Hide and Seek (2 page)

Unable to bear the weird looks and double-edged comments, she'd begged her father, who was barely speaking to her, for permission to use his hunting cabin in Aspen. Thankfully, he'd obliged her, though grudgingly, and only because he wanted her out of the public eye.

Her life as she'd known it was over. No one would ever respect her now, if she even had the nerve to show her face to the world once more, which she doubted. This cabin was the best place for her. She loved the quiet and Lizzy lived nearby. What else did she have anyway, besides a now-useless degree in environmental law and a string of failed relationships?

One thing was for sure, she'd never, ever, not on her life, trust a man again. If only she could have learned that lesson back in college, the first time around. Clearly she was alone in this world, and she'd learn to survive alone. It was better this way. She was done being sweet and innocent, done playing by society's rules. She was too damn smart for that. From this day forth, she'd be bold, brassy, even bitchy. Lizzy would look like a damn angel by comparison.

Elisa refused to be hurt again. The walls she'd built around her heart were ten-inch thick cement, strong, unbreakable, and she intended to keep them that way.

She'd start her change by learning to be in charge of her body. No man would command her physically, not ever again. Her desire was hers and hers alone. She needed to learn to own it.

Fetching a more natural-looking imitation cock from the box, she shoved the remaining toys under the bed and stood. A glass of wine waited by the burning fireplace in the great room, and she intended to enjoy the bittersweet drink as well as her body.

She wagged the dildo. Thank God this place was secluded.

I
n
an instant, Maxim's cock hardened and the whole damn pain-in-the-ass,
cold
trip to find Elisa became worth it.

Hot damn! She had a freaking dildo!

Maxim's breath fogged the window and he wiped it away, staring in wonder at the incredible sight before him. Elisa lay with her legs spread on a bearskin rug, in front of a blazing stone fireplace, readying her glistening, pink pussy with two fingers. Never had he seen a more glorious sight.

Elisa pressed her clit, taking the nub between her long, graceful fingers, stroking up and down. With her other hand, she deeply massaged her left breast, working the creamy mound as she took her peaked, rose-colored nipple between her fingers. Squeezing the bud, she drew it upward, coaxing it into a tight bead.

His throat tightened. His face burned. His cock pulsed with rash, demanding need. His coldness and runny nose vanished, every feeling in his body forgotten but his raging arousal. Sweeping his eyes over her body, he drank in the sight of her from head to toe. Over the years, her already long-ass hair had grown to an impossible length, and the silk mass of chocolate brown curls reached past her delectable derrière. Womanhood had matured her curves, making them lusher, more voluptuous.

Shit. He'd wanted her back in college, but not like this. Just the sight of her made him feel like he'd die if he didn't get to touch her. Hold her. Love her. He couldn't even breathe.

Oh God. The ridiculous search he'd put himself through looking for her had so been worth it. With every second he had the privilege of watching her masturbate, every mile he'd traveled became more inconsequential. If he never laid a hand on her, never so much as spoke to her, he'd still feel like the luckiest man on earth.

Lifting her hips, Elisa slowly inserted the dildo into her pussy, an inch at a time, until she reached the base. Her hips lifted higher and she moaned aloud. Slowly, she withdrew the rubber rod, and then plunged it deeper, assuming a constant rhythm as she moved it in and out of her wet sheath.

Oh, fuck yeah! The blasted skis, the freezing cold, even his chapped lips…none of it seemed like such a bother now. When he'd paid a visit to her apartment and discovered she'd vanished, he hadn't been prepared to give up so easily. Why, he didn't know…but almost a thousand dollars worth of convincing later, he'd finally bribed her location from a neighbor, a woman who hadn't seemed like much of a friend to Elisa, only greedy, especially after she'd gotten a look at his rented BMW.

Learning she was in Aspen had been the simple part.

Her cabin was ski-in, ski-out, and since he hadn't stepped in snow, much less experienced cold weather, since college, his trip down the trail had been pure misery. But he'd made it and apparently just in time.

Too bad he was out here instead of in there, but at least he wasn't cold anymore. No, he was hot. He was sweating.

His thigh muscles tightened and his cock strained in the confines of its taut skin, the vein along the underside thumping as blood surged to the area. About to explode from the sheer pleasure of watching her, his thoughts became blurry.

He could knock.
No
. That would be stupid. He was too built-up. And she'd stop. An intelligent conversation would be impossible, and from the way she handled that toy, she was skilled in the art of pleasing herself, which meant she may not have any use for him. The last thing he needed was to make a jackass of himself. Elisa Cross wasn't the type of woman that had a problem with rejecting him.

Blood pulsed through his body, making his heart race. This was, by far, the most incredible thing he'd ever seen. His cock twitched again, his desire for Elisa becoming unbearable. Damn it! He had no other choice. Reaching under the elastic band of his ski pants, he wrapped his hand around his stiff prick and began vigorously jerking himself off.

