Enticed (19 page)

“Yeah, he’s the owner of Schonhorn Tech.”

“Who lost his daughter last year off the coast of Mexico. That wasn’t an accident, Rachel. He was trying to separate himself from EAL and he was punished. He got out, but he paid the ultimate price. Do you really want to see something like that happen to Jonathan?”

I remembered that story, where Schonhorn’s daughter had gotten drunk and fallen off of a yacht into the Caribbean
while partying over Spring Break. It had been tragic, but what he was suggested sounded like whispers of conspiracy, and I wasn’t quite ready to don a tin foil hat. “Alex,” I started with the shake of my head.

“This isn’t Texas, Rachel. This world has its own rules. And it demands everything in return. If it doesn’t kill you, it turns you
into something you don’t want to be. I’ve seen it happen time and again, to Drew, to Elise… I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

“Why is it your job to save me?” I asked.

He stepped closer, running the back of his hand along the line of my jaw. “Maybe I think you’re worth saving.”

Before I could stop him, he bent his head and
he stole a chaste but lingering kiss. The minute we broke apart I saw Drew watching us from the glass doors leading toward the ballroom.

Alex returned to the house, completely unaware that his behavior had been witnessed by his brother. I didn’t bother to tell him because frankly I was stunned speechless. Just a few scant months before
, I spent my Friday nights alone on my dinky little couch in my dinky little apartment, pigging out on ice cream straight out of the container while I overdosed on chick flicks. Now, in roughly about a month, I was virtually accosted by two different men who could have any woman they wanted.

My mind was effectively blown.

I made my way back to the party, scanning the room for Drew. From the angry look on his face, I wanted to assure him that the kiss was, indeed, stolen and that I did not reciprocate.

I
didn’t question why it meant so much for me to tell him that. It just was.

I finally spotted him on the dance floor with an A-list actress
named Olivia Guest. She laughed as he spun her around, bestowing his most charming smile as he bent close to whisper in her ear.

She was
young, petite and blonde, much more his traditional type than I could ever hope to be. Despite my elaborate costume, I felt immediately outclassed.

“Champagne, Miss?” Harrison said as he held up the tray
as he sidled up silently beside me.

I managed to smile. “Thanks, Harrison.”

“It appears your first party is a smashing success,” he commented as we surveyed the revelers who filled the beautifully decorated ballroom. Not one detail had been overlooked, even the colorful crystals in blue and purple that had been strung into the chandeliers just for the occasion. I should have been proud of what we managed to achieve in such a short period of time, but all I could think about was the tiny blonde wrapped so comfortably in Drew’s arms.

“One
party down, two to go,” I said. I knew I wouldn’t have much downtime before we began preparations for the Christmas party, so there was no real time to bask in the glory of my success.

“Many more to go, I suspect,” he countered. “Master Fullerton is faithful to those who exceed his expectations.”

I nodded with another smile, and Harrison moved along to the next guest. I looked up in time to see Drew escort his new companion onto the terrace. Inexplicably my mood took a downturn. I decided to distract myself by overseeing the wait staff. This was my job, after all. As much as I looked like the belle of the ball, I was still a mere working stiff.

This was reinforced when I saw Elise dance with her son on the dance floor. My heart lurched when I saw how happy he was as his mother paid him the crucial attention he so craved
for so long. As much as I enjoyed spending time with him, as much as I had taught him and comforted him, I was a substitute of what he really needed. He wanted, and needed, the love of his mother. I had facilitated that because I knew that it was what he needed. Seeing it happen, however, made me withdraw even more from the festivities as I felt more and more out of place.

As soon as Jonathan left with his mother around nine o’clock, I turned over my hostess duties to Simone and escaped to my suite upstairs. I felt a little like Cinderella running away from the ball. The only difference was there was no prince chasing after me.

In fact, no one bothered me at all for hours afterward. The party raged on downstairs, well after I had abandoned my costume, scrubbed my face clean and wrapped myself up in my favorite pair of flannel pajamas. I kept expecting Drew to call to check in with me, but my phone sat silent. I had glanced out in the backyard on more than one occasion to see if he was romancing a beautiful actress amidst his sculptured gardens.

