Trust in Us (10 page)

Alythia watched him finish disrobing. Her amethyst stare followed every garment that fell, greedily absorbing all that was revealed. She was moving to slip out of her panties when he returned to the bed. Once again Gage caught her hand. He wanted to handle that part himself and did so with relish.

* * *

Her quivering returned when he covered her body with his. Immediately, Aly began to luxuriate in the feel of his rich café noir skin creating the most delicious friction against the milky caramel of hers. Still, she moved beneath him with a subtle urgency. Gage resumed raining his famished kisses along her collarbone and then he was cradling her plump, pert breasts for suckling.

Alythia’s subtle moves grew even more urgent, renewed moisture pooling in her panties. The incessant nibbling at her firming nipples threw her hormones into a state of frenzy. His perfect teeth subjected the buds to a sensual bruising, his tongue easing in to supply a soothing bath and his wonderfully crafted lips participating in the erotic performance sent Aly gasping and bucking her hips wildly against his.

Gage abandoned the task, his molten chocolate gaze narrowing while an arrogant smirk curved his mouth in response to the state he saw he was leaving her in. He moved lower in the wide bed, giving enthusiastic attention to her belly button until she wriggled uncontrollably and emitted a tiny shriek amid her gasps and moans. He eased the panties down from her hips, dousing each patch of newly exposed skin with a brush from his lips. Once the lacy garment was completely discarded, he settled himself, resting his head on the base of her belly and inhaling as though her scent held some fortifying capability.

Aly raked her nails across the close-cut hair covering his head, feeling him nudge her hand when he moved to outline the Brazilian-waxed triangle above her treasure. Her body arched into a perfect bow when his nose nudged her clit. She trembled wickedly when his lips followed. Gage feasted on her until her hips made a tangle of the turned-down sheets.

Alythia settled into a pool of emotion when his tongue claimed her. The first stroke was deep and branding and she could hear herself panting. The intimate kiss was tireless, robust and provocatively infectious. Gage kept her bottom cradled in his wide palms, lifting her inescapably into the act. His groan carried a ravenous quality as he drank deeply of her.

Soon Alythia could hear sounds of pleading coming from her throat. She wanted all of him and her patience had worn itself out.

Alythia felt a telltale nudging against her pubic bone and she opened her eyes to find Gage setting protection in place. Her hand brushed his in an attempt to offer assistance. The gesture was more erotic than assisting. He shuddered once, incapable of doing more. He rained a long lazy kiss across her clavicle and left Alythia to guide him inside her.

She handled the task with great interest and fabulous delight. The feel of him filling her hand was a treat in itself. She wanted to keep him there almost as much as she wanted him inside her.

That was before she got him inside her. They groaned in sync and seemed to melt deeper into the bed when they were one. Gage wrested out the most helpless sounds that had Aly savoring twin emotions of empowerment and desire. Her triumph over shattering him so was only curbed by his command over her body. His hold was unbreakable at her hips as he filled her, stretched her, rotated and retreated only to replay the move with unfailing eagerness.

Alythia was desperate to wrap her legs about his waist and take him until she passed out from exhaustion and satisfaction. She accepted that she’d have to settle for accomplishing that without the aid of encircling his lean hips between her thighs. Gage kept his hands on her upper thighs, rendering her immobile while he pleasured her as well as himself. His lunges were slow, yet his ability to keep them that way warred with the desire for total surrender inside her.

That desire won and Aly felt her breathing hitch when he spent himself inside the condom, which was thin enough for her to feel the steady pulse of his release. The sensation made her convulse with pleasure, she was so elated by the rapture threading its way through her. Then she was the one who shattered, giving herself over to the thrill.

Chapter 10

A
lythia woke feeling excited and hopeful for the first time since setting out on the grand escape with her friends. She let her eyes drift shut again and snuggled back into Gage. She’d forgotten how many rounds of lovemaking there had been the night before. Afterward he’d drawn her back into him, spooning her into the unrelenting length of muscle and bone that was his body.