Stumbling, he pumped his cock hard and fast, furiously seeking relief. Closing his eyes, he stepped away from the window, unable to watch anymore if he wanted to maintain his sanity. He just needed to relieve the pressure, then he'd knock. Ask her assistance with this
hard
problem of his…

Taking another step, he leaned against the wall and pumped his dick, tuning out everything but visions of fucking Elisa, her long hair tangled in his hands, her bottom lifting to his demanding thrusts, her…

“You fuckers! Can't you leave me alone?” Elisa unexpectantly screamed from behind him. “Who are you? And what the hell do you think you're doing?”

Maxim's eyes flew open and he yanked his hand free, whirling around. He found himself face-to-face with a pistol, wielded by a fuming Elisa wrapped in a throw blanket. Her hair billowed around her, her Blue Nile eyes wild. With anger.

“Maxim?” Her gaze widened, startled, confused by his presence. “Maxim Cox? What are you
doing
here? Oh my God. You're jacking off on my porch? You asshole.”

He glanced with unease at her weapon. “Maxim Cox, none other. You remembered my name.”

“Who could ever forget a name like that?”

“My parents named me well,” he joked, trying to ease the tension. By now, she'd caught onto the fact that he was no bear or sick window creeper. Why was she still holding him at gunpoint? “Still determined to get back at me for ruining your last lab?”

She didn't laugh at his jest. She didn't even crack a smile. And she didn't lower the pistol. “Ruining the lab? You just about killed me. I failed chemistry so you could get a good look at a pair of fake tits.”

Had he been fooling himself to think maybe, just maybe, she'd be happy to see him again?

Maxim glared at the firearm in his face. Want her he might, but he didn't take kindly to having a weapon of any kind directed at him. “Get that thing out of my face.”

Her head tilted to the side, her grip on the blanket tightening as she hiked it up. “What in the hell are you doing?” Her narrowed, angry gaze drifted downward, settling on the tent in his pants. For a split second, he swore he saw a glimmer in her eyes.
Need
. Then, just as quickly, disappointment and disgust contorted her features. “I shouldn't be surprised. I shouldn't.”

“What's that mean? You're the one in there with a damn dildo!”

“That's none of your business!”

He grabbed his cock. “Well, then neither is this!”

Heat rushed to his face, making him feel like a damned teenager caught doing something dirty. God help him, he was even freaking blushing. Something he didn't think he'd ever done before. Maxim didn't normally get embarrassed. He also didn't normally jerk off; he didn't have to. But Elisa made him crazy. She always had and he had a terrible feeling she always would.

She shook her head, her demeanor turning to ice as she stepped back. “Get lost. Now.”

There it was again. That look. The same as in college. Elisa Cross wanted everything to do with him and nothing to do with him. Clearly, she was a sensual being, one who craved sexual fulfillment, who needed a man, not a dildo. So why did she continue to refuse him? What about him turned her off?

He was good-looking enough. He had money. He had fast cars. Charm. Skills. He knew how to talk to a woman, how to make her scream from an orgasm. He had a lot to offer a lady…intelligence, fun, pleasure.

She should be crawling all over him, damn it!

“Leave? Not a chance, sweetie,” he proclaimed.

This time, Elisa was giving him a chance, if nothing more. If she still didn't want him after that, then fine. But he wouldn't leave until he had a fair opportunity to show her how compatible they really were. He wanted that date he'd lost, damn it.

She scoffed, lowering the gun. “Don't think you're coming in.”

She whirled around and darted inside, slamming the door in his face with a reverberating bang.

T
he
very first man to break her heart.

Why him? Damn it,
why?
She'd rather be facing the devil himself than Maxim Cox, man-slut extraordinaire.

Backed into the corner of the door and against the wall, Elisa clenched the blanket covering her naked body, feeling exposed. Embarrassed.
Worried.

Forget the fact that he'd just caught her masturbating, that she'd just caught
him
masturbating, a discomforting event to say the least. Maxim was trouble. Big. Fat. Trouble. And not the kind she needed right now.

But oh God, he'd looked so good. Not quite what one would expect from a rich boy, he was fashionably scruffy, his wheat-colored hair wispy and intentionally disheveled, with expertly designed sideburns fading into three-day stubble shadowing his jaw. His eyes reminded her of a wolf's, golden brown, striking, intense, and always on the lookout for prey. Standing well over six feet, his body was tanned, muscular. He beamed sexuality…and one look from him heated her up all over again.

He'd almost fooled her once. She wouldn't be duped again.

