Sunset Thunder (5 page)

And did she just pull him at her in a possessively, super hot, rough way?
 

As Violet’s lips crashed against Ryder’s lips, hard, hot and so far away from lovingly, he got his answer. She sure as hell
had
sauntered over to him with sex on her mind. At the very least, a make-out session that was starting off naughtily, exciting, and stirring something alive in him that had been absent for some time.

The instant Violet touched him, her kiss, her fingers, and her body erased the stress of redesigning the stores and the sadness of his dad’s decline. Ryder’s lips merely reacted to this incredible woman that was arousing every part of him. It had been years since his mind was this clear. Clear of the piling plateful that was his life.

In reality, Ryder should have paused to make sure the door was closed before he shoved the blazer off her shoulders to feel her tantalizing body through the thin material of her blouse. He should have pulled away from her plunging tongue that wasn’t shy on dipping into his mouth in search of his, and made sure
this
was what Violet wanted to do. But, as her hands yanked his shirt from where it had been neatly tucked, sliding sizzling hot fingers up his stomach and across his bare chest, he was taking that as his answer and there were no need for words.

Ryder cupped her face.

Violet unbuttoned his belt.

Hard, forceful kisses enveloped him away from his surroundings. He forgot he was at the Caliendo Resort. He forgot the reason he was there and the insanity of the circumstances. Everything, except this woman, was suddenly foreign to him. 

All he could do was taste the wine in her warm mouth and feel her tongue flavoring every area possible inside his welcoming mouth. 

Ryder hiked her skirt up and his fingers did exactly what they craved, moving up her thigh and damn the bare silkiness sent scorching pleasure through him. 

Violet moaned in his mouth.
Moaned! Violet Caliendo. Ice queen.
This was no ice queen. 

Ryder’s pants dropped around his ankles and he’d had nothing to do with it. It was all this fiery woman, but damn if he didn’t kick them off and pick her up all at the same time. Her arms snaked around his neck and she arched her full breasts against him as he carried her to the counter. He wanted to feel those breasts in his hands. They were still wearing too much clothing.

Their lips separated as he set her little rump down, only long enough for her to unbutton his shirt and him to unbutton hers. This woman was sizzling. Ryder was sizzling.

With her arms resting on his shoulders, Violet stopped to look at him. Her glazed, dazzling eyes held his. His hands stopped at the back of her bra, where they’d been ready to figure out if the clasp was there or in the front. Her eyes might be blue as ice, but he found no shards reflecting back at him. Their fixated look pulled him into a silent world that he found, surprisingly, enjoyable. A quiet, tranquil place with a woman that he didn’t know all that well and yet, here...there was something. Something he’d never felt and didn’t recognize.

His peripheral vision caught the deep panting breaths escaping her lips as her full chest was now exposed in her lace bra, heaving up and down to the pulse of his own breaths. He wondered if that was the moment she was going to change her mind. If she was going to send a pile of crashing icicles down on them. 

Then her eyes fell to his lips and he watched her tongue slid across her lower lip before she sucked that full cushioning lower lip between her teeth. He wanted those lips.

But what if she was done? What if the reality hit her? What if− 

Violet’s grabbed Ryder’s hardness and his eyes flew back up to hers. She was smirking at him in a devilish way before she claimed his mouth telling him they weren’t finished yet. 

***

AS VIOLET CAME down from her high, panting, hot, and never remembering a sexual encounter that had ever been that good, the stark reality hit her:
she just had sex with Ryder Carlex.

In a bathroom, at the resort, and down the hall from her ex-husband...who was waiting for both of them. Not to mention Violet’s entire family was on the premises and...and the list of reasons why this was a bad decision went on and on inside her head.

Oh crap!

For some unexplainable reason, even though her brain told her to pull away from Ryder and without delay, put distance between them, Violet didn’t want to leave the warmth of his skin. She could feel every single area of her skin that was flesh-on-flesh with his, like jolts of scorching electricity forming at each spot.

