Authors: Brenda Jackson
“Yes, that’s what he wants.”
“And you should give your future husband what he wants. He will be good to you, and you should be good to him. I want only the best for you, Victoria.”
“I know, and that’s what makes this so hard. But I believe one day a special lady will come into your life and—”
“If you say you think I’ll fall in love, then I will hang up on you, here and now. I enjoy women. I sleep with them. I don’t marry them.”
“Some woman is going to make you sing a different song, Dalton.”
“Not in this universe.”
Wanting to change the subject, he brought her up to date on everything that had happened since their last conversation over a month ago, including the attempted kidnapping and murder of Jace. They talked for a half hour longer while she gave him all the English gossip. He didn’t miss Europe as much as he’d thought he would and he enjoyed being here with his brothers, although they let him know when he was getting to be a pain.
He smiled. They complained and they cussed, but they loved him as he loved them.
“Dalton?”
“Yes, Victoria?”
“Have you told your brothers everything? About the work you did for your government while living over here?”
“No. That’s something they never need to know about. Finding out I was a billionaire was bad enough. Finding out about my involvement with the United Security Network would blow their minds. Besides, I was only in it for a couple of years, and it’s a time I honestly prefer to forget.”
“Sorry I brought it up.”
“No problem. You were the only person I could talk to about the USN, but now it is over.”
“Dalton, I’m going to have to go now. I’m meeting Isaac this morning and we are off to attend a polo match. Just so you know, the wedding will take place in November.” She paused a moment and then said, “It will be a private affair.”
He chuckled. “In other words, don’t expect an invitation, right?”
She laughed. “Right. It would be rather awkward.”
“Yes, I guess it would be. I want you to be happy, Victoria.”
“And I will be. You’ve been a good friend, Dalton. You were always there when I needed one. I’ll never forget you.”
“Nor I you.”
“Goodbye, Dalton.”
“Goodbye, Victoria.”
He clicked off the phone knowing that the one woman he could always depend on would no longer be a part of his life.
Twenty
S
hiloh led Caden back into the courtyard, and that was when he noticed the side elevator hidden behind a huge security gate. He’d learned that her home was located right above her business, and this elevator would have been convenient for moving things up and down.
“It won’t take long for the coffee to brew, and while we’re waiting, I want to take a look at your hand,” Shiloh said when the elevator door closed behind them. It stopped on the third floor.
He followed her off the elevator and they stepped into a spacious hall with two doors. She moved toward the first door, unlocked it and went inside.
“You have another tenant on this floor?” he asked, nodding toward the other door.
“No, it’s an extra room that I can use for expansion if I choose. Right now, I use it for extra storage.”
He nodded, then glanced around her home. He breathed in and thought it smelled nice.
He immediately felt that the place suited her. The living room was huge, and the balcony overlooked the courtyard below. Her walls were painted a canary-yellow that made the entire place appear bright and cheerful—just like the Shiloh he remembered.
She had a large eat-in kitchen, and he watched as she moved to turn the coffee on, then she disappeared through a hallway.
Shiloh had always loved flowers, so it didn’t surprise him that the fabric on her sofa was a floral print. And he noticed the roses he’d sent her almost two weeks ago were sitting in the middle of her coffee table. He was surprised they’d lasted this long. And even more surprised that she’d kept them.
“Okay, have a seat so I can take a look at your hand,” she said, coming back into the room carrying a first-aid kit.
He removed his jacket before sitting down on the sofa. She sat beside him and took his hand in hers. And that was when he looked at his hand for the first time—a couple of fingers were bruised, but he didn’t think anything was broken.
She used a swab to apply disinfectant to the abrasions, and it stung like hell, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. Just the thought of her holding his hand and tending to it meant everything to him. Her touch was gentle, and she was taking her time with what she was doing.
She was also quiet, so he followed suit and figured when it was time to talk, they would. Her hands were trembling somewhat, which meant she was probably still shaken by what she had just witnessed. When she’d screamed out his name and he had looked up to see that car bearing down on him, he’d been like a deer caught in the headlights.
He was convinced that if that man had not knocked him out of the way—risking his own life while doing so—he would probably be dead. Too bad there hadn’t been enough time to get the car’s license-plate number.
He looked around as Shiloh continued to administer first aid to his fingers. He imagined she spent a lot of her time here, reading, cooking and knitting. At least she used to knit, and he wondered if she still did. He certainly had received a lot of knitted items from her over the years, even when they weren’t supposed to have any contact. A knitted cap or mittens would always find their way into his school backpack.