Aly had fallen asleep almost instantly. She willed herself back to sleep then, not wanting the day to begin just yet. How she wished the pressures of the day could wait before they intervened. How she hoped to stave off certain revelations, thinking of the confirmation Marianne was sure to have of a certain Charlotte, NC, skyscraper belonging to the man who kept her a willing captive in his arms then.

Aly wiggled against Gage, hoping to at least wake him. He was dead to the world. Just as well, she thought, hearing the distinctive chimes of her mobile singing a high-pitched melody throughout the rooms of the suite.

Marianne,
Aly thought, deciding to let the call go to voice mail. She’d have her answers soon enough. For now, she’d savor a little more time with this man and the dreamscape they’d created together.

Alythia raised her head from the pillow when her phone chimed again. Dread crept through her in response to the sound that time. Moaning softly, she set her head back on the pillow. That wasn’t Marianne. This call was coming from a much closer distance and voice mail was most likely not an option.

Besides, she didn’t want to risk waking Gage. If this was another act in the great friendship melodrama, then he would hear about it soon enough.

With that, she carefully pulled back the covers that had sheltered their bodies from the cool sea air that had billowed past the wispy curtains during the night. She slipped into the shirt Gage had discarded the night before and made it across the expansive bedroom in time to dig the phone out of the purse she had dropped the night before. She answered just as the third installment of rings began.

“What?”

“Aly, thank God!” Jeena’s hysterical voice met the whispered greeting.

“Jeen, not now. I had a really,
really
good night and I was hoping to at least carry it over until lunchtime. Now, unless you’re calling me because you need a ride to the air—”

“I decided to take a later flight out.”

“Why?” Aly rolled her eyes when she blurted the query, but she knew the damage was done: her curiosity would not rest until it was sated. “What happened?”

“It’s not good.”

The reply sent Aly to the arm of the chair she stood closest to. Disbelief stowed away inside her with every syllable she listened to Jeena utter. Later, Aly shut off the phone, holding it to her chest while she bowed her head. She realized she was holding her breath and ordered herself to inhale several times. A small measure of calm was beginning to settle in when she was plucked off the chair.

Gage had gathered her up against him. Kissing her neck, he carried her back to bed, unmindful of her soft urgings for him to wait. He wouldn’t and continued his journey. He held her before him and trailed his nose from her collarbone to the sensitive spot behind her ear. His urgency to resume what they’d spent the better part of the evening doing was contagious.

Alythia didn’t take much persuading. She let Gage have his way, all the while praying that he’d have his way vigorously. Their interlude was brief but no less sweet than all the others had been.

Gage tumbled her into the bed, only managing to take Alythia halfway out of his shirt, as he was more preoccupied with putting on protection in order to take what he wanted from her. Laughter flooded the room, what with all the kissing amid disrobing and condom applying. He wasn’t inside her long before he was coming hard, his touch so overtly possessive that she was following suit moments later. She reveled in the feel of sensuality and freedom she found in his arms.

Afterward, they lay embracing and then Aly treated her fingers to one final drift across the fabulous carving of his abs and perfect chest.

“I really need to go,” she moaned.

“I want to see you later. Here.” He murmured the words, eyes closed while he played with her hair.

Alythia didn’t answer, instead making a move from the bed. Gage’s relaxed pose was merely a veil for the reflexes that launched into action when he felt her attempting to leave him. He put her on her back, securing her to the bed as he covered her.

His features sharpened as his observation of her gained depth. “What is it?”

“Gage—”

“Something’s off with you. What?”

She closed her eyes, mentally thumbing through a list of appropriate excuses. “Just some work stuff I need to talk to Clive about since I, um, didn’t have the chance to last night.” Gage’s phone rang then and she valiantly hid her relief. “Is that you?” she asked him.

“It can wait.” Gage never looked in the direction of the ring. “It’s not just Clive. What else, Alythia?”

“Gage.” She pushed herself up and worked to set him off kilter with a sudden and thorough kiss when he would have put her on her back again.

