Winning the Billionaire (Seattle Bachelors Book 2) (12 page)

“I have to admit what you want has merit. You’re right. You do seem different, and I
would
like to get to know you without the walls. I have for a while if I’m honest.”

What had to be a stupid grin plastered itself across his face. He felt like a kid having asked a girl out for the first time and realizing she’d actually said yes. His heart had pounded as hard back then, too.

“Thank you.” He reached across the seat and held his hand out, palm up. This time, she threaded her fingers with his.

They occasionally made small talk. Christina attempting to pry his surprise out of him. Work. Occasionally the weather. It surprised the hell out of him how simple and yet so profound holding hands with a woman could be. She’d relaxed and an air of intimacy filled the interior of the limo. The time passed in comfortable silence. He’d never been this close to her before. He almost hated to see the ride end.

Thirty minutes or so later, the car inched up the driveway and came to a stop in front of the familiar house. The place belonged to her family. It sat at the end of a small private road and the backside led out onto the beach. It had spectacular views of Lake Washington and enough privacy they would be alone but not isolated.

“The cabin.” Christina turned her head, awe in her voice and in her eyes. “This is your surprise? Why here?”

Sebastian climbed from the car and held out his hand, waiting until she stepped onto the blacktop beside him. When she took his hand, he threaded their fingers and turned to eye the house. Two stories high, the place was made of natural wooden logs, beautifully built, luxurious but with a distinct rough-around-the-edges feel. It was perfect.

“I thought about one of the resorts. We have one up here on Lake Washington, but it seemed cheesy. I wanted somewhere we could be alone. Unfortunately, my father sold ours years ago, so I asked Cade for a favor. He gave me the keys and helped me make sure the place would be cleaned and stocked.”

“Ah. So that’s how you pulled this off. I should have known Caden would play your partner in crime in this.”

She stiffened beside him, her face falling. Something heavy clearly weighed on her mind.

He tugged on her hand. “Say it. No more holding back.”

She turned to look at him, face solemn, fear written in her eyes. “You still have a date.”

He couldn’t help but smile. He’d gotten so caught up in her he’d forgotten to let her off the hook. “Only with you. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize Stacy. She’s Cade’s newest hire. In exchange for making sure nobody outbid her, I’m giving her a week at one of the resorts.”

Her body relaxed, her eyes searching his face. Finally, her brows knit together in concern. “I’m sorry your father sold your cabin. Was it because of your mother?”

He turned back to the house. The familiar memory rose unbidden and the same tightness clenched at his chest. It was bittersweet. He treasured and loathed with equal measure the memories he had of his family’s cabin. He remembered his mother’s smile. The smell of the cookies she baked floating through the house. He remembered, too, the way his parents had fought, all the yelling and crying. They’d fought a lot toward the end. “Mmm. He sold the house a few years after she left. Said he couldn’t stand being there anymore.”

Christina squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged, attempting for offhanded and dismissive, attempting to drive back the painful memories rising over him. All those summers. He wished like hell he didn’t, but he remembered every damn one of them. He would never forget the sound of his mother’s laughter. Or the anger in her voice the day she left.

“I couldn’t blame him for wanting to get rid of the place. After all, that’s where it all went down. They had the argument of the century, and she stormed from the house and never came back. No divorce papers. No goodbyes. As hurt as I was, I always imagined he hated her more than I did. Truth is, I didn’t want the place, either.” He tugged on her hand. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

He reached into his pockets and pulled out the keys. Daniel moved around the end of the car to get the bags from the trunk.

One step through the door, they both halted dead in their tracks on the welcome mat. What seemed a full minute passed in silence as they stared at the space spread out before them. The damn cabin looked like the Valentine section of the grocery store had exploded. Red and white candles covered every available surface. On the counters in the kitchen. On the fireplace mantel in the living room. Bouquets of red flowers dotted the countertops. A bottle of champagne sat in a bucket of ice on the island counter separating the kitchen from the living area. The pièce de résistance, though? A trail of red rose petals leading to the staircase. He had no desire to follow them.

Daniel stepped up behind them. “Where to, sir?”

