No More Secrets: A Small Town Love Story (The Pierce Brothers Book 1) (22 page)

Carter couldn’t help but notice that not one of the half-naked women parading past stirred him. They were supposed to be the epitome of female beauty. Yet they held no interest for him.

Summer had ruined other women for him and, if he hadn’t already done so, he fully intended to ruin other men for her this weekend.

Katherine leaned over and whispered something about the color rose quartz being big for fall, which had the flashes from cameras dancing in his eyes again.

The show ended with the designer, a Korean man with a smile so perfect an orthodontist would weep, joining the models on the runway and offering the audience a bow and a double wave.

Carter stifled a sigh of relief as the crowd began to disperse. Katherine said a swift good-bye, kissing him on both cheeks, before departing.

“Okay, champ, pressure’s off,” Summer said, pulling him with her through a doorway and into an empty windowless gallery. “What do you think this is?” she mused, staring at the huge canvas of shapes and textures.

“A car crash,” Carter answered, stepping in behind her and pulling her against him. He was hard. She could feel the length of his cock pressing into her lower back.

Wordlessly, she reached a hand behind her to grip his shaft through his pants.

A soft groan rumbled in his chest and Summer squeezed him harder.

“Two can play at that game,” Carter said, quietly in her ear. One arm wrapped around her waist while his other hand slipped under the cup of her dress. His palm brushed her nipple and he gently squeezed her breast.

Summer’s breath quickened. She shifted her hips back, grinding into him.

“Baby, you drive me crazy.” His fingers tugged at her taut peak, making her dizzy with need.

She ached for more.

“I need to touch you, Summer.” His fingers tugged harder. “Now. Somewhere without cameras.”

Her gaze darted to the corner where the security camera blinked. “I think I know a place,” she whispered.

They wound their way through the main gallery and down one hallway into another moving toward the back of the building. Summer prayed a silent prayer and turned the handle on an unmarked door.

It swung inward. “Oh, thank God,” she whispered.

It was a small auxiliary kitchen that she had once used for a senior staff brunch. It was empty and dark now. A tiny window on the far wall by the refrigerator offered the only light.

Carter dragged her toward the window.

“There’s no lock on the door,” Summer hissed.

“I want to see you.”

He pressed her against the stainless steel prep table, his erection throbbing against her stomach. “I can’t wait anymore.” His mouth claimed hers in a storm of heat and power. He overwhelmed her, and all Summer could do was cling to him. And as his mouth slanted over hers again and again, Summer’s knees buckled.

He broke away and using his hands, turned her around to face the table.

A quick tug, and the ties of her halter were released. Summer gasped as her bare breasts pressed against cold steel.

Carter lifted her skirt, fingers skimming skin as they went.

“Beautiful girl,” he whispered. With one hand at the back of her neck, the other grasped the top of her thong, a delicate web of fabric and sequins, and pulled it down just enough to leave her completely exposed.

“Please, Carter.” Summer didn’t know what she was begging for, she only knew need.

She heard his zipper and knew that soon she would be claimed. His hands left her and she gasped. “Hang on, baby.” She heard the rip of foil and his soft sigh as his hand slicked on the condom. Thank God he thought to bring one.

He didn’t make her wait. Carter guided his shaft between her legs, parting her soft folds with his broad crown. She flexed her hips back against him and his hand returned to grip the back of her neck.

With aching precision he slowly entered her. Finally full, she sobbed.

“Hush, baby.” His hand stroked her back and hip as he built a slow, gentle rhythm.

This. This. This was what she wanted, what she craved. With Carter inside her, stretching her until she was full, she was alive and nothing else mattered.

Possessed.

She heard him groan, felt him pull back. “You’re going to make me come too soon.” He pulled out of her, his cock dangling against the back of her thighs. He pulled her underwear back into place.

“Please tell me you’re not stopping,” she whimpered.

“Turn around, baby.”

Her shaking arms pushed off of the table and she turned in his arms on wobbly legs.

