The Billionaire's Voice (The Sinclairs #4) (15 page)

“How did you know?” Micah said weakly.

“Julian. He was worried,” she shared in a whisper, knowing that noises were going to bother him.

“I didn’t want you to see me like this,” he rumbled.

“I want to be here if you need me,” she answered. “Just rest now. I’ll be right here beside you if you want anything.”

Careful not to touch him, she reached across his body and cut off the light, effectively ending any conversation since she couldn’t see him.

He reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist, bodily pulling her closer, and she rested a hand cautiously on his chest. She wasn’t sure if he wanted to be touched.

Apparently, he wanted to feel her, to be touched by her. He fell asleep soon after she’d turned off the light, his body less restless as he reached up his free hand and covered the one she had laid on his chest.

CHAPTER 14

Micah awoke in a dark room, disoriented because he couldn’t remember exactly where he was, but the warmth of Tessa’s hand in his calmed him down, forcing him to think.

Xander.

The migraine.

The fucking pain.

Then, Tessa had come. She’d cared for him, but most of the details were fuzzy.

Slowly, he remembered that Julian had gone to California because Xander had overdosed. He wasn’t sure why or how Tessa had known he needed her, but Julian had to be the source of that information. He was the only one who knew. As his brain started to clear, he vaguely remembered Tessa telling him that Julian had texted her because he’d been worried about Micah.

The excruciating pain was gone, leaving only a dull ache, a minor discomfort that Micah knew would wear off during the next few hours. He shifted and looked at the lighted bedside clock, realizing he’d been incoherent for almost twenty-four hours. The duration was shorter than his last episode, which had gone on for two days.

He knew it was morning, well beyond daylight, but the curtains were carefully pulled across the large windows in the room, leaving it nearly completely dark.

“Micah? Are you okay?” Tessa vaulted into a sitting position, immediately awake.

His chest ached just from hearing the concern in her voice, the genuine fear for his health. Reaching back, he turned on the light so he could communicate with her, sitting up slowly.

Taking her frightened face between his hands, he said, “I’m fine. Sleep, Tessa. I know you probably didn’t get much rest.” He could tell by the way she’d reacted the moment he moved that she’d slept lightly. She was still dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, apparently acting as his guardian angel as he slept.

She yawned as she replied, “I slept. You conked out after you took your pills and ate some crackers. How are you feeling?”

“Better,” he said uncomfortably, not completely at ease with being helpless and in pain with anybody watching. “You didn’t need to come over.”

“Maybe not. But I wanted to,” she told him softly, lifting a hand to his face to stroke his whiskered jaw. “My mom used to suffer with migraines. I know how bad it can be.”

Micah thought about how she’d probably pulled the curtains closed, fetched cold compresses, and sought out his pills the night before. He always had found his migraines emasculating. The condition was a lot more common in women than men, and he’d always wondered why it had to happen to him. As a teenager, he’d felt like a wuss when he had to discontinue his activities because he had a stupid headache. Since he always had warning, very few of his friends even knew about his condition. The only ones who had ever understood were his brothers and his parents.

“This one didn’t last as long as the last one. Maybe they’ll eventually go away,” he grumbled.

“Is that what happened? They went away and then came back?”

“Yeah. Until the last year or so, I hadn’t had one in over a decade.”

“After your parents were killed and Xander was injured. That’s why your doctor wanted you to get away from all your stresses?”

Micah shrugged. “Pretty much. He thought maybe it was happening again because of the way my parents died, the situation with Xander, and the lifestyle change since I started my own business.”

Tessa nodded. “He’s probably right. My mom’s migraines only happened when she was under a lot of stress. After my dad died, she had them a lot.”

“I can’t just give up my life. I escaped for a while, but I have to live in reality. I love my company, and I love my brother,” he told her angrily.

Tessa didn’t let his hostile expression bother her. She knew Micah was angry at the situation and not at her. “I know you do, but that doesn’t mean you have to shoulder all of the burdens in your family. Did Julian give you a hassle about taking care of Xander this time?”

Micah thought for a minute before answering, “No. I think he was pissed because I didn’t tell him everything.”

“You should have told him. I know how it feels when one sibling sacrifices so much for another. Julian deserved to know so he could help. Maybe he’d have chosen to share the burden.”

“He would have. That’s the problem,” Micah answered huskily.

Tessa rested her hand on his shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be a problem. If you shared the situation, I know that your cousins would help, too. Maybe Xander needs a major intervention with as much backup as you can get.”

“He does. And I think that’s probably going to happen. Julian swears he’s bringing Xander back here so he can get away from his sources in California.”

“Good. We can arrange for an expert to be there to help. Now let me get you some breakfast. You must be starving.”

Micah narrowed his eyes as he looked at Tessa. He wanted to reach out, scoop her up, and then bury himself inside her, forget for a short time about everything except her. She was beautifully mussed up from sleep, and her spiraled curls were wild and pretty damn sexy. There was only one thing that stopped him.

“Christ! I stink. How did you manage to stay in the same room with me, much less the same bed?” The fact that he could smell his own sweat told him that his stench was beyond a smell that he could get used to or go nose-blind to.

Tessa smiled at him. “It’s not like I haven’t smelled your sweat before.”

His cock stiffened as Micah thought of the many times he’d worked up a sweat in bed with her, but this was different. “It’s stale sweat, and it stinks.” He always perspired heavily when he was going through one of his painful episodes, but he was usually alone.

“Go shower and I’ll strip the bed,” she demanded as she got out of the bed. “It’s really not
that
bad. Are you going to be okay by yourself?”

