Seducing an Heiress (14 page)

Dakota met his gaze squarely. "Okay. You want the truth about what's going on? Here it is. I'm attracted to you. I can't help it. But I don't trust you not to use it against me, so I'm not going to do anything about it."

He watched her steadily for a moment. "Is that why you came to my hotel room?"

She shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage. "I wanted to see what all the fuss was about." Under the circumstances, she forgave herself for
that
little lie. "Don't read more into it than there is."

His brows rose. "There was a fuss?"

"Oh, come on. You had to know you were something of a legend in the office. The other executives called you The Magician."

"Why?" he asked, his gaze puzzled.

"Something about a magic touch," she mumbled, her face growing warm.

Trey grinned at her, the sudden flash of teeth and dimples full of male pride. "Really?"

"Don't get all cocky about it," she said, frowning at him. 

"Are you kidding?" He picked up his fork and dug into the stew with a gusto. "I had no idea."

"That's hard to believe."

"I've never lied to you, Dakota."

"That's hard to believe, too."

He paused, his eyes getting that solid, intense look she was coming to recognize. "I know what it's like to be lied to. I've done a lot of things, but not that." 

Intuitively, she knew it was true and the reality of that explained why a part of her had always sensed a certain authenticity under the façade he wore. Her self-preservation flared up. Down that path of realization lay danger.

"You don't need to lie, you have avoidance down to an art," she retorted. 

"A perfectly legitimate strategy. One you're using right now." He shoved a chunk of meat into his mouth. "Try your stew," he said around the food.

"I'm not avoiding anything." She stabbed at her meal. "I'm saying flat out that we won't pursue our attraction for each other." She bit into a potato. The burst of flavor, a savory blend of beef, vegetables, garlic, and herbs flowed over her tongue. 

"This is good," she mumbled, scooping up another bite.

"We would be good, too."

"For a little while. Then you'd try to talk me into working for Dad and spoil it. Why can't you understand that I don't want to live that life, anymore?"

Trey reached for a biscuit. He broke it in half and contemplated the fluffy bread inside. "Because it's naive."

She hitched her shoulders against the frustration riding her. What would it take to get through to this man? If not for this one major philosophical difference, they might have a chance at creating something worthwhile between them. They'd certainly have a good time trying.

If he could ever bend enough to see that life here could be good, maybe she'd be willing to throw caution to the wind and give a relationship with him a try. What he needed was to experience a simpler life first hand.

Bracing her forearms on the table, Dakota leaned toward him. "Get a job in Harts Creek and live only on that income for one month and I'll agree to see Dad."

His head came up and his gaze pinned her.

"Not work for him, but
see
him," she clarified, knowing that would be a risky enough proposition. A whisper of foreboding trailed across her neck, but she dismissed it, holding on to the hope that this would bring Trey to her side of the issue.

"Two weeks," he said.

Was that enough? She studied his face, now set in determined lines. "Done."

Trey held out his hand to close the deal, but Dakota shook her head. "I think we better keep a polite distance from each other. At least for a while." She grabbed a biscuit and stood up. "Thanks for dinner, though. It was great."

When she reached the door, she dared to look back and the dread murmuring inside her began chattering louder. He sat at the table watching her, his expression triumphant.

Had she done the right thing? Was the risk worth it?

As she crossed the landing to her apartment she told herself to have faith in Harts Creek. The town and its people had won her over when she'd stumbled across it last winter. It could win Trey over, too. 

CHAPTER TWELVE

Pacing back to his bed, Trey shut his new phone and massaged the bridge of his nose. His conversation with Jamison had not been pleasant. Even knowing Trey would be bringing Dakota with him, Jamison had begrudged the extra week of time before delivery.

His stomach knotted at the thought of subjecting Dakota to the man who was not her father in any way except biologically. In one of those strange twists that life had a fondness for, his own alcoholic dad had been a better parent than hers. Unlike Pop, Jamison at least had the means to give her every comfort and advantage, but instead he chose to use her for his own purposes. The man didn't deserve a daughter like her.