He knocked on the door once more. “Elisa, I refuse to leave until you talk to me. Give me a chance.” An unusual mix of well-spoken English influenced by Arabic undertones, Maxim's already seductive tone lowered a notch, becoming more persuasive, making her feel like his words were wrenching her heart from her chest. “Come on, sweetie, no harm's been done. You're horny, I'm horny…it's natural. Let's be natural together…”

Not on her life. She needed to close the curtains, hide. Avoid Maxim at all costs. The last thing she should do was remain standing here, listening to his convincing demands to open the door.

So why wasn't she moving? Damn her feet!

“Get lost, Maxim!” she yelled, her lower lip shaking as she sunk to the floor. She hugged her knees and tears of frustration threatened her eyes. Given her recent circumstances, she was already raw and vulnerable…hurting. After what happened with Derrick, she didn't want to be around any male, and Maxim Cox was the last man she needed. Seductive as he could be, he was the epitome of danger. All he wanted was one thing:
sex
.

Sex, sex, and more sex.

He'd seen that damned tabloid and he'd come here for
sex,
thinking she was an easy target to finally sink his claws into.

He didn't stand a chance in hell. He might've back in college, but he didn't now, and he never would. She was sticking to her guns. She didn't need a man. She had her dildos.

Maxim needed to leave.

“Elisa, sweetie, let's talk. I want to hold you. We'll talk. Nothing more. Come on, what do you say?”

Despite her hard feelings, his words poured over her like honey, warming her, coaxing her…grating on her nerves. Heaven help her, maybe she wanted him to leave, but she also wanted to oblige him…to invite him in, to fall victim to his advances, to spread her legs.

Something was seriously wrong with her.

Hence her desire to be secluded and alone! Why,
how
, was he here? “No one even knew where I was located but my father. Did he send you?” she questioned.

“Your neighbor knew.”

Valerie!
Damn that woman, always in her business! She never should have trusted her with her emergency key. The witch must have snooped through her apartment. “No doubt, Valerie made a pretty penny off you.”

“Your location cost me a big one.”

Why was Maxim going through all this effort, just to screw her? Such behavior wasn't like him. He made no sense!

“Wasted money.”

“Come on, Elisa, just talk to me.”

“No. Get lost now, or I swear I'll shoot your dick off!” she shouted, making every effort to sound like the world's biggest bitch. Why wouldn't he take a hint?

She didn't want to deal with him. With herself.

She wasn't sure she could handle it.

“Why?” he demanded, pounding on the door.

“I'm done with men, Maxim, particularly your type.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” His strong tone faltered and she could almost think he sounded hurt. Yeah, right.

“You came here for sex, Maxim. You aren't getting any, so hit the trail.”

“That's not true. I don't care about sex. I want—” His sentence dropped off and he swore under his breath.

“No?” Elisa scoffed. She didn't buy his bullshit for a minute. He was just trying to steal her heart so he could use her body. “Then why are you here? Specifics, please.”

“I came for you. I want
you,
Elisa. Always have.”

Her stomach flip-flopped and excitement flitted through her. Adrenaline rushed her veins, making her heart race.

Damn it! She hated when he did that. She knew his ways well from college. She'd witnessed him seducing more than his share of females into bed, felt the effect of his words more than once as he'd tried to score with her. He could have broken her heart with some of the things he'd said…if she'd fallen for his crap and slept with him. After all, that's clearly what he'd wanted from her. Had his supposed feelings been true, he would have had eyes only for her.

She looked down at the two-inch burn scar that marred her left hand from the explosion. She'd almost agreed to date him. What would have happened if Miss Big Boobs hadn't walked in?

Would he have changed?

Yeah right.

If he was going to be such an ass, why pretend to be sweet? Couldn't he just be an ass? God, she hated men like him.

God, she just hated men.

“You can't have me,” she told him, anxious for his response despite all her reasoning.

Her old, unfed desire for him was rising—and fast—to the surface, which was still tender from her last relationship. Her yearning for him stung like saltwater on a wound, because she knew he was nothing but poison.

Maxim Cox was dangerous. She needed to stop playing the fool and accept that. So he was hot. So what? He was also the biggest man-slut on this side of the universe.

“Don't tell me I can't have you. Do you know how many years I've wanted you? How I've dreamt of you? Thought about you?” he asked. “No, Elisa, I'll admit, I'm a man. Of course I want to score. But I didn't come here for sex. I came here for you.
You
.”

Mush, mush, mush. She was turning into a puddle of liquid lust. Where was her hard shell? Her rock wall?

Her freaking common sense?

“Yeah right,” she snapped, the tears coming again. Why did she want to open the door and her legs so badly? He'd just hurt her! Just like Derrick!

Maxim grunted, pounding three steady knocks against the door in frustration. “Elisa, do you think I'd go to all this trouble just for sex? I've got plenty of women at home and I don't have to freeze my freaking balls off to get them.”

