A Taste of Heaven (Billionaires' Secrets Book 3) (12 page)

“You won’t even feel a pinch.”

A smile crept across his mouth. Without asking, he slid his arm through hers and guided her onto the dance floor.

An inventive DJ was mixing old-school house beats and North African folk music into a pulsing and sultry brew. Dancers swayed and writhed in a fog of sensual heat.

When they reached the center of the crowd, Louis leaned in until his lips almost brushed Sam’s ear. “Can you blame me for being hurt that you tracked me down, roped me into a new family, then abandoned me?”

“I’m sure you understand.” She started to sway stiffly to the music, standing a good foot away from him.

She looked so nervous and tight. Breathing in shallow gulps and barely able to look at him.

His muscles ached with the desire to take her in his arms. That’s what she needed. What they both needed.

But he could see her point. “I do understand. The family you’ve created here is beautiful. It’s powerful, and I can see how you’d do anything to protect it.”

She bit her lip again and her eyes welled with tears. “Thank you. It does mean so much to me that you’re part of it.”

“Me, too.” He was surprised by how much emotion he felt meeting his half brothers and half sister. He’d spent the day with them and already felt closer to them than some people he’d known for years. “I feel blessed to have met all of you, no matter how it happened.”

Sam’s lovely face brightened with a smile that lit the room like rays of sun. Or maybe like the rays of moonlight pouring through the circular skylight open to the stars above.

Then her smile wobbled. “I just wish things had started out differently.”

“Maybe you should take the fatalistic approach—that things happen the way they do for a reason.”

She frowned, thoughtful. Her body moved more naturally to the music as she got lost in her thoughts, and he tried to keep his eyes from wandering to her breasts or her hips.

“Do you really believe that?”

He sucked in a breath. She deserved his honesty. “Nope. To tell you the truth I think things just happen and you have to deal with them the best you can. I can’t think of one single good reason for the city I love to be ravaged by a hurricane.” He shrugged. “On the other hand, if it hadn’t happened, I’d still be living in Paris. I moved there after high school to study cooking and I was getting pretty comfortable over there.”

“You moved back after Katrina?”

“Yes. At first I came to help my grandparents. They were elderly, and the disaster took a big toll on both their health and spirits. Their house had pretty minimal damage since the Quarter stayed dry, so they invited friends to come live with them. I helped sort out meals and beds and all that stuff, and then I got sucked into the magic of the place and its people.” Her blue gaze fixed on his, inviting and encouraging.

“When things settled down, I helped my granddad rebuild his old boathouse and fishing cabin. By then I knew New Orleans was my home now, not Paris. I’ve lived there ever since.”

Sam had edged closer, probably to hear him over the steady throb of the music. “It hurt when you didn’t respond to our calls or letters.”

A prick of guilt stuck him. He’d dismissed the letters as time-wasting foolishness.

Or had he?

Maybe he’d been afraid of what they might mean.

“I was busy, but perhaps the real reason I didn’t respond is that I lost my grandparents last year. They died within a month of each other, and I guess I didn’t want to hear or think about any other family right then.”

“I’m sorry.”

The compassion in her eyes made emotion gather in his chest. Dancing had warmed Sam’s skin, releasing her scent into the air around them. Her closeness was a delicious torment. All this talk about what he’d lost only made him want to cleave closer to what he’d found. “You know how it feels to lose someone close.”

She looked up. “Like you’ve lost a part of your own body. It hurts.”

“And from what I can see, we both have the same strategy for dealing with the pain. Keep busy.”

Sam laughed. A sound that made his heart beat faster. “You’re right. I’ve been like a windup toy since Tarrant died. I try to keep moving every minute of the day.”

“You’re afraid that if you stop you might fall apart.”

Her eyes widened. “Exactly.” Then she frowned. “And I don’t want to fall apart. I’ve had enough drama and crisis in my life over the last decade. I’d rather lift my chin up and keep dancing. Does that sound crazy?”

Sympathy swelled in his heart. “Not at all. It sounds brave.” Her strength of spirit moved him, and the desire to take her in his arms became a steady ache, throbbing in time to the lilting and sensual music that filled the air around them.

