Mistaken by Fate (7 page)

“Good girl.” He kissed her, teasing her mouth open, seducing her through that single contact. It was soft and sweet, almost like an apology. She sank into the feeling of his tongue against hers, needing more. When he finally drew away, she couldn’t stop her moan of protest, but he wasn’t done with her. He traced a single finger down the center of her body, stopping just south of her belly button. “It’s time, baby.”

Thank God.

He went to his knees in front of her. “Do you know how crazy you make me? I’m so fucking desperate for a taste of you, I’d do damn near anything for it.” He shifted her right leg over his shoulder and pressed a kiss on her thigh. “
Anything
, Ridley. I’m on my goddamn knees for you.” He repeated the move with her other leg, lifting her and dragging his tongue along her center.

She cried out, frantically grabbing the hook in an effort to keep from spinning. As if he’d let her go long enough for it to happen. His hands dug into her thighs, spreading her for him, taking her weight as much as the hook above her was. He rolled his tongue over he clit like it was his favorite kind of candy, his growl vibrating through her. She tried to move, but his grip kept her immobile and helpless as he kissed her there.

Pressure built low in her stomach, driven higher and higher by his mouth. Being left on the edge earlier made it sharper, needier, desperate to reach completion. He lifted her head and she sobbed out a breath.

But Garrett wasn’t stopping. He watched her face as he thrust two fingers into her, the feeling of almost-completion nearly shoving her into oblivion. Her eyes tried to drift shut, but she stubbornly kept them open so she could see the look on his face. The expression was one he only seemed to get when he had his hands on her, wild and a little bit feral. Like he was off the rails and it was because of
her
.

“Fuck. I can’t wait any longer.” He let go of her and strode to a cabinet near where he’d gotten his bag and pulled out a condom. He held her gaze as he stripped in neat, efficient movements and rolled the condom on.

She couldn’t stop staring. How many times had she imagined this man naked? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? Hell, might as well go with an even million. She’d fantasized about what it would be like to have all those muscles laid out for her.

Her imagination had nothing on reality. His massive shoulders looked even broader without a shirt covering them, and those V-muscles on his back leading down to his waist made her mouth water. Her gaze dropped to the trail of hair leading south to his…
Holy shit
. Even though she’d had her mouth on him a little over an hour ago, seeing him revealed like this made her clench her thighs together. His cock was in perfect proportion with the rest of him—fucking
huge
.

He lifted her, easily maneuvering her body so he stroked through her wetness, close, so damn close to her entrance. He met her eyes and sheathed himself in a single movement, slamming her down onto him. She moaned even as her body tried to accommodate the intrusion. He held perfectly still, watching her so closely, she finally had to shut her eyes. It was too much, too intimate, too goddamn possessive, to have him looking at her like that while she was totally and completely at his mercy.

“Tell me.”

There was no mistaking what he wanted from her. She opened her mouth to obey, but he kept going, punctuating each sentence with a stroke. “Tell me. Tell me that I’m the one you want—the
only
one you want.”

She bit her lip to keep from doing just that. She couldn’t give him that much, not when nothing had really changed between them, because if she admitted that, it was a slippery slope to forgetting herself and uttering those three little words. Not that she still loved Garrett. She didn’t.

“You’re thinking awfully hard considering my cock is inside you.” He withdrew and slammed into her, banishing anything beyond
Yes! More! Please! Take me now!

“You don’t have to say it aloud, baby. Your body is answering for you.” He kept his strokes steady, his gaze raking over her in a move she swore she could actually feel, finally centering on where their bodies were joined. “Your pussy clenches around me in protest every time I leave you.”

God, he was right. She never wanted this to stop. Her eyes flew open when he pinched her nipple, though she hadn’t been aware of closing them. “Eyes on me.”

“Stop talking and fuck me.” The words were out before she had a chance to reconsider them.

Just like that, his face went hard and he stopped moving. “I think you’re under the mistaken impression that you have any control over what’s happening in this room tonight.”

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
Even though she knew she had a fail-safe that he wouldn’t hesitate to obey, she still shook like a leaf when he slid out of her and stepped back. “Garrett—”

“Unless you’re using your safe word, I highly suggest you stop fucking talking right now.”

Her mouth snapped shut so hard, her teeth clinked together. He moved to the dresser where he’d gotten the cuffs and opened a different drawer. “It looks like you need to learn some manners, baby.” He came up with a dildo that was curved in a way she’d never seen before. She tried very hard not to wonder who else he’d used it on, but there must have been something on her face, because he said, “The only woman, past, present or future, who gets the pleasure of this toy is you, Ridley.”

That shouldn’t have warmed her, not when they’d declared in no uncertain terms that this thing wasn’t going to last past tonight. But it did—almost enough to distract her from the slow grin spreading over his face that meant nothing good for her.

