Harlequin Kimani Romance September 2014 Bundle: Seduced by the Heir\Secret Silver Nights\Someone Like You\Indulge Me Tonight (67 page)

He stepped back, giving her some space. “I'm not drunk. I'm not drunk. Just don't leave.” He felt her breathing slow, and he glanced back at the bar. “That was my first drink today.”

“Today?” she blurted.

He produced a weary smile and set his forehead to the door.

“Grae.” Tielle turned to him, smoothing the back of her hand down his cheek. “Come on. Let's sit in the living room.”

He waved her off halfheartedly. “That'll put me to sleep.”

“All right, here.” She clutched his arm and maneuvered them back to the bar area. She got him seated, intending to prepare him a cup of black coffee from the personal coffeemaker on the counter.

Grae stopped her before she could move too far. “Thanks, Tel. I'm sorry I, um, I don't know what's wrong with me.”

“Stop,” she soothed. “You've just had the biggest shock of your life, and the two people best equipped to help you deal with it aren't here anymore.” She was referring to his parents.

Grae had no comeback, and he could only prop his elbow on the bar while he mulled over her words.

Tielle squeezed his shoulder and made another move for the coffeemaker. Again, she found herself ensnared in his grasp.

“Grae, this won't solve the problem. You don't need this.” Tielle bit her lip when a moan suddenly pressured the back of her throat. Grae was treating her earlobe to slow, wet nibbles.

“I always need this,” he said. “Always need it from you.”

“Coffee would probably suit you better,” she argued weakly.

“So you say.” He didn't sound at all convinced.

His nibbles gained heat and moisture. Big hands spanned up from Tielle's waist, massaging her spine and shoulder blades before easing around to cup her breasts. Repeatedly, he flicked his thumbs across the buds imprinted beneath the material of her cotton top. Tielle gasped something needy and unrecognizable.

Grae left off his torture of her lobe to glide his nose across the silken skin below, traveling the elegant curve of her jaw down to her throat, where he began a faint suckle of her collarbone. Suddenly, he left the bar chair and took her with him. They were in the midst of a full-blown kiss by then.

Tielle clutched the neckline of his T-shirt while losing herself in the kiss that grew deeper. She wasn't sure how long they had been moving, but soon she was enjoying the feel of plush firmness of an enormous bed beneath her back. Grae's earlier fondling of her breasts had succeeded in parting the short, upturned collar of her top where the neckline already dipped into an alluring V. She squirmed, eager to be free of the shirt's confines.

Grae eased back, allowing her room to shed the top and bra. He pounced then. Hungrily, he feasted on the delicate undersides of her breasts. He divided his attention equally between the firm peaks, emitting rough sounds of satisfaction each time he drew her into his mouth.

Tielle felt his fingers skim the waistband of her panties and only then realized he'd already undone her jeans.

“Grae.” She felt that she should at least put up a little professional effort to assist him in handling the devastating blow he'd just experienced. “Wait...”

“Okay.” He made no attempt to cease his sinful handling of her body.

Tielle melted into the luxurious fabric of the walnut-brown comforter. Giving in to abandon, she arched into the exquisite tugs of his lips and fingers to her nipples. His free hand moved, vanishing beneath the scrap of lace spanning her hips. Delight sent her body into a sharp spasm.

Grae only toyed with her at first, just lightly grazing his middle finger across the bud of sensitive flesh at the apex of her thighs. Then he was tormenting her with strokes to her intimate folds.

“Stop teasing,” she panted, lifting her hips from the bed when he thrust the digit inside.

Weakened, Grae rested his head on her shoulder. Creamy sensation pampered his finger where it eased into her tight well, stirring and thrusting in leisurely succession. The moves had his healthy erection throbbing in anticipation of taking the place of his finger and journeying deeper.

Just then, however, he was content letting his fingers be his guide. His hips nudged hers while his imagination had its way. He ignored what sounded like the doorbell even after it had chimed through the condo one, twice, three times...

When a quiet respite was followed by what could be mistaken for nothing other than a fist pounding on a door, Grae raised his head.

“What the hell...?”

“Sounds important,” Tielle whispered.

Grae emitted a rough purr. “It can wait.”

Another booming series of knocks cascaded upon the door to punctuate his decision. Tielle felt a growl vibrate from Grae's chest and through hers. Then he was bolting from the bed. Tielle pushed herself up, fixing her clothes as she sat.

