The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (38 page)

Home
. The word filled her with
ecstasy. She shared a home with Adam. A home, where hopefully,
they’d welcome a baby soon. Her hand automatically went to her
stomach. Was this the way her mother felt when she’d found out she
was pregnant with her? Tashi wondered. Was she excited even though
she wasn’t married, and didn’t know the identity of the father of
her baby? Shaking off the shattering reality that she might never
know her father, Tashi jutted her chin and straightened her
shoulders with dignity. “Seven o’clock, you said? That’s kind of
late.”

Prudence smiled as if asking for forgiveness
for her near implied insult. “If you would call Mr. Andreas to
confirm his estimated time of arrival, I would have a better idea
of when to shuck the oysters and have them delivered, Mrs.
Andreas.”

“Thank you, Prudence. I will do just that and
get back to you.”

Prudence curtsied as if to a queen and backed
away.

I’m never going to get used to all this
bowing and reverence
, Tashi thought as she left the empty room
and walked across the hall into Adam’s office.

***

Adam rocked to Robin Thicke’s “Good Girl”
blasting through his car stereo as he sped west on Route 80 toward
Mount Reservoir. A huge grin was splattered on his face as he
thought of his ‘good girl’ wife who’d turned nasty on him. He
chuckled, still unable to believe she’d actually said the word
“cock” in their way-too-brief phone sex conversation this
morning.

His sweet little innocent virgin Tashi had
evolved overnight into a wanton hussy. He loved it, and so did his
cock, he thought as it stirred against the restriction of his
trousers. He couldn’t believe how excited he was about going home
after a long day’s work to someone he cared about, someone in whose
arms he longed to spend himself, and then fall asleep. But as he
turned off Route 80 on to Mount Reservoir Way, and passed the road
that led to the Forsythes’ home, Adam’s excitement ground to a
halt.

He glanced at his dashboard clock. He had
just enough time to make a quick stop before arriving home at the
appointed time he’d promised his wife he’d be there. Adam applied
his brakes and pulled to the side of the road. He waited for
several cars to pass by before making a clean U-turn. This wouldn’t
take long. Not at all.

Five minutes later, he was knocking on the
front door of the Forsythe mansion, and a few seconds later their
prim-faced butler opened it. “Good day, Mr. Andreas,” he said
bowing to Adam.

“Good day, Jimmy. I’m here to see Ms. Claire.
Is she in?”

“She is, sir.” Jimmy stood aside and ushered
him inside. “I believe she’s reclining at the outdoor pool, sir. Is
she expecting you? Should I announce you?”

“That won’t be necessary, Jimmy. Thank
you.”

Adam walked through the house that he’d
frequented ten years ago when he and Claire were seeing each other,
and it was as stuffy and boring as it was back then. He couldn’t
believe that he’d even considered becoming a member of this
snobbish family. He turned right at a long hallway, paying no
attention to the two maids who were busy dusting off paintings on
the walls. He was grateful that Claire’s parents were out of town,
sparing him the trouble of suffering through meaningless
pleasantries with them.

He’d seethed with rage earlier today when
Daisy had informed him that Claire had approached Tashi at the
esplanade. Luckily for him, Daisy read lips, so she was able to
tell him exactly what Claire had said to his wife. No way was he
going to let this slide. Tashi would not become another Pilar. No
way in hell.

“Adam!” Claire rose from her lounge chair as
he took the few steps from the patio to the poolside. “This is an
unexpected surprise, darling.”

Adam swallowed his repulsion as she ran
forward, scantily clad in a navy blue bikini that covered very
little of her ashen white body. What did he ever see in her? Adam
took a backward step as she attempted to embrace him.

“What’s the matter, darling? Not even a hug
for old times’ sake?” Her lips ruffled and her eyes narrowed with
mock confusion as if she didn’t know why he’d darkened the doorway
of her family’s home for the first time since she’d left him at the
altar.

“This is not a social call, Claire, as you
well know,” he said, staring at her painted face. She wore far too
much makeup. “I’m here to warn you, in person, to stay away from my
wife.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I was just
toying with the little thing, Adam. She obviously can’t take the
heat of competition. She ran straight to you whining like the
insecure little girl she is.”

