Maximum Risk (13 page)

He lowered his voice to a near whisper, looked deeply into her eyes, and began to tell her in graphic detail everything he would do to her, every place he wanted to taste, every way he would bring her to orgasm.

He stopped only when the pilot announced they should prepare for landing. Tara’s mouth was slightly agape, her cheeks were a delicious pink, and her eyes were dilated and excited. They were off the plane, seated in the back of a hired car, still holding hands, when she finally spoke again.

“I need to buy some Jell-O.”

Max pulled her into his arms. He was both painfully aroused and thoroughly amused. He had no idea what to call the way she made him feel or if such a feeling had any chance of lasting, but he knew he didn’t want it to end. “I’ll buy the rope.”

The realization that Max had brought her back to the island where they’d first met was more than a little romantic to Tara. She didn’t know what it meant exactly, but it had to mean something.

They were on each other as soon as they were inside the main foyer of the home he’d been considering purchasing the last time they’d both been there. Neither of them spent time admiring the imported marble or the workmanship that was evident in every corner of the home.

Max tore at Tara’s clothing with an urgency that had her panting with excitement. Their mouths met feverishly. Nothing mattered except removing the barriers between them. Tara pulled his shirt free of his pants and ran her hands up his back.

She unbuckled his belt and undid the top of his pants while their tongues played a delicious, hot dance. When her hand closed around his freed pulsing cock, her gasp of pleasure mixed with their kiss. His size was something Tara would never take for granted. She was wet from just the memory of how deeply he filled her.

She ran her hand up and down his shaft, loving how he shuddered with pleasure as she did. He broke off their kiss and pushed down the bodice of her dress. He took one breast into his hot mouth. His teeth closed gently over her nipple while his tongue darted with skill back and forth until there was pleasure as well as an ache sweeping through Tara. Their passion was rushed and urgent, but his movements were not. He adored her breast until Tara thought she could come from that one caress alone. She was trembling with need. When she thought she could take no more, he moved to the other breast and started all over.

Tara was whimpering and pumping her hand on his cock, hoping she was bringing him even half the pleasure he was bringing her.

Max slid a hand up one of her thighs, across her stomach, then down into her panties. “You’re so wet already, baby.” He dipped a finger between her lower lips and caressed her gently. “I can’t get enough of you.”

Tara knew exactly how he felt. His touch left her hungrier for him each time. She dropped to her knees before him and took him deeply into her mouth. He dug his hands into her hair and murmured his encouragement.

With a confidence that came from her level of excitement as well as the knowledge that her pleasure was equally important to him, she adjusted his pants lower and lovingly caressed his balls while pumping her mouth up and down on him.

He looked down at her and the desire in his eyes had Tara quivering with need. She loved the sound of his ragged breathing. His moans drove her to experiment with her tongue and hands until she had him wild with passion, and his hands gripped her hair painfully. His loss of control was a turn-on like no other. She brought him to the brink, then pulled back and simply circled his tip with her tongue.

He made an animalistic wail and pulled her to her feet. When his hand went beneath her dress this time it was far from gentle. He tore her panties off in one strong move then pulled back as he sheathed himself in a condom. In a heartbeat he was lifting her and turning to position her back against the wall. He thrust his tongue past her parted lips at the same time his cock filled her. Tara couldn’t get enough of him. His taste. His cock. She opened herself to him, ground herself down onto him.

He took her roughly against the wall, and Tara cried out his name again and again as she came. He didn’t join her first climax. Instead he slowed his thrusts and held a near sobbing Tara as she floated back to earth.

He waited until she opened her eyes and looked up at him, and then he began to pump in and out of her again, slowly at first and then with an urgency that sent Tara spiraling toward another mind-blowing orgasm.

In the aftermath of their climax, he shed his clothing and gently undressed her. “Let’s go to bed,” he said, lifting her and starting up the stairs toward the bedroom.

Naked in his arms, Tara ran her hand up his bare chest and pulled his face down to hers. They made it only halfway up the stairs before Max groaned and lowered her to her feet. He backed her up against the wide railing, his cock already hard again.

Tara held onto the railing behind her as he lifted one of her legs and placed it on a higher step, opening her legs wide for him. He kissed her from her neck to her ankles and then back up, only to start all over. His tongue followed the hot path his lips had traveled, and Tara gave herself over to his expertise.

