Rescue Me (9 page)

She spotted a leather travel bag slung in the back of the seat and
figured the owner must have gone to the john. She turned to look down the
narrow hallway leading to the bathroom and found Seth walking towards her.

"Hello, Maya."
 
Seth
sent her a nervous smile, as if unsure how she would react to the sight of him.

Maya didn't know how to react. Part of her wanted to fling
herself
in to his arms and beg him for forgiveness, and the
other wanted to give him a hard time over kissing Alice.

"What are you doing here?"

"I should have guessed you haven't been watching. Alice and
me
got voted off."

"I don't believe you."

Seth slid in to the booth and gestured for her to sit, too. "Well,
it's true."

Maya sat down opposite him, too far away to give in to the urge to touch
him.
"But how?
You two were so far ahead in the
polls, there was no way you could lose a public vote."

"Ah, but you're not allowing for the Alice factor.
 
She saw to it that we lost."

"What?"

Seth told her about Ben catching Alice in a compromising position with a
woman and how the plan to kiss him had occurred to her the next day, but she
hadn't seen fit to warn him first.

"Once she realized how I felt about you, she convinced me to find
you and tell you what really happened, but you'd already left.
 
After that, she knew how badly I wanted to
come find you and figured I wouldn't do that because I'd be letting her down,
and she was right. So she fluffed all of our events to make sure we were up for
elimination."

"The public loved you and Alice."

"But not enough to overlook the fact she is gay."

"How did they know?"

"She told them during one of the podcast interviews. She knew they
went out live and her comments couldn't be edited before
transmission."
 

Seth chuckled, confusing the hell out of Maya. She couldn't see what was
so funny about both of them missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. She
told him so.

"Thinking about what she did makes me happy. She's one hell of a
woman, and I'm glad to have met her. I know we're gonna be friends for the rest
of our lives."

Maya shrugged.
 
"I'm not sure
I'd have such warm feelings about someone who just cost me five million
dollars."

"Some things are more important."

"Like what?"

Seth stretched across the table and grabbed one of her hands in his.
"Like you."

Maya couldn't speak. The depth of emotion she could read in his eyes
thrilled and scared her at the same time. She couldn't be the reason he lost his
inheritance.

"I love you, Maya."

She groaned and hid her eyes with her free hand. "I know."

"That's not exactly the response I was hoping for."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. I meant I know you love me.
You told me already."

Seth shook his head.
"When?"

Maya felt her cheeks grow hot.
"When we made
love.
You said it then."

He pulled his hand back. "So that's why you left? Because I told
you I loved you?"

"Yes, but not for the reasons you think. I was trying to deny my
own feelings by keeping them under control, but I couldn't control you. As much
as it scared me to hear you say those words, what scared me more
was having
to admit to myself I loved you, too. So, when I
saw you kissing Alice, I had the excuse I needed to run away."

"You love me?"
 
Seth got
to his feet and slid into the booth beside her.

Maya nodded, barely able to make out his features through the tears
misting her eyes. "Yes, I love you. I can't deny it any more.
 
I'm sorry I hurt you, Seth. There's no excuse
for the way I've treated you. I was hurt very badly in the past by someone I
loved, and I thought I'd gotten over it. But something Larry said to me tonight
made me realize that I've let a past experience change who I am as a person,
and I nearly lost you because of it."

Maya told him about Phil and how she'd always blamed herself for the
damage he'd done to her heart and mind both before and after his death.

"I tried to deny what was happening between us and my feelings for
you, but all I did was hurt us both. I'm so sorry."

He hugged her and wiped her tears away.
 
"You didn't hurt me, honey. I never dared hope you felt the same
way about me as I did about you, but I knew you wanted me, no matter how much
you claimed not to."

Maya laughed, giving him a gentle shove. "There's that Texan ego
again, Mr. Coulter."

Seth leaned closer, pinning her against the back of the booth, his lips
millimeters away from hers.
 
"It
ain't my ego talking if I'm right."

She closed the gap between them, clasping his bristled jaw between her
palms and kissing him hard. Seth grunted in response and reached behind her to
grab her waist as he slid an arm under the back of her knees to lift her into
his lap without breaking the kiss.

Maya felt the hard ridge of his erection pressing against her butt
through the thin fabric of her dress. His fingers dug in to the flesh of her
back as his tongue slid into her mouth, and he took control of the kiss she'd
started. The urge to get him home and naked in her bed made her wriggle off his
lap and shove him out of the booth ahead of her.

Seth let her out and pulled her into his arms. "I'm not about to
let you run away again."

"I'm not running away. I'm just gonna go grab my purse then tell
Larry we're leaving."

"I'm gonna need a minute." Seth flicked his gaze downward,
reminding her, as if she needed it, that he had a massive erection.

Maya giggled. "Can't you hide it with your bag?"

He grinned. "I guess so, but don't expect me to walk too far."

They escaped the bar and Larry's attempt to interrogate them about where
they were running off to so soon, and climbed in to Maya's white Mercedes
SLK.
 
Seth seemed impressed and gave a
low whistle.

"So, you're rich, huh?"

Maya tensed. "Not in LA terms, but I've been a television executive
for about ten years, and it pays very well. Is that a problem?"

Seth shook his head and settled his weight in the plush leather seat.
"As long as you don't expect me to live off your money, not at
all."

"I've been there before, and I can tell you from bitter experience
that it doesn't work."