“Don't even think about it, Tel,” Grae ordered over his shoulder as he left the room.

The command was one she had no trouble adhering to. Content, she settled down to the massive and obscenely comfortable bed. The central heating activated, and the calming sounds of rushing air filled the room. The lullaby set in motion by the warm air might have put Tielle to sleep were it not for the voices. They were low, but stirring, at first before rising in volume with clipped edges signifying tension...or anger.

Tielle perked her ears, hoping to catch more specifics amidst the rumble. Eventually, she made out two male voices—one belonging to Grae, the other to Leo.

She closed her eyes to offer a prayer for a quick end to the increasingly hostile conversation. An end didn't appear to be on the horizon. Tielle decided to fix her clothes, her movements gaining speed as the argument's volume surged. Her fingers stilled on the waistband of her jeans when she heard a door boom shut. Scrambling off the bed, she stumbled from the room and sprinted for the front of the condo.

The living room appeared in a worse state than it had when she had first arrived. Tielle saw Leo standing in the middle of the overturned chairs.

Grae was gone.

Chapter 15

“W
hat happened?” Tielle looked from Leo to the door and back again.

“Ever heard that line about shooting the messenger?” Leo asked. “Thankfully, Grae doesn't subscribe to it. He'd rather shoot the topic of the message.”

“Where is he?”

“My guess is he's gone to have a little heart-to-heart with his brother.”

Tielle accepted defeat for only a second before snapping her fingers. “I may be able to catch up—”

“Ti,” Leo said, getting between her and the front door, “let him go. You'll just prolong the inevitable.”

“Are you serious?” She was, for a moment, speechless. “He'll kill him.”

“I don't think so. Grae didn't get as far as he has by letting rage dictate his moves.”

“Leo, this isn't business, it's very personal, and it has been for years.” She stilled. “What'd you say to him?”

“Faro went to the press about this after all. I've been here every day hoping he'd open the door and talk to me about it. He finally did. Do I have you to thank for that?” He watched Tielle take a seat on the nearest sofa arm.

“Faro knows Grae's been...absent going on two weeks. He's demanding the top spot at Clegg and says he's willing to take it to court,” Leo shared. “If he wins, and chances are pretty strong that he could, he's already threatened to toss every one of us out on our asses.”

Tielle couldn't stop herself from dwelling on the inevitable. If Grae was on the way to see his brother, he'd surely kill the man.

“I need to find him.” She shoved an overturned chair out of the way.

“Honey, haven't you had enough of coming between those two?”

Tielle whirled around as though a physical force had directed her. “So you're finally around to blaming me too, huh?”

“Honey, no.” Leo moved to draw her close and drop a kiss to her forehead. “You're the last person who deserves any blame for the fallout between those two, and what good has it done you? Maybe it's time to let the chips fall where they may. Only way there will be any progress, right?”

“Humph.” Tielle recalled saying something similar to Grae and shrugged. “Right.”

* * *

Tielle stepped out onto the porch clutching a hot ceramic mug between her hands. Inhaling, she smiled as serenity claimed her, which it had consistently and appreciatively done over the past three days.

It was hard
not
to feel secure. Especially then. She loved the retreat the closer the year churned toward its end. The parties had all cleared out, hopefully healed or, at the very least, no worse than they'd been before arriving.

She bowed her head, sipping at the soothing rose petal and chamomile blend inside the mug. She'd been on her own going on three days. Her live-in staff had all headed off to their well-deserved vacations or to visit with friends and family for the holidays. But for her skeleton security staff, she alone remained.

There was nothing unsettling about it. Turner Estates had been home to her in one manner or another pretty much her entire life. She inhaled again, finding rejuvenation in the crisp chill. Virtually no remnants remained of the snowfall three weeks prior. The lingering chill, however, warned that it would not be the last dusting of the season.

Sipping more deeply from the mug, Tielle looked toward the dirt road cutting into the hill. She'd come out to the main porch two minutes after the call from the security booth. She'd hoped the tea would perform its usual wonders at soothing frazzled nerves. Its potency hadn't kicked in yet, and that didn't surprise her.

Despite it all, she put a shaky welcoming smile in place. She watched as Grae curved around the horseshoe drive and parked his olive-green truck at a slant.

