Tinsel Town (12 page)

“I don’t need a man to make me happy.”

“I never said you did. In fact, I’d rather you be alone than attach yourself to someone you don’t love, which was why I was so damned happy when you caught Ethan in bed with another woman.”

Kate gasped and swung her gaze around. “Mother!”

“Oh, I wasn’t happy that you were hurt, of course. But it was better that you found out what he was before you were married to him. He didn’t deserve you then. He definitely doesn’t deserve you now.” Her mother gave a curt nod. “Clive…Clive is a very different story. He loves you. That’s easy enough to see even if he hadn’t said it.”

Kate put her face in her hands and shook her head. “Mom, you just don’t know.”

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“I’m not digging for explanations. I don’t need or even want to know what your argument was about. Obviously, it was something extremely important, or else he wouldn’t have let you spend even one night out of his bed.”

She gasped, her head whipping up as heat raced into her cheeks. Nona waved her hand in dismissal.

“Like I’m not supposed to know my girls have sex lives. How do you think you got here? The stork?” Her mother chuckled. “From my experience, it seems like Clive is definitely a man to keep a woman satisfied. Don’t you dare pass out, Kate. Fine, I’ll drop the subject. But, sweetheart, whatever your differences with the man, you have to know that he cares for you.”

“No, I can’t know that.”

Nona pursed her lips. “Then you’re as observant as my ficus tree. That man, the one sitting in my kitchen drowning his sorrows in whiskey-laced hot chocolate, is hurting. He’s bleeding from a wound so deep that it’ll scar. And you, my dear, are the one who wielded the knife…almost literally, but definitely figuratively.”

Kate was stunned, speechless by her mother’s plain talk. But if she wanted to be honest, Kate was too rattled to curb her words. “If he’s hurting, then I’m hurting just as much. What he did….he might as well have ripped my heart out with a plastic spork, tossed it in the garbage disposal, and flipped the switch.”

“And then he had the nerve to show his face.”

“Exactly!”

“He is so inconsiderate that he won’t leave you alone for a good pout.”

“He just doesn’t -- a good what?” She stared at her mother, her mouth hanging open.

“A good pout. You were always a pro at pouting.” Nona cupped her face and gave her a gentle smile. “Oh, honey, I love you. I’ll be honest, I haven’t always understood you; you’re so much like your father. But I do know you, and I know you have your father’s Tinsel Town

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temperament. When someone hurts you, for whatever reason, you tuck into your shell and hide, and if anyone bothers to poke at you, you hiss and spit and claw.”

“I do not.” Her lips twisted wryly when she recalled the way she’d just been hurling her mother’s dishes. “Well, maybe I do.”

Her mother smiled and put a soft kiss on Kate’s cheek. “Clive is not Ethan. He came here, his hat in his hands, to beg you to forgive him. And he did it in front of your family, in the face of your anger and resentment, and took all the names you called him without even flinching. He didn’t make one physical move to force you to stop tossing things at his poor body. That couldn’t have been easy for a man with his sort of pride. He put it aside for you, though.”

She knew it. Of course she knew it. And the knowledge only wedged the blade already in her heart deeper. It didn’t seem fair. But she thought of the look on his handsome face, of the devastation that had colored his eyes. Hadn’t he told her to throw the knife? Hadn’t he admitted he deserved that and more? She knew that her mother was right. Somehow, her mother was always right.

“Just think about it, sweetheart.” Nona softly patted her cheek. “I really do think he’s sorry. And I really do think he loves you very much.”

Kate nodded absently and watched her mother walk back into the house. Turning, she stared at the trees and contemplated what she should do.

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She tore through the door, fury hot on her heels. She stood in the small entranceway of the hotel room, watching in disbelief as Clive tucked a shirt into his suitcase. Even though there was no way he could have missed her entrance, he continued to pack, as if she weren’t there at all.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He still refused to look at her when he replied. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re…” She swallowed back the fear and let the anger take over. “So that’s it, you’re going to run. You had the guts to come to my parents’ house, to say you love me, but now…what? You’ve lost your nerve?”