He glanced down when he felt something moist on his hand and realized they were tears. She was crying. “Shiloh?”
She started to get up, and he reached out and stopped her, tugging her back down and gently pulling her into his arms. “Don’t cry, Shiloh. Everything is okay.”
She pulled back and shook her head as her tears continued to fall. “No, everything is not okay. When I think about what could have happened to you tonight, I—”
“But it didn’t,” he said softly, trying to calm her.
“But it could have,” she countered in a voice filled with emotion. She pushed back and looked up at him. “I saw that car coming toward you, Caden. That guy was drunk and shouldn’t be behind the wheel of any car. You were lucky. He’s not safe and should not be on the road tonight. We should call the police.”
“And tell them what? I have no idea of the make or model of the car, much less what color it was. Do you?”
She frowned thoughtfully. “No.”
He gently pulled her back into his arms. “It was a close call, but thanks to Striker, I’m fine. And I’m sorry that I didn’t get his full name or his contact information. He disappeared just as quickly as he appeared.”
When Shiloh didn’t say anything, he pulled back and studied her features. She had stopped crying, but he could tell she was still filled with emotions. “Talk to me, Shiloh. Tell me what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling. Tell me.”
She met his gaze, and her eyes filled with tears again. “I thought you were going to die. And at that moment, nothing mattered. Not the pain I’ve been feeling or the anger and bitterness that had consumed me. Seeing you come close to dying made my heart stop, Caden. I knew then that if you died, I might as well die myself.”
Caden didn’t say anything as he stared at her and saw the earnestness in her gaze. Her words touched him, and he reached up and wiped a tear from her eye. Then he lifted her off the sofa into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. She laid her face against his chest.
He rocked her into his arms, holding her gently yet tightly, not sure if he would ever let her go. He was filled with profound emotions and leaned in close to her ear. “Had I died tonight, Shiloh,” he whispered huskily, “I would have died loving you.”
Caden’s words caused Shiloh’s heart to catch in her throat. She leaned up and looked at him. It wasn’t just the words he’d spoken, but the look in his eyes, as well. He loved her. She could see it in the depths of his brown eyes. He had said it plenty of times in the past few weeks. She’d heard him, but this was the first time she’d actually listened.
She reached up and cupped his chin with her hand. Tears shimmered in her eyes. “But you would have died not knowing that I loved you,” she whispered in a broken voice.
And she knew she did love him and had never stopped loving him. The pain and hurt had overshadowed her feelings, but they had not destroyed her love for him. The two of them had been through so much together over the years. He was a part of her and, deep down, she knew she was a part of him. She had to believe in what he’d been trying to get her to see all along. Yes, they should move on. But they should move on together, in the same direction, with the same goal and cause. Why did it take him nearly dying for her to see that?
“Shiloh—” Caden pulled her to him and held her. After the way he’d been treating her over the past few years, he hadn’t been sure he would ever hear her words of love ever again. Now that he had, he knew he would never do anything to make her stop saying them.
He continued to hold her, his senses absorbing the feel of her in his arms, the scent of her skin and the gentle sound of her breathing. He pulled back, needing to look at her. Their gazes locked. Heat thrummed through them. He felt it and knew she felt it, as well.
And when the heat became more intense to the point that it was unbearable, he groaned deep in his throat. Leaning in, he captured her mouth with his, and a wild surge of desire shot through him. He deepened the kiss, feeding off her lips with a hunger that he felt in the pit of his groin. He wanted her. He needed her. But most important, he loved her.
Caden slowly stood with her in his arms and then slid her body down his until her feet touched the floor. It was obvious that he was sexually aroused, but if she wasn’t ready to be intimate with him just yet, he understood.
That thought was thrown to the wind when she leaned up on tiptoes and whispered, “Make love to me, Caden.”
Twenty-One
S
hiloh held Caden’s gaze as he placed her on the bed. He quickly glanced around the room, noting that, just like the other rooms in her house, it was
her.
“Nice bedroom.”
“Thanks.”
He stood back and glanced down at his clothes. His shirt was torn at the sleeve, and he felt dirty from rolling on the ground. He glanced back at her lying on her white bedspread. “May I shower first?”
She smiled and eased off the bed. “How about if we shower together?”
Thoughts of how that could turn out sent heat to Caden’s groin. They had showered together numerous times before and had always enjoyed doing so. “I think that’s a great idea,” he said in a deep, raspy voice.
