Under the Millionaire's Mistletoe (6 page)

“Sam…” She lifted her hips into his touch, seeking more, needing more.

He leaned on one elbow, looking down at her, watching her eyes as she twisted and writhed beneath his touch. She read a desperate craving in his eyes and that only served to inflame her own desires.

He dipped one finger into her warmth and she groaned, lifting into his touch. Her hands moved up and down his arms, nails scraping along his skin. His thumb caressed that one small nub of sensation until Anna felt as though she were about to splinter into a million jagged pieces.

Her breath was strangled as she fought to reach the pinnacle that was waiting for her. She needed it. Needed him. “Sam, please. Now. Inside me.”

He dipped his head and took one of her nipples into his mouth, licking and nibbling, before suckling at her until she felt the draw of his mouth all the way to her toes. She grabbed at his shoulders, then stabbed her fingers through his thick, dark hair. Holding his head, she drew his gaze to hers and whispered, “I need you, Sam.”

“I've got to have you, Anna. All of you.” He shifted then, moving over to kneel between her parted thighs. Scooping his hands beneath her bottom, he lifted her off
the mattress and as she fumbled for something to hold on to, he covered her aching heat with his mouth.

Anna hissed in a breath and closed her eyes only to open them again an instant later. She wanted to watch him. Wanted to see as well as feel what he was doing to her. His lips and tongue moved over her flesh with a deliberation that pushed her higher and higher. He tasted her, licked her and took her to the very peak of that release she knew was waiting for her.

Then he pulled back and left her dangling over the precipice.

“Sam!” She called his name in a broken voice and heard the desperate need in her tone. “Don't you dare stop now,” she warned.

That smile of his curved his mouth as he shook his head. “Not stopping, Anna, just shifting gears.”

He laid her down on the mattress, caught her gaze with his and entered her body in one long, smooth stroke. She gasped, arching into him. He filled her completely and as her body stretched to accommodate him, she lifted her hips into him to take him deeper.

“Easy…” He whispered it, the word almost strangled. “You start moving and this is going to be over way too fast.”

She smiled up at him, and pulled his face to hers for a kiss. “I'll take my chances.”

“My kind of woman.” He kissed her back as his body moved into hers, setting a fast rhythm that she eagerly matched.

He pushed her higher and higher and Anna felt herself spinning completely out of control. She'd never known anything like this. This was so much more than she'd expected. So much more than anything she'd ever experienced.

It was magic, she thought wildly. The very magic she'd dreamed of finding one day. And it was more than the incredible chemistry they shared, Anna thought with a start. She was falling for Sam Hale—and there was no way that this would end in anything but misery.

Sam had already told his brother that she wasn't, in effect, “good enough” for him. So why would she be good enough for Sam himself?

Heart suddenly aching, she looked up into his eyes and was held, spellbound as she shattered. Her body clenched around his and she held him tightly to her as he followed her into the sensation-filled abyss.

“Y
ou slept with him.”

Anna hadn't expected the truth to be quite so obvious, but she shouldn't have been surprised. Tula had gotten home from visiting her cousin and had come straight over to talk, bringing a bottle of wine with her. Now that they had the wine poured and were settling in for a good talk, Tula had taken about five seconds to blurt out her suspicions.

Anna blinked at her friend but didn't bother to deny the obvious. “How could you tell?”

“You're practically radioactive you're glowing so brightly,” Tula said as she plopped down on Anna's living room couch. “Man, go away for a few days and the whole world tips on its axis. I thought you hated Sam.”

“I thought so, too,” Anna muttered and dropped onto the other end of the sofa. Shoving both hands through her hair, she shook her head. “Honestly, I don't know
how this happened. He made me so mad at first and then, we started talking and he's really funny and nicer than I thought and he kisses so well and before you know it, we were on his motorcycle looking at Christmas lights and then we were at his house and in his bed and
boom.
”

Tula stared at her for a long moment before whispering, “Wow.”

“Yeah, wow.” Anna shifted her gaze to the Christmas tree, where a few packages lay in a bright carpet of color. Shaking her head, she idly said, “I don't know what I'm going to do.”

“You're in love with him, aren't you?”

“I don't know—” She said it automatically, then stopped herself. “That's a lie. Yeah, I am. For all the good it'll do me.”

“Oh, Anna, it could work out.”

She smiled, in spite of the growing sense of dread inside. “I don't think so. He didn't think I was good enough for his brother, remember?”

Tula waved that off with a sniff. “Please, you were way too good for Garret.”

Anna laughed. She'd always been able to count on her best friend. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling she'd had since leaving Sam's bed the night before. That she was on borrowed time and that she was feeling a lot more for him than he was for her. There was simply no way this was going to end well.