Violet’s elbows rested on his brawny, thick shoulders, as her arms wrapped up around his head, clasping above his hair and forcing his face to tuck deep against her shoulder. The roughness of his five o’clock shadow rubbed against her skin and the coarse touch ignited a want to kiss him again. Her naked middle touched his solid muscle wall and because he’d managed to unfasten the snap on the front her bra, her breasts were pushed so hard against him it felt like they’d molded into one.

Oh crap! 

She was late. They were both late. Not to mention, their outfits were going to be wrinkled, looking like they just had...

She almost gasped out loud at the thought of everyone knowing what had occurred within these four walls, but she knew the sound would pull Ryder away from her and right now she wanted to feel his hair against her cheek, his hands around her back, and his body flanked between her legs.

Would they look like they’d just had sex?
Game face.
You just need to get your game face on and no one will know what you just did. 

Violet would know. Violet had the awakening feeling that she was never going to forget the rendezvous in
this
bathroom. From this day forward, each time she walked down this hall, between the lobby and her office, and passed this door, she would see Ryder’s naked chest, feel his pounding heart against hers, and remember the feel of his mind-blowing kisses.

Oh crap!

Ryder’s breathing was just as heavy as hers and with every breath she took, the wonderful smell of his designer cologne wafted into her nose. 

Pull away.

“That was an incredible surprise.” His low, deep voice sent another rumble of desire through her with the inclination to start again from the beginning. 

Oh no, no, no! Violet, stop it this instant. Pull away. 

“This is going to be on the higher scale of awkward for the rest of the afternoon.” He was so beyond right, this was going to be
sooo
awkward.

What had she been thinking?

She hadn’t, that was the problem. Everything about today had been carelessly not thought out. She needed a reassessment. 

His arms weren’t loosening their grip either, and she tried to fight how much she liked that he was as content as she was. She could actually feel one of his fingers swirling a design against her back...
and oh it felt good.
 

How had this happened? How had this happened!
Why was she not nearly as concerned, worried, or panicked as she should be? Why did she feel like she could spend the rest of the day, right here, wrapped up in his arms?

“I think I should leave first.” His whisper was daunting.

How was he planning their escape when she couldn’t even register the entirety of what had just occurred, still reeling in how wonderful it felt, and how much she wanted to do it again.

“Since you’re in the guys washroom.” 

The guy’s washroom? She was?

“I can go down there first, distract them and text you when the coast is clear,” Ryder continued his plan. “I would need your cell phone number first.”

He was being so sweet, trying to save her reputation...a reputation she had worked her life to uphold to perfection and this one run-in with Ryder could squash it in a heartbeat. She knew all of this, and didn’t need the reminder from Ryder, yet, she still didn’t move.
Didn’t want to move.

Ryder’s finger stopped and she felt his hands move to her front. When she thought he was going to cup her breasts again...and heaven knew, she wouldn’t stop him...he snapped her bra back together. In a quick motion, he lifted her like she was weightless, pulling the hem of her skirt from under her bum and down to her knees.

Suddenly, like the sound of a balloon popping and leaving you stunned for a second, Violet remembered exactly who she’d just had sex with. And how many times he’d likely been in this exact situation: naked from the waist down with woman on a counter top.

Ryder wasn’t taken aback like Violet was, or unwinding from the naughty game they’d just played and considering how to plan another round. Violet craved to start the next round, while he was making escape plans and snapping her bra into place because this casual sex was a customary part of his life.

Violet might have initiated this play time, but he was clearing the air, reminding her it was exactly what she’d walked across the floor thinking...a onetime thing and he would walk away without any attachments.

Wasn’t that what she wanted?
A manipulating womanizer...even if she had walked to him. 

Why did her heart suddenly plummet?

Her heart? Her heart!

There was no way in hell her heart just plummeted. For one, she’d given up on her heart a long time ago when Joel crushed it and the better reason there was no way her heart was playing plummeting games, this was Ryder Carlex.
Ryder Carlex!

Violet pulled away and shoved his chest back at the same time, startling him a bit in the process, but he managed to keep his balance and send her a questioning look.

“Oh please, don’t look all shocked.” She wasn’t about to let him treat her like the nobody. Screw him. She used him.
He
was the nobody. “Get dressed and get out.” 