“We’re a lot alike, you and I, Sam,” he whispered into her ear, leaning close. “I think we’re both most comfortable in a crowd, surrounded by laughter and chatter and people having a good time. Or even people pretending to have a good time.”

She looked up at him, blue eyes sparkling. “We’re people people.”

He chuckled. “Yes. And sometimes it’s easier for us to spend our time greasing the social wheels so we don’t have to think about what we truly want.”

Emotion flickered in the depths of her eyes. She bit her lip. He inched toward her, enjoying the heat of her skin through her stiff black dress. “Or about what we
need”

He’d had enough of her no-touching routine. Right now he needed to hold her more than he’d ever needed anything. “Come with me.”

Chapter Fifteen

L
ouis grasped her hand and she didn’t fight him. Slowly, without betraying the urgency he felt, he led her through the crowd of gyrating bodies and toward the exit.

She didn’t protest as he led her past the uniformed waiters handing parting gifts to the guests. Or even when he ushered her into a waiting elevator.

The doors closed leaving them alone for the first time since his arrival in New York. His lips and hands fought the urge to take hold of her and kiss some sense into her.

A glance up at the security camera restrained him.

Sam looked at him, nervous and expectant, as they stepped out into the silent lobby. She muttered a nervous goodbye to the security guard at the desk.

Outside the elegant Hardcastle building that took up most of a Fifth Avenue block, lamplight created pools of golden light in the darkness. “We’ll go to my hotel,” he murmured, shielding his voice from the scattered passersby. “It’s only two blocks away.”

Sam didn’t protest. She kept stride with him in the warm fall air. “I wonder what they’ll say when they realize I’ve gone.”

“I hate to say it, but they’re probably all having too much fun to notice.”

Her pained expression made him regret his words.

She looked away. “You’re right, of course. I sometimes get an exaggerated sense of my own importance. I forget everyone else has a full life of their own to occupy their time.” Her voice shook and he felt her hand cool in his.

Louis stopped walking, spun in front of her and took both her hands. “You are important. You’re the reason we’re all here tonight. Your energy and vision and heart made it happen. And you’re important to me.” He said the words with force. He felt so much more than he could put into mere words.

As her delicate mouth quivered, no doubt preparing a rebuttal, he leaned in and kissed her.

Her lips parted and welcomed his mouth to hers. His arms instinctively slid around her waist and he held her against him, kissing her with all the painful longing he’d stored up over the past days and nights.

A shudder rippled through her, the force of her relief so strong he could feel it like an electric jolt. She was every bit as hungry and desperate for this kiss as he was.

Finally the synapses of his brain started firing again and he managed to pull back. Sam blinked like an animal startled out of its burrow. Her mouth opened to speak, but no words came out.

“We’d better keep walking.” He slid his arm through hers. “We’re nearly there.”

Sam put on dark glasses when they approached the entrance to the elegant hotel.

“Shades at night?” Louis couldn’t resist teasing. “Worried the lobby lights will be too bright?”

“I could run into someone I know.”

“So? We’re not doing anything criminal.”

She glanced at him. The wide, black lenses hid her eyes, but the muscles in her jaw were rigid. “Maybe not criminal, but...
scandalous
.” The final word came out as a whisper.

Truth be told, it shot a bolt of lust right through him. Apparently the scandal thing just didn’t get under his skin the way it did with Sam.

But he respected her wish for privacy.

He guided her across the shimmering marble floor of the hotel lobby, enjoying the elegant sashay of her tight behind as she walked in front of him. The prospect of seeing her naked in his bed again made his skin hum with excitement.

She stood in the back of the elevator, dark glasses still covering her beautiful eyes, while the doors closed.

“I think the sunglasses make you look like you have something to hide.”

“I do.”

“At least you can’t hide it from me.” Again, only the security camera made him keep his hands off her luscious body, pressed so enticingly against the marble wall of the elevator.

His fingers stung with anticipation as he unlocked the door and ushered her in. He’d ordered champagne and caviar at the front desk and it was already being delivered when he and Sam arrived at the room. He tipped the waiter and ushered Sam inside.