He did stop then, his gray eyes meeting hers. There was a deep sadness there, a pain that her heart echoed. “I’m not going to force you, Kate.”

She blinked, stared, blinked again. “You’re going to have to explain that little gem.”

He sighed and dropped his jeans onto the bed. “I fell in love with you, Kate. I’ve felt something for you from the beginning, something more than attraction. I wanted to know you, and when I saw the chance, I took it. What I did was wrong. I forced you to bring me here, to pretend that I was your boyfriend.”

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“No one forced me. That was a choice I made.”

“And I damn well manipulated you into it.” He rammed his hand through his hair in agitation. “I wanted you, Kate. I wanted you so badly that I lied to you, and I used the situation to my advantage. I’ve kept you so steeped in sex that you couldn’t think, just so I could get what I want.”

It was a turning point; she knew it deep inside. She grabbed at her anger and her pain, dragged them under tight control, and fought for calm. She looked at him, really looked at him, and what she saw tore at the wall she’d begun building around her emotions. He looked defeated. He looked ashamed. He looked as if his world had crumbled. And wasn’t that exactly what she felt too?

When she spoke, it was with a soft voice. “You’ve done all of this for what? What is it that you want?”

“You.”

The word was gentle; the tone bordered on desperate. How was she supposed to stay angry with him when he said things like that? How was she supposed to show him she wasn’t happy about being used when he looked so horribly sad?

“Clive --”

“No, don’t. I understand you’re mad at me, and I know I deserve it. I can only hope that you don’t hate me forever. I’ve made all the decisions about us for you. It was wrong. So, I’m going home, and I’m going to hope for a miracle.”

Tears suddenly sprang into her eyes as overwhelming emotions threatened to strangle her. “What miracle?”

“That you decide to come to me.”

Her tears did fall then, large, hot drops that scorched her skin. “You big idiot, what do you think I just did?”

He appeared torn between despair and uncertainty. “What…what do you mean?”

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“I could have stayed with my parents. I could have been in my old room right now cursing you and everything you’ve done. I could be avoiding you all together. But I’m not.

I’m here. I came here, to you, and no one coerced me.”

His eyes brightened and he straightened. “Don’t play with me, Kate. I don’t think I can take it.”

“I’m not trying to torment you, Clive. I’m trying to tell you…”

She couldn’t go on; too many feelings clogged her throat and spun in her mind. She watched as he walked to her, his steps slow but sure. He stopped a breath away from her and stared down at her with such powerful desire that she felt herself begin to tremble.

“Tell me what?” he asked in a rough voice.

Now wasn’t the time for pride. She pressed back all the swirling thoughts, all the spinning emotions that threatened to whirl out of control. If she wanted the truth from him, she had to be truthful herself.

“Tell you I love you,” she admitted softly.

His eyes searched her face for a moment, as if he were trying to weigh her words, then his entire body tightened and his gaze eased. His hands jerked out to grab her, hauling her against his chest in one rough move. She cried out when his mouth slammed down on hers, and he took advantage of her parted lips. His tongue swept inside, demanding, and she responded in kind.

There was no hesitation as the world disappeared, leaving only desperate longing. She needed him, needed his hands, his body, his silent reassurance. He attacked her with his lips, daring her, compelling her, and she met his fervor.

He pushed her back, slammed her against the wall, but she barely felt the jolt. She clung to him, jumped to wrap her legs around his waist. He pulled at her hair with his hands, roughly yanking her head back so he could ravage her throat. She panted as he bit into her delicate flesh, felt an electric bolt shoot down to her clit then out to the rest of her body.

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She pulled at his clothes, her nails scratching flesh as she tore the dark shirt from his torso. Buttons snapped and popped, flew across the room, and ricocheted off the walls. She paid no attention. She was one massive bundle of nerves, and every hard caress was a stroke to her wild desire.

He jerked at her sweater, pulling so hard that she heard a seam rip. A moment later, he leaned back long enough to toss the heavy garment to the floor. He spun again, bringing her bottom flush with the desk. She flung her arms out, felt her hand smack the lamp a second before it hit the floor.