Competition?
She actually believed
that she and Tashi were in some kind of competition for his
affection? Had she taken a good look at his new bride? And how
could she be so mean and insensitive when she herself had once been
the victim of abuse and ridicule? Adam felt pity for her more than
anything else, but he would be damned if he’d let her demons
inflict pain on his wife, or him for that matter. Perhaps he should
have been blunt when she’d come begging him for another chance.
There was no reason for him to be cruel back then, but now…

He cleared his throat. “I never told you
before, Claire, because I didn’t want to hurt you, but perhaps I
should have, if for nothing else, to spare us this futile
conversation ten years after our near fiasco. So here it is: I
never loved you. Not even for a minute, and that’s why—as you’ve
mentioned in the past—you never heard those words from me. However,
I love my father, and I was willing to marry you to make him happy,
give him the grandchildren he wanted. You spared our families a
lifetime of misery by unceremoniously dumping me at the altar. It
was the best thing you ever did for me. Looking at you now, it
would have been the worst mistake of my life to breed with
you.”

She clasped her hands to her flushed cheeks.
“Adam, you don’t mean that.” Tears formed in her eyes, but Adam
wasn’t moved. “You’ve never said anything unkind to me before, not
even after I left you at the altar, for which I have apologized
profusely. You’ve changed.”

Yes!
Love changes you
.

“Look at what this girl has turned you into.
She’s definitely not of our social status. What hole did you dig
her out of, Adam? She must have tricked you into marrying her, but
I can save you, darling.” She reached a hand toward his face.

Adam jumped back again, knocked his heel
against the bottom step, and almost lost his balance. He quickly
straightened himself up. The woman was delusional, and quite
frankly, it scared him a little. “Claire,” he said in a lethal cold
voice, “I’m warning you. Stay away from my wife. If you even look
at her, much less approach her again to engage her in conversation,
I swear I’ll—”

“What Adam? What will you do?” She stared,
challenging him.

Adam fisted his hands at his sides. He swore
to God he could strangle her with his bare hands and feel nothing
as he watched the life drain out of her. His stomach churned with
disgust at the thought that he’d once been intimate with her.

“You don’t want to find out, Claire.” Adam
turned a deaf ear to her gasps, and his back on her appalled face.
He retraced his steps through the house and made his way to the
front door, slamming it behind him.

***

Twenty minutes later, Adam walked into his
master suite to find a note from his wife:
Adam, join me in the
garden for dinner
.
We’re spending the night. Tashi.

After a quick shower, and instructions to his
staff not to disturb him, even if the sky was falling down around
them, Adam left his cell phone behind and set out to join his
wife.

His heart was beating a mile a minute as he
passed the flagpole with the white flag flying at full staff. He
tried to remember ever being this nervous about going to meet a
woman, and he couldn’t think of one single occasion. When it came
to women, he was always in control, especially of his emotions.
Tashi Holland Andreas had stripped him of that power.

Since the night he’d rescued her, today was
the first day they’d been separated, and he’d missed her something
awful. He’d been experiencing moments of breathlessness every time
he thought of her. Yep, he’d been suffering from Tashi Withdrawal.
He was hooked, addicted to her.

The rushing sound of the waterfall alerted
Adam that he was nearing the garden. His steps quickened as his
mind wandered back to the first time he’d brought Tashi to his
home. That night while Tashi’s specific reason and her benefit for
meeting him had been as clear as day, he’d wondered about his
reason and benefit for meeting her.

The answer was simple: Love. Just by
being
, Tashi had shown him what it meant to love someone so
genuinely and unconditionally that without her existence, he had
none. Love was his benefit, not just love for Tashi, but love for
himself, because loving Tashi meant loving Adam—something he hadn’t
done for years, because he hadn’t really liked the person he’d
become—the temporary man who’d been hesitant or afraid to commit.
Well, he was committed now.