She cracked a half smile, sniffling. She swore she could hear his teeth chattering through the door. The moron. Just like Maxim—no clue when it came to anything—anything but sex. “You should have worn a better coat.”

“I don't even know how to ski
downhill,
Elisa, much less cross-country ski through the mountains on these damn awkward things, but here I am.
Here I am.
For you,” he reiterated. “It's not
just
about sex. Open the door. Please.”

“Horseshit!” Elisa rose to her feet, clutching her blanket and taking several steps away from the door. “Go! Away!”

There was a loud bang, followed by a steady stream of cursing about snow and ice and difficult women, followed by another loud bang, and, “I'm cold!”

“What you are, Maxim Cox, is spoiled and selfish and self-centered and sex-focused and I am finished with men like you,” Elisa cried out. “I am through with men, period. You aren't coming in my cabin!
Ever!
”

M
axim's
lips were turning blue. The tip of his tongue felt frozen. His teeth hurt. His nipples ached. His balls were ice cubes.

He was fucking
cold.

Worse, it would be dark soon.

Shivering, Maxim rubbed his arms to create friction and paced between the pine trees stationed a few feet in front of Elisa's single-story cabin. Smoke rose from her chimney into the evening sky, the only sign that the dark cabin was occupied.

What now? He had no clue how to get to Elisa. He never had, not from the moment they'd met. She was smarter than him. Better than him. Prettier than he deserved. He accepted that. But he still wanted her.

Elisa wouldn't be seduced, she wouldn't be sweet-talked, and she sure wasn't falling for his charm. He'd even tried honesty and clearly that hadn't gotten him far with her. He needed a plan, because otherwise, he'd freeze to death before she let him in.

Pausing, he looked at the cabin. A curtain moved in the shadowy window. Ah, so she was watching him. Interested in him.

But still not budging. What would it take?

He didn't have the slightest idea.

“Oh, come on, Elisa! Cut me a break!” he hollered, his words echoing back at him. He shook his head, muttering to himself. “She's probably enjoying this. Hell, she's probably recording it. I'm making a fool of myself. I must have lost my damned mind.”

Maybe that was it. Perhaps he just needed to drive her crazy. Get on her nerves until she gave in. Walking to the cabin, he explored the perimeter, stepping in her frozen flower beds to peer in her windows. Finally, the subtle glow of a fire revealed her location.

She was huddled in her bedroom. Now wearing a warm and cozy-looking flannel nightgown, her knees tucked under her chin, and her hair wrapped around her like a shield, she cuddled on the loveseat, a fuzzy blanket warming her legs. She dabbed her huge eyes with a handkerchief and bit her lush lower lip. In her shaky left hand, she held a magazine. He guessed it was the treacherous tabloid that had driven her to seclude herself here in the mountains.

She looked so tiny, so helpless and pitiful. He hadn't realized the scandal had hurt her so deeply.

The urge to wrap her in his arms and squeeze her until she smiled pulled at him. Stepping closer, he pressed his face against the window. He followed his instinct and knocked softly.

Elisa jumped, her body literally lifting an inch off the seat. Her gaze flew to where he stood. She leapt to her feet, everything pathetic about her instantly transforming into anger.

“What, haven't you seen enough, you perv?”

Her insult stung, but not as much as seeing her cry. She was hurting and she needed to lean on someone's shoulder. His shoulder. “I want to talk to you.”

She stormed to the window, her eyes narrowed. “Well, I
don't
want to talk to you.”

“Elisa, just give me a chance. You need—”

“You to leave!”

Whoosh!
She flung the curtain across the window, shutting him out. He took a step back, lost. What had he ever done to her? Why wouldn't she just talk to him? He realized he'd given himself a bad rap, but he'd never hurt her. He'd never even come close.

Momentarily, he considered going to other windows, then realized maybe he was being a bit of a creep.

He stalked back to his trees and resumed pacing. No wonder she wouldn't give him the time of day. Maybe it wasn't personal. The scandal with the tabloids was making her an emotional basket case. The world has seen her at her naughtiest. For someone like him, it wasn't that big of a deal. For someone like her…

As he'd suspected, she was in misery.

Why did that make him feel like dirt? He hadn't taken the pictures.

But he had almost killed her all those years ago.

A fluffy white snowflake flitted from the darkening sky, falling to the already dusted-white ground. Another followed, and another, and another. In less than a minute, dime-sized flakes poured down on him.

Great. Maxim kicked at the snow and shuddered. He'd never gone through so much trouble for a woman in his life. His mind told him to give up, to hike his way into Aspen and find a willing female to warm his cold body. But his heart, his soul, begged to differ. It wasn't about sex, not with Elisa.

The more she pushed him away, the more he desired her. He wanted to comfort her, to prove himself, to show her men weren't all bad, as she currently thought. Granted, he wasn't exactly the man for the job, but that made him want to do it even more.