His hard hands tugged at her jeans, jerked them down her delicate skin, and rasped her thigh and knee with the zipper as they twisted. Her shoes went with the pants and clopped on the ground with soft thuds.

His fingers dug into the flesh of her hips as his mouth continued its assault. He nipped her shoulder, bit his way over to her satin-covered breasts. The material wasn’t a hindrance; he simply sucked at her peaked nipples through her bra. He was rough, pulling hard on the tips, but it only excited her more.

“Yes! Harder! Please!”

He complied, pressing his cock into her slick-crotched panties as he increased the suction on her breasts. She was nearly incoherent with need, crazy with passion. Tearing at the worn material with hurried hands, she fumbled with his jeans. Still biting and sucking her nipples as she tore away his pants and underwear, he helped her.

Her nails dug into his shoulders and scraped down his back. He growled in approval, pulled her up, and whirled them around the room. Smashing into the double window, they tore the curtain and blinds down as they continued to struggle with each other. Her hip banged into the knobs of the dresser, but she only felt his fingers digging into her flesh, dragging her down into the depths of chaotic sensuality. She pressed into him, moaned when his freed sex nudged into the moist material that still covered her slit. He moved them again 94 Flesa Black

as his mouth worked his way back up her neck to nip her jaw. It was his body that hit something this time, a jarring motion followed by a heavy crash and dull shattering.

“I have to have you. I can’t wait. Can’t --” His words ended on a hard groan.

He fell with her to the bed, his hands going immediately to her panties. He tore them away, the elastic of the delicate garment digging into her skin, and she could only hiss in delight.

He entered her without preamble, slamming himself full hilt between her walls. The sensation was incredible, the fine line between pleasure and pain so incredible that she sobbed with it. He didn’t stop, didn’t slow, as he pushed in and out and demanded her compliance, demanded her pleasure.

She went with him, held on to him as his mouth continued to roam. Nips and bites, kisses and licks, setting her flesh on fire and letting it burn as brightly as the sensations rioting inside of her.

Her orgasm wasn’t slow. It hit her like a velvet-covered fist, knocking her into oblivion. Her body bowed, and the tight glow of desire exploded like a bomb, painful and liberating.

He lifted her legs and hung them over his shoulders as she screamed her release, which tightened her sheath. Going on and on, her orgasm found a new level, pulled her under in ecstasy and drowned her. She heard him scream, a soul-rending sound sweeter than any music she’d ever made.

When his breathing evened out, he rolled down beside her while keeping a determined hold on her. Her muscles were screaming, and she was sure that bruises were popping up all over her body. She couldn’t seem to make herself care.

“I think they’re going to put us on a blacklist,” Clive finally managed to say.

With her mind still blank, she wasn’t sure what he was saying. “Blacklist?”

“We’ve torn up the room. We even knocked the television to the floor.”

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She snuggled closer to him as he chuckled. “Um, we’re going to be the talk of the town.

I’ll either have been trying to kill you, or we were…well, we were doing what we were actually doing.”

He smoothed his hand over her arm and dropped a kiss on her head. “I didn’t hurt you?”

“Um, no. I feel wonderful.”

“Do you? Do you really?”

His voice had turned serious and she leaned up to look at his face. “You love me.”

He grasped her hand and kissed her knuckles. “That’s the God’s honest truth. Kate, I know what I did was monumentally stupid. I don’t have any excuse, not really. I’d tried to talk to you before, when we were just neighbors, but you were so hesitant. I know why you were now that I know about Ethan. But I felt like I had to know you. When I saw your file on Nina’s desk --”

“Nina?” She felt a streak of jealousy and had to smile over it.

“She’s the madam I’ve been shadowing for my book. Your friend contacted her, and she researched you. She decided to take you on as a client; she’d even decided on the man to send. I couldn’t let her do it. I had to be the one to come here with you.”

She ran a finger down his cheek. “I was so shocked when I opened my door. Betty and I called you ‘Hot Two Thirteen.’ I’d been thinking about you for a while, wondering what it would be like to be yours, even if it was just for a night. And then there you were, my escort.

I was humiliated, but at the same time, I was excited.”