“Thanks for that,” she said, reaching out to squeeze Tula's hand. “But I'm tired of thinking about me. Tell me why your cousin Sherry wanted to see you so badly.”

Tula sighed and reached to the coffee table for her glass of white wine. “You're not going to believe this, but Sherry's pregnant.”

“Really? Who's the father?”

“I don't know,” Tula said and took a sip of her wine. “She refused to tell me. But what's worse, she hasn't even told the guy he's going to be a father.”

Anna couldn't imagine keeping something like that to herself. “Why would she do that?”

“I don't know.” Tula frowned. “I told her that if the guy was worth sleeping with, he's worth telling him the truth, but she wouldn't listen.”

“So why'd she want to see you?”

Tula leaned back into the couch. “She wanted to name me the legal guardian of the baby just in case something happens to her.”

“But she hasn't even had it yet.”

“You know Sherry. Afraid of everything. Although,” Tula said, “she's not scared of raising a baby alone, which would absolutely terrify me.”

“Did you agree to be the baby's guardian?”

“Sure I did,” she said. “We're family.”

“So,” Anna told her, picking up her own wine, “we've each had a busy few days, huh?”

“Guess so,” Tula agreed. “Though yours, I'm thinking, was way more fun.”

 

The next few days were a blur of stolen moments and passion hot enough to burn a man to a cinder. Sam dreamed of Anna at night and thought of nothing but her during the day. Every time he was with her, he wanted her more.

Scrubbing one hand across the back of his neck, he kicked the wall behind his desk and hardly felt the pain. He'd come into the office to avoid Anna at home. He couldn't see her without wanting his hands on her and he couldn't think when he was touching her.

How the hell could Sam lay claim to Anna when he
had practically forced his brother to walk away from her? Would his brother ever forgive him? Could he risk losing his only family on the chance that what he and Anna had was lasting? “Mr. Hale?”

He looked up as his assistant opened the door. “What is it, Kathy?”

“A Mr. Cameron here to see you.”

Shock had him speechless for a second or two, but he recovered quickly. “Send him in.”

Sam stood up to greet Anna's father and the older man shook his hand with a wary look. Suddenly, Sam felt a little uneasy. After all, he was sleeping with the man's daughter. “Good to see you, Dave.”

“Sam.” The man glanced around the spacious office before settling his gaze on Sam's again. “I won't take up much of your time. Just thought we should have a little talk.”

“About what?” Oh, he
knew
what.

“Anna.”

“Ah.”

“Crystal Bay's a small town,” Dave was saying. “Secrets are impossible to keep. So I figure we both know what's going on.”

“Meaning?” Sam asked, unwilling to give any information on the off chance that Dave was still in the dark.

The older man frowned at him. “
Meaning,
I know you've been seeing my daughter just as you know my company's in trouble.”

“Dave…” What the hell was he supposed to say? He knew Dave Cameron was a proud man.

He lifted one hand in a bid for silence. “Whatever's between you and Anna is your business. You're both
adults. What I'm here to tell you is, contrary to what everyone in town is thinking, I won't use my daughter as a bargaining chip for business.”

Scowling himself now, Sam took a deep breath. “And I wouldn't use her either.”

Dave studied him for a long minute. “Then we understand each other?”

“I think so,” Sam said, bristling a little under the man's close scrutiny.

“Fine, then. I'll wish you a good day and be on my way.” Dave started for the door, then stopped and looked back. “One more thing. You hurt my little girl and we'll be having another talk.”

The man was gone before Sam could respond. But then, what could he possibly have said? He felt like a damn teenager after a dressing-down. The hell of it was, he had the feeling he'd deserved it.

 

Christmas was just a few days away when Anna finally finished the mural in Sam's home office. She could admit to herself that when she'd begun this job, she'd actually considered giving him some ghastly painting. A horrific view out an artificial window. But that idea hadn't lasted more than a moment or two. Her own professionalism prevented her doing anything less than her absolute best.

And now that she stood back to get the full effect of her work, she had to admit that she'd really outdone herself this time.

She was glad of it, too. Now every time Sam looked at this wall, he would think of her. It was the perfect goodbye. Because she'd come to the conclusion only the night before that what was between them had to end.
There was no future in it. And she was only hurting herself. Falling for Sam Hale had been inevitable. But she wouldn't stay with him, knowing what she did about how he really felt about her.

Sex between them was incredible. She knew he felt the same way. But desire was a long way from any kind of
real
feeling. She'd been deluding herself into thinking that something could come of this, when the truth was, he would never allow himself to care for her because when it came right down to it, he didn't trust her.

Well, she couldn't keep fooling herself. It was better to get out now, while the pain was still livable. If she waited any longer, she knew the loss of him would kill her.

