away inside Desiree’s body, her shrill screams of delight ringing in his ears, he’d seen the tiny truth which had managed to evade him for weeks.

He
could easily love Mina Bronswort. Had sensed this even as she’d heaped insults and anger upon his head. None of which had gone quite far enough to hide the small, vulnerable girl beneath.

He
buried his face in his hands. He was sicker than Desiree because he wasn’t about to give up Mina, not when he was so close to winning her.

He hated himself for that.

An upturned root loomed in her path. Mina hiked her dress to her knee and stepped over carefully. A whistle came out of nowhere, she shaded her eyes against the shards of light which arrowed down through the canopy of leaves overhead.

Hunter loomed
in the foreground, tall and commanding.

Her breath went haywire inside
her chest. Why had she never noticed how beautiful he was before? Had she simply been too stubborn to allow herself to accept it?

Her pulse began fluttering frantically
at the base of her throat.

Bare-chested with a dusting of black, curly hairs racing across the breadth of
his wide shoulders, he had long, yet sleekly sculpted arms and legs which fleshed out his formidable physique.

Encased
in only a dead black swimming trunk, he was giving her hot flashes.

The
natural emerald pool behind him winked invitingly.

He grinned
roguishly at her, then turned and dived in.

She became still
. This was a good idea. The pounding inside her heart wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

She was in control of this situation but
… ever since she’d invited Hunter to one of her favorite abandoned spots several days ago, she’d been rushing around in a nervous panic.

Breakfast this mor
ning had been a catastrophe.

Who would’ve thought a bowl of
breakfast cereal could’ve proved so tricky to eat?
Hermile had noticed.

“Are you c
oming down with something?” He asked casually, scooping up a forkful of sunny-side eggs.

Caught
off guard she flinched, dropped the spoon and sent tiny streams of milk splashing onto her dress. With a grimace she’d concentrated fiercely on cleaning up the mess.

Hermile wasn’t
put off. “Is it the flu? Doc Matthews is visiting some relatives in the country, a stop here won’t be an inconvenience.”

“I’m fine, just a little nervous about an upcoming meeting,” she
muttered, then stilled. Darn, keeping her mouth shut was proving harder than she had anticipated.

“What meeting?”

She thought furiously. Hermile would know already if she was meeting with one of their regional managers. Besides wasn’t her voluntarily spending time with Hunter his idea?

“With Hunter.” She met his eyes
sternly, warning him to contain whatever jubilation he felt.

Uncharacteristically Hermile’s face went blank
, and instead of delight, a careful look clouded his emerald eyes. “Be careful Mina.”

She
snorted. “
Now
you tell me to be careful, after I’ve bought into your heartless trade?”

Hermile shifted, his egg
s forgotten, focused on the small breakfast table covered with a pristine white tablecloth. “You don’t have to forgive me, but please believe that I love you more than anything.”

“Then why can’t you say those words to my face. Why do you look so guilty, so trapped?”

He turned and she tried to read his expression but he was a closed door. He had become more like this since his divorce from Josephine.

He
shrugged and picked up his fork, took another bite of eggs. “We both want the same thing Mina, for Bronswort to survive,” he watched her and his eyes were filled with a deep, sad knowledge, “the time will come when you’ll find that your life is bound to Bronswort’s existence no matter what happens.”

Continuing
to the pond, she suppressed a shiver. That was exactly why she was here, so that she wouldn’t become an old, cynical spinster with nothing but a business to brighten her life.

She
needed to feel something other than failure or abandonment.

Fond
memories of childhood afternoons spent splashing in the pond and eating the half-ripe figs made her smile.

She stopped at the circular lip of the pond. A hundred feet across, it was a
natural catchment for the spring rains.

She bent and dipped a hand into the green water.
Hunter shot up inches from her hand, she jerked backwards, lost her balance and landed with a thud on her bottom.

Hunter chuckled sheepishly
, water draining from his face, “Sorry.”

He launched
out of the water and towered over her for a split second before he was on his knees in front of her, his hand outstretched.

She
glared at his proffered hand, his eyes became wary.

She checked the flash of irritation.
She’d forgotten how to have fun. Sucking in a ragged breath she leaned back and smiled widely into his face.

Hunter paused
, then remarkably toppled backwards onto his butt. He hooted with raucous laughter.

Her smile trembled then fell away. Embarrassment washed over her, then
hot fury.

How dare he laugh at her? She was trying to be approachable.

She chewed her lip furiously. Perhaps smiling like a deranged monkey hadn’t been the right response.

She must’ve looked like an idiot. The thought made her giggle, and suddenly her lips stretched naturally and she was dissolving beside Hunter.

She felt foolish and carefree all at once.

She roared beside him. Wiping tears from the corner of her eyes she felt a shift, and then Hunter’s hand was
around her waist.

She wiggled into the pressure, snuggled her face against his wet, hard chest.
A hiccup racked her as she tried to stop laughing. He held her until her laughter died down to silly sniffles.

He
tipped her head back with the gentlest of nudges, making her feel languid with contentment.

T
heir eyes met, his was serious. “I’m glad you made it,” he whispered.

“Me to
o,” she replied, surprised she meant it.

A lump grew heavy in her throat. Did Hunter
want to know her or was he simply bent on possessing her? Maybe she was going too fast.

She turned to look out over the water.
“You look so comfortable out there, have you swam in many ponds before?”

Hunter sat forward, bringing
her with him. He drew her close to his side. She tensed against the feel of his half naked body next to hers.

She waited but no threat came from him, touching
him actually felt safe. She relaxed.

“Quite a
few, actually,” he screwed up his lips and she tried unsuccessfully to ignore the tempting jut of his slightly fuller bottom lip.

Without warning he turned, and his blue eyes were filled with faint brown swirls.

He held her probing look. “This pond would qualify as one of the cleanest and safest I’ve been in so far,” he gave her a devilish smile.

She couldn’t resist
the sparkle in his eyes, “How so?”

“Let’s just say tha
t neither dirty diapers nor constrictors make wholesome companions in the water.”

She suppressed a guffaw
of laughter. “Perhaps you should’ve carried along a fishing pole, you might’ve come across something edible.”

Hunter made a comical look of disgust.
“I highly doubt that,” he laughed, “I’ve long accepted the fact that some snakes aren’t worth the effort.”

“
True hunger isn’t so picky,” she replied primly.

They stared at each other for long moments. Assessing, evaluating.

Hunter’s face sobered. “What are you trying to tell me Mina?”

She
took a deep breath and blurted out. “We’ve grown herbs, fruits, vegetables, that sort of thing in the gardens at the back of our property for over a hundred years. It’s free to the public.

“You and Hermile are close
,” Hunter said.

“Yes,
” her voice died away. She wasn’t ready to broach the complicated and tenuous relationship she and her father shared.

She moved and ran into the intimidating weight of one
powerful arm slung around her shoulder. Why hadn’t she felt him before?

His hold
was casual but there was no mistaking that he meant to keep her close.

She
chewed her bottom lip, she needed a distraction.

“Are you and your family close
?”

He
stilled, alarmed she searched his eyes, they weren’t hostile but neither were they friendly. She fidgeted nervously in his grasp.

Had she offende
d him?
She began to pull away. His arm firmed just enough to warn her to stay put. She relaxed hesitantly, but was a little piqued by his high-handed treatment.

As if in apology, he ducked and
placed a feather-light kiss on the top of her head. She sighed.