“No police escort?” She attempted teasing, feeling her apprehension lift when he smiled.

“Don't celebrate too fast.” Grae rounded the hulking vehicle he'd driven up from Oregon. “There may be some knocking on your door tonight.”

“Tonight? You plan to stay that long?”

A sturdy shoulder rose on a lazy shrug before he went to the truck's flatbed and retrieved two duffel bags. “I plan to stay as long as you'll let me.”

Tielle's hold on the mug tightened. She worked up another shaky smile. “You packed pretty light for a lengthy stay.” She nodded toward the twin duffels.

His sly, adorable grin returned. “It's never good to assume. I figure I'll go back when I'm out of underwear.” He shook one of the bulging bags for emphasis.

“Then by all means.” She tucked a coarse lock behind her ear and turned. Opening one of the front double doors, she waved for him to precede her.

Grae met her on the porch and nodded. “After you,” he insisted.

* * *

“I was sure you'd gone to kill him.”

“You would've been right.” Grae nodded.

He'd insisted on putting his bags away, knowing that once he'd taken a seat that wasn't behind the wheel of his truck, he wouldn't move for at least two hours.

“Then a good dose of common sense kicked in and I walked to the bar on the corner. Planned to get drunk instead.”

“That's good...I guess.” She leaned to top off their coffees.

He grunted. “It was on the way to being good—and then Leo found me.”

“Grae...” She set down the coffeepot. “You can't hate him for keeping your parents' confidence. They've passed on, but those loyalties don't just disappear. Even if I didn't have a love for helping people, I think I'd try to carry on the retreat for my family anyway.”

His attractive features clenched. “Not the same.”

“It is.” She added cream to her coffee. “It
could
be. My grandparents—my parents, for that matter—would never tell me I wasn't theirs.”

Grae took his coffee bitter and black. He tossed down some of the fragrant brew and he approved of the the piping hotness burning its way down his gullet.

“Are you trying to tell me I'm lucky to have a brother—” he grimaced “—
half
brother who hates me?”

“I don't know.” Idly Tielle went about sweetening her coffee. “I guess that'd depend on whether this is something you're glad to know or wish you didn't.”

“Remember what you asked me in Portland?” she said after several moments of silence. “If Faro told me?”

Grae set down his mug with a clatter. “I'm sorry, Tel, for the question and the insult.”

“It was a fair question.”

“It wasn't.”

“We were close, Faro and me.”

Grae settled back to the chair he occupied near the library fireplace. “You were close to him because you're a decent person who can see goodness in the worst people.”

Tielle sipped her coffee and delighted at the taste before her contentment faded. “That's not saying much for my judgment, is it?”

Grae toasted her with his mug. “Don't beat yourself up about it. You've got the best judgment of anyone I know.”

Tielle studied the contents of her cup. “What about you? You always thought Faro was a snake, but you were willing to think better of him. I could see it when I asked you to give him a chance. Any regrets?”

“I tried so hard because you wanted me to.” Grae chuckled, bracing his elbows to his knees.

“Oh.” Again she studied the depths of the mug cradled in her lap. Faintly, the origins of laughter tickled the back of her throat. The sensation took shape on her tongue, tumbling past her lips in an enthusiastic and relieved display.

Grae took great pleasure in watching the woman he loved laughing with such rapture. In seconds, he was joining her.

* * *

Nightfall found the couple on one of the enclosed terraces enjoying drinks after a satisfying dinner courtesy of the Japanese steakhouse not far from the estate. The place wasn't exactly a takeout establishment, but the owners had no problem delivering a meal to the address that supplied some of their highest-tipping patrons.

Grae set his glass emptied of bourbon on the round wrought-iron table between the cushioned chaises he and Tielle occupied. “What you said about regrets, whether I had any?”

“Yeah?” She sipped from her half-full goblet of white wine.

“The way I let you go,” he said after a lengthy silence. “The way I demanded you go unless you did what I wanted.”

“At least you gave me a chance.”

“I'm serious, Tel.”

Her goblet joined his empty glass on the table, and she turned to face him.

“That ultimatum was bad enough, but the way we—Faro and me—tugged at you back and forth like you were a toy and we wanted you to decide who you wanted to play with... You were my wife. I should've treated you better than that.”

