Trust in Us (14 page)

She feigned distaste at his one-track mind even though he had every part of her body set on tingle. “Please choose, sir.” She gave the lingerie another shake.

He did so obediently, cocking his head to the left to indicate his choice. Alythia turned for the rooms. She didn’t get far. He had her flush against him the instant she was within reach. He was crushing her mouth beneath his tongue, thrusting, exploring, branding.

Alythia moaned without shame, hungrily engaging in the sultry duel. One hand hung limp at her side, the garments she grasped threatening a descent to the floor as the hold weakened. With her free hand she massaged his nape, her glossy nails just grazing the soft hair tapering there.

“Hey?” She managed to draw back, sliding her finger to outline the alluring curve of his mouth. “You wanted a showing, didn’t you?” She easily sensed his reluctance in releasing her and left him with a saucy wink before sauntering to one of the fitting rooms.

* * *

Needing something, anything, to keep his mind off of her naked and less than twenty feet away, Gage took his own personal tour of the area. He thought of how very much the space reflected Alythia’s personality—airy yet with a warm tug that enhanced the contentment he was coming to cherish about her. It was a place that enveloped its guests in a cocoon of welcome.

“Those chairs are to die for!” Aly called out from the dressing room. “They’ll put you to sleep if you’re not careful!” She was hanging the strap of her bra to one of the room’s satin padded hooks when his arms snaked about her waist. Her legs went to water, his hands smothering her breasts as his mouth brushed her ear.

“Guess I’ll have to find something to keep me up, then.”

“I...don’t allow this sort of thing in here, Mr. Vincent.” Her voice was a breathy whisper. She let her head rest back against his shoulder.

“What sort of thing?” He plied her with examples, his thumbs flicking her nipples until the buds protruded. As he fondled her steadily, his unoccupied hand drifted down the lithe, lovely line of her body. Briefly, he fingered her naval, smiling when she wriggled insistently.

Aly bowed her head, biting her lip while a flurry of sensation engulfed her. Weakly, her hands covered his at her breasts, and she nuzzled her back against his chest, luxuriating in his strength.

Gage suckled her earlobe, his fingers skirting the lacy waistband of the charcoal-gray panties she wore. “Open your eyes, Alythia.”

His command was soft, effectively coaxing her cooperation. She watched as his fingers disappeared inside the wispy material at her hips, nudging them lower the deeper his hand journeyed. Her lashes fluttered.

“Don’t you do it.” His command was firm that time. The hand at her breast flexed, giving her a tiny jerk to encourage her to oblige.

In the dressing room mirror, she watched as the panties she wore were pulled to her upper thighs, leaving her most private asset bared to his gaze. Gage smoothed the back of his hand across the bare triangle of flesh above her femininity. Dually attentive, he launched a slow nibbling of her shoulder.

“Don’t do it...” he ordered, more playfully that time when he saw her lashes fluttering as he gnawed her satiny skin.

* * *

Alythia was desperate to shimmy out of the panties and turn to face him. Gage denied that with another flex around the breast he molested. She was left no choice but to stand and witness the play of emotion across her face when his thumb stroked the bud of hypersensitive flesh at the apex of her thighs.

An orgasm-promising spasm rippled through her, helped along by his constant manipulation of her nipples, which seemed to cry out for attention, given their erectness.

Alythia watched her mouth slacken beneath the weight of desire as he intensified the caress to her clit while thrusting his middle finger high, deep inside and then rotating and giving her leave to enjoy the treat, wildly uninhibited.

She murmured his name, turning her head while feverishly brushing the panties down her legs and off of her ankles. She was panting, her mouth desperately seeking his. Unmindful of his instructions against turning, she did just that and without ever breaking the kiss they shared.

Moments later Gage had her in his arms and was carrying her from the fitting area and down the short corridor that led to her office. Inside, there was no need for light. Mutual desire guided their fingertips. She began to undress him. Gage offered his assistance only when she took too long with the button fly of his jeans.

She led him to the sofa, her intention to straddle him and greedily put him inside her. Gage’s intentions differed. The second he felt the sofa, he put Alythia on her back beneath him. She could hear the belt buckle at his jeans clink as the denims were roused. Gage made quick work of checking his pockets for the condoms he’d pushed inside them earlier that night.

Alythia was glad he hadn’t requested her assistance, for she didn’t think she had the strength to perform the task of securing their protection. Those concerns happily vanished when she felt him spreading her, filling her to the hilt with him. Instantly, her hips lifted into a gentle writhe, stirring sensation for them both.