He went to his knees again in front of her, and looped her right leg over his shoulder, baring her completely. Without so much as a word of warning, he slid the vibrator into her. It wasn’t anywhere close to the feeling of his cock, but then he turned it on and the delicious buzzing had her biting back a moan. He saw. Of course he saw. “You like that, baby?”

She bit her lip harder, determined not to let him know verbally, even though she couldn’t stop her physical reactions. Then the bastard
chuckled
. “Yeah, I thought so.” He licked her clit, and this time she couldn’t stop a moan. She expected him to tease her, to draw it out, but he didn’t let up on the vibrator, circling her clit, driving her, unrelenting, toward an orgasm. She tried to arch away, to do
something
, but there was nowhere to go. “Oh God, stop.” He didn’t. He didn’t even slow down. Instead he did something to the vibrator to make it pulse, and then he timed his licks to them.

She didn’t stand a chance of resisting.

Ridley’s body coiled in anticipation, no matter how hard she tried to fight it, and when he nipped her clit, it was all she needed to shoot straight into one of the most intense orgasms of her life. Worse, it was
his
name she cried out as she came.

Garrett flicked off the vibrator and tossed it aside. “Remember, baby, tonight your orgasms are mine—every part of you is. So when I ask a damn question, I expect an answer. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir.” The words were barely more than a whisper. He’d played her body better than a maestro at a symphony, taking control away from her, leaving her only the ability to respond. And, lord, had she responded. Her body still shook from the force of that orgasm.

He stood and lifted her off the hook, and then carried her from the room, down the hall, and into what must be his bedroom. She barely got a glimpse of the masculine furniture and decorating—the same style as the rest of the apartment—when he laid her on the bed and stretched out on top of her. The comforter pressed against her back and ass stung, but she relished the feeling, wrapping her arms and legs around him.

“Fuck, baby, I want you so bad, I can barely see straight.” He rolled over, taking her with him so she straddled his hips, and then claimed her mouth in a kiss that had her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest. It wasn’t as hard or driven as their kisses had been up to this point. Instead, it was almost…sweet. He kissed her like he cared about her, like he was trying to say something he couldn’t put into words. Her stomach did a slow flip that wasn’t entirely pleasant.

She was barely aware of him grabbing another condom from the nightstand, but then he lifted her onto his cock, and she moaned. It shouldn’t be like this. She was supposed to be enjoying sex with him, not feeling like he was branding her to her very core.

Because that’s exactly what it felt like with his lips so gentle on hers, a direct counterpoint to the rough grip on her hips, and his cock filling her completely.

“Touch me.”

That, she was all too happy to do. Ridley ran her hands up his chest, reveling in how damn cut he was. He kissed her again, tangling one hand in her hair and using his other to urge her to move on his cock. She rode him, feeling totally and completely taken despite the fact she was on top. But she wasn’t in control—hadn’t been since the moment she agreed to come home with him.

And, God, she’d never felt freer.

Chapter Seven

Garrett rubbed Ridley’s back, working the lotion into her skin. He hadn’t beaten her particularly badly—just enough to zone her out, rather than welt her skin—but he wasn’t going to turn down a chance to keep touching her. Especially when she kept making the little noise in the back of her throat every time his hand stroked down her spine.

She groaned and rolled onto her back. “I don’t know about you, but I feel better already.”

He caught her eyeballing the door. She was already thinking about leaving, despite it being well after one in the morning. “Ridley.”

She stopped in the process of sliding to the edge of the bed and glanced over her shoulder at him. “Yeah?” There was something in her eyes, but hell if he could decide if it was hope or just nerves.

What the fuck was he supposed to say? Stay? Go? Let’s have another round? He didn’t know what the hell he wanted from her in life, but he knew he wanted her to stay. He couldn’t say that, though. He was leaving. Maybe not tomorrow, but inside of a week from now. No matter how much he wanted Ridley, the bare facts hadn’t changed. He would always leave.

But that didn’t stop him from opening his fucking mouth. “Stay.”

Her eyes went wide. “What?”

It was too late to back out now, especially when he
wanted
her to stay, despite his better judgment. “You gave me tonight. It’s not over yet.”

She rolled back to face him. It was strangely intimate to be lying in his bed face-to-face, even without taking into account what they’d been doing not too long ago. He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger against her face. She was so damn beautiful, even more so now with her cheeks flushed and her eyes heavy-lidded from remembered pleasure. “Just stay, baby.”

“It’s only tonight.”

“Sure.” The word burnt in his chest, a hot ember of denial. One night was all she’d agreed to, and one night was all he’d get. The future was already written in stone as far as he was concerned, though part of him wanted to rage against it.

To change it.