Sebastian turned sideways, moving out of the way of the door. He wanted to tell the man to leave them, that he’d carry them himself, but Daniel was a proud man. So he simply nodded in the direction of the staircase. “The bedrooms, I suppose, please.”

“Yes, sir.” Daniel smiled and nodded politely, then moved past them, carrying their small bags toward the staircase, hidden along the far wall beside the enormous stone fireplace.

Five minutes later, Daniel left and Sebastian and Christina stood side by side at the edge of the living room. As the limo purred to life outside, Christina turned her head and arched an amused brow, one corner of her mouth quirking upward. “I thought you said you didn’t bring me here to seduce me?”

“I didn’t.” He dragged a hand through his hair and swallowed hard as he took in the space. If this was Cade’s idea of a joke, Sebastian wasn’t laughing. Though, if he knew Cade, all this damn romancey stuff was a blatant shove.

Christina’s eyes flashed in challenge. “What happened to honesty, Baz?”

He held up his hands in surrender and let out a nervous laugh.

“Oh, don’t look at me. This has Cade written
all
over it.” When she narrowed her gaze on him, he dropped his hands, his smile melting from his face. “You don’t plan to make this easy on me, do you?”

The corners of her mouth twitched, but to her credit, Christina didn’t budge an inch. Damn stubborn woman.

“I thought you said you were done hiding from me?” She waved a flippant hand in the air, a sort of la-di-da gesture. “Or was that lovely speech in the car lip service?”

The last of Sebastian’s willpower snapped. He closed the distance between them, backed her against the wall adjacent to the door, and set his hands on either side of her. His face sat inches from hers, her mouth now close enough her warm breaths puffed against his lips like a goddamn lure. Her breathing increased, chest rising and falling at a more rapid pace. Good.

“You want honest, baby? No, I didn’t bring you here to seduce you. Despite the looks of this place, and I am going to
kill
Cade, I had the best of intentions. Now that we’re alone, however, my cock aches. I want to hike that dress up around your waist and fuck you against this wall. Telling me you’re not wearing panties was the wrong thing to do if you want to keep me at a distance.” He straightened and dragged a hand through his hair. In frustration. In barely contained desire. More than a little frazzled, he turned his head and cocked a brow at her. “Is that honest enough for you?”

She sagged back against the wall, once again the soft, feminine woman who called to something primal within him. “I love when you talk to me that way. As long as we’re being honest, I find it awfully difficult to resist you, too, when you say things like that.”

Just that fast, his irritation flitted away and one corner of his mouth hitched. He chuckled and leaned in, pressing his body into the softness of hers, and brushed a kiss across her alluring mouth. “You are the most mixed up woman I know.”

She arched into him, her tongue flicking against his bottom lip, and shook her head. Her hands slid down his chest to his belt buckle. “You aren’t the only one who hides, Baz, or whose been trying to keep this on the straight and narrow. But if you want honesty, you never talk to me like that, and it’s addicting. You treat me like a kid sister, and I’ve spent years wishing you’d see me as a woman.”

Buckle out of the way, she made fast work of the button and zipper on his slacks, then slid her hand inside his boxers. Her warm fingers curled around his cock, and Sebastian squeezed his eyes shut. Everything about Christina had always been soft. Her hands were no exception, sliding around him like warm silk.

He clenched his jaw until his teeth ached. “Shit. Easy, baby. Please. I’m so far past the edge.”

Her body left his, but he was shaking too hard, his desire ramped up too high, to pry open his eyes to figure out where she’d gone. Two seconds later, her warm mouth enveloped the head of his penis, answering the question. Shocked by the velvet of her tongue sliding along his length, Sebastian opened his eyes and looked down. It was a fucking fantasy come to life. Christina McKenzie was on her knees at his feet, sucking his cock into her mouth.

As if that weren’t enough, she peered up at him around her mouthful, working his cock like she owned him. That hard edge had returned to her gaze. She was once again the take-charge CEO, the woman who’d barged into his apartment and demanded he eat breakfast or she’d tie him to a chair.