“I really need to go.” She spoke the words into his mouth, scratching his rough cheek before breaking the kiss.

Gage reclined against the cushioning that ran the extensive length of the bed’s headboard. He watched as she gathered her things from where they had fallen during their heated undressing the night before.

“Should I come and get you later?” He folded his arms over his bare chest. His voice had gone softer, harboring a knowing intensity as though he expected a runaround on the answer.

Alythia’s resulting smile held the same knowing intensity. “I’m guessing that later you’ll have your hands pretty full.”

His phone rang again as if to confirm her suspicion.

“You should get that.” She found the bathroom, changed quickly and left him soon after.

* * *

“Where is she?”

“Trying to sleep.” Jeena’s voice sounded as weary as Alythia felt. She took a seat on a swivel chair in the living area of Orchid’s suite. “What the hell happened, Jeen?” The details of the earlier phone conversation were still wreaking confusing havoc in her mind.

Jeena groaned, scrubbing her bare face in her palms. “Apparently, the bad vibes finally rolled around to the bride and groom.”

“But how?” Alythia spread her hands when she braced her elbows against the turquoise capris she’d changed into after leaving Gage’s suite and grabbing a shower in her own room.

“They argued again about all this...damn drama.” Jeena reclined in an awkward spread-eagle position on the chair opposite Alythia. “Jayson said he’d considered how long it’d be before she started acting like her friends...blah, blah, blah....”

“So she goes and proves him right?” Aly sounded incredulous, shaking her head when Jeena shrugged. “So how’d it balloon into all the rest?”

Jeena was apparently in no more of a mood to discuss “the rest” than she had been when she’d called Alythia earlier. The look on her face proved it, but she seemed to resolve herself to confess it anyway.

“Myrna caused it to balloon.”

“Myrna? But I thought Jayson—”

“Myrna went to make up with Dane.”

Aly’s groan accompanied her eyes closing.

“And the answer to your question is no, the girl will never learn. She wanted to surprise Dane, had the maids open his room door so she could
wake
him
up.
He was already...up with Orchid.”

“Jesus.” Aly clenched her fingers in her hair and gave a tug. “Can this get any messier?”

“Please.”
Jeena raised her hands as if she were trying to ward off any bad vibes Aly might have unknowingly released with her query. “Don’t even ask that. Myrna ran screaming to Jayson and now we’re here. Orchid’s in the bedroom nursing a bruised cheek from her fiancé.”

“So what are
you
gonna do next?” Jeena asked Aly once they’d absorbed a few minutes of silence.

“Clearly there’s no reason for any of us to stay. Guess you’re not the only one on the way to the airport.”

“Wait a minute.” Jeena straightened in the chair. “You’d go back to Charlotte now? What about Gage?”

“You said it yourself.” Aly’s voice had taken on progressively more weariness. “The bad vibes finally rolled around to the bride and groom. Won’t be long before they roll around to me and Gage.”

“I don’t believe that, Aly.”

“I slept with him.” Alythia spread her hands as though nothing more needed to be said. “I slept with him and I’ve known him all of what? Two days?”

“And the problem? It was consensual, right?”

Alythia felt the genuine urge to laugh. “Consent? Not hard to get from a woman whose friends have all slept with
his
friends. Just the natural order of things, right?” She bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Jeen....”

“Don’t be.” Jeena scooted to the edge of the chair. “And Gage isn’t his friends. I don’t believe he’s stupid enough to buy that ‘you are who you hang with’ crap.”

“It’s usually a pretty good indicator.” Aly smiled at herself. “In spite of what you’ve always thought, I’m no Goody Two-Shoes. It didn’t take much persuasion from Gage.” She blinked. “I don’t think he had to persuade me much at all. We were pretty much on the same page.”

“Of course you were!” Jeena blurted, kicking out a bare foot to emphasize her conviction. “
You
are a dime and Gage... A woman would have to be blind and lacking a shred of emotion not to be affected by what he puts out.”

