Rush of Redemption (Rush Series #2) (31 page)

This was how Rush found
her, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring vacantly out the window. He sat
down beside her and took her hand. “Hey. You want to get up for a little bit?
See Blake… get a bite to eat?”

Turning bleak eyes to his,
she asked, “How will we keep him safe? How will we ever know for sure that he
is safe enough?”

His throat worked hard as
he attempted to swallow. “There is no way to know. We can only do our best.”

“My father thought he was
doing his best as well and it still didn’t stop the madness… stop my own
stubbornness.”

“I didn’t realize you and
your father were back on speaking terms,” he said softly.

She closed her eyes and
turned away from his stare. “We weren’t. He’d been trying to contact me since I
returned from Mexico, but I wouldn’t take his calls… so selfish… so very
selfish,” she said bitterly.

“What did he want?” Rush
asked.

Haltingly at first, then
gaining steam, Trinity told him what her father had told her. “I’ve blamed him
for everything. I turned away from him when all he’d ever done was love me.
What kind of person does that make me?” she asked.

“Wow. I have to admit, I
didn’t see that coming,” he said as he tucked her hair behind her ear. “But,
how could you have known?”

She shook her head. “I
don’t know. But I should have trusted him,” she looked away from Rush again. “I
should have trusted you…” He inhaled sharply at her words. Turning back to him,
she said, “I’m sorry… sorry for not believing you… believing 
in
 you.”

He closed his eyes briefly
at her words. They were glassy when he reopened them. Cupping her face in a
shaky palm, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. “I’ve missed
you so much,” he said shakily.

“Me too,” she whispered.

Fear of scaring her off had
him pulling back from her. Taking her hand in his, he stood and pulled her to
her feet. “Let’s go see our son, okay?”

She nodded.

Blake was in his swing
staring up at the brightly colored objects dancing above his head on the
mobile. Trinity lifted his tiny body out of the swing and pressed kisses
against his head. “I love you so much,” she whispered, as Rush leaned against
the doorjamb. Rush’s heart constricted in his chest at the sight of the people
he loved most, together in his home once again… safe and protected. If only he
could keep them that way.

Chapter
Twenty

Once Blake was asleep, Trinity looked down at the T-shirt she
wore. She really needed clothes. Not wanting to parade around others in nothing
but one of Rush’s T-shirts, she went back to Rush’s master suite and sat down
on the bed to wait for him to return. She didn’t feel comfortable in being
here. This was his house and she really didn’t belong here anymore. She raked a
hand through her hair. Panic flooded her at the thought of going outside these
walls… out there… exposed.

Rush found her sitting
uncomfortably on the edge of the bed. Moving to the bed, he sat down next to
her. “What’s wrong?”

Needing to pretend like she
could stand on her own two feet, she stood agitatedly. “I need to go home,” she
said with conviction.

His chest expanded. His
face fell from concern into grim lines. “No,” he said simply.

“Rush, I can’t stay here
forever. I’ll have to go out there sometime,” she said, trying to sound
rational.

“Maybe, but it doesn’t have
to be today. It’s a media circus out there right now. Give it some time to cool
off,” he said firmly.

Turning from him, she
sighed deeply. “I have things I need to take care of… my father’s funeral… his
estate…”

“I’ll take care of it,” he
said.

“It’s not your place… not
your problem,” she replied.

He rose slowly from the
bed, his mouth set in determined lines. “No, 
you
 are my
problem,” he stated.

She took a step back, “What
do you mean?”

He backed her up until she
felt the wall against her back. Slowly, he grabbed one hand, then her other,
capturing her fully between his body and the wall. “Every damned time I turn
around you’re running away from me in one form or the other. Frankly, I’m
tired. And I’m sure all the running must be exhausting for you as well. Why
don’t you just quit running for just a little while?” Rubbing his cheek against
hers, he whispered in her ear, “We’ve already won the race, Trinity,
now it’s time to reap our reward. Don’t you think?”

He nipped the lobe of her
ear and she shivered against him. Her chest began to heave and her heart
thudded. The sizzle that had always consumed them flooded him at her body’s
response to his simple touch. Two months of stored up passion erupted in him.
He crushed his lips against her lips and forced them to open to him. He thrust
his tongue into her mouth and she met him there, sliding her own tongue against
him just as frantically.

He slid his impatient hands
down and caressed the bare skin of her bottom and lifted her up into his raging
erection. Picking her up, he surged them onto the bed. Not caring to be gentle,
he roughly shoved the T-shirt up until her breasts were exposed to the hot
suction of his mouth. She cried out and her body arched up into his. Reaching
down between them, he unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and lowered them enough
to finish kicking them off his legs. Settling between her thighs, he placed
himself at her entrance and with a quick thrust of his hips, he was fully
encased within her.

They both sighed at the connection.
“This is where you belong. Here, with me, in this bed. This is where I want
you.” He eased up before sliding back into her. She closed her eyes and her sex
clung to his, clenching around it, sucking him greedily back into her body. He
groaned against her lips. 
“God, baby.
 I’m
not going to last a minute.”

Digging her fingers into
his hair, she pulled his head back to stare up into the brilliance of his eyes.
“I need you fast and hard, 
pleassse
…” she
begged.

He grinned down at her.
“Oh, baby. You were made for me.”

With a quick thrust of his
hips, he slammed his body into hers. She moaned, “Yes, yes, yes!”

Slipping his hands under
her butt, he raised her hips as he plunged over and over into her pliant body.
The angle of his body entering hers had his rigid shaft rubbing over the
sensitive bundle of nerves located at her entrance. She dug her fingernails
into his hips and arched her back as she cried out her release. Her body
pulsating and clenching around him pushed him over the top and he buried himself
as deep as possible inside her body as he came with hot, long bursts.