Then came the familiar sounds of moisture squelching produced by their coupling. Gage kept one of Alythia’s thighs pressed to the wide sofa. He set the other high, opening her to a deeper plundering with his thick erection. Ego-soothing arrogance rested beneath possession as he took pleasure in the sighs and cries he forced past her mouth.

Gage emitted his own sighs of abandon. His handsome dark face was sheltered in the crook of her neck, where muffled groans of satisfaction were buried. Without warning, he pulled Aly to her desk, where he positioned her and took her from behind.

The darkened room was brought to life by their mingled gasps and groans of delight. Gage dragged wet kisses between Alythia’s shoulder blades, marking the line of her spine with his tongue. He covered her breasts in his hands, pulling her back against him while his thrusts claimed a lovely savagery. Alythia could scarcely catch her breath, but words of complaint had fled her vocabulary. What remained of their evening passed in a lusty blur.

Chapter 14

“W
ell, what’s this?” Alythia murmured, crossing her bare legs and resting an elbow on her knee in order to lift her mobile to a more comfortable viewing level.

Gage shook his head and grinned, not bothering to turn when he heard her across the bedroom. They had finally gotten around to christening his condo. “Let me guess,” he called from where he stood preparing two coffees. “Our destination calls?”

“It’s a text. Orchid wants to see me.”

“About the wedding?”

Aly was stunned. “Do you still think there’s gonna be one?”

“It’d be somethin’ to see.” His torso shook when he chuckled.

“Well, I guess I really should touch base with everybody.” Aly returned her attention to the phone. “I only told Jeena I need to get away but I didn’t tell her where I was going.”

Gage crossed to the bed and handed her one of the steaming mugs of coffee he’d poured from the portable coffeemaker in the bedroom alcove. “They don’t know you have a boutique here?”

“Oh, they do.” Aly tightened her grip on the mug and straightened the pillows at her back. “But not that I have a condo here or that I’ve even thought about moving here.”

“Have you really considered that?” He joined her on the bed. “You could be that far away from your sister? Your only family?”

“I think Angie would be happy about it.” Aly warmed her hands around the mug. “All the sacrifices she made to keep me on the straight and boring path and still I become best friends with the very influences she tried to steer me clear of.” She grimaced then, sending wavy swirls into her face when she bowed her head.

“That’s not fair.” She sipped the perfectly sweetened and creamed coffee. “I don’t know what motivated Orchid or even Myrna but I do know Jeena didn’t set out to become what she is.”

“But we can’t all run boutiques, can we?” Gage reclined on his side of the bed with his arms folded over his bare chest.

“We both dreamed of being businesswomen, since we were kids.” Her expression softened with memory. “For me it was the clothes and the attitude, hmph, and then I realized that it
was
just about clothes for me. It went deeper for Jeena, though.” Aly lowered her mug and set it on the night table.

“She always said she wanted to make things better for people. Though she didn’t mean in a sexual way,” Aly tacked on ruefully. “She didn’t have a hard-nosed sister to push her the way I did. Right out of high school she went to work for a telemarketing firm.”

Aly laughed suddenly. “Jeena
really
loved it. I’ve never met anyone who
really
loved telemarketing but she did. She really was great at it because she honestly believed in what she was doing.” Easing down on the gargantuan sleigh bed, Aly relaxed on the pillows.

“She started researching and trying to learn all she could about starting her own firm, but things... They just veered off track.”

“How?” Gage took her hand and began to toy with her fingers.

“One of the supervisors asked Jeena to set him up with one of the floor operators. Jeena said he felt comfortable enough to ask her because she’d been talking his ear off about all that telemarketing research she’d been doing.” She smiled when Gage tickled her palm.

“Turned out...telemarketing wasn’t the operator’s only job and she point-blank told Jeen that it was gonna cost the man.”

“Let me guess—he paid?”

“Passed the funds right through Jeena and the rumored madam was born.”

Gage could only shake his head in wonder.

“We have our faults, but I love those wenches.” Her mouth began to tremble. “I only wonder if we’re good for each other anymore. All we do lately is fight.”

“I can relate to that.” Gage set his head deep in the pillows and stared up at the ceiling. “A wise man once said the best way to stay friends is to stay away from each other.”

“So sad.” Still, Alythia burst into laughter.

“But true,” Gage added when his laughter had subsided.

“And sometimes necessary.”