A heated tremor moved through him. He braced his hands on the wall over her head.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
This side of her was sexy as hell. His fucking knees were shaking. She had him on the edge of release, no doubt exactly where she wanted him.

She wasn’t taking any prisoners, either. She sucked hard on the tip, making his eyes roll back in his head with the intense, sudden rush of pleasure, and popped him from her mouth. Then she swirled her tongue over the head like she’d done it a thousand times and knew exactly where he liked to be stroked. “Let it go, Baz.”

He didn’t have it in him to argue. He closed his eyes, dropped his head in abandon, and reached out blindly to thread his fingers into her silky hair. He held on for dear life, gently rocking his hips into her velvet mouth. “You’re a goddess, Tina, you know that? A fucking goddess. Oh, Christ, baby, I won’t last if you keep that up.”

Apparently, she wasn’t listening. Her warm mouth slid along his length, taking him deep, and pleasure shot to the tips of his toes. Sebastian groaned, locked his knees, and planted his feet to keep from crumbling. His balls drew tight against his body and the tingle began at the base of his spine. He might as well have been an inexperienced kid all over again. He was at the mercy of a woman who knew how to drive him out of his freaking mind.

She was relentless, her rhythm increasing with every glide of her soft lips along his length, sucking him harder and deeper. Of all things he’d ever imagined her doing to him, he’d fantasized about this one a lot over the years. The reality was a damn cliché…so far better than anything he’d ever imagined. Her mouth was hot and silky, and the soft purring emanating from her throat only increased the ache in his balls. She sounded like she enjoyed what she did, and the sound of her satisfaction set him ablaze.

Half a dozen strokes of her luscious mouth had his orgasm rushing up at blinding speed. With a strangled moan, he gave himself over to her, emptying himself into her hot, inviting mouth.

By the time the luscious spasms finally released him, he was shaking from head to toe. He had enough coherence to haul her off the floor; then he wrapped his arms around her and leaned into her, burying his face in her throat. He needed her as close as possible.

He hadn’t a clue how to tell her that. He could seduce women as easily as breathing, but Christina was different and the right words never seemed to be there when he needed them. Now was one of those times. He needed her to know how incredible she was, but the right words eluded him.

When he finally lifted his head, anxiousness rose in her eyes. For a moment they searched his before she drew a breath and released it. “If we’re going to do this, I have rules.”

He playfully rolled his eyes. “Of course you do.”

She hiked her chin a notch, but he didn’t miss the way her gaze danced over his. “For now, this is only for the weekend. I can’t promise you any more than that. And no emotions. I know you, Baz. I’ve watched you leave a trail of broken hearts in your wake, whether you mean to or not. I don’t want to be one of them.”

She stopped, swallowed hard, and turned her gaze to the floor. She drew a deep breath, blew it out, and looked down. Her fingers toyed with the top button of his shirt. “I also know you need to get married in order to fulfill your father’s will.”

The sudden mention took him by surprise. Her clear nervousness had alarm skittering along his spine. She looked like she had something she was afraid to tell him. Christina McKenzie wasn’t afraid of anything. Where was she going with this?

“Yes.”

She lifted her gaze to his. “I also won’t marry you.”

Okay, he had to admit it. That stung.

He drew back, folding his arms across his chest. Now he had to know the truth. “Good, because I wasn’t going to ask. Might I ask why not, though?”

Her face blanked. An expression he’d seen one time too many over the years. She was shutting him out, putting up the exact wall she’d demanded they take down.

She stepped sideways, sliding away from him, and shook her head. “Because I won’t.”

He caught her wrist, refusing to allow her to retreat too far, and pinned her with a hard stare. He repeated his question more firmly this time. “Why?”

Her gaze jerked to his, alarm written in her widened eyes. Then her mouth formed a thin line. She yanked her hand from his and turned her back to him. “No.”

“Say it, Christina.” He knew a lot of things about her, but one thing he’d figured out only recently was she’d lied. She liked when he called her Tina. It was his pet name for her. Despite what she’d told him a month ago, she hated when he called her Christina. He was usually upset when he did and hurt always flashed through her gaze when he said it. “You want honesty from me? You have to be willing to give it as well. Tell me what you’re thinking.”