Micah was tempted to tell her that he wouldn’t be all right, and he needed her naked and in the shower with him. However, he refused to put her through inhaling any more of his pungent body odor. “I’m good.”

She was already pulling the sheets off the bed as he exited the bedroom, and Micah’s chest ached once again at the thought that Tessa had stayed with him, even though it hadn’t been the least bit pleasant.

He wasn’t used to that, having somebody care for him, and he wasn’t sure he was completely comfortable with it. But damn, it felt good knowing that Tessa had his back.

I’ll be right here beside you if you need me.

Tessa’s soft declaration the night before drifted through his mind as he quickly stripped out of his disgusting-smelling clothing. He hadn’t imagined them. Her words had been real. And she’d stayed there for him all night long.

“I need her. I do fucking need her, and not just for my migraines,” he growled as he flipped on the water.

Tessa connected with him on a level that was almost terrifying for a man like him. He was used to being the oldest, the problem solver in his immediate family. When his parents had been murdered, he’d handled everything, taken care of everything. He was used to being the caretaker, and he wasn’t quite certain what to do with a woman who actually cared about him, saw who he was beyond his money.

Keep her!

“Mine,” he rasped as he stepped into the hot shower. “She’s mine.”

He wasn’t sure how he could work everything out, and he didn’t have a plan. For once, he was going by gut reaction, primal instinct, and a certainty that he felt clear down to his soul.

Tessa Sullivan was his, and he was
never
going to let her go.

Micah felt more human as he sat at the kitchen table and drank a cup of coffee. Tessa had put the sheets into the wash and then decided to go take a shower herself before fixing breakfast.

He nearly choked on his coffee as Tessa strolled out to the kitchen fresh from the shower, her damp ringlets of blonde hair barely tamed, and her gorgeous legs exposed because she’d pulled on one of his button-down shirts. It was way too big for her, and the sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, the hem of the shirt hitting her at about midthigh. But seeing her in something that belonged to him had his cock straining against his jeans almost immediately.

“Nice shirt,” he choked out as she looked at him.

“I hope you don’t mind. I came right here. I didn’t bring anything clean.”

Her face was contrite, and he fucking hated that. Hell, Tessa could feel free to wear every shirt in his closet if she wanted. In fact, she could do anything she liked as long as she stayed with him. “Keep it. It looks better on you than it did on me,” he rasped, dirty thoughts filling his mind as he wondered if she was wearing underwear, since she hadn’t brought any extra. “Did you borrow my boxers, too?”

She flushed as she stopped at the table and looked down at him. “All of my clothes are in the washer.”

The adorably flustered look on her face sent Micah over the edge. Jesus, she was irresistible when she wasn’t sure what to say, which didn’t happen very often.

He picked up his empty mug and dropped it on a small, decorative table behind him before he stood and hoisted her onto the table to sit in front of him. “I think I need to investigate exactly what you’re wearing underneath that shirt.”

“Nothing,” she admitted, her gaze fixed on his mouth. “I already told you that.”

He put his hands on her thighs and slowly slid them upward, edging the shirt higher. “I want to look.”

“I thought you were hungry,” she replied in a tremulous, aroused voice.

“I am. That’s why I want to see my breakfast, baby,” he answered hoarsely, releasing an enormous breath as the shirt went up to her waist and he saw her bare pussy. He pushed her body down on the table and jerked the material until every button popped, revealing Tessa in all of her naked glory, spread out on the table for him like a fucking buffet.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he told her reverently as she continued to stare at his lips in her supine position.

“I feel beautiful when you look at me,” she answered in a breathy, needy voice. “I’ve never felt that way before.”

Micah was both irritated and relieved that no other man had told her just how breathtaking she was. She should know. She should realize that just the sight of her could make a guy lose his mind.

He bent over and kissed her, a slow sensual embrace that allowed him to explore her mouth thoroughly, completely, tenderly. For once, he didn’t want to rush to possess her. Not that the urge wasn’t there, but his need to worship and pleasure her was even greater right now.

His mouth moved up her neck before his tongue started exploring the soft skin of her ear. Her whimper of pleasure was like beautiful music to his ears, and he moved lower to take one of her perfect nipples into his mouth. His lips moved over her creamy flesh, then focused on nipping and sucking the pebbled tips into hard peaks, one after the other.

She whined disappointedly as he moved lower, so he took her hands and placed them on her breasts, encouraging her without words to keep pleasuring her breasts. It took her a few awkward moments, but as he parted her thighs and began to tease her slick folds with his fingers, her movements became urgent, her fingers plucking at her breasts as she released a loud moan.

“Please, Micah. Please.”

God, he loved hearing his name come from her lips, loved hearing her beg him to finish her off. But he wasn’t ready to make her come. When it happened, he wanted to see her come apart with his mouth all over her. She was his to taste, to explore, and he planned on making this the best she’d ever had.

His tongue slid down her tight belly, and the fragrant aroma of her desire hit him hard in the gut, made him salivate to taste her. Knowing he couldn’t wait any longer, he used his fingers to part her folds, exposing her throbbing clit and pink sweetness to his gaze. The flesh there glistened with moisture, begging him to indulge in what he already knew was the sweetest nectar he’d ever had.

He dove in with one long lick from bottom to top, lingering on the tiny bundle of nerves as he began to devour her.

“Oh, Micah. Yes. Please.”

Her voice was pleading and quivering with arousal, and he intensified his efforts, burying his face in her pussy and letting himself drown in her pleasure. He licked every luxurious drop of her arousal he could find, satisfied that every bit of that dew was because she wanted him. That knowledge pleased him on a level he’d never experienced before.