Lush (10 page)

“Well Julia, tonight
we’ve both learned lots of things that we never knew, but it
doesn’t really matter now.”

“Actually it does.” She
took a few deep and soothing breathes as the anxiety knotting her
gut dissolved. The old hurts dimmed to mere memories, and
everything changed. There was a real chance that they could finally
have everything they’d dreamed of all those years ago. Live the
life they’d both fantasised about. All they needed to keep working
on was trust and communication. The rest was easy. “You know what I
just realised?”

He clenched his jaw and
looked away. “That I’m an idiot.”

“No. I realised that a
few minutes back. What I just now realised is that your sister was
right. I don’t really know you half as well as I think I do.”

He chuckled
half-heartedly. “Yeah, back at ya.” Then he smiled sadly. “I owe
you an apology, Jules. I destroyed your trust in me that night on
my parents’ roof and I didn’t even realise it. I thought I was
being so fucking honourable.”

“Apology accepted,
Mike.”

“Thank you. That means
a lot.” But the look in his soulful eyes was raw sorrow.

“Why still so sad,
Winthrop?”

He shrugged but there
was nothing light about it. He looked like he was carrying the
weight of the world on his shoulders. “Because I can’t turn back
time, Kincaid. If I could I would never have hurt you.”

Even though she wanted
to wrap her arms around him and kiss away all his sadness it was
clear that they had to break down the wall of tension that their
mutual confessions had forged. Since nothing could put cracks in
walls faster than humour she chuckled and gave his bicep a light
punch. “You’re actually super-sensitive underneath that muscled
exterior of yours. It’s so damn adorable.”

He rubbed his arm and
laughed softly. “Right now I can’t tell if that’s the nicest thing
you’ve ever said to me, or an insult.”

She smirked and leaned
into his space. “It’s whatever it needs to be to get you to kiss
me.” Because nothing got rid of crumbling walls faster than a
kiss.

“An insult then.” With
that he pulled her into his arms and kissed her in a way that made
her toes curl. It was hard and deep and full of pent-up frustration
and hunger. And then it was soft and sweet and full of yearning and
tenderness. It was the most poignant kiss ever shared between two
people, and it was beautiful.

When she finally came
up for air, and they both sucked in mouthfuls of the stuff, every
last trace of tension had withered away.

“Wow, Mike. I should
insult you more often. Let’s do that again.” She caught handfuls of
his jacket and drew him closer for round two, but he had other
plans.

Pulling her onto his
lap so she was straddled across him he grinned wickedly and said,
“Sure, but you might want to hold on tighter.”

Running her fingers
through his hair and mussing it up nice and good, like she’d
secretly always wanted to, she grinned right back. “If you want me
to hold on tighter you’re gonna have to show me some passion.”

“Sassy brat.” He
wrapped his powerful arms around her and pressed the impressively
obvious evidence of his arousal into the juncture of her thighs.
“How’s that for passion?” Before she could respond he captured her
mouth and showed her more passion than she’d ever dreamed of.

The way he pulled her
tongue into his mouth, the way he suckled and nibbled at her lips,
the way he moaned against her, right through her... It was.... The
words to explain just how passionate it was did not exist yet.

When they resurfaced
neither of them could speak, they simply held on tight and stared
into each other’s eyes.

“We gonna go all the
way this time?” she asked once she could finally form coherent
words.

In response he smirked
like a total scoundrel and kissed her again.

This time it was all
give and take. Their tongues duelling as they explored each other’s
mouths. Their breaths mingling as they found a perfect rhythm.
Their hands roaming as they learned to multitask. It was only after
he broke the latest kiss that she realised he’d removed both their
jackets and was unclipping her bra under her t-shirt.

“Is that a yes then?”
she asked, grinding against him in a way that hit all the right
notes with her girly bits.

“Yes, Jules, it’s a
hell yes.” he tugged up her t-shirt and sent it sailing across the
room with her bra, and before she knew it he was reclining her
against the bar counter and trailing hot, decadent kisses down her
jaw, to the column of her throat, to the well between her breasts,
and finally clamping onto a rigid nipple. He suckled and laved the
nub for what felt like a heavenly eternity as his magnificent
fingers teased its twin.

Somehow, even though
her body and mind were completely engrossed in the sensations he
was creating, she managed to unbutton his jeans and work his fly
down.

“Ah yes, sweetheart,
just like that,” he murmured as she got her hand into his boxer
briefs and squeezed then stroked the prominent girth of him.

“Mike,” she moaned as
his hands cupped her denim-clad bottom and kneaded it in a way that
turned it into an erogenous zone. “I need you right now. Help me
get my jeans off. We can worry about the foreplay later.”

He shook his head
against her neck. “I want us both completely naked and on a bed for
our first time.”

“Works for me.” She
wiggled out of his arms and started making for her bedroom but he
caught her from behind and swung her around. With an impressive
show of strength he pulled her up and against him, then leisurely
sauntered to her bedroom even as she wrapped her legs around him
and tried to ride him through their clothes.

God, she was behaving
like a rutting savage, but he brought it out in her. Everything
about him demanded it. His scent especially. Nothing on earth
smelled as amazing as Mike. She wanted to dive into that scent and
never come up. She wanted to envelope that fragrance and take it
onto her body and never let go.

As he laid her down on
her bed and covered her with his body she almost came undone just
from the intensity of her arousal.

This moment, right now
with Michael, was the realisation of the dream they’d both shared
and hidden from each other and it was finally coming into
fruition.

Without any warning he
pulled away from her. “Jesus, Jules. What did I do? Was I hurting
you? You don’t want this? What?”

“Mike, what are to
talking about? I want you more than anything. You’re doing
everything right. You’re not hurting me.”