It took them several attempts to make it to the bedroom. When they finally did, they collapsed, laughing in each other’s arms, onto the bed. Words weren’t necessary. They held each other, enjoying the afterglow of their lovemaking. Tara fought against the feeling that she was exactly where she belonged. She snuggled closer to him and drifted off to sleep.

When Tara woke, Max was watching her, his head propped up on one elbow. “I wasn’t sure we’d ever make it here.”

Tara laughed softly. “I’ll never look at those stairs the same way. Still, it’s nice this place also has a bed.”

He leaned down and kissed her softly. “We were lucky the previous owners left furniture. I wasn’t sure what we’d find when I called to have the place readied for us.”

“What does that mean—readied for us?” Tara asked, rolling up onto her elbow and mirroring his semi-reclined position. She was still buck naked. With anyone else she would have been reaching for a sheet to cover up, but not with Max. He had a way of looking her over slowly, appreciating every inch of her, then meeting her eyes with a blatant desire that was its own seductive caress.

He tenderly ran one of his hands through her hair, then down her bare back, coming to rest possessively on the curve of her ass. “Fresh sheets mostly. I also had the fridge stocked with some food basics. We can have whatever else we want delivered tomorrow. There wasn’t much time to prepare.”

Tara stroked his chest, loving the strength of him even in a relaxed state. “It’s sad to think you’re knocking this house down. It’s a beautiful place.”

He caressed her back absently. “I haven’t decided what I’m doing with it yet.”

Tara’s eyebrows flew up in surprise. “I thought you bought it and the homes around it because you wanted to demolish it and build a resort.”

“I did.”

“Did you change your mind and only buy this one?”

“No, I purchased the original three and one additional one to the north.”

“You bought four homes?” Tara couldn’t help making a mental leap from four homes to four brothers and the stories Maddy had told her of how, as children, they had all visited an island off the coast of Italy.

“Yes.”

“And now you don’t know if you want to tear them down.”

He nodded. “That sums it up.”

“What would you do with them if you kept them?”

He rolled onto his back and pulled her to his side. “I don’t know. That’s why I brought you here. I don’t understand what’s stopping me from moving forward on the project. I’ve demolished older, grander homes. I don’t even own a house of my own; I’ve never needed one. I definitely don’t need four of them. You’re not invested in this project one way or the other, so tell me what’s here that has me stalling a project I’ve poured considerable money into.”

Tara traced Max’s collarbone as she chose her next words. “Have you considered that this place may remind you of a place you might miss?” When Max looked at her blankly, Tara continued, “Maddy told me you and your brothers used to spend time on Isola Santos with her family. She said it was a happy time for all of you.”

Max’s jaw clenched. “We have different memories of those summers.”

Tara put a hand lightly on one side of his face and moved so she was looking down into his eyes. “So tell me your version.”

He looked away. “I don’t talk about my childhood.”

Very gently, Tara turned his face back toward hers. “Maybe you should. Denying something doesn’t make it go away. Sometimes the best way to take the power away from a memory is to talk about it.”

At first Tara thought he wouldn’t, his eyes remained guarded and held that sad, angry look she was beginning to attribute to his family. When he started talking, his tone was as impersonal, as if he were telling someone else’s story. “My father owned Isola Santos. The island has been in the Andrade family for many generations. It has always been passed down from oldest son to oldest son. My father said it was in his name, but belonged to every Andrade. I used to believe it, but that was a lie—one of many my father told us.”

Tara held her silence, fearing if she said a word she would jolt Max back to the present, and he would close the past off from both himself and her.

“We were raised with the knowledge that Uncle Victor and Uncle Alessandro had never wanted our father to marry our mother. Our mother told us they would never consider any of us good enough for them. Whatever they felt for us paled in comparison to the disgust Mother felt for that whole side of the family. Still, Father insisted we spend summers with his family on the island.”

Tara’s heart broke for him. “That couldn’t have been easy.”

