Seducing the Wolf (49 page)

Later that night, after several more rounds of fevered lovemaking, they lay in bed luxuriating in a decadent postcoital glow. Sweat cooled slowly on their skin, and their legs were tangled beneath the covers resting at their waists.

Curled into Manning’s side, Taylor ran her hand across his warm chest, tracing the hard ridges of his abdomen. His lips curved in a lazy smile as he stared up at the high ceiling.

After watching him for a few moments, she kissed his chest and whispered, “What’re you thinking about?”

“Paris.”

“What about Paris?”

He propped himself up on one elbow. “Let’s go there.”

Taylor was startled. “What?”

He gazed down at her. “I wanna see where you live, where you eat, where you sleep. I want to experience Paris with you.”

Warm pleasure spread through Taylor, even as she recognized the impracticality of what he was suggesting. “I’d love to take you back to Paris, but it’ll have to wait until after next week’s concert. We’ve started practicing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra—”

“Will you be practicing over the weekend?”

“Well, no—”

“Then we can go to Paris. The residency program ends early every Friday, right?”

Taylor nodded. “At noon.”

“Good. We can leave on Friday afternoon and come back Sunday evening. You won’t miss a thing.”

Taylor stared up at him. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

“I am.” Manning smiled, his eyes warm with nostalgia. “Remember that conversation we had when we were sixteen? The one where I promised to fly you to Paris someday on my private jet?”

Taylor smiled tenderly. “I remember.”

“Well, I’d like to fulfill my promise. I mean, I know it’s somewhat anticlimactic since you already live there—”

“Not at all.” Taylor touched his face. “Nothing with you could ever be anticlimactic.”

He gazed at her, his eyes filled with adoration and gratitude. “Does that mean yes?”

She smiled softly. “Yes. You can fly me to Paris.”

Smiling, he leaned down and brushed his mouth across hers with heartrending tenderness.

“I love you,” he whispered.

Her heart soared. “I love you too.”

He kissed her gently again, then gathered her in his arms and lay back against the pillows. As he resumed staring up at the ceiling, Taylor could sense a shift in his mood. She waited for him to speak.

Finally he did. “Your father came to see me today.”

Taylor stiffened in shock. It was the last thing she’d expected him to say.

Lifting her head from his chest, she stared at him in disbelief. “My father’s in town?”

Manning nodded, looking grim. “I wasn’t going to tell you. I didn’t want to upset you. But then I realized he might show up at the university, and I didn’t want you to be blindsided.”

Taylor felt a surge of anger. “What did he want?”

Manning frowned. “It’s not important.”

“It is to me! He came all the way to Atlanta. I want to know what the hell he had to say.”

Manning clenched his jaw so hard a muscle throbbed. “He told me to stay away from you.”

“
What! How dare he?
” Trembling with outrage, Taylor bolted upright and flung back the covers. Before she could lunge out of bed, Manning caught her wrist, halting her.

“Where are you going?”

“To get my damn phone,” she fumed. “I’m gonna call my father and let him have it!”

“Don’t do that. Not now.”

She scowled. “He needs to be—”

“No.” Manning grabbed her and pulled her back down to the bed with him. When she struggled, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight against his body so she couldn’t escape.

Overcome with emotion, she burst into tears.

“Ah, baby,” Manning groaned raggedly, kissing the crown of her head. “I’m so sorry, darlin’. I know you want and deserve answers from him, but I just don’t want him to upset you any more than he already has.
Shit
. I knew I shouldn’t have told you he’s in town.”

“Yes, you should have,” Taylor cried. “I can’t believe he had the nerve to show up here after everything he’s done! As if it weren’t bad enough that he sent me away, that he lied to me all these years and kept us apart. For him to come here and tell you…
God,
what kind of monster is he? How can he be so
cruel
?”

“He thought he was doing what was best for you,” Manning whispered, his lips in her hair. “He thought he was protecting you.”

Taylor’s head shot up from Manning’s chest, and she leveled an accusing glare at him through the sheen of her tears. “Are you making
excuses
for him?”

“
No!
Absolutely not.” He urgently cupped her face, his eyes flashing with white-hot fury. “Your father is a heartless bastard. I wanted to kill him when I saw him today, make no mistake about it. But the longer I talked to him, the more I realized how weak and pathetic he is. He’s a broken man, Taylor, and he’s gonna have to live with what he did for the rest of his miserable life. But I don’t care about him. All I care about is
you
.”

Manning gazed deep into her eyes, tenderly wiping her tears with his thumb. “I know how much you’re hurting, baby. I know your father’s betrayal devastated you. But please don’t let it destroy you. Don’t let him take any more from us than he already has.”

The ardent entreaty, combined with the soul-wrenching love in Manning’s eyes, completely unraveled Taylor. She pressed her hand to her mouth, but she couldn’t hold back the sob that spilled forth.

With a muffled groan, Manning sat up and crushed his mouth to hers, kissing her with a searing ferocity that left her breathless and aching to her core. She stared up at him, her eyes glazed with tears as he rolled her beneath him and moved between her legs.

“I’m not sixteen anymore,” he whispered fiercely. “There’s nothing your father can say or do to separate us again.
Nothing
. You understand?”

Taylor nodded vigorously.