“Do you know why I’m always working?” Aly asked once she’d considered Jeena’s words for a time. “Finding a man is...difficult when he has certain assumptions.”

“Do you really think Gage has those assumptions?”

“No, I really don’t.” Aly shrugged. “But sooner or later he will. Just look at what happened between Jay and Ork.” Faintly, a voice reminded her that particular love match had been orchestrated.

“Have you ever considered giving the man the benefit of the doubt?” Jeena was asking.

“I did.” Aly left the chair and began a slow pace of the room. “This trip has me looking at a lot of things I never bothered to consider before, though. That happily-ever-after Myrna’s so desperate to find? I want it, too.” She leaned against the frame of the glass doors overlooking the ocean view. “I’m not saying I expect to find it with a man like Gage, but that...that would’ve been nice.”
More
than
nice,
she admitted quietly.

“This thing between Jay and Ork, compounded with what’s already gone down... I don’t know if we’d stand a chance.”

“And you’re too much of a wuss to find out,” Jeena accused, looking in Aly’s direction.

* * *

“Hey, hey? Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Clive asked when he found Gage reclining in one of the lounges behind
Alythia’s
upcoming boutique later that afternoon.

Gage tried to gain some satisfaction from the breeze drifting over his face and beneath the blue cotton T-shirt that hung outside his jeans.

“She’s gone,” he said.

“Damn.” Clive grimaced and then dropped to the lounge next to Gage. “Sorry our plan didn’t work to get you guys a little time alone.”

“Oh, it worked.” Gage grinned self-indulgently. “It worked very well, and thank you very much. Problem is that reality intervened, as it usually does.”

“So what happened?”

Gage made quick work of explaining the latest upset. “So instead of a wedding, we may all wind up having seats to a trial. Orchid says she’s bringing Jay up on assault charges.”

“That
is
a mess.” Clive stroked his dimpled chin and then frowned. “What does that have to do with you and Alythia, though?”

“Not a damn thing.” Gage’s full, robust laughter came through. “But we keep getting caught up in it just the same.”

“So you’re just gonna hang out here for the rest of the trip?”

“Why not? Already got a great view for it.”

“So you’re just gonna let it go?”

“Maybe I should, man....” Gage mopped a hand across his face and scratched the smattering of whiskers that threw his face into further shadow. “Everything that’s happened... It’s been nothin’ but a mess.”

“And is that what you think of when you think of you and her together? A mess?” Clive received no answer and seemed to take it as a good sign. “Are you gonna let her go?”

“Hell, no, I’m not.”

The fierce response spoken abruptly and without hesitation brought a satisfied smile to Clive’s face. “So what are you waiting on?”

“I don’t know
how
to go after her.” Gage shook his head when he heard the hearty laughter coming from Clive’s direction. He didn’t begrudge the reaction.

“Since when do
you
have confusion about going after the opposite sex?” Clive teased.

“Never wanted to try playing for keeps before.” Gage’s reply was simply spoken.

Clive sobered. “You really feel that way about her or is it just that you’re not ready for her to leave your bed yet?”

“I
never
want her to leave my bed.” Gage gave Clive a level gaze. “But that’s about sex. I still don’t know what else it is about her that I can’t shake. The sex was...” He closed his eyes, obviously working to locate the proper descriptive word or phrase.

Clive smirked, wind whipping light hair about his tanned face. “I got it.”

“But there’s more and I—I mean it when I say I don’t know
how
to go after her.”

“Well maybe it’s not something you can plot or strategize over like a business deal.” Clive stood. “Maybe it’s one of those things you’re just gonna have to trust your gut on.”

“Hell, Clive—” Gage worked the heels of his hands into his eyes “—that’s what got us all into this mess.”

“Sounds like you need to decide whether you’re gonna sit here until the perfect plan materializes before the woman you want distances herself physically
and
emotionally.” Clive dropped a playful slap to Gage’s cheek, then his shoulder and then turned to leave.