I finally gave up at a quarter to one o’clock in the morning. Ten minutes later there was a knock at my door.

I shuffled toward the door. “Yes?”

“Open the door, Rachel,” I heard Drew command through the door.

My hand shook as I turned the knob and opened the door. He stood just outside my suite, wearing his own loungewear and a robe. “Yes?”

“The jeweler’s courier
will be here early tomorrow morning to retrieve your necklace,” he said as he inspected me head to toe in my modest jammies.

“Oh,” I muttered as I turned back into my room to fetch the borrowed baubles that
I had carefully laid out on my desk. When I turned back around I realized that Drew had entered my room and stood near my canopy bed. I gulped as I approached slowly. “Thank you for loaning them to me,” I said as I held them out to him.

“You couldn’t have been a queen without them,” he said as he took the chained jewelry from my hand. His eyes engulfed me, rendering me speechless. “Your party was a huge success. If you want to moonlight as a party planner, you have at least a hundred potential clients ready to hire you.”

I shook my head. “I’ll be too busy planning Christmas and New Year’s.”

“Maybe I’
m keeping you too busy,” he mused as his eyes scanned my face. “A young woman such as yourself must have certain… needs.”

I shook my head. “You know better than that, Drew.”

“Do I?” he asked softly. “You’re human, flesh and blood. Certainly there are moments when you simply yearn for the touch of another.”

His voice was low and hypnotic. It stirred that very longing as if summoning it from the dead. “Listen, Drew…about what you saw…”

He flung the expensive jewelry onto my crumbled bedcovers. He stepped close enough to pull me towards him before I knew what was happening. “Tell me, Rachel,” he continued as he fit my body against his hardening contours, “do you long to be held? To be kissed?” He bent toward me and whispered, “To be taken?”

My brain scrambled as he lifted me u
p to crush his mouth on mine. It was every dream realized, though I was blissfully conscious. I groaned under him as he parted my lips and dominated my mouth. Every alarm in my head sounded, but my treacherous body ignored each and every one as it strained for him with a hunger so strong I felt powerless to control it.

His fingers wound in my hair as he stole the very breath from my lungs with each kiss. His mouth dragged to my neck, his breath hot in his ear. “Tell me you want me, Rachel.”

I shuddered against him. “Drew…”

“Tell me,” he begged in a hoarse whisper as his hands slid down the arch of my back and over the curve of my
hip.

My hands braced on his chest, but instead of pushing myself away, my palms delighted in how solid and real he felt.
It sent a jolt through my entire body. “I don’t want you,” I eked out in a pitiful whisper.

“Liar,” he growled as he picked me up into his arms and carried me around to the bed. He followed me down onto the firm mattress. “Tell me you don’t ache at night when you reach for me and I’m not there. Tell me you don’t dream about me… or remember that kiss we shared in my study… the very kiss that awakened that fevered beast within.” I shook my head but I couldn’t push him way even if I wanted to. “Tell me you didn’t come up here to pout when you thought I was romancing another, because you can’t imagine anyone else in my arms.”

“Drew, please…”

“Please what, Rachel? Tell me to leave and I will. I’ll walk out that door and never bother you again. Just say the words. Tell me you don’t want me,” he dared as his eyes bore into mine. “You can have anything you want. I can go or I can stay. But if I stay,” he warned as his eyes fell toward my mouth. “If I stay, you’re mine. And I don’t share.”

I closed my eyes. I thought about puppies and Sunday school songs, my grandparents’ farm and old church hymns. I had to get control of myself fast or things were going to go too far. Way too far. Further than they had in a long, long time, and for very good reason.

“Rachel,” he whispered as he nuzzled my neck. “Tell me.”

I struggled to get away, clutching my pajama top to my chest as I did so. “We can’t do this. This is wrong.”

“Because you want someone else?” he questioned as he lifted himself up.

I shook my head and answered as honestly as I could. “This isn’t about anyone else. This is about me. You know my history. I am not the kind of girl who would be comfortable in sharing your bed like some convenient concubine.”

“Is that how you think I see you?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m confused.”