“You know, instead of working so hard to reconcile you and Faro,
I
should've been trying to find out why you were so resistant to the idea despite those glimmers of hope I
thought
I saw in your eyes.” She shrugged. “I just assumed it was some petty childhood issue between brothers. Nothing like this.”

“Yeah...I thought it was some petty childhood issue, too.”

“What are you gonna do now?” she asked.

“It's already done.” Grae crossed his ankles. “When Leo found me the other night, I gave him my resignation.”

Tielle gasped. “You can't.”

“I did.”

“But you—” She could barely catch the words that raced through her mind. “Who's gonna run Clegg?” She shook her head at Grae's knowing look.

“Leo can handle it over there until things settle down, but my time is done.”

Tielle scooted closer to him. “Because of you, your dad's company has the kind of success he worked so hard to bring it into. Your family knows no one can top what you've done there. Not Leo and definitely not Faro.”

“They lied to me, Tel. Every day, they smiled in my face, patted my back for a job well done... They played me for a fool.”

“You don't believe that.”

“I do.”

“What about before you ever went to work for Clegg?”

Grae's upper lip curled into a snarl. “That was for my dad's sake. Couldn't upset the guy with all the money, could they?”

“You're angry.” She rested her elbow on the cushioned arm of the lounge. “You have every right to be, but when you're done with that emotion, you'll put your energy on the one that's always been there—the love they have for you and yours for them.” Encouragingly, she eased her hand across one of the broad forearms bared by the sleeves of the worn T-shirt carrying the emblem of his favorite pro basketball team.

Grae caught her wrist before Tielle could react. “I'd rather put my energy on you—the love that satisfies me.”

Her smile was sad. “I haven't been so satisfying over the last year.”

“You've been making up for it.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Oh, you've still got a lot of making up to do.” His hand firmed at her wrist.

“Grae—”

“Hmm.” Seamlessly, he tugged her from the lounge until she was straddling his lap.

“I thought you wanted to talk?” Her question carried on an unsteady breath.

Grae's focus was on loosening the stringed bodice of the teal lounge dress Tielle had worn that night.

“I'm sure there will be talking involved.” He began a slow, circular caress of a firming nipple while steadily unraveling the stark-white tassels securing the front of her dress. The strings offered teasing glimpses of plump cleavage.

Tielle bit her lip at the warm, heady sensation she felt from someplace deep.

“Don't bottle it up, Tel. I'm the only person who can hear you.”

She responded with a steady laugh. “I knew I should've been more careful about who I let in my house.”

“You should. A man like me could just come in and take what he wants....”

The words silenced when his lips closed over a nipple peeking through her unraveled bodice strings.

She groaned. “What kind of man are you?”

“One who can't stay away from you. One who'd do anything to keep you—preferably like this.” His words were soft and shared intermittently as he gave the nipple a lengthy bathing with his tongue. His beautifully shaped lips took over next to suckle the bud dry.

Tielle arched into the act. Her fingers charted a trail over his bare forearms and the stunning breadth of his shoulders. They curved about his nape, scraping the fine, dark hair tapered there. She tried pushing more breast into his mouth, but he only seemed to want her nipple. Deliciously frustrated, she ground on his lap and smiled when he responded with a tortured groan.

Grae cupped her hip, gave a warning squeeze for her to stop. Tielle wanted him too much to cooperate. She'd been constantly reminded of the delightful interlude they'd enjoyed at his condo before family drama intervened. She was in no shape to take things slow.

Determinedly, she reached to undo his belt and slapped his hands then his chest when he tried to stop her.

“I won't last long, Tel,” he warned as she resumed her task with his belt.

“Okay, then.” She plied his earlobe with a wet suckle, her hand locating the prize she sought inside his jeans. She smiled at that half tortured, half satisfied groan he uttered when she gave him a naughty squeeze.

“Grae, no,” she sobbed, when he clutched her waist as though he meant to pull her off his lap.

“To hell with it.” He left the lounge, taking her with him. The growled words signified his defeat, his inability to resist what she so clearly wanted from him and him from her.

Grae could feel her lips curving into a smile when she kissed his cheek and teased with a hint of her tongue. “You're not cooperating.”

“I'll make it up,” she taunted, outlining his mouth with the tip of her tongue. Devilishly, she evaded when he would have initiated a thorough kiss. She retraced the outline and then let her lips caress the corded column of his neck and collarbone.