He glanced at his watch. Two AM. No wonder he was getting maudlin.

Tossing his phone onto the bedside table, he stripped off his sweat pants and got under the covers. He was just falling asleep when a low cry echoed through the wall from Dakota's apartment.

He sat up, his exhausted brain struggling to form a cohesive thought. A muffled 'no' followed and adrenaline shot through his blood stream.

Dakota was in trouble.

Trey was out of the apartment and pounding on her door before he'd even realized he'd left his bed. When she didn't answer, he sprinted back to his bedroom and grabbed the building keys. The screams had turned to pain-filled moaning sending panic shooting into his pounding heart.

Had Castella snuck back in to get some kind of revenge on her? Was a homicidal rapist on the loose? People didn't always lock their doors in small towns like this. Had she left herself vulnerable to attack?

He fumbled with the keys in her lock, finally getting the door open. Her apartment was laid out just like Suzette's but in reverse, which put her bedroom on the other side of the wall from the guest room where he was sleeping. 

In less than a second he was across her living room and bursting through the door. Dakota sat straight up in bed and shrieked at the top of her lungs, her eyes wide in the glow of moonlight that seeped through the blinds on her window. Trey scanned the area for her assailant, ready to beat the man to a pulp. 

The room was empty. She wasn't in danger. His heart rate slowed.

Dakota gulped in air, her eyes still as big as saucers. "I'm dreaming," she muttered, her gaze sweeping over him. "I'm still dreaming."

"Are you all right?" Trey asked, feeling like a complete idiot.

She lay down and pulled the covers over her shoulders. Then popped up, making him jump.

"You're naked."

Trey glanced down at himself and realized in his panic that he hadn't put his sweat pants back on. He shrugged, surprised that he felt a slight twinge of embarrassment. "I sleep better." She didn't react and he watched her warily, wondering if she were actually awake. "Did you have a nightmare?" he asked, carefully.

A slow, sultry smile lifted her mouth. "Not a nightmare. You should know."

"Should I?" He didn't understand the best way to handle this. Wasn't it dangerous to wake sleep walkers, or something?

She pushed her covers down to her waist and pulled the little shirt she wore over her head. The bars of moonlight striping through the blinds curved across the firm mounds of her naked breasts. Trey swallowed.

"You like this," she said, studying his growing erection.

It would be like taking advantage of a drunk woman, he told himself. He couldn't do it. He cleared his throat. "Lie down and go to sleep. This is only a dream, remember?"

She reached under her covers, wiggled around a bit, and came up with a pair of panties. Sweat broke out across his forehead. "Lie down, Dakota."

"Come to bed, Trey."

"Please cover up."

She slid down and flung her arms over her head. "Make me." Her challenging tone belied the way her gaze caressed him.

Trey rubbed his hand over his mouth. By all the saints. 

"If you tuck me in, I'll sleep," she purred.

He had to resolve this and get out before he forgot all his principles and pounced on her. Gritting his teeth, Trey went over to the bed and reached across her for the covers. She made a quick slide downward and her hot, wet tongue swept over the tip of his erection.

"Sweet mother!" 

And then her mouth slid down his length enclosing him in heat. 

Trey gripped the head board, breathing heavily. "Dakota, ahh," he moaned as she pulled up and slid down again sending waves of pleasure into his groin and up through his gut. 

She released him and her hand cupped him gently. "I should have finished my sentence," she said running her palm up and down his length. "I meant to say 'Tuck me in and I'll sleep with you.'" She flicked her tongue across him again.

Trey pushed off the head board. He didn't give a damn anymore if Dakota thought she was dreaming or not, but he still couldn't do a thing about it. "I won't make love to you without protection," he said through gritted teeth. 

"Bedside table drawer behind you," she murmured, running her hand over his stomach before biting him lightly next to his naval. Flinging herself back onto the bed she watched him through hooded eyes as he pulled open the drawer and fumbled around for a foil packet.