He ran his hand through my hair. “I don’t want you because you’re convenient.
I want you because you’re passionate… because you’re strong. I want you because you’re you,” he added in a soft whisper that delivered a lethal blow to my resolve.

My eyes fluttered closed. “Please don’t say these things.”

I couldn’t even look at him. I knew the minute I lost myself in those bright blue eyes that I’d never find my way out again. He hesitated for a long moment before he finally rose from the bed. He picked up the jewelry he had come for, and then walked quietly toward the door.

I glanced his direction in time to see him pause and turn back to me. “I want you, Rachel,” he declared in a soft voice. “And I know you want me.
”

I didn’t argue because I couldn’t.
As inappropriate as it might have been, and as much as I never wanted it to happen, I had fallen for Drew Fullerton despite every iota of common sense that screamed I shouldn’t.

“
I will give you time because that is what you need. I think you’ll find that I am a patient and reasonable man. But, Rachel,” he cautioned in an ominous voice, “do not betray me again.”

Before I could deny I had betrayed him at all, he slipped from my room with a slight slam of the door.

I tossed and turned the entire night, finally passing out somewhere near dawn, where the stress made its way into my dream. Instead of sexy dreams, I dreamed I was back in my apartment in Texas, hunkered under my coffee table as the civil defense sirens blared. Tornadoes swirled around just outside my window, and right before they hit, my door burst open and I saw Alex fill the tiny doorframe. He held out a hand and called my name, but I was paralyzed with fear and unable to move.

A knock at the door dragged me out of my nightmare. I was almost afraid to answer, given the events from the night before. I slipped into a robe as I padded toward the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s Cleo.”

Puzzled, I opened the door, to find the older woman holding a silver tray with a complete breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, fruit and juice. “What is this?”

“Compliments of Master Fullerton,” she grinned.

Drew stepped in behind her, his tall frame filling the doorway. “A thank you for all your hard work with the pa
rty.” He took the tray from Cleo, who acquiesced with a nod before silently disappearing down the hall to the kitchen downstairs.

“This is very sweet but completely unnecessary. I just did the job you gave me to do.”

“You did more than that,” he said softly as he brushed past me into the room, toward my desk where he deposited the tray. Without turning around he added, “Everyone in attendance fell in love with you last night.”

I sighed. Alex remained the white elephant in the room. “Listen, Drew… we need to talk about last night…”

He wore a smile as he turned. “After breakfast. We have a busy day.”

“We do?”

His eyes swallowed me whole as he approached. “Since Jonathan won’t return home until later this evening, I thought we could unwind a bit after our hectic month with a hike in the mountains. If you’re up for it,” he added with a wink.

“I’m up for it,” I said
immediately. An opportunity to reconnect with nature while all my feelings were in chaos? That was my favorite kind of therapy. “But do you think it’s appropriate?”

He stopped just a hair away from where I stood. “You owe me a quarter.” After a beat, he continued.
“What’s so inappropriate about two friends taking a hike together in the mountains? It’s not like I’m whisking you away to Las Vegas to elope. Yet,” he added with a wink.

My whole b
ody lit up with the idea. “Drew.”

“I’m leaving in an hour,” he announced as he walked toward the door. “I hope you join me.”

With that, he was gone. I glanced over at the breakfast on my desk as I contemplated my choices.

An hour later I was downstairs, in jeans, a T-shirt and a button-up shirt on top, with a hat to protect my face and a bottle of sunscreen in my backpack. I wasn’t made up, I even wore my hair in pigtails, but he wore a triumphant smile as he hoisted a picnic basket on one arm and guided me out to one of his two-seater sports cars.

It was the first time I had ever ridden in such a car and I felt completely out of place as he threw it into gear and skid out of the driveway toward the gate. The horsepower rattled my ribcage once we got to Santa Monica Boulevard, where the sporty Italian car revved in anticipation to gallop at every red light. I felt so out of place that I resisted the urge to scoot down in the seat every time we rolled to a stop next to other cars, where drivers peered with curiosity to see which VIP Angelino was in their midst.

“You certainly don’t mind making a statement,” I muttered as he peeled away to scream down the street to the very next stoplight.