Lifting her up, he placed her on the edge of the table. “I want you to come with me,” he said, his gray gaze drilling into her. He slid two fingers into her wet center. “Can you do that for me, baby?”

Summer nodded and opened her legs wider.

“Good girl. Now hang on to me, because this is going to be fast and hard.” Carter pushed her thighs apart and yanked the thin scrap of her underwear to the side. He gripped his cock and stroked it once, twice, before guiding it to her core. His hands slid under her ass and lifted her as he speared into her. Summer instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist and gripped his shoulders.

His eyes didn’t leave hers as he slammed into her again and again. Her eyes were half closed, but still their gazes held.

“I need to taste you.” He ground out the words over clenched teeth. Carter lowered his mouth to her breast and with long, deep pulls drew her over the edge.

“Carter!” she gasped out his name as she felt herself tighten around him. It blazed through her like electricity.

He grunted against her breast and she felt him jerk inside her, again and again, knew he joined her as their world fell apart.

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T
heir tryst in the kitchen took just enough of the edge off that they decided to order a very late dinner back at Summer’s apartment.

“I can’t believe you just ordered Chinese at midnight,” Carter said peeling off her shoes. “Everything but the bars back home close by nine.”

“Perks of city life, my country mouse,” Summer said, leaning back against the pillows of the couch. His big hands enveloped her foot and absentmindedly began to rub.

Summer purred. “This makes me think of the backrub you gave me my second day on the farm.”

Carter looked pained. “That was torture for me.”

“For you? I was the one with spasms!”

He switched feet and started rubbing the neglected one.

“I was straddling you on a bed, touching you in an intimate place trying not to grind my hard cock into you while you moaned in a pillow. Fucking torture.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “I’m glad I wasn’t the only one suffering from trying to behave.”

“You’re starting to make me think you like torturing me.”

“I like knowing that you want me.”

The look he gave her, molten steel, had her stomach trembling.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” Summer sighed, running her finger tips across his chest and down his stomach, tracing lines and following curves.

Carter grabbed her wandering hand and pulled it to his lips. “I’m glad I’m here, too. I like seeing how you live here.”

“It’s no Blue Moon.”

He laughed and nipped at her finger. “No, but you certainly have some characters here, too.”

“They all seemed to be appropriately taken with you,” Summer said, snuggling closer. “I think there will be some very eager readers when your article comes out.

“They only like me for my pretty face.”

He wasn’t far off, Summer thought. But the outside was what mattered in this industry, and being blessed the way Carter had been in that department only meant that his value sky-rocketed.

“Your friend Nikolai seems moderately human,” he said.

“Yeah. He’s a good guy. A womanizer, but a good guy.”

“Did you ever ...” Carter let the question hang in the air.

“Niko? No! Never,” she laughed. “That’s why we’re friends. I’m the longest relationship with a woman he’s ever had besides his mother.”

His hands stilled on her feet. “Can I ask you something without you getting upset?”

“Maybe?”

“Why do you do this kind of work?”

“What do you mean?” Summer asked, resting her head on the back of the couch.

“You’re smart, you’re talented. But you’re real. You don’t fit here with the rest of them. They’re all about advertisers and power plays and kiss-kiss, hate-hate and here you are seeing people and stories. And what’s more is I think you know you don’t fit. I don’t get it.”

He got her. Carter saw her for the person she believed herself to be. There was no underestimating here. No thinly veiled disappointment. She wanted to hug him until he couldn’t breathe, wanted to twirl around her living room with the thrill. How could someone she had just met know her better than everyone else in her life?

Summer bit her lip. “Can I tell you a secret that I’ve never told anyone?”

“Of course. Is it that you’re really into dudes with beards?”

“That, and it’s all part of the plan. I’m going to make senior editor and work there for two more years — three tops — learning everything I can, saving everything I can, and building my contacts. Then I’m going to start my own digital magazine.”

“You sneaky, little —” Carter tickled her feet. “So you’re not into any of this at all?”