Placing it on the bedside table, he turned back to her.

"Why don't you put it on?" she asked, her voice low and sultry.

"I'm not ready, yet."

Her gaze traveled lower. "Really? You look ready."

"Not yet." Feeling more in control, now, Trey knelt beside the bed and grabbed her legs. She squealed when he gave a quick tug, pulling her to the side of the bed. Her sweet, musky perfume, spiced with desire, drifted up to him. He pulled in a deep breath and lust for her crackled through his body, firing his senses, filling his erection with heavy heat. The drive to claim her as she'd demanded sizzled through Trey's blood.

But instead, he gently parted her slick folds and lowered his mouth to her sweet center. Dakota sighed. He played his tongue over her clitoris, suckling gently. She moaned, the sound just like what he'd heard earlier.

In a flash of understanding Trey realized she
had
been dreaming. Of him.

The powerful, irresistible need to be the center of her world in that moment rolled over him. He drove his tongue in and out of her center in a shadow dance of things to come until she dug her hands into his hair, clinging to him like a drowning woman. 

"Trey, please," she groaned, making him ache to be in her.

Returning his attention to the apex of her smooth folds, he licked and suckled her lavishly while he fumbled to open the small foil packet. When he was ready, he stood and lifted her closer to the edge of the bed. The silvery glow from the window flowed across the graceful curve of her waist and hips, the peaks of her breasts. He ran his hands up her thighs, the silky feel of her skin sending ripples of pleasure deep into his being. 

Wrapping her legs around his waist, Trey placed himself at the gate of heaven, her warmth touching the tip of his erection and driving his urge to be in her to a mind-spinning level. Her gaze, heavy with passion, locked onto his.

His heart turned over in his chest with a stuttering lurch and he hesitated. With a shock of self awareness, he realized he wanted more than quick gratification. He wanted Dakota. All of her. Present and for him.

"This isn't a dream," he said, softly. "I'm really here and I want you."

The softness in her eyes cleared a little and she focused on him. "I knew all along." She gave him a gentle, mysterious smile that shattered his control.

Trey sank into her.

*  *  *

A wave of urgency engulfed Dakota. She pulsed her hips against Trey, meeting him thrust for thrust, straining to bring him closer.

The aching energy in her center built, tightening, hardening, reaching inward and flowing outward at the same time--a wondrous miracle mimicked by the longing throbbing in her heart.

She spread her hands across Trey's chest, caressing the hard mass of his muscles, running her fingers over the ridged contours of his stomach, then as the pressure built, clutching the solid columns of his arms where they bracketed her waist.

A frantic joy danced through her body and burst free in waves of bliss. She rode the pulsing ecstasy filling her mind and soul and embraced it fiercely. Clamping hard onto Trey's waist with her legs, she exploded in a shower of star dust. 

He pumped into her faster and faster. With a shout he drove himself home, his granite heat radiating deep into her being. Ripples of pleasure wove through her body and she arched her back against the soft blanket beneath her. 

Giving a final push against her, Trey ran his hands up and over her hips, and then covered her with his body. Wrapping his arms around her, he rolled back onto the bed and pulled her snugly against his side. 

"My God, Dakota," he said, his voice rough. Wonder filled his gaze as he bent and gave her a light kiss.

She settled contentedly next to him, relaxed and warm. She didn't know if she'd done the right thing encouraging him to stay, but she was glad. What she had with Trey, whatever it was, was magical. Nothing like her experience with Jack, who mostly had been appealing because he was a man her father had never liked. 

Trey was beyond that in a way she didn't really understand. How could she? She hardly knew anything about him. The urge to understand what drove him crept through her, diluting her contentment slightly.

She stroked her finger tips across the light dusting of hair on his chest, not wanting to lose this unexpected intimacy, but driven by the hope of deepening it. "Why did your grandfather have to raise you?"

He shifted the shoulder under her cheek as if shrugging away an annoyance. "I had nowhere else to go," he answered quietly, his tone tight.