“We weren’t created to live small,” he responded with a confident smirk.

He truly was the master of his universe. He was a man without limitations thanks to his money and his power.

And I was his date for the day.

How did that happen?

He drove us north of Santa Monica into the mountains and the Westridge-Canyonback Wilderness Park. We started our hike at Mandeville Canyon. San Vicente Mountain loomed above us like a sentry, which I later learned was an apt description. “San Vicente Mountain was used as a defense site during the beginning of the Cold War,” Drew explained as we walked toward Westridge to begin our clockwise circle of the mountain. “In the 1950s, the 1960-foot summit was employed to protect Los Angeles from soviet attacks by detecting missile and air strikes.”

“It’s beautiful,” I said as I appraised the lush, green surroundings as we ascended on the trail. I couldn’t believe such an undisturbed part of Mother Earth was a part of any kind of conflict whatsoever. We followed the dirt trail, treated to breathtaking views of the San Gabriel Mountains, until we reached the observation tower that provided panoramic views that left us both speechless as we stared at the majesty of nature before us. When he took my hand in his, I couldn’t even resist. It seemed right. My eyes met his and he offered a heart-stopping smile before we continued our journey.

Because it had been constructed for use, there were old buildings on the mountain we could stop for a lunch break. Drew covered one of the installation blocks with a thick blanket on which to sit. The weather was temperate despite the fact we had now entered November. Folks in Texas were already wearing jackets, and I was shrugging off my top shirt because I had worked up a bit of a sweat hiking up the mountain.

He withdrew a bottle of wine, a cheese plate with a
selection of fruit included, along with two generous vegetarian sandwiches on earthy multi-grain filled with sprouts, avocado and Provolone cheese. Since we both had worked up quite an appetite ascending hundreds of feet in elevation, neither one of us spoke much as we tore into the bounty that Cleo had prepared for us.

He chuckled to himself as he wiped a bit of oil from the corner of my mouth. “I’ve never met any woman who enjoys food as much as you do.”

My eyes fell from his as I heard Jonathan whisper how his father didn’t like fat people. “We weren’t created to live small,” I countered.

“Hear, hear,” he toasted with his wine glass.

I set what remained of my sandwich back onto the plastic plate and glanced back out at the view. “This is incredible,” I said. “Thank you for bringing me.”

“Thank you for coming,” he replied. “I wasn’t sure if you would.”

I had to laugh. “Yes, you were.”

He smirked happily. “What can I say? I don’t play to lose.”

“Is that what I am?” I asked. “Some competition between you and your brother?”

He shrugged. “You tell me.”

“I have no idea,” I answered honestly. “I’m still pinching myself to see if all of this is real. Sometimes I think it’s all just a dream and I’ll wake up in my tiny twin bed back in my apartment in Grand Prairie.”

“Is that what you want?”
he asked softly.

My eyes met his. “No.”

“What do you want?” he persisted.

“I can tell you what I don’t want,” I answered in the same soft voice. “I don’t want Alex.”

His eyes darkened as he leaned closer to where I sat. I didn’t move away, I didn’t even want to.  “God, you’re beautiful,” he breathed as he crossed those few inches that separated us. When his lips met mine, it felt like another dream. I tentatively kissed him back, which made him groan deep in his throat. His large hand cupped my head as he drew me even closer, as if we couldn’t get close enough. He was breathless as he dragged his mouth away. “I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want you,” he muttered against my ear. “You’re my angel, sent to save me from myself.”

My eyes fluttered closed as he nuzzled my neck. I didn’t care that we were in public. If he had laid me back against that blanket, I would have let him take me right then and there. I wanted this man… more than I ever thought was possible.
The battle to keep it proper was lost from that first fiery kiss in his study. “Drew,” I whispered as my fingers trailed through his perfect hair.

He planted another hungry kiss on my parted lips
, and it was my turn to groan. I was like a virgin at the tips of his fingers, but I was woman enough to know that ache in me would never be satisfied until he and I became one. He must have felt the last of my resolve slip away because he eased me back against the blanket, his other arm swiping all the remnants of our lunch off of the concrete block onto the ground.