Pasting a bright smile on her face, she closed up the last of her paint jars, tucked them away in the carrier, then took a breath. Steadied as much as she was going to be, she opened the office door and called out, “Sam? I'm finished. You can see it now.”

He looked up from the car he was bent over and smiled at her. Anna's heart jolted and she knew she would miss that smile of his.

“The big secret revealed, huh?” He wiped his hands on a towel, tossed it across the car fender and headed her way. “Can't wait.”

She stepped back so he could enter and shifted her gaze to his face as he saw the finished painting for the first time. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He couldn't have had a more perfect reaction.

“That's incredible,” he said, walking closer to it.

“The ocean's still wet, so don't touch,” she warned.

“The ocean's always wet, babe.”

“Very funny.”

Still shaking his head, he leaned in closer to the wall. “That's really amazing, Anna.” He shot her a look over his shoulder. “I'm impressed.”

“Thanks.”

It had turned out well, she thought, studying her own work objectively. A gracefully arched window, shadowed from an unseen sun, opened up to a seascape that looked as vivid as life. Blue-gray sky, storm clouds on the horizon. Waves crashing against rocks, sending spray so high that it dotted the painted-on glass of the open window. A tumble of flowers and vines spread across the window sill, dripping color and motion onto a still life that made it seem all the more alive and real. “What's this?”

“Hmm?” She glanced to where he was pointing. With a shrug and a smile, she admitted, “I was a little angry with you when I painted that part.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

He grinned anyway, though, so Anna was glad she'd left in the snake with Sam Hale's features peeping out from the vines on the windowsill.

“You,” he said as he walked toward her with a familiar glint in his eyes, “are a very talented woman.”

“Thank you,” she answered, her voice hardly more than a whisper.

He pulled her into his arms, dipped his head to kiss her and then seemed to notice her hesitation. “What is it?”

She should tell him now, Anna thought. Tell him that whatever was between them was over. But damn it, she wanted one more time in his arms. One more glimpse of the magic before she turned her back on it forever.

“Nothing,” she said and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. “It's nothing.”

Then he kissed her and she forgot everything but what he made her feel.

 

Her body blissfully humming with remnants of pleasure, Anna turned her head on the pillow and looked at the man beside her. How had she come to feel so much for him in such a short amount of time? And did that really matter? The simple truth was, she loved him and every moment she spent with him was only setting herself up for disaster and pain.

She had to end this while she still could.

“Sam,” she said abruptly into the quiet, “this isn't going to work out.”

He grinned, rolled to his side and slid one hand down the length of her naked body, making her shiver even as new fires erupted inside.

“Seems to be working just fine.”

“No,” she insisted, rolling out from under his touch. If she didn't say something now, she never would. Scrambling off the bed, she stood up and reached for her clothes. “It's really not.”

“What are you talking about?”

She had his attention now, she thought, looking down into beautiful blue eyes that were narrowed in suspicion.

“Just that we can't do this anymore,” she blurted.

“Why the hell not?”

She tugged her shirt over her head and shook back her hair. “I can't keep being with you when I know exactly what you really think of me.”

He pushed off the bed and stood naked, facing her. He was amazing-looking and Anna had to fight hard not to
be distracted. “What? What do you mean what I think of you?”

This was harder than she had expected it to be, but Anna kept going. She told herself that pain now would save her misery later, so it was best to just get this done so they could both move on with their lives. “I
mean,
” she told him, “Garret told me exactly what you said about me. Not only do you think I'm after him for money, but that you consider me flaky and immature and—why are you
laughing?
”

He shook his head, grabbed up his jeans and tugged them on. “Because this is so stupid.”

“Oh, thanks very much.”

“I didn't say
you
were stupid,” he muttered, then spoke up more loudly. “Why is arguing with women so frustrating? The flaky and immature thing? That's not what I think of you. It's what I think of Garret. He refuses to grow up and I'm starting to wonder if he's even capable of it.”

Only slightly mollified, Anna said, “But you did think I was after your money.”

He didn't deny it. What would be the point? They both knew the truth. After a second or two, he said, “Okay, yeah. I did. Why the hell else would a woman like you be dating Garret?”

“You really believe I could do something like that? Use someone? Barter myself?”

He scowled and folded his arms over the chest she'd been draped across only moments ago. “I don't have to remind you that your father's company is failing—or that I've got more than enough money to save it.”

“No,” she assured him haughtily, “you really don't.”

“Stop being so damn insulted. You wouldn't have been the first woman to use sex to get what you wanted.”

She fisted her hands at her hips. “And is that what I'm doing now? With you?”

He glared at her. “How the hell am I supposed to know? You tell me.”

Stung to the heart of her, Anna's unshed tears nearly blinded her. She stepped into her shoes and lifted her chin to match him glare for glare. “If you really do think so little of me, then I was wrong about you from the beginning.”