She reached across the counter for her blouse and stared at it appalled
. Wrinkled. Ugh
. At least it was under her blazer. She could tightly tuck it in and no one would ever know.

You will know,
her body teased, ready for another round with Ryder, while her head needed to put distance between them.

Ryder’s pants were up, buckled and he was buttoning up his shirt as he reached down and picked her blazer off the floor, handing it to her.

His spectacular eyes didn’t waver from her the entire time, like he was trying to read her. Why couldn’t he back off and just worry about himself? She could dress herself. She did it every single morning. 

Violet snatched the blazer away. “Can you hurry up so we can get out of here?”

His eyebrows arched in what initially appeared to be kindness, but she was sure she misread it as the look shifted to questioning.

Ryder straightened. Damn his body was amazing, like a wall of sparking gold. “Woman, I will leave when I damn well feel like it. If I want to stand here and watch you get dressed, after touching every piece of your hot body, then I will stand here and watch you get dressed.” The way he said “hot body,” low and sensual, made her swallow hard. Did he say this to all his women? Did they all just sit back, bat their fake eyelashes and allow him to speak to them like a Neanderthal?
 

Violet slid off the counter, furious.
Who did he think he was talking to her like that?
She shrugged into her blazer and tucked her shirt into the high waist of her skirt.

Violet stepped toward him, erasing every last inch of lust across her expression and substituting it with her flawless emotionless face. There was no way she was letting him see that she would rather have stayed on that counter all afternoon, when he was dismissing her like cheap wine.

“Stay in here then and stare at my ass as it walks away because it’s the last time you are touching any part of this
hot body
.” That was such a lie.
Touch me now
. She stood a second longer than she should have, just in case he reached for her, then she turned on her heel and scolded herself for thinking he would.

Violet stepped into the hallway, not caring who was on the other side of that door. She needed to get away from Ryder’s smoldering eyes before she pulled him back into her arms. She glanced both directions. She really did care.

Standing tall, smoothing her dress, she was about to head down the hall, when her hands felt empty...and not for Ryder. Her iPad was in her office.

Thank the stars.
She needed a moment anyway. She turned away from the foyer and right toward her office.

She had officially made this “finalize a room meeting” one hundred times worse. 

RYDER FOUND THE groom-to-be in the elegant lounge, to the left of the lobby, separated by marble columns and extraordinary large cement urns filled with fresh flowers. Inside, grand sparkling crystal chandeliers hung above the sitting areas with lush, thick carpets under grandiose and stylish furniture.

Joel sat cosily on a white sofa beside Missy, holding hands and laughing, deep in conversation with Missy’s five friends, who were seated across the wrought iron and glass table...
the bridesmaids.

Ryder cringed.

This wasn’t the first time Ryder had gathered with the wedding party. However, the last few engagements had involved the groomsmen, who were great distractions to assist Ryder in avoiding the looks and offers of these on-the-prowl ladies. They were single...every last one of them and the way they latched onto Ryder, demonstrated that they were on the hunt for a man...only Ryder wasn’t looking.

Today, he solely focused on the groom and bride-to-be, hoping that would deter the aggressive women.

Today, Joel was dressed handsomely appropriate. His khaki-colored slacks and dark knitted sweater set off the black mixed in with his brown eyes, giving him a deceiving look, much like his watchful and private personality. Joel might talk a lot of talk, but Ryder often wondered if it was to keep people from asking about Joel’s work and his life.

Joel had cornered himself into numerous financial situations, forcing him to impose his downfalls on Ryder’s father, pleading for Donald to bail him out. If it wasn’t for Ryder’s parents and their commitment to stand by Joel after his parent’s death, Ryder would have declined the offer to be Joel’s best man. Blood was thicker than his feelings toward Joel, so Ryder pressed forward and did what he knew his parents would want.

Missy’s light pink summer dress accented her light porcelain skin and green eyes, soft like her persona. The complete opposite of hard-shelled, Violet Caliendo.

