Fearless In Love (The Maverick Billionaires, Book 3) (31 page)

He cut off her words by shoving his warm hands under her shirt. Flipping her top over her head, he dipped down to kiss the swell of her breasts, his fingers slipping inside her bra.

“I know exactly what you need, baby.”

He always had.

They both tore at her jeans, then his pants, throwing everything across the room until they were skin to skin on the couch.

“I love you,” he whispered, rocking slowly against her, sensitizing every inch of her skin. “I love everything about you.” He kissed her breasts until she moaned and writhed beneath him. “I want to do so many wicked things to you.”

He worked his way down her body, proving over and over how much she mattered with every bite of skin, every erogenous zone. Finally, on his knees beside the couch, he licked the very center of her, sending her spiraling into sheer sensation. She shoved her fingers through his hair, so silky, so thick, as she reveled in the sweet, hot sensuality of his mouth on her.

Lifting his head, his thumb on the apex of her pleasure, he whispered, “I love you.”

His voice wrapped around the words she’d longed to hear as he moved over her, giving himself to her with no reservations, no holding back. Just pure pleasure.

And more love than she’d ever known was possible.

She gasped out his name as he filled her up, her body, her heart, her very soul. The feel of him inside her was momentous, with spikes of pleasure shooting through her, setting every cell of her being on fire.

“I want this every day. Forever.” His hand on her hip, he pulled her even more tightly against him. His eyes were soft midnight, dark with desire, brimming with emotion as he made his vows to her. “I love you. I will always love you. You are my heart. You’re my everything.”

She came apart with starbursts before her eyes, the pulse and beat of his climax deep inside her…and the sweet certainty that every ounce of love she had to give would be returned a million times over for the rest of her life.

* * *

Giddy with happiness, Ari laced her fingers through Matt’s as they stepped out of her apartment a short while later. Not even Gideon’s absence marred the joy she felt, because she truly believed they would eventually bring her brother home.

Matt carried her bag, and she slung her backpack containing her laptop over her shoulder. She led them down the stairs, and as they turned at the landing, the light in the lower hall was blocked by a man studying the row of mailboxes.

“Can I help you find someone?” she asked.

He turned, and her heart stopped.

The man’s hair was military short, and his muscles were as big as a weight lifter’s. He was about Matt’s age, his face tanned, with lines at his eyes as if he was used to squinting against the sun. An old, battered khaki rucksack lay at his feet.

“
Gideon
,” she whispered.

“Hey, kiddo.” His voice cracked, as though he didn’t use it a lot, and his eyes were no longer the startling blue she remembered. As though he’d seen things that had leeched the brightness from them.

Ari dropped her backpack on the stairs, and a beat later she was in his arms, hugging him for every one of the sixteen years he’d been gone.

“You’re home,” she whispered. “I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too, Ari.”

When he finally let her go, Matt held out his hand. “Matt Tremont. I’m your sister’s fiancé.” Turning his head to look directly at her, he dropped every last wall. “You should know that I love Ari very, very much.”

She gazed at the two most important men in her life, and a tear slid down her cheek. Matt smoothed it away before looking at her brother. “You weren’t here to ask permission. But I hope you’ll approve of our marriage.”

Gideon looked at Matt as if he were measuring the man he was on the inside, and then back at her. Finally, he said, “I can see how she feels about you.”

“Let’s go have a cup of coffee and talk,” Matt suggested.

“Yeah.” Gideon nodded slowly. “We should talk.”

They put his rucksack, along with Ari’s bags, into the trunk of Matt’s Jaguar. Gideon traveled as lightly as she did, and she wondered if he’d learned that with their mom too. Leaving the dingy neighborhood, they were soon sitting in a coffee shop with old-fashioned vinyl booths and freshly roasted coffee.

“How did you find me?”

Gideon reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter, stained, wrinkled, and smoothed flat again over and over. He slid the worn envelope across the table. The postmark was two years old. She didn’t remember the address, but it was probably one she’d scratched off her list when she never heard back.

“I move around a lot.” He stared at the letter. “Your letter finally caught up with me a year ago.”