Already she had begun removing her clothes, shimmying out of her dress, and as he watched her, he knew no other woman could arouse him to this degree. He loved every inch of her shapely body—the perky and firm breasts, small waist, shapely hips and thighs and long, gorgeous legs.
When she stood before him completely naked, he reached out his hand to her. “I think you better lead the way before I take you here and now.”
She laughed, and it was a throaty sound that only added to his torment. “Okay, but first, we need to take off these things,” she said, running her hands over his shoulders before tugging on his shirt, popping off buttons and then ripping it off him. “It was torn anyway. Beyond repair,” she said as a way of explaining her actions.
He smiled. “Doesn’t matter. I didn’t plan to ever wear it again.”
“Then I took care of it for you,” she said, reaching lower to remove his belt.
He stood there and let her have her way because he intended to have his later. But when she eased down his zipper, wiggled her hand inside the opening of his briefs and got ahold of his shaft, he began thinking maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Not if he wanted to keep his sanity. He fit perfectly in her hands, and she knew it as much as he did.
“Still in good shape, I see,” she said, easing up on tiptoe to whisper the words against his mouth while her hand continued to stroke him.
“The shower. Remember,” he said through clenched teeth, forcing back a moan.
“I remember.” She released him and slowly pulled back and smiled. “The bathroom is down the hall to your right. Go ahead and get things started. I’ll grab some towels and join you in a minute.”
* * *
Caden had the shower going full blast, but no matter how hard the water beat down on him, it couldn’t wash away the memory of seeing that speeding car heading straight toward him. It was a freaking nightmare, especially coming so close to Jace’s incident. It was something he wouldn’t forget for a long time.
For a second, he’d seen his life ending right before his eyes and had been unable to move. He had been frozen in shock at what was happening. Evidently, the Man Upstairs didn’t think it was time for him to go yet and had kept him here for a reason.
Caden had been so deep in his thoughts that he couldn’t recall the moment Shiloh opened the shower door to join him. All he knew was that she was there. Touching him. Rubbing her hands across his wet shoulders and then taking the soap from his hands.
She turned him around to face her as water splashed down on both of them. She began lathering his chest, moving lower to lather the curls of hair covering his groin before bending and easing down his legs. The soap smelled of a combination of strawberries and coconut. Then she reached up and adjusted the showerhead to rinse him off, making him feel squeaky clean.
“Now let me return the favor,” he whispered close to her mouth.
Using the same soap, he worked up a lather in his hands and washed her all over, covering her breasts, moving down her flat stomach and lower still to her narrow hips and shapely backside, clutching her butt cheeks in his hands, then releasing them to skim his hands up and down the apex of her thighs. “I love touching you here,” he whispered hotly.
“Is that all you can do? Touch?”
He grinned, knowing action was a lot better than words. He rinsed her off, watching how the water washed away the soap. Then he reached out to her, pulling her slippery wet body close to his, wrapping his arms around her. He could no longer hold back from wanting her but knew he didn’t want to take her in the shower. Not this time.
Opening the shower door, he pulled her out with him and grabbed the huge bath towels she had placed on the vanity. He began drying her off, loving how the towel felt rubbing against her soft skin.
And then he dried himself while watching her watch him. Seeing her standing there naked with desire in her eyes, waiting for him, was a total turn-on. He was stimulated beyond reason. His gaze traveled from her eyes to her lips as they moved wordlessly. But he made out what she was saying nonetheless.
I love you.
“Oh, baby, I love you, too,” he said, tossing the towel aside and sweeping her into his arms and carrying her back into the bedroom. He placed her on the bed and joined her there.
Caden wanted to make love to her tonight at a level he’d never reached before. They had been separated too long, and he intended to bond with her in the most primitive way known to man. He didn’t want to just take her to the edge; he wanted her to go over it with him.
Sitting back on his heels, he gazed down at her, loving every inch of the body he saw. Wanting to taste it, he leaned forward and glided his tongue over her body, loving the flavor of her skin. He started at her neck, moved lower to her breasts, nibbling and then sucking hard on her nipples. He had missed their taste, their feel. He couldn’t get enough, laving his tongue over them again and again.
He heard her moan and loved the sound. She was overcome with passion, and so was he.
He reached his hand down and parted her thighs, and while his mouth was busy with her breasts, his fingers eased inside her womanly core. She immediately clenched his intruding fingers with her inner muscles and moaned his name.