“I’ll never leave you,” he promised, his eyes blazing into hers as he curved his hands under her butt. “You have my word, sweetheart. We belong to each other. So I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”

With that, he lifted her into his hips and drove deep inside her, sealing their bodies together…sealing his promise.

33

T
he next morning, Manning surprised Taylor with breakfast in bed.

“Rise and shine, beautiful one.”

She had awakened moments earlier to find herself alone in the huge, rumpled bed. At the sound of Manning’s deep voice, she sat up slowly, pushing her disheveled curls off her face and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

As Manning settled the wooden tray across her lap, she stared down at a thick, fragrant omelet served with a bowl of luscious fruit and a tall glass of juice.

She lifted delighted eyes to his face. “You made me breakfast?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He brushed a soft kiss across her lips, then sat on the edge of the bed and fed her a forkful of omelet that melted in her mouth.

“Mmm,” she moaned appreciatively at the flavor. “That is
yummy
.”

Manning grinned. “I wish I could take all the credit, but Mike’s the one who taught me how to make omelets.”

“Well, you executed his recipe to perfection.”

Manning smiled and fed her another forkful, sliding out the tines slowly as he stared at her lips.

“Have you already eaten?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’ve been up for a while.”

She looked him over, her mouth watering even more at the sight of him in long shorts and a gray tank that showed off his powerful, tattooed biceps. “Have you been working out?”

“Yeah.”

Taylor remembered the state-of-the-art home gym he’d shown her during the grand tour. “You should have woken me up. I would have joined you.”

He smiled. “I thought about it, but you looked so sweet and peaceful, I didn’t want to disturb you. Besides,” he drawled wickedly, “I love having you in my bed. The longer I can keep you in it, the better.”

Taylor blushed, watching as he selected a slice of kiwi from the bowl of fruit. He slid it into her mouth, smiling softly as she chewed.

“Does your brother still call you Kiwi?”

“Yup.” She grinned. “You remember that?”

“Of course. I remember everything about you, Tay.”

Her insides tingled with pleasure. “I love it when you call me Tay. I missed that.”

“I missed
you
.” He fed her another forkful of omelet and then brought the glass of juice to her mouth so she could drink. No man had ever fed her or surprised her with breakfast in bed. It made her feel pampered. Cherished.

Her mother’s words drifted through her mind:
Every woman should experience the power and pleasure of being loved like a goddess. It’s utterly exhilarating
.

“Speaking of Tru,” Taylor said warmly, “he’s coming to the concert next week.”

“Yeah?” Manning smiled. “That’s good. I look forward to seeing him again.”

“He said the same thing about you.” Taylor paused to accept another bite of omelet. “He always liked you…Well, he did until he thought you’d deserted me.” She sobered. “I haven’t told him what Dad did. But I will before he gets here.”

Manning nodded slowly. “What about your mother? Is she coming to the concert?”

Taylor sighed. “I don’t know. She said she was. But that was before everything happened with Aidan. Even if she accepts my decision not to marry him, it may take her a while to recover from the way I embarrassed her in front of all her friends.”

Manning frowned. “What were you supposed to do? Say yes to Aidan to protect her image?”

“Of course,” Taylor said sardonically. “It would have been proper etiquette to accept his proposal in public, then let him down in private.”

Manning scowled in disbelief. “Is that what she told you?”

“More or less.” Taylor heaved another deep sigh and shook her head, pushing the unpleasant memory from her mind. It was Independence Day. She deserved a reprieve from all the pain and misery she’d experienced over the past several days.

As Manning fed her the rest of the omelet, she smiled at him. “I can’t wait to see Mama Wolf again. What time are we leaving for the cookout?”

One corner of Manning’s mouth quirked. “As long as we get there by two, no one will come after us.”

Taylor grinned. “Will we get there by two?”

“Depends.” Setting down the fork, Manning scooped out a piece of mango with his hand and slowly brushed it across her lips. When she shivered and opened her mouth, he slid the dripping fruit inside, watching her lips close around his fingers. As she gently suckled him, his eyes darkened and his breathing quickened.

She winked at him before releasing his fingers to chew and swallow the succulent mango.

Nostrils flaring, Manning removed the breakfast tray from her lap, then leaned over and kissed her. She purred as his tongue teased her lips open and slid between them. As he stroked the inside of her mouth, her toes curled beneath the covers.

Without breaking the sensual kiss, he lifted her out of the bed and carried her into the enormous master bathroom, which was the ultimate in luxury with black marble, gleaming Italian fixtures, a deep soaking tub, a walk-in spa shower, heated floors with inlaid mosaics and a flat screen television built into the wall. The high ceiling was made entirely of glass and boasted a view of lush green trees that made Taylor feel like she’d stepped into the heart of a tropical rainforest. It was a bathroom to rival anything found in the most expensive luxury hotel.

Inside the large glass stall, Manning and Taylor stood beneath the rain shower, slick bodies pressed together, mouths sliding wetly over each other’s.

Aroused by the scorching prod of his erection against her stomach, Taylor slowly began kissing her way down his powerful body. She licked his flat dark nipples until they hardened, then licked his pectorals and the crease between them. He shivered as her lips and tongue continued their downward slide, laving his chiseled abs before tracing the sexy
V
of muscle that arrowed down to his groin.