“Yeah...”

Gage continued to stare up at the ceiling without really seeing it.

“Do you think you’ll have to have that kind of conversation with any of your friends?”

“Maybe one.” He mopped his hands over his face and groaned. “Maybe all...”

“Maybe we all should’ve thought twice about that trip.”

A grim smile curved Gage’s mouth. “Would’ve been helpful if Jay and Orchid thought twice before letting their families push them into a phony marriage. I don’t think they were ready for a relationship, let alone a marriage.”

“And what about us?” Alythia hesitated. “Do you think
we’re
ready?”

“Well, we definitely didn’t have the time to find out in Anegada.”

There was no laughter and Gage squeezed Aly’s hand, giving a tug to encourage her closer. “In Anegada I was very much infatuated with you,” he said when she was tucked into him.

“And here?”

“Coming to Aspen was about satisfying my possessive streak.” He felt her sharp inhale, knowing the confession had stirred her. He cupped her chin, squeezing until she met his warm stare.

“Wanting to
stay
in Aspen is my patient streak kicking in and telling me you’re a woman to wait on for however long it takes.”

“That could take a long time. Lots could happen in all that time.” She squeezed the hand still holding hers. “Given our brief history, chances are high that a lot
will
happen.”

“I believe we can survive it.” He kissed the back of her hand.

“You’re putting a lot of trust in the fates.”

“I’m putting a lot of trust in us.”

He kissed her then, sweetly at first. Aly changed all that with the sigh she gave while arching into him.

* * *

“Nervous?”

“Probably not as much as I should be.” Aly sighed as she studied a spectacular view from her seat on Gage’s jet a few days later.

“We’re going home.” He pulled her up from the seat. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Alythia dissolved into laughter. “You’re a funny guy.”

“Funny but sexy. Makes all the difference.”

She melted. “Yes, it does....” His words had turned her boneless. Any lingering pangs of nervousness evaporated when he jerked her into a throaty kiss. Gage brought her onto the long seat on the other side of the bar and positioned her in a straddle on his lap.

Aly wanted to feel his skin beneath her fingertips and was all too anxious to relieve him of the shirt he wore loose at the collar and hanging outside his olive-green trousers. She had time only to unbutton his shirt and splay her hands wide across the sleek plane of his chest before he turned the tables and put her beneath him on the luxurious surface of the seat.

“Take off your shirt,” she murmured against his jaw, taking delight in the smooth, flawless surface though she silently admitted to missing the display of whiskers he’d sported since the Caribbean. She felt him go still against her and then his head fell to her chest.

“Gage?” She waited and then kissed his temple. “What? What’s wrong?”

“I won’t do this here, not here of all places.”

Aly barely needed a second to understand his point and realize that she agreed. “Guess this jet does have a few too many memories.”

Gage lifted his head and propped her chin on his fist. “I can promise you we’ll definitely make memories of our own, but not just yet.”

Her bright eyes sparkled. “You’ve got me curious.” She curled her fingers into his collar and studied their surroundings. “You think our memories can top the ones already in circulation?”

“Lady, you have no idea.” Gage gnawed her neck until she begged him to be merciful.

* * *

The day was sunny and bright if just a tad nippy when Alythia and Gage deplaned in Charlotte late that afternoon. Gage nudged her when he heard the sigh she expelled over the scene that greeted them. No reporters or paparazzi, only airport personnel and two town cars waiting on the tarmac.

“Told you I wasn’t
that
important.”

“Mmm...probably the calm before the storm.”

They cleared the mobile staircase and Gage escorted her to one of the two town cars.

“Hey, Rich.”

“Mr. V.” A tall, broadly built man greeted Gage with a vigorous handshake. “Everything’s in the trunk. We’re all set.”

“Sounds good. Take Ms. Duffy anywhere she needs to go.”

“Gage, no,” Aly whispered, turning to pat his cheek. “I don’t need all this. I drove my car out here, remember?”

“I had your car sent back. It’s waiting with a full tank in your driveway.”

“This is great service.”

He dipped his head. “We only aim to please.” He took advantage of the closeness to inhale her subtle perfume. “Thanks, Rich,” he said without looking in his driver’s direction. “I’ll call you, all right?” he told Alythia once Rich was settling in behind the driver’s seat.

Aly was frowning, her fingertips gaining more purchase as they clutched Gage’s shirt. “You’re not coming with me?”

“I’m guessing you’ve got a lot to do.” He outlined her mouth with his thumb.