He pulled Ridley close and tucked her against him, her back to his chest. He draped his arm around her waist and rested his chin on top of her head. Her breath shuddered out, and he felt each tremor. Fuck, it made him want to hold her closer, even though she was tense and brittle in his arms. He wanted to make it better.

Hell, there were so many things he wanted to make better.

The problem was that he couldn’t do things halfway. Either he had to leave Ridley the hell alone after tonight, or he had to fix things between them. How, he didn’t know. This shit had spiraled right out of control, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it.

His need for Ridley was like the Greek hydra—every time he cut off a head, it grew back doubled. It wasn’t fair—to either of them. He had nothing to offer her, nothing but seeing his back as he walked away over and over again. He couldn’t do that to her, no matter how sweet she sounded when she came.

No, this thing had to be over and done with. They’d had their night of fun. Tomorrow was a new day, and he needed to get the fuck over it.

Easier said than done.

She would move on. She was too strong
not
to. It might not be this week, or even this month, but she’d find a man who’d be there for her through thick and thin, who’d fight to hell and back to stay by her side, who’d spend every damn night in her bed.

A man who wasn’t Garrett.

He kissed the back of her neck—softly, since her breath had evened out while he was twisted up inside himself. It wasn’t rational—not by a long shot—but
he
wanted to be her man. It didn’t matter that the reasons he couldn’t be were as long as his arm.

It’d be easier if his job was the only hurdle between them. Long distance relationships were shit, even if she’d be willing to go for it, but they weren’t a deal-breaker. No, he was self-aware enough to know the root of the issue, and it went back to the spring his mother up and left without a word of warning to anyone. Losing her had been hard enough. Seeing how devastated his father was, how he’d gone from a rock-steady part of Garrett’s life to a broken man in the space of twenty-four hours… Yeah, that had scared him right down to his soul. Because he got it. Even back then, he’d wanted Ridley with a desire that was terrifying. He would have given up everything to be with her, and the thought of having her, only to lose her?

He couldn’t do it.

So he’d made sure things were fucked up beyond repair, and he’d left town the first chance he got. When he was in the Rangers, he’d done his damnedest to eradicate all the hurt and abandonment issues his mother so helpfully dumped on him. He’d thought he might have finally gotten his shit together, but when his four years were up, he’d barely been back in New York a month before he’d left again. The hurt was still too raw, and the only time he’d seen Ridley, she’d taken one look at him and rushed out of the room like she was going to lose her lunch if she shared air with him for another second. Her reaction was worse than the old hurt, but it had only reinforced that he’d made the right decision in leaving.

He closed his eyes, the heavenly feel of Ridley in his arms a direct counterpoint to the turmoil going on inside him. It was no use. He’d made damn sure that he could never make things right with her, and he’d reinforced that every chance he’d had, salting the ground between them until nothing could ever grow there.

…

Despite the God-awful early hour, Ridley barely stopped by her apartment long enough to shower and change before she headed for the shop. Sitting still was her worst enemy right now, because her thoughts kept circling back to Garrett. Her entire body ached with what he’d done to her, pulsing with each beat of her heart as if doing its best to remind her how much of an idiot she was to agree to last night in the first place. That she could handle, though. It was the falling asleep in his arms that threw her for a loop. He’d held her like he cared about her, like she was the most precious thing in his possession.

Damn it. She should have known that one night was going to open up a can of worms she had no way of dealing with.

She unlocked the front door to her shop and locked it behind her, pausing in the front room, letting the ambience of the place—
her
place—roll through her. Two years ago she’d used the inheritance her father left her to buy this little shop and enough materials to get a basic clothing line started. There had been some serious pitfalls along the way, but she’d managed to make a successful business. More than successful. She was on the brink of greatness, of putting her name on the map and earning her place with the best designers of this generation.

If she didn’t blow it.

“No pressure.” She moved through the dark storefront and into the back room, closing the dividing door and flipping on lights. The place was a mess, fabric draped here and there, scraps overflowing the waste bin, tools left out. It was her fault. Yesterday she’d been seven shades of distracted and had practically run out the door in an effort to avoid meeting Garrett.

Obviously she’d underestimated him—and her control.

She stopped in front of the piece she’d been working on earlier. It was little more than disjointed swatches of fabric pinned together, but she could already see the shape of how it would come together. It was going to be one of the best yet.

But she couldn’t do more at the moment. Even if she wanted to, her hands were still shaking so much she was just as likely to cut the thing in half as do something useful. With a sigh, she surveyed the room. “Might as well get things organized.” At least that would keep her busy and not thinking about a certain man.