He liked that Tashi was taking the initiative
in planning intimate moments for them only days after her first
sexual experience. She was still somewhat shy when it came to
matters of lovemaking, but she was quickly learning about what he
liked in bed, as he was learning about her needs, which were
infinite and insatiable.

It was the first time they would spend the
night in the garden and he suspected that it was the suddenly
crowded mansion that had prompted her to plan their night of
seclusion. After two weeks of solitude and quiet with her, the
return of his household staff wasn’t something he’d been looking
forward to. He wanted more alone time with her—private time and
space, without thoughts of, or intrusion from the outside world.
The garden would provide that, for now.

Adam rounded the bend that brought his sacred
sanctuary into view. He was half-expecting a naked Tashi to be
standing on the platform waiting for him. His disappointment
quickly melted into anticipation, excitement, and curiosity, at the
thought of her laid out on the bed in the bedroom.

Adam ran across the lawn and up the steps. He
stopped at the foyer to catch his breath and shrug out of his
clothes, dropping them in the basket on top of Tashi’s. Soft music
and floral fragrances twirled around him, and he noticed a few
oversized pillows scattered about the platform indicating that
Tashi had engaged in a session of yoga and meditation.

He stepped up onto the platform and took the
three steps leading down to the bedroom. Without knocking, he
slowly opened the door. The room was empty, but a fire was glowing
behind the encased hearth of the granite fireplace. Perhaps she was
in the bathroom, preparing to make an enticing entrance.
“Tashi.”

“Out here, Adam, by the pool.”

Adam retraced his steps and walked over to
the poolside area. He stopped in his tracks. A tent-like cabana
made from metal posts staked into the ground, with white netting
for the roof and walls, and a pole-to-pole red rug had been erected
on the lawn. Cushions of varying sizes were strewn about the
romantic little lair.

But the thing that made Adam’s heart stop,
then begin to thunder loudly in his chest was the sight of his
wife, reclined on an oversize white chaise lounge, with her flaming
red hair fanned out above her head. One leg was draped over the
cushioned back while the other hung off the side with her foot
resting on the rug. Her alluring posture allowed Adam a full
frontal view of her lotus flower blossoming and glittering beneath
the patch of red hair at the apex of her thighs, in which, dear
God, was nestled a red cherry.

And if that wasn’t enough to take Adam’s
breath away and send hot aches of lust pumping to his throat and
into his cock, the brown sexy body of his young inexperienced wife
was covered in whipped cream and slices of fruit—strawberries,
kiwi, peaches, pears, bananas, pineapples, melon, and pomegranate
seeds, and a piece of chocolate was lodged in her mouth. Tendrils
of red hair spilled ardently over her swelling breasts rising like
twin hills of love from her chest.

Adam swallowed and his pulsing jade stalk
slapped against his belly with impatience as his eyes feasted on
the hypnotizing vision his wife presented. She was a goddess, a
nymph—far more bewitching than Aphrodite, Venus, Himeros, Inanna,
Nanaya, or any of the other deities of love gracing his garden. She
was love, lust, eroticism, sensuality and fertility personified.
She was sweet fragrance, softness, moisture, and heat all wrapped
up into one tantalizing package.

However did he get this lucky?

Adam forced life into his legs and descended
the steps, slowly, his eyes locked to Tashi’s as he walked the
short distance across the granite floor of the poolside and on to
the lawn. He parted the silky netting of the cabana, and stood
gazing down at his wife. He swallowed the saliva collecting in his
mouth. “I guess I don’t need to ask what’s for dinner.”

She attempted to smile and the chocolate fell
from her lips, rolled down her chin and nestled into a squirt of
whipped cream on her right breast, right next to her nipple hiding
under a slice of strawberry.

“I’m sorry. You were supposed to pluck that
from my lips.” She reached for it.

“Hmm. Sexy.” He brushed her hand and her hair
away, knelt on the carpet between her opened thighs, and being
careful not to disturb her erotic buffet, he lowered his head to
her breast. “Hmm,” he groaned, as the heat from her body scorched
his skin, and her fruity fragrance made his stomach growl with
hunger—not for food—but for her.