Max pressed his lips together in a tense line, then continued in an unemotional tone. “It was a joke. We’d visit, pretend to be one close family, then not speak the rest of the year. Things changed temporarily when my father passed away. I was still in my teens. My uncles insisted we all go to the island for a summer. Of course Mother didn’t join us. I can’t explain what was different, but that summer all the walls were down. It felt so real I began to doubt everything my mother had ever said about my uncles. I remember being happy and feeling guilty about it. I shouldn’t have wasted time worrying; it didn’t last anyway. My uncles did something that enraged Gio and my mother, and all hell broke loose. Once again I was supposed to hate my cousins, like it was a switch I could flip on and off. Gio swore Uncle Victor swindled him out of his inheritance by taking the island and selling it to Dominic Corisi. Back then my cousin, Stephan, considered Dominic an enemy, but now I see Dominic at all of Stephan’s family functions so apparently that wasn’t true either. The island is back in the family. I don’t care how or why. Like some afternoon soap opera, Gio recently disclosed my father had a whole other family in Venice we knew nothing about. Seems we have a half-sister who hates us. Which is not a surprise—the hating part, anyway. Still, her existence was a surprise. I knew my parents didn’t have a loving relationship, but I never thought Father could betray all of us that way. To top it off, we’re all supposed to love our uncles again because Gio says they never wronged him or any of us. In my family, there is no absolute truth. There are layers and layers of lies. Gio tries to hide them. Nick drank because of them. Luke denies them.”

Tara’s vision blurred as her eyes filled with tears. “And you separate yourself from them.”

“Yes.”

Not knowing what else to do, Tara wrapped her arms around Max and hugged him with all her might. “I wish I knew what to say.”

“There is nothing to say. Nothing can fix what’s wrong with my family. Do you know what my mother said to me the last time I saw her? I had come home because Luke wanted us all to celebrate Nick doing well at Cogent. I stopped by to visit with my mother, and she was in rare form. She said feeling her own mortality was freeing in a sense. She was tired of hiding how she was sickened by my face and the sound of my voice. She said the biggest favor I could do for her was to never visit her again. I always knew she felt differently about me than she did the others, but I never thought she’d admit it.”

Tears fell freely down Tara’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Max. I don’t understand how any mother could say that to her son.”

Max tightened his arms around Tara and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Don’t cry for me. I don’t feel anything for her anymore. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve lost the ability to feel anything for anyone.”

Tara laid her head on Max’s chest. The rapid beat of his heart betrayed his words. He wasn’t nearly as emotionless as he tried to convince himself he was. As she lay there a slow panic began to build within her. Lies had driven him from his family. She couldn’t keep the truth from him anymore. How would he react to the news she wasn’t who she’d told everyone she was?

Denying the existence of a problem never made it go away. She’d seen that a hundred times over in her job. The truth was always best revealed and dealt with. She took a deep breath, sat up, and said, “Max, there’s something I need to tell you.”

He moved back in the bed so he was sitting up against the headboard of it. “You’re married.”

She smiled without humor. “No, that would be simple. Will you promise to hear the whole story before you react to it?”

“Worse than being married. Now I’m intrigued.”

Tara wrapped a sheet around herself, gathering her courage as she gathered the material. “I didn’t know you and I would . . . well, that we’d do whatever it is we’re doing. I’m a private investigator and Maddy hired me to find out what was stopping you from attending Gio’s wedding. She thinks there is one big family secret that keeps tearing you all apart. She wanted me to uncover it.”

“So, you’re not actually Maddy’s friend.” The man who had opened himself to her moments ago was gone. Max’s eyes were cold and guarded.

“I wasn’t. I am now, sort of.” Tara leaned forward earnestly. “It’s complicated.”

“You never went to school with her. She’s not trying to cheer you up after a breakup. That was all lies.”

“Yes,” Tara said. There was so much she wanted to say, but the words jumbled in her head, and she didn’t know where to start.

Max shook his head in cold amusement. “Of course.”

“After what you said about your family, I didn’t want this to be between us. I thought you should know I was working for Maddy when I first met you. I’m not now. I gave her back the money. I couldn’t help her.”

He nodded slowly as he processed what she’d said. “Come here.”

Tara hesitated. “You’re not upset?”

His dark eyes held no emotion at all when he answered, “Why would I be? You’re nothing to me.”

His words cut Tara so deeply she reacted without thinking. She slapped him full across the face. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward so she fell across his lap. Despite how angry he looked, he was excited by the exchange. Tara had to admit she was, too. She told herself she shouldn’t be, but she felt herself getting wet, and her anger fueled her desire. The sheet had fallen away, and his dick came to glorious life between Tara’s bare breasts. She wanted to rub herself against it, but instead used her free arm to lift herself away from him. This wasn’t right. “I told you the truth because I care about you.”