She went to work sorting through the scraps for what needed to be trashed and what they’d keep, but her traitorous mind circled back to what she’d been doing less than four hours ago. God, what was wrong with her? She’d been so damn determined to avoid Garrett until she figured out how she felt about the whole thing, but the second he’d been within touching distance, she’d lost any common sense she’d had. Looking back over the last few days, it didn’t seem like she’d had much to start with.

It would have been okay, though, if that woman hadn’t tried to hit on him. It brought back all those feelings she didn’t want to have in the first place—the near-certainty that he was
hers
.

Ridley dumped the scraps into the trash with a huff. Hers, her ass. Garrett wasn’t the type of man to be tied down, no matter how hard he pursued her. Back in his apartment, he’d been all about ruining her for any other man, but there had been nothing about
him
not being with other women. She rubbed her chest where a dull ache had started. It was stupid that the past could still show up and bite her in the ass. Even stupider that he’d been willing to put on the brakes and she’d all but begged him to take her back to his place and have his filthy way with her. She couldn’t lay the blame for that anywhere but at her own feet.

Garrett didn’t settle down. He never would. To do so would require that he let someone inside those emotional walls he’d worked so hard to put up in the first place. He could claim it was his job all he wanted, but there were plenty of men who did dangerous jobs that managed to hold down relationships.

No, it was because of his mother.

“It doesn’t matter
why
. God, just stop thinking about him.”

Her phone rang, and she screamed, dropping the scissors she was holding and nearly stabbing herself in the foot.
Idiot
. Ridley snatched up her phone. “What?”

There was a long pause before Sara spoke, “I was going to ask what happened with Garrett, but now I don’t think I have to.”

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping? It’s like six in the morning.”

“I was swimming laps, though it didn’t calm me down as much as I’d hoped.” She paused. “Look, I’m sorry. It was kind of an asshole move to just abandon you with Garrett.”

“You think?”

“I just thought if the two of you could talk, maybe you could work past the whole…past. I don’t know about you, but the rest of the family is really tired of one of you leaving the room the second the other walks into it.”

“That happened
once
.” Because she’d stopped coming around when he was in town. It hurt too much to see his face, to watch him watch her like he expected her to go crazy ex-girlfriend at any second… Especially because that was exactly what she’d felt like doing every time she saw him. “It’s done now.”

Another pause, longer this time. “Done?”

Did Sara have to sound so damn disbelieving? “Yes, done. Things are over for good, and we’re both moving on with our lives.” That was what last night was supposed to be about, and maybe if she said the words enough times, she’d actually start to believe them. Because right now, all she wanted was to call him up and ask to go round two, complete with post-coital cuddling.

“Okay.”

“Okay? That’s all you have to say?”

“I’m not sure what response you’re looking for, Ridley. If you guys worked it out so that the angst-fest is over, then I support you. If he finally pulled his head out of his ass and proposed and you’re off to a life of boring monogamy and babies, well, I support that, too.”

Her heart took a flying leap, but she quickly stomped down the reaction. That life was
not
on the books with Garrett. It didn’t matter how good last night had been, or how inexplicably safe she’d felt falling asleep in his arms. He’d said he wasn’t the man for her, and she’d be worse than a fool if she tried to change him. She cleared her throat and dumped a stack of unusable scraps into the trash. “I don’t know if I can promise that the awkward avoiding will come to an end.”

After having sex with Garrett, she didn’t see how things could be anything
but
awkward. He’d seen her naked. He’d made her come. He’d tucked her against his body and held her close until she relaxed enough to sleep. What the hell was someone supposed to say after a night like last night? She groaned. “Maybe I’ll move to Japan. They have a pretty hopping fashion scene.”

Sara laughed. “Calm down. Whatever you talked about, it’s not like you slept with him.” The silence stretched out one beat, and then another, and finally a third. She finally said, “Uh…right? You didn’t sleep with him?”

Ridley dropped into the overstuffed chair shoved into the corner of the room. “I plead the fifth.”

“Holy shit.” The background noise picked up as if she’d stepped out of a building and onto the sidewalk. “I don’t want details—please and thank you—but did it help?”

That was the question. She wanted to say it totally had and that she was ready and willing to move into the next, Garrett-free, stage of her life. But she couldn’t force the words past her lips. Last night was supposed to purge all the leftover desires and needs that she’d never quite been able to face, but they were still there. Worse, they were stronger than ever. “Maybe?”

“Do you need me to come over?”

Some of the weight lifted off her shoulders. It didn’t matter what mess she got herself into, Sara was always in her corner—and she never failed to show up with a supply of ice cream and girl-power movies. If only she thought the combo would actually help this time. “Thanks, but I’ve got to buckle down on work today.” It was the only thing that might actually distract her, because the alternative—of sitting around, stewing over Garrett—was unacceptable.

“Okay, but if you change your mind, give me a call and I’ll be there in a flash.”