“Well, I do love beautiful shoes and clothes. But do I care what anorexic, chain-smoking model is dating what heroin addict musician? Am I disappointed that I’ll never have to drop everything that I’m doing to rewrite a blurb on our ‘editor’s favorite cover-ups’ when an advertiser comes on board? Hell. No.”

“Tell me about this magazine.” Carter stroked her arm in lazy circles. “What’s the angle?”

“Real life. Not four thousand dollar must-have jackets for fall or sex tips from a former porn star —” She pinched him when he pretended to perk up. “It’s going to be about real women living real lives and having real adventures. What do they care about, what do they do, how do they fuel their bodies, what and who do they love? We need role models showing us how to live, not super models.”

Carter traced her nose with his finger. “You are going to disrupt the magazine industry.”

“I intend to.”

It felt so good to tell someone. Even better to tell Carter.

S
ummer was jolted awake by Carter’s body going rigid next to hers. His breathing was coming in short, sharp gasps that punctuated the night’s silence.

“Carter! Wake up.” On her knees she shook him.

When his eyes opened she could tell he still wasn’t with her.

“Wake up,” she begged, blinking back tears. “You’re safe. You’re with me.”

She saw it then. The recognition. The shame that flickered across his face. It hurt her to see his pain.

Carter sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He brought his head to his hands.

Summer wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her cheek on his back. She could hear how his heart thundered in his chest. “Tell me.”

He nodded.

Lights seemed too bright. So she lit candles and poured him a glass of water.

He paced. Naked. His mind still on the dream world he had just left.

Summer waited quietly. She sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed wearing Carter’s discarded undershirt.

“It was another night and another mission,” he said. His voice a rasp like there was too much pressure in his throat. “My team was a small tactical unit. Our job was to conduct raids on specific targets. There were some weeks during deployment that we were rolling outside the wire every night.” 

He prowled the room like a jungle cat in captivity.

“Mission after mission. We were good. We were tight. There were close calls. A lot of them. But we had ops down to a science. One night we were given orders to take a target in a small compound outside of Kunduz. He was in hiding with a small security team and we were to extract them.”

Carter paused, hands on hips. Staring as if looking back through time.

“It all went like clockwork. We breeched both buildings at the same time. He was in mine and I was going to find him. We cleared the front room. There was no furniture, just trash everywhere. He was squatting in this place.

“The back room was locked. Just a flimsy hollow door. We were in in seconds. Me and Ramirez. And there they were. Two of them both holding pistols. We had him. We had them. But there was crying. I looked down.” Carter looked down at Summer’s bed.

“She was seven. Curled up, crying. Dirt on her face. Bare feet. Terror. The terror in those huge brown eyes. I tell Ramirez to grab her and then —” his voice broke.

Summer tightened her hold on the pillow to keep herself from going to him.

“The target shot her. Right between the eyes.” His finger grazed the skin at the top of his nose. “Started screaming that he would rather have her dead than with American pigs.”

“I shot him six times before I fell. His buddy got me twice before Ramirez took him down.”

Summer clasped her hands over the sob that tried to claw its way free.

“I laid there on the dirt floor, staring into her dead eyes and watching our blood pool together.”

She went to him now. Offered him the only comfort she could. Summer wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his back.

He forged on. “When I came home, I was a mess. I couldn’t sleep because of the nightmares. I felt like I was never going to drag myself out of the abyss. The hate that I felt for that man scared me. I ended his life. I ended the hate that spewed out of him like a river. Sometimes the only thing that made me feel better was walking through those six bullets over and over again.” He let out a shaky sigh and Summer placed her lips on his back, tasting her own tears.

“And then I realized that me hating him was no different than him hating me. Fighting hate with hate gets you nowhere. That man was taught to hate his entire life. But me? I had a choice.”

“You chose a better way,” she whispered against his hot skin.

“I chose a better way,” he repeated. “And things got better.”

“But you still have the dreams,” she said.