“Then why are you
crying?”

She brought her hand to
her cheek and felt the moisture even before she registered that her
vision wasn’t totally clear. “I’m... I guess I’m just happy. It’s
finally you and me and this time... I don’t have the words.
It’s...”

He smiled, and the way
it reached and filled his eyes, she knew that he understood.
“Jules, I might be rushing this but I’ve waited almost eleven years
to tell you. I love you.”

“I know you do. You
told me when I was nine.”

His breath-taking
laughter filled her ears and resonated against her body. “Yeah, you
got me there.” Suddenly he was all seriousness. “But this time I’m
not saying it lightly. I mean it. I still love you like I did all
those years ago, but it’s grown with us. It’s become so much more
than simple affection. I know that right now I’m in lust with you,
but I’ve always loved you, and from the moment I saw you again at
Lush I’ve been falling completely and utterly
in
love with
you.”

Her heart stopped then
restarted. The tempo was different, stronger. It was like having a
brand-new heart that had never been broken, and it belonged to
Michael.

“I feel the same way.
It’s always been you, and I’m falling even more in love with you as
we speak. Now show me how much you love me, Michael.”

His eyes filled with
moisture and his smile lit up the room. “That’s going to take a
lifetime, Julia, but I’m totally committed.”

And he proved his
commitment. Over, and over, and over again.

*****

Thank you so much for
taking the time to read this here little novella. I hope you feel
it was time well spent.

I would love to hear
what you thought of Lush — good or bad — so please feel free to
leave a review where you purchased this book, or email me at
[email protected]
.

You can keep up to
date with me at my Facebook page
Chris
Adonn
. Please feel free to send me a personal FB message
should you feel so inclined. I really love hearing from my readers
and I’m pretty good at replying.

I would also like to
take this opportunity to recommend a couple of fellow romance
writers and books that I think you might enjoy.

Firstly there are
Ruth
Cardello’s
novels. I’ve read each of them; from
Maid for the
Billionaire
to
Come Away With
Me
, and I’ve never been disappointed.

She creates worlds and
characters that are so well fleshed out that I get swept right in
as the stories unfold. All of her romances are suffused with
feeling, sprinkled with humour and loaded with passion. If you love
strong heroes who are matched to even stronger heroines, you will
love Cardello’s books.

Here’s an expert to
whet your appetite:

If you want a
dose of reality, come home a day early.

Gio Andrade
walked through his secretary’s empty office and into his, shaking
his head with disgust as he went. He double-checked the time on his
watch. Barely seven o’clock. She should still be here. Someone
should be here. Rather than call her, he sank into the antique
leather chair placed behind the custom Carpathian elm desk that had
sat in this office for generations.

Perhaps it was
the combination of three weeks of travel and spending so much time
in hotel rooms, but he was tired. Bone tired and in a foul mood.
He’d gone on site in northern Canada to make sure the project met
its deadlines, and it did—something that normally would have
energized him. Instead, he felt distracted.

He didn’t
consider himself an emotional man. Ever since he’d taken over the
family’s company, his success had come from his ability to remain
detached. Cogent Energy Solutions had been born in the oil wells of
Texas, but Gio had taken it in a much different direction. He was
an investor, not a developer. He found potential energy
sources—like the Utica Shale veins recently discovered in North
America—that others considered economically unfeasible to reap,
financed the breakthrough technologies that would make harvesting
them possible, contracted with companies who needed those sources,
made a huge fortune, and then got out before the environmentalists
even knew his name.

Clean.

Calculated.

Satisfying.

Until this
past trip.

What is wrong
with me?

His cell phone
vibrated in his breast pocket. He checked the caller ID and
groaned. It was his cousin Madison Andrade. Again. Her calls were
becoming more frequent. He’d answered the first couple. Forwarded
the next few to his secretary, Rena. Now he let her calls ring
through to voice mail. Part of him was beginning to admire her
tenacity, even as he remained unwilling to consider her
request.

He placed the
phone down on his desk and started sifting through the large pile
of mail that had accumulated in his absence. Rena had opened and
dealt with most of it, but one square ivory envelope was still
sealed. He picked it up and turned it in his hand. He already knew
what it was. Madison had told him to expect an invitation to
Stephan Andrade’s wedding.

An Andrade
wedding.

What a joke.
We may share the same last name, but that’s all we have in
common.

Gio crushed
the invitation, still unopened, into a ball and threw it in the
wastebasket beside his desk.
My mistake was reopening any
communication with that side of the family. I have Luke to thank
for that.

Gio didn’t
speak to Luke often, but that lack of contact had more to do with
their schedules than anything else. Of his three brothers, Luke was
the easiest to get along with. He was a respected doctor and
someone who never asked for anything, so Gio had been hard-pressed
not to accept his request to join him at a high-profile function a
few months earlier.

The event
ended up being an engagement party for a couple he didn’t know,
much less care about. The unpleasant bonus had been the presence of
two uncles he’d spent nearly a decade avoiding. He’d left as early
as he could without seeming rude, and had made his excuses while
interacting as little as possible with any of his extended
family.

I should have
told Luke I was out of the country that week.

I should have
lied.

Gio’s phone
beeped to announce the message his cousin had left.
By going to
that party, I mistakenly gave some family members the wrong
idea.

Now they think
I care. I don’t.

The days
when what they do or say have any relevance to me are long
gone.
He would have said as much to Madison, but she had done
nothing to him. As the frequency of her calls increased, however,
he began to feel pushed into an uncomfortable situation. No one
likes to shove a puppy away, but when it starts humping your leg,
you have to.

Gio covered
his eyes with one hand at the image.
Oh, my God. I am
tired.