Ryder cleared his throat, and the thought of Violet, as he entered the room. All heads turned to him and like rabid dogs, the bridesmaids sunk their vicious teeth into him, with the all too familiar looks screaming,
I’m checking you out
and,
I want you to know it
. And the regular lineup of,
You can have all of me, just make a move, Carlex
. Sure, he could bang every single one of these sexy and cute women, flashing their white smiles, and winking their seductive eyes his way, but that didn’t mean he wanted to. This time, Ryder wasn’t in the same dark, dreadful place in his life, so he wasn’t interested in quick flings or possibilities of a relationship. Besides, none of them could rock his hips the way Violet had.

Did that really happen?

Ryder was still shaking the image of Violet’s swaying hips crossing the room toward him in the lobby washroom from his mind. He recounted the way she knew exactly what she wanted and how powerless he had been to object.

He had sex with Violet Caliendo...in the lobby washroom. Holy shit!
How was he supposed to act remotely normal with Joel now?
You better try damn hard.

It was bizarre, seeing that Violet had done precisely what every woman did with Ryder: threw herself at him. Yet, their interaction felt nothing like what Ryder had ever experienced with any other woman and left him craving more. That was a jumble of confusion he didn’t have the energy to sort out right now.

“Hey Ryder,” Missy greeted first.

Ryder sent Missy a sincere smile. She was the only woman not ogling his body like it was a slab of meat, freshly cut from the butchers and ready to sizzle. Missy was cute, like the girl next door, with innocent eyes and a young smile. This woman had nothing on Violet Caliendo. 

Hold up! Stop doing that. Don’t compare the two women...because Violet will outrank Missy every time. Really?

Ryder couldn’t believe the thoughts going through his head. His mind hadn’t been this active, when not regarding work or his dad’s medical condition, in such a long time, he almost wasn’t used to thinking about anything else. He liked the distraction, he welcomed the distraction...he just wasn’t sure he liked that it was Violet that kept distracting him. She was a thunderstorm. Hot, steamy, sensually sucking his lips one moment then screw you cold, get-out-of-my-way ice queen the next.

Thunderstorm
.

Damn windy, whirl whipping, pick everything up along the way and slam it down when she was finished.

Or was that a hurricane?
 

Joel stood and came in for a hand grasping, shoulder patting, man hug. “Ryder,” he said. 

“Sorry, I’m late man.”

I am not going to tell you why, but it was the most thrilling thunderstorm I’ve ever been in.
 

Joel shrugged. “No biggie.”

Joel stood a foot shorter than Ryder, and he’d never hit the gym which showed by his rounded belly protruding under his sweater. 

“Violet’s not back either.” Joel lowered his voice to a whisper for only Ryder to hear. “Probably tightening her chastity belt,” he said, jabbing Ryder’s stomach with his elbow as he pulled away. 

Joel always had a low stab for Violet, which made Ryder wonder again, what the hell they were all doing at the Caliendo Resort in the first place or why Joel had married her in the first place?

This particular dig at Violet sent direct heat to Ryder’s manhood, knowing that he’d unlocked Violet’s chastity belt only minutes earlier, and that he would deeply consider traveling through storms and climbing mountains to find that key again.

Distraction...distraction...distraction.

Missy slid in for a hug too, with her small frame. “I’m so glad you could come. Are you still on for fishing next week? I know it’s all Joel has been talking about.” Missy slipped back into the nook of Joel’s side, and his arm automatically wrapped around her.

“Up bright and early and home late, just like when we were kids,” Ryder said, remembering the times Joel’s parents would stay at the lake house and the boys would head out fishing with their dads.

Both being only children, they’d bonded back then. A bond that had taken them through boarding school and into university, but since then their friendship had struggled and tapered, only seeing each other when Ryder visited Willow Valley. It was more in the last two years with Donald living at the lake house permanently, a truth he was yet to share with Joel, if he ever did. He just hoped Joel kept his financial life out of trouble, because Donald was now powerless to help and Ryder wasn’t putting his neck on the line. That would leave Joel on his own if it happened again.

“Ryder, you really have to take me on your boat,” one of Missy’s friends said. He’d been introduced by name to each of them, but forgot as quickly as he was told. So he would call this one, who latched onto his arm and squeezed her painted red nails into his skin, Bottom Feeder.