I was beyond stopping him even as his hand slipped under my shirt and slid easily across the cool expanse of my torso, inching closer and closer to the hardened peak of my breast. I arched my back toward his hand, unable to vocalize what I wanted, needed, most.

Something inside me had awakened from that very first night I dreamed of being in his arms. It clamored louder and louder for satisfaction. I gasped as his palm spread across my breast.

“Tell me what you want,” he commanded urgently in my ear.

“You,” I finally said. “God help me, I want you.” I was rewarded by his full-body shudder. He pulled away.

“Then let’s go home,” he said as he held out a hand to pull me to my feet.

I was wired with anticipation the entire walk back to the car, and the drive back to the house. Drew said nothing, but kept my hand in his. He would absently brush the center of my palm with his thumb, which sent a delicious charge to my very core.

This was madness, but I was powerless to stop it.
I was under his spell, and likely had been from that first night when he had pulled me close, to lure me into those bottomless blue eyes. I shuddered as I thought of each and every step that had led us to this inevitable moment. At every stoplight he would bring my hand to his lips for a lingering kiss. I was ready to split at the seams the minute we drove up the driveway. He didn’t even bother parking the car in the garage. He grabbed my hand and led me toward the door, where Harrison met us immediately.

“Master Fullerton,” he said, with enough urgency in his voice to stop both
of us in our tracks. “We’ve been trying to contact you.”

“What is it, Harrison?”

“It’s Jonathan, sir. He has been hurt.”

I grasped my chest with the hand that Drew automatically released. “What? When? How?”

“His mother and Master Alex took Jonathan to Griffith Park to ride the horses. Apparently the horse startled on the trail and Master Jonathan fell.”

I felt frozen all the way to my very core. “Is he… is he OK?”

“He’s at the hospital,” Harrison supplied, handing Drew a piece of paper with all the information. “They won’t tell me any more than that.”

Drew offered a curt nod before he trotted back to his car. I didn’t even think twice before I hopped in the passenger side. All the way to the Burbank hospital, neither of us spoke. We didn’t even touch. We were both terrified, our minds racing with each and every possible scenario. Because the information was so limited, there was nothing left to do but speculate. Unfortunately, I had already experienced the worst possible scenario, so all I could do was pray that would not repeat here and now, with yet another precious little boy I had come to love.

The paparazzi were already there at the entrance as we arrived. Drew nearly growled at them as they snapped away, asking questions in an incoherent jumble. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the crook of his arm to shield me from their onslaught as he pushed his way through the throng. We were met by security and led to the private room where Jonathan had been admitted.

Elise was right outside the door, her new lover providing solace for the distraught woman. I had
first met him the night before, when he was partially obscured by the mask he wore. Now, in jeans and a casual shirt, he looked much, much younger, with sandy blond hair and a California tan. I could feel Drew stiffen against me as we came to a halt in front of them. His voice was firm with controlled anger when he asked, “What happened?”

“He fell,” she managed through the tears. She could barely meet Drew’s gaze and she ignored me entirely. I got the distinct impression she found my presence offensive, as if I had no right at all to be there.

“I got that part,” he gritted through clenched teeth. “Were you watching him?”

“This isn’t her fault,” the tennis pro named Derek interjected. But even he shrunk back as Drew turned his attention to him.

“Is it yours?” he asked.

“It was an accident, Drew,” Elise managed, putting herself in between her ex and her new lover.

I didn’t care whose fault it was. “Is he OK?” I asked.

She nodded, barely sparing me a glance. “His leg is broken. He’ll be in a cast for six weeks.
”

Drew brushed past them into the private room. Jonathan looked so small against the bright white sheets. I immediately had to gulp back a sob as we rounded the bed, where his broken leg in a full cast was elevated to help ease pain
and reduce swelling.

Jonathan’s eyes fluttered open as Drew touched his head, brushing his dark hair from his pale forehead. “Dad,” he greeted with a dopey smile I knew came from heavy pain medication.

“Hey, buddy. Get the number of that bus?”

Jonathan shook his head. Then he glanced around the room to find me. His eyes lit up when he found me on the other side of the bed. “Rachel!” he said as he reached for my hand.