Heat flared through him as the door closed behind him with a click.

“I do hate eating caviar off dry saltines. A beautiful woman’s naked body is so much more
sympathique.”

“You’re wicked.” She lowered the glasses to reveal a mischievous gleam in her own eyes.

“With my wild upbringing, how could I not be? Take pity on me anyway.” He cocked his head and allowed a grin to slip across his mouth.

“Apparently I can’t help myself.”

Somehow they’d already drifted together and his hands found their way to her hips. Her dress was black and structured, and hid the soft curves of her body under taut seams and crisp peaks of fabric. “We need to get this off.”

His voice came out a little huskier than he intended, but his request had the desired effect. Sam nodded and started to struggle with a zipper buried in a side seam.

Louis’s arousal thickened as he tugged the zipper pull along the hourglass curve of her waist and snuck a fingerful of silky skin on his way down.

Sam wriggled under his touch and a soft moan escaped her mouth. Together they struggled with the stiff silk, tugging it down over her pert breasts, past her slim hips and over her sweet, tight ass.

“Much better,” he breathed, when she stepped out of it. Now she wore nothing but a skimpy black lace bra and panties.

She blushed. “I hate panty hose in summer.”

“Me, too. All that nylon makes my legs itch.”

Sam giggled. Her eyes zeroed in on his crotch, which hardened when she reached for the button on his pants and boldly unfastened it.

With careful concentration, she unzipped and pushed the fabric down over his thighs and calves. “I’m going to have to take my shoes off,” he said, as the touch of her soft fingers on his skin almost deprived him of rational thought.

“Oh, yeah. Let me unlace them.”

The view from above, as she crouched to unlace his shoes, was magnificent. Her delicate panties only had a slim string in the back, revealing her well-exercised backside in all its taut perfection.

Sam turned her attention to the buttons of his shirt, pressing her thighs to his as she unbuttoned them. Louis grew as hard as the bedrock under Manhattan.

He couldn’t keep his hands off her. Her body was an enticing combination of soft curves and strong muscle. His fingers roamed over her smooth, warm skin, reveling in all the sensations he’d missed during their agonizing evening of no touching.

Sam’s fingers shook as she struggled with the buttons. Her breath came in unsteady gasps. Her urgency was palpable.

Which gave him a wicked idea.

“You know, Sam,” he murmured, watching her fingers undo the last button and push the shirt back over his shoulders.

“What?” She didn’t look up from her task. Apparently she was too engrossed in pushing the rumpled broadcloth down over his arms.

“I think maybe you were right.”

“Right about what?” She fumbled with one of the cuffs, which was buttoned.

“Maybe we shouldn’t touch each other.”

Now she looked up. Her blue eyes narrowed. “You’re kidding.”

The shirt, hung up on that last button, came free and fell to the floor, leaving him dressed only in a pair of boxers that did absolutely nothing to hide his intense arousal.

The look of sudden desperation on her face almost made him reconsider.

But not quite.

She’d put him through the hell of keeping his hands off her, when he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and hold her.

Let’s see how she liked it when the tables were turned.

“I obeyed your rules when you decided we shouldn’t touch.” He cocked his head. “Now I think it’s only fair that you obey mine. Don’t you agree?”

She licked her lips. Her nipples had tightened to rosy peaks beneath her transparent bra and her belly trembled visibly with arousal.

“Why?” she rasped.

“For fun.” He let a naughty grin slide across his mouth. “Go lie on the bed.”

It was a command, not a question.

She peered at him for a second, then crossed the room with elegant strides. He couldn’t peel his eyes off the delicious view of her backside in its provocative underwear.

Mrs. Hardcastle clearly had a wild streak that she kept very firmly under designer wraps.

He was going to make it growl.

She eased onto the bed on her stomach, all lithe tan curves and thinly veiled enthusiasm.

“I don’t know if I can trust you,” he said, standing over her so that the light cast his shadow on her skin.

He wasn’t sure he could trust himself, either. But it would be fun trying.