Collapsing down on top of
her, he rolled them, still connected, onto their sides. They lie, facing each
other, panting. He pulled her head back into his chest and held her close to
him, still needing the closeness between them to linger. She nuzzled her face
against him, enjoying the connection with another person. He kissed the top of
her head and rubbed his hand up and down her back.

“I’ve missed this,” he said
quietly.

“Me too,” she replied.

She felt him stiffen next
to her and his heart began to pound. His unease prickled against her already
scattered emotions. “What is it?” she asked, fearing his answer.

“I want you back,” he said
simply.

She sucked in a breath, surprised
by his words. “Why?”

“Because I love you… I’ve
always loved you.”

“I… I don’t understand. I
thought this was what you wanted,” she mumbled against his chest.

“Why would you think that?”
he asked surprised, shifting to stare down into the dark pools of her eyes.
“No! You know what? It doesn’t matter why you think that. I do not want this. I
hate this. I want our family together as it should have been from the
beginning. I want you here with me, or if you’d rather, I’ll go with you to
your condo. I don’t care where we are as long as we are together. You and Blake
are my life… without you, I’m only half alive.” Using the same forceful tone
he’d used the very first time he’d asked her to dance at the nightclub in Vail,
he said, “Marry me.”

She studied him for a very
long time, and feeling exactly the same way she felt when he held her on that
sensual precipice, she took a deep breath and jumped. “Okay.”

His breath left him in a
gush. “Thank God,” he murmured, “Thank God.”

~*~

Rush sat behind his desk, high above the city of Savannah in his
office situated on the top floor of 
Drayco
 International.
He leaned back in his chair and waited patiently, his lips drawn into thin
lines. Things were coming to a head. It was time for the sins of the past to be
put to rest. He meant to move forward with his life and he could only do that
if 
everyone
 let the past go. He knew his course of action
would be challenged, but he had the upper hand – given to him by the very man
he was about to defy.

A commotion in the outer
office was his signal that the man he’d been waiting on had now arrived. Rush
glanced at the man seated across from him in one of the two black overstuffed,
leather chairs. The grey-haired man stared back impassively, sitting patiently
with a briefcase on his lap.

The intercom on his phone
buzzed. 
Mr. Drayton, your grandfather has arrived
, Rush heard
through the phone’s speakers. Inhaling deeply in preparation of the battle he
was about to face, Rush said, “Send him in. Thanks, Nora.”

Andrew Drayton came into
the room smiling. “Rush, my boy,” he said.

Rush rose to his feet but
didn’t return the smile. 
“
Boppa
.”

Andrew’s eyebrows arched at
his grandson’s seriousness. His eyes caught on the man seated across from Rush.
“Grey? What a pleasant surprise. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Andrew
looked quizzically at Rush. “You did tell me two o’clock, right?”

“Yes, you’re right on 
time
. I asked Mr. Whiting to join us. I needed something
notarized.”

Andrew Drayton stared at his
grandson, trying to understand the mood of the room. Finally, he asked, “Do you
want me to wait in the lobby until you’ve completed your business?”

Rush met his gaze steadily.
“No, I want you to witness the signing of a document before Grey notarizes it.”

With a wave of his hand,
Andrew said, “Of course, of course.”

“Please, 
Boppa
, have a seat,” Rush indicated the other black leather
chair across from him.

Once Andrew Drayton was
seated, Rush nodded to Grey Whiting. The man opened his briefcase and handed
several pages of a document over to him. Rush took the document and sat back
down behind the desk. He looked at the document in steep contemplation before
glancing back up at his grandfather.

“
Boppa
,
for the last year, we have been living in the past. We sought to find
information using whomever we had to secure it. In the end, it gained us
nothing. The man we sought, the man who’d killed my father, was already dead.
So the justice we craved was not given to us. With great shame, I agreed to use
an innocent woman to help gain this information – which almost got her killed.
If she would have died, her blood would have been on our hands,” Rush stated
emotionlessly.

Andrew shook his head. “Not
just our hands. Her father was just as much to blame.”

“You can try to rationalize
this any way you want, but I want you to understand that I love her. She will
be my wife.” Lifting the legal document in his hand, he continued, “This
document is the prenuptial agreement you were so desperate to have signed.”

“About time you got that
done. It’s important for our future… all our futures, even Blake’s,” Andrew
said with deep relief.

Rush’s lips curled into a
small smile. “Yes, you are right. It is important for 
all
 our
futures. You see, this document isn’t a prenuptial agreement for removing
Trinity’s rights, it removes mine.”

Puzzlement filled Andrew
Drayton’s face. “I don’t understand.”

“This document states if
Trinity and I divorce for any reason… any reason at all, all my shares of 
DrayCo
 International go to her… all fifty-one percent
of them. She will have the controlling shares.”

Andrew rose quickly to his
feet. “Don’t be foolish. In a marriage, anything can happen. What if it is her
who wants to leave? You are putting us all at extreme risk for nothing more
than a tart!” he bellowed.

Rush leaped to his feet as
well. “You would do well to remember this is my future wife you’re talking
about. My recommendation is that you ensure she wants to stay in our family.”

“I’ll never accept this
marriage, Rush. If you marry her, you will rue the day, I promise you.”

Rush studied his
grandfather for a long time and with steely determination, he said, “I 
am
 going
to marry her. If you can’t accept that and learn to be civil, then you will
have no part of our lives. You’ll never see your great-grandson again… or me.”