Missy laughed. “Marci, get off him. You’re going to have to excuse my friends. Apparently, handsome men make them forget their manners.” She was reaching for Marci to pull her away, but Marci wiggled back, pulling Ryder a step back with her.

“And rich...” Joel added with a wink at the ladies and another elbow in Ryder’s side.

Please, don’t bait them.

Missy gave up.

Joel chuckled, liking the show that had Ryder cringing.

All the women swarmed around Ryder, like piranha’s closing in on their prey.

He was trying to figure out a diversion to eliminate him from the grasp of Bottom Feeder, as he caught sight of Violet. Suddenly he didn’t feel the other woman’s touch.

Violet stood between the marble columns, looking like a Goddess of Beauty and she played the part well. This woman indeed knew how to pull herself together after what he would call a helluva occurrence in the lobby washroom. Her shoulders were pulled back, straightly defined, lengthening her height. Not an untouched blonde hair was out of place, or a smudge of lipstick, not a blush of color grazed her cheeks. All of the details he’d enjoyed watching as she dressed, with her flustered reaction. Her hair had been askew, her lipstick half missing, which he’d wiped clean off his lips after she left, and her cheeks flushed from the intimate touching they’d shared. Instant images of her legs still parted, sitting on the counter and her underwear lying on the floor, found their way into his head.

Back to the now.

The calmness of her eyes told the people in this room that she’d been doing anything else except touching, kissing, and scorching Ryder Carlex.

When Violet’s eyes found Ryder first, they were expressionless, like she didn’t care that Melanie...Maggie...whatever M-named woman, was leeched against Ryder, where Violet had been only minutes ago...and who Ryder would prefer to have touching him.

Violet’s eyes didn’t miss a beat, departing from Ryder’s to travel around the room, sending everyone an equally quick smile.

No special attention for Ryder. No ogling looks...and not a seductive wink, followed by another lobby washroom offer. That was exactly what Ryder wanted from every woman, to be left alone, not ogled, not touched and not be treated like their next hunting trophy. Why did disappointment wash through him when Violet did exactly that?

Had he hoped she would share a shred of knowledge with him?
A wink, a smile, a grin...anything?

“I see we are all here, so why don’t we go look over the two ballrooms, discuss the amenities of each and decide on the one for your special day,” she said so professionally that an outsider would have no idea she’d been married to the groom.

Why don’t we start with the men’s washroom...it’s way more appealing. 

Missy clapped her hands and squealed, leading her group of Ryder-sucking leeches toward the ballroom, including Miss M, who let Ryder’s arm free.

Missy knew her way around the resort after years of being employed as a maid. The possibility that Joel and Missy had been fooling around before his divorce to Violet had crossed Ryder’s mind. If that question taunted him...didn’t it taunt them all? Including Violet?

Ryder couldn’t decide which was more awkward...him having sex with his friend’s ex-wife or the fact Violet was planning her ex-husband’s wedding. Either way, both were distracting and entertaining, keeping Ryder’s mind occupied.

Heels dug firmly onto the floor and iPad held tightly against her chest, Violet stood at the entrance, nodding and smiling as each person passed. Ryder waited, casually with his hands in his pockets, until he was the last person in the lobby.

He should have been grateful that Violet was acting like nothing had happened between them. Hell, nothing should have happened between them. But, here he was, baiting on her professionalism as she waited for him and did not scamper away, as his feet made it to the exit.

Ryder stopped beside her. The designer perfume that had engaged his senses as he rose into bliss with this magnificent woman in the washroom now tantalized him...and he liked it. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew he should keep walking. He knew this woman was a thunderstorm, his friend’s ex-wife, and an ice queen, but Ryder didn’t listen to any of the warnings. They were mildly nagging the back of his mind, while front and center was the desire to ruffle the feathers of Violet Caliendo. If that meant he was falling down to the level of bottom feeder and her posse...Ryder was good with that.

Ryder lowered his tone to a seductive whisper only for Violet. “I appreciated that skirt more, when it was hiked up around your waist.”

Violet breathed deeper. She stared harder. That was all she gave him, but he damn well knew it was more then she wanted to give.