“A year ago?” She was thankful for Matt’s warm grip and his big presence beside her. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I’m sorry, Ari.”

Gideon watched her with those washed-out eyes. They weren’t the eyes of the boy she remembered. He was bigger than her memory, and still handsome. But he was also…
distant
was the only word she could find for it. Like a shadow.

Instead of answering her question, he asked, “How did you two meet?”

“I hired Ari to take care of my son, Noah.” Matt explained that she’d been his nanny without even the slightest hint of shame, then brought their linked hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Your sister has grown into a wonderful woman while you were gone. I’ve been helping her look for you.”

She forced herself to push away the ache of knowing Gideon had waited a year to come home. “What have you been doing? Where have you been?”

“I worked mostly construction since I got out.” Gideon drank again, then set his cup back on the table. “Moving around a lot. I did a stint up in Alaska for a while.” He laughed softly but not happily. “I’m a drifter.”

“But you’re home now.” It suddenly hit her. “Are you staying? Or will you be moving on?”

“I’m not sure.” Gideon wrapped both hands around his mug as if he needed the heat.

“You’re welcome to stay with us,” Matt said. And it was clear to Ari that he meant it.

When Gideon didn’t respond—didn’t give any hint of whether he’d take Matt up on his offer—the dam Ari had tried to build around her questions finally burst.

“
Why
? Tell me why you didn’t come if you’ve known where I was for the past year?” Matt squeezed her hand, as she said, “I needed you, Gideon. You’re my brother. The only family I have left.”

He drew in a deep breath, looked toward the ceiling, then finally back to Ari. “I went into the military to help save you, but before I knew it, you were gone. I couldn’t find either of you. Then I heard Mom was dead. When I still couldn’t find you, I knew I’d failed you completely.” Tentatively, he reached across the table. Ari immediately put her hand in his, swearing she felt the pain in his heart as he clasped it. “When I got your letter, I just couldn’t face you. You deserve better than a brother like me.”

A fist bunched around her heart, so tightly she felt tears rising to her eyes. She was holding on to both of them now, Matt and Gideon. Nothing else mattered.

“You didn’t fail me. And you’re here now. That’s all that counts.” The hope she’d held on to for so long had finally turned into reality. Still, she needed to know, “What changed?”

“The job I was working out in Colorado ended a couple of weeks ago. When I was packing up my bag, I found your letter tucked in a pocket.” He shook his head. “I missed you so damned much, but I thought you’d be better off without me. So I called a lady I sometimes keep in touch with—someone I thought might understand. She told me you’d been there.”

“Mrs. Sanchez,” Ari guessed. “Karmen’s mother.”

“Yeah.” He slipped inside himself for a moment, probably thinking about Karmen and remembering his guilt at losing someone else he’d cared for deeply. Feeling the pain all over again. “That was when I knew I needed to see you. Face to face, so that you could tell me to go if that’s what you wanted.”

It was exactly what Ari had said to herself about Matt. Face-to-face. Nothing else would do. She and her brother might have been born years apart, and lost to each other for far too long, but they were still so similar.

She squeezed his hand. “I’m so glad you came home. And I want you to stay.” She turned to Matt. “You swore you’d find my brother. If you hadn’t taken me down to see Mrs. Sanchez, he might never have decided it was the right time.” She pressed her lips to his. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said without hesitation, even in front of Gideon.

At long last, she had everything she’d ever wanted: her brother back home…and the most wonderful man in the world to love and be loved by.

* * *

The look on Ari’s face when she saw her brother compared only to the moment Matt had first laid eyes on his son. Her happiness was his happiness.

They’d picked up Noah at Sebastian’s without the fanfare of introducing Gideon or telling the Mavericks about their engagement. In Matt’s mind, it was only fair to tell Noah first, preparing him for the changes without an audience.

“Ari’s coming back for good.” Matt held his son on his lap as he gave him the good news.

“Yay!” Noah threw his arms around Ari. “You’re still going to be my nanny!”

“She’s going to be more than your nanny,” Matt clarified. “She’s going to marry me and be my wife and your stepmother.”

Noah’s eyes grew so big they nearly popped out of his head as he looked between Matt and Ari. “Can I call you Mommy?”