It was true, but just then Aly was thinking only of how very much she’d like to go anywhere they could make love.

Gage kissed her cheek subtly, following the gesture with a pat to her hip. “Go handle your business. I’ll handle mine.”

“When will you call me?” She couldn’t help it. She didn’t want them to part ways.

He smiled, brushed another kiss across her cheek. “Not very long. Promise.”

They shared another spontaneously heated kiss and then Gage was bundling her into the town car and knocking on the hood to send the driver on his way.

* * *

“Miss Orchid will be down soon. May I get you anything else, Miss Aly?”

Alythia smiled and held the teacup closer to her chest. “No, thanks, Sienna, the tea is fine,” she told the Benjamins’ housekeeper. Alythia was a bit relieved to wait a little longer to chat with her friend. Like her work, the discussion was another in a long line of activities that would keep her mind off Gage.

It’d been a week and she hadn’t heard from him. At first Alythia criticized herself for being surprised by that. After all, they had known each other for only a brief span of time. Was she still so naive as to believe he’d truly fallen as deeply as she wanted to think? Was she so naive to believe that he had fallen as deeply as she had?

Then another possibility occurred to her. Maybe he didn’t believe she had fallen as deeply as
he
had. Perhaps this was his attempt at giving her the time to decide whether she was ready to accept what he was offering.

Truth be told, Alythia admitted she hadn’t really given Gage much reason to believe that she was ready. She guessed he was leaving it to her to decide and she smiled into her teacup. Now she only needed to manage a tea party with Orchid and hope the discussion wouldn’t wage too much war on her nerves.

“Alythia, girl!”

Aly noted she wouldn’t get that wish if Orchid’s high-pitched, gasping tone could be taken as any sort of sign.

Orchid arrived in the sunroom with a flourish. She was all smiles and drew Alythia into a hug with kisses to spare.

“Oh, honey, it’s so good to see you. How are you really?” Orchid gasped anew, her heavy perfume wafting just as powerfully as the flowing sleeves and hem of her white chiffon lounge dress.

“How are
you?
” Alythia probed carefully, studying Orchid with a narrowed and suspicious stare. “How are you doing, Ork?”

“Oh...” Orchid waved a hand. “I may be named after a flower, but I’m sturdy as a weed.”

The comparison had Alythia laughing in seconds. Arm in arm, they took a few steps to take seats on a white sofa in the middle of the airy sunroom. The chair was adorned with lavender throw pillows.

“I
am
sorry for the way things turned out, Aly.” Orchid had topped off Alythia’s brew before she prepared a cup of the fragrant tea for herself. “I hate myself for wasting everybody’s time with that damned trip.”

“Oh, girl.” Aly reached out to squeeze Orchid’s hand. “Your heart was in the right place. You only wanted to share your happiness.”

Orchid gave an unladylike snort and set the teapot back in its place atop a glazed burgundy ceramic warmer. “Aly, the marriage was a sham,” she at last admitted, leaning over to draw her hair back through her fingers. “A business deal between our families.” She laughed then. “I still can’t believe Jayson and I were dumb enough to agree to something so antiquated. Hmph.” She massaged her temples. “I guess that proves we really are too idiotic to sustain a marriage.”

Aly put her teacup back on the table. “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You and Jay were already under a lot of stress trying to pull this off and that didn’t ease up with all the other stuff goin’ on between everybody else.”

Orchid sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes in an obvious display of disregard for their other girlfriends. “I should’ve expected them to pull that bullshit.”

“Ork...they didn’t
pull
it
on their own, you know?”

Orchid offered up another snort. “If they had behaved like ladies, the guys never would’ve pulled any of that stuff with them.”

“Orchid...” Aly shook her head in wonder that the woman could be so obtuse. “Myrna and Jeena were damned in their eyes before they ever met Dane and Zeke. To hell with what anyone says—
reputations
are the real first impressions, whether they have merit or not.”

Again Orchid rolled her eyes and then just as easily set a regretful look in place. “I only hate that you and Gage got caught up in all this and didn’t have a chance to get to know each other. There were sparks flying there, right?”

“Ork—”

“Did you have time to see if there were
any
flames kickin’ there?”

“We had
some
time together,” Aly conceded.

Orchid looked ready to explode beneath her expectancy. “And?”

Alythia shrugged. “We’re taking it slowly.”

Orchid looked satisfied. “The rest of us could’ve learned a lot from you guys.”