And then his mouth left her breasts to travel past her stomach to join his fingers below. He grabbed her hips, lifted them to his mouth and buried his head between her legs. The instant his tongue slid inside her inner warmth, he felt her shudder. And then with the ease and peace of mind he felt when playing his sax, he used his mouth to play Shiloh just as he would his instrument, curling his lower lip the same way, plowing into her as her voice raised several pitches. Then he used his tongue to help her reach a higher octave. Never had he tasted anything as sweet and erotic as Shiloh.
The sound of her moans was music to his ears, blending in with the melody he was creating in his head. She whispered for him to stop, saying she couldn’t take any more. And then, seconds later, in that same murmuring voice, she would demand that he not stop, saying she loved how he was making her feel. He wanted to show her just how much he’d missed her, just how much he’d missed this.
He had no problem prolonging her pleasure, mixing it with torture of the most delectable kind while being infused with her heat. He thought about one particular song he had created just for her but had never performed. At this moment, he knew that he was performing it now in its most erotic form, transmitting his thoughts and the essence of his music to her. Even during his darkest hours, his music had been all he’d ever wanted, all he had thought he needed. Until Shiloh. That was why the thought of her betraying him had been so difficult to take.
Caden lifted his mouth and pulled back to ease his body beside hers. She looked over at him. “Why did you stop?” she asked, dragging in a deep breath through her nostrils.
He leaned up over her. “Baby, it’s just getting started. But first I need to take care of protection,” he said, sliding off the bed.
Shiloh eased on her side and watched Caden. She had seen him prepare himself for their lovemaking many times, and each one was always an intimate thrill for her. The way he would encase his erect penis in latex was enough to make her womanly juices overflow.
Like they are beginning to do now.
He was standing there, naked, displaying the most gorgeous body any man could own while ripping open the condom package. His erection was huge and he was ready, knowing what was coming and what it would be like to get there.
He reached down and the sound of her breath catching made him look up at her smile. “You want to try it?”
She blinked. Had he just really asked her that? “I wouldn’t know how.”
He chuckled. “Yes, you would. You’ve watched me enough.” He walked back over to the bed. “Go ahead,” he said, handing the condom to her. “Try it.”
She paused a minute before taking the condom from his hand. Sitting up on the edge of the bed, she reached out and took him in her hand. She had stroked him many times, had even taken him in her mouth, but never had she prepared him for their lovemaking, and the thought of doing so sent sensuous shudders through her body.
He felt hard, thick and engorged in her hand, and she slowly sheathed his penis in the condom. She smiled at her handiwork. “I did it!” she said, pleased with herself.
“Yes, you did, and now for what’s next.”
He eased back on the bed and pulled her into his arms and kissed her. When she moaned, he used that opportunity to deepen the kiss, using the tip of his tongue to lap her up, with hunger engulfing him.
He pulled back, breaking the kiss to ease over her spread legs. He looked down at her. “Ready for this?”
She drew in a deep breath. “Yes.”
“Just know there’s no going back for either of us, Shiloh. Ever. I don’t ever intend to lose you again.”
She reached up and stroked the side of his jaw with the palm of her hand. “And I don’t ever intend to lose you again, either,” she whispered.
He tilted his head sideways to kiss her hand before gazing back down at her. And then he eased into her, penetrating deep, feeling the way her muscles clenched him tight. He forged on until he couldn’t go anymore. Until he’d reached the hilt.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and back. “Just in case you change your mind about this,” she said, smiling, “I’ve got you just where I want you.”
“Not changing my mind.” And then he began moving, thrusting slow at first, then picking up the pace, thrusting hard and fast.
“Caden!”
He heard her moan his name as she approached her ecstasy. She dug her nails into his back, his shoulder, his arm. Her passion was a powerful aphrodisiac and he kept going, pumping into her in a rhythm that was like a symphony to his ears, whipping her to a feverish pitch.
His gaze held hers and he knew the exact moment a climax ripped through her. She screamed his name louder, shattering into a million pieces under him, and he felt each and every one. And the magnitude of her orgasm was what triggered his own, making him throw his head back, the cords in his neck ready to pop. Only making love to her could have this effect on him, send him flying over the top in the most primal fashion.
He growled out her name and his orgasm seemed to last forever, tearing through them, taking no prisoners and leaving pleasure in its wake.
Moments later they were both weak, too limp and too drained to do anything but cuddle in each other’s arms and drift off to sleep.