Tears streamed down her face as she nodded. “Yes, sweetie, I’d love for you to call me Mommy.”

After Noah was finally in bed, Matt, Ari, and Gideon talked long into the evening. They heard about Gideon’s travels; he’d been to just about every state in the US. But he didn’t discuss the war or his tours in the Middle East. And he didn’t talk about Karmen Sanchez or Esterhausen or his dead comrades either.

Matt gave Gideon a guest suite on the opposite end of the hall, and when his door closed at last, it was finally Matt’s turn to be alone with Ari. He climbed the stairs to their bedroom, carrying two glasses of champagne.

Their
bedroom. He loved the sound of that.

When he opened the door, the room was redolent with the scent of her lavender bath salts. How many times had he dreamed of this, watching her in the tub, all her satiny skin naked beneath the bubbling waters?

She’d left the en suite door open. Kicking off his shoes, he walked across the carpet to the bathroom, drawn to her the way a moth has to fly into the light.

Ari was his light.

His breath caught and his mouth dried up as he stepped inside. Steam rose with the fragrance of lavender. She’d wound her gorgeous blond hair into a knot and secured it with a clip on top of her head.

“Your tub is so big I feel like I might float away.” Water frothed all around her, the jets rumbling, heat rising.

“Champagne,” he said, handing her a glass.

Her smile was as luscious as the curves hidden beneath the water. She sipped the champagne and made one of her delicious noises that tightened everything in his body.

She eyed him, sultry and sensuous. “Why don’t you do more than watch? Get in here with me.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been dreaming about what you do in that tub since the first night you moved in. This time,” he said with a devilish smile, “I need to watch.”

She wriggled down into the water, her body just an outline as the jets shot everything into a swirl around her. She gazed up at him with a wealth of wickedness that set him on fire. “Tell me what you want me to do.” She draped one slick, bare arm out of the water. “And I’ll do it.” She gave him a look full of heat and boundless love. “Anything you want, Matt.”

Despite his wealth, there were so many things he’d still wanted. Love. More happy children. The chance to wake every morning and fall asleep every night with the woman he adored in his arms.

Ari gave all of those things to him—and he would do everything in his power to give her just as much. Whatever she wanted, whatever she needed, he would always be there for her.

“I love you,” he told her, his words reverent. Full of all the awe he felt whenever he realized she was truly his.

“You gave me my brother. You’re letting me love your son as if he’s my own. And you risked your heart for me. I love you so much.”

He couldn’t resist kissing her, and she reached up to grab his shirt, leaving wet fingerprints, as their mouths came together passionately.

“Now…” Her voice was breathless with need. “Tell me what would please you most.”

He told her. And as she did exactly what he wanted, what he’d dreamed of watching her do all those long nights, he gave silent thanks that they’d have so many long—and beautiful—nights and days to come.

They had
forever
.

Laughter and voices rose to the high ceiling of Matt’s living room. A piano player was tinkling away on the baby grand while a bartender refreshed Evan’s glass.

He could hear Paige in an animated discussion with Charlie, asking how Sebastian’s fiancée came by her inspiration for the incredible metal sculptures she built. Evan wasn’t surprised by Paige’s enthusiasm—she always wanted to know why people did what they did.

She hadn’t wanted to attend the family Thanksgiving, not after the fight she’d had with Whitney over the Halloween party. But with Whitney in the south of France—she claimed it was to take the warm air and waters, but Evan knew it was mostly to get away from him—he refused to leave his wife’s sister alone in her condo on Thanksgiving Day. So here she was, lovely in a blue dress that made her eyes sparkle.

Daniel and Matt were arguing about the appetizers. “What do you mean, there’s nothing to nibble on?” Daniel said, disgust layering his voice.

“After slaving all morning, Cookie said she didn’t want a bunch of appetizers to spoil the meal.” Matt wore a tailored suit that made his muscles look huge. He’d come a long way from the scrawny kid the Mavericks had to rescue. They’d had to rescue Evan too.

“I bet you just forgot to ask Cookie to make any,” Daniel drawled. He wore his usual khakis and jacket, as if he’d just driven down from the mountains. Which he probably had.