"Was that one of the reasons you pushed me away?"

"Oh my God!
Is that what you think?"
 
Maya was horrified at the thought. She couldn't blame him though. There
wasn't much she hadn't accused him of over the last couple of months.

"No, but you seemed really obsessed with me winning that
prize."

"Yes, but for your sake, not mine. I know how much your ranch means
to you."

Seth held her gaze for a moment then gave a slow, almost imperceptible
nod, and she knew he believed her. Maya gunned the engine to life and pulled
out of the parking lot behind the bar.

Her small home in the hills came in to view minutes later, and she
parked in front of the house rather than putting her pride and joy in the
garage as she usually would. Maya couldn't wait to get the big sexy cowboy
who'd been stroking her cheek, caressing her arm and squeezing her thigh all
the way home, into her house.

"Now this, I can handle."
 
Seth looked up at her unassuming stucco cottage that probably cost a lot
more than he thought it did, what with the insane real estate market in
LA.
 
"You gonna give me the grand
tour?"

Maya grabbed his hand and pulled him in through the door. "For now,
the only room I need you to see is the bedroom."

Seth dropped his bag on the floor and swung her up into his arms.
"Just show me the way."

Chapter Ten

Seth had been holding out on her!
 
Maybe it was because he'd been uncertain of his feelings or in the dark
about hers, but there was no doubt he'd been holding back. Her dress lay in a
heap on the bedroom floor, her underwear had gone God only knew where, and he
was inside her before she'd as much as managed to switch on a light

He held her up against the wall, one hand bunched in her hair, the other
grasping at the back of her thigh as he jabbed his huge cock into her sopping
wet pussy over and over again. Maya couldn't make a sound, couldn't tell him
how fucking amazing he felt inside her. Seth's thrusts stole her breath away
when she wanted to tell him how much she loved him and how miserable she'd been
without him.

She was overwhelmed his physical strength and the depth of his passion
for her. The impact of being taken so completely by a man of his size and power
was like nothing she'd ever experienced before, even with him. When Seth was in
love, he proved it with his body as well as his heart. The way he fucked her
was desperate with need and almost savage in tempo, and she had no say in
whether she came or not.

Maya found her voice at the moment of climax, screaming out how much she
loved him and what he was doing to her. Seth came with a shout of anguish, his
voice breaking as he tried to tell her he loved her, too. His movements slowed,
and he jerked into her, grazing the tender flesh of her neck with his teeth as
he gasped for breath and trembled with exhaustion. Seth sank to his knees,
taking her down with him, and curled her into his arms after he took off the
used condom and slumped onto his back on the hard, stripped oak floor.

Maya lay on top of him, her knees pressed against the sides of his
torso, her cheek resting on his chest. She listened as his heart stopped racing
and his ragged breathing slowed.
 
She
felt absolutely boneless and totally spent and hoped he didn't mind bearing her
weight because she didn't have the strength to move yet.

Large hands stroked her hair, face and shoulders with a gentleness she
wouldn't have thought him capable of considering the display of brute strength
she'd just witnessed.
 

Maya turned her face inwards to kiss his chest and taste the sweat
bathing his skin. Something brushed against the crease between the cheeks of
her ass, and she felt him growing hard again. She wiggled against him, bumping
against his erection as she sucked one his nipples into her mouth and flicked
at it with her tongue.
 
Seth's hands
tightened in her hair, and she raised her hips just enough to let his cock fall
against his body so she could slide her clit up and down the length of it.

He began to jerk and groan beneath her, and she glanced up at his face
to see it rigid with tension as he watched her, his teeth biting down on his
lip. She smiled and put her mouth back on his flesh as she began the long and
tantalizing journey down to his groin.

Seth parted his thighs, allowing her to slip into the gap so she could
kneel between them. Maya's hand closed around the thick shaft of his penis, and
her pussy throbbed in anticipation and memory of what his beautiful cock could
do to her. It was time Seth learned what she could do for him.

She held his gaze as she flicked her tongue over her lips to moisten
them, and she saw his eyes narrow to thin slits as he sucked in a harsh breath.
She lowered her head, letting the tip of his penis rest against the soft pout
of her lips. Maya opened her mouth a little more and let him slide inside.

He jerked beneath her as she increased the tempo and hollowed out her
cheeks to suck on him harder. Maya's knuckles grazed the skin of his balls, and
he shuddered in response, his hands pulling on her hair.
 

Seth started to moan aloud in time with her motions, and she felt him
grow and swell inside her mouth, letting her know it wouldn't take much more to
make him come.
 
He tried to lift her head,
but she slapped his hands away.

"Maya ... oh, God.
I'm gonna come."

She released his cock for a split second to suck the tip of her finger
into her mouth and moisten it with her saliva. Maya took him in again in one
long, deep motion and pressed her fingertip against the tight knot of his anus,
applying a gentle pressure.

Seth surged upwards, thrusting into her mouth, forgetting to be careful
as his body began to jerk and shudder, and a powerful orgasm tore through him.
Maya had a firm grip on his shaft, stopping him from choking her, allowing him
the freedom to thrust as hard as he wanted.
 
She felt his penis contract between her lips and then the warmth of his
semen exploding into her mouth, hitting the back of her throat in powerful
spurts. Maya released him only when his shudders subsided and she was satisfied
she'd taken everything he had to give.