Stolen (Book One) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (3 page)

He threw some bills onto the table and took her hand, all but dragging her from the cafe. When they reached the street, he slid his arm around her waist and guided her toward the next row of stalls.

He rushed her from the cafe, her body on fire, to finish shopping?

When she glared up at his profile, his lips turned up but he didn't look at her.

“This isn’t where I thought we’d be going,” she said, frustration creeping into her voice. “I’ve had enough shopping for today.”

Ethan threw back his head and laughed. It was a deep rich sound and despite her anger, it sank right down to her bones.

They stopped in front of an old man selling shells who smiled and welcomed them inside. Ethan leaned in close, his lips brushing her ear. His fingers dug into her hip.

“When I finally make you come, sweetheart, you’re going to go off like the fucking Fourth of July in Times Square.” He nipped her earlobe and her knees weakened. “Trust me.”

God, she was strung tighter than she ever had been in her life and pretty much all she thought about for the next two hours as Ethan guided her through every booth until they reached the very end.

He was right. The anticipation was the most intense aphrodisiac ever.

“
D
id you have fun today
?”

Ethan came up behind her and braced his hands on the deck railing. Boxing her in. His body pressed against hers from shoulder to knees.

A choked laugh escaped her lips. “Not sure I’d call it fun exactly.”

When they finally arrived back at Ethan’s bungalow, she felt like a rocket. Ready to go off at the slightest touch. He’d pulled out a bottle of Cristal Rose Champagne from his refrigerator and grabbed two glasses that were on the counter and guided her to the deck.

The sunset had been amazing and her body buzzed, and not just from the alcohol.

His dark chuckle against her neck made goose bumps pop up along her skin. If he started and stopped this time, she really was going to kill him. She leaned back, tilted her neck so that he had more surface to kiss.

Ethan ran his tongue down along her shoulder, then nipped his way back up. The scruff of his beard abraded her skin in a way that she’d never felt before. The hard bulge of his cock pressed into her lower back. She was pinned between it and the railing and she was tired of waiting.

She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. No more games. She wanted him. With a tug she brought his head down and pressed her lips to his. Hot silk. That's what his tongue felt like gliding over hers. Harper groaned, lifted her leg, and wrapped it around his thigh. His fingers dug into her bare flesh, holding her like that, pushing her back against the rail.

She needed his kiss deeper but he held back, stroked the inside of her mouth boldly but with deliberation. She ached everywhere but the pulsing wetness between her legs was unbearable.

“Ethan, I need you to touch me.”

His low chuckle was full of promise.

“If you don’t, I’m going to go back to my own bungalow and masturbate all night. Without you,” she said.

“No you won’t.” He punctuated each word with a kiss.

God, she wouldn’t. Even she knew that.

The fingers on her thigh crept higher, brushed against the inner edge of her shorts. Her breath lodged in her throat. She tilted her hips, tried to move so that he was touching her where she needed it most. Damn him if he didn't purposefully avoid it.

If he didn't do something soon she was going to explode out of her skin.

“Please,” she gasped. “You’re not being very nice you know.”

He pressed hot lips to her neck, then dragged them up, over her chin and took her mouth. This time he really kissed her, stroked his tongue in her mouth boldly, and swallowed the moans coming from her throat.

“I plan on being very very nice,” he said against her swollen lips when he finally came up for air. “So nice that you’ll be screaming my name when you thank me.”

It should have been a horrible line that made her roll her eyes, but the way he said it, the dark promise in his voice, made her ache down to her bones. She never wanted anyone like this and it was making her a little crazy.

“I think you have too many clothes on,” he said. “Can I take them off?”

Yes! Her mind screamed. Finally. He lowered her leg and moved his fingers to the button on her shorts. His knuckles brushed over her stomach and she sucked in a breath. Even an innocent touch made her blood race.

He took his time, sliding the zipper down, pushing his hands along her hips to slide under the cotton of her shorts and panties. The warm night air washed over her skin as he slowly slid them down over her legs. He knelt, lifting one foot and then the other so she could step out of them.

She expected him to stand, to take her shirt off. What she didn’t expect was for him to lift her leg and drape it over his shoulder. She grasped the railing behind her as he grabbed her ass, tilted her hips forward so that he could slid his tongue between the lips of her pussy.

“Shit,” she moaned when his tongue ran over her clit then bucked when he drew it between his teeth and sucked.

He moved his hands, gently guiding her hips into the rhythm that he wanted. He released her now throbbing nub but kept his tongue firmly against it, using her own momentum to build her up.

Harper panted, spread her legs a little wider as the pressure in her stomach tightened. All of the day’s teasing had her blood in a constant simmer and it didn’t take much to bring it to a boil. This what was she wanted, what she’d
needed
, since her first second of seeing his face.

“Oh god, Ethan.” One hand tangled in his hair and she bucked, riding his tongue, chasing the orgasm that was just a little higher. Just a little more. The leg she stood on shook and the tension in her stomach made it hard to suck in air. She was so close.

So fucking close.

Then she teetered, on the sharp edge where she held her breath. Balanced as pleasure raced through her body, building higher, tighter, almost too much. He kept her there, hovering on the edge for several excruciating seconds, then he pulled her clit between his lips and sucked.

Light exploded behind her eyes and her entire body went rigid. Waves crashed, pulling her under while she drowned in white-hot pleasure. Somewhere in there she heard herself screaming, whether out loud or in her head she didn’t know.

All she did know was that she’d shattered into a million pieces and there wasn’t any way she’d ever find them all again. Very slowly, she came down as Ethan slowed his strokes. When he eased her leg back to the floor she had to lean heavily on the railing.

He pushed up until he stood right in front of her. His eyes were so dark, hungry. As she tried to catch her breath, he lifted her top up and over her head. With a quick flick he had her bra unclasped and down her arms. Now she was completely naked.

“Told you that you’d scream my name.” His husky voice washed over her skin as he leaned in and took one of her nipples into his mouth. He ran his tongue around the hard tip, pulled it between his teeth, then sucked, then bit down, then sucked.

He kept up the torture until a low groan ripped from her throat.

When he released it, her nipple throbbed. Then he did the same to the other side. By that time, she was panting again.

“Turn around,” he said.

Goose bumps danced over her skin as she faced the ocean, her hands gripping the railing. The sound of clothes hitting the deck and then, his lips brushed over the back of her neck. Wet kisses made a path down her spine as his warm body pressed against her. She arched back when his hard cock slid over the top of her ass.

The pounding of her heart filled her ears.

Ethan cupped her breasts from behind and tweaked her nipples between his thumb and fingers. Rolled and twisted until she was pushing back and forth, feeling the ridges of his cock sliding on her skin.

Fire burned in her stomach. Her clit throbbed with need again. The way he covered her so completely with his hard body made her feel wild. Out of control.

“Now,” she begged. “I need you now.”

She lifted her hips, tried to get high enough so that his cock would slide lower, into the place where she needed it. One hand left her breast and slid between her legs. His fingers were slick and he rolled her clit. Harper was out of her mind, delirious with the need to come again.

“Ethan please,” she panted.

He growled, bit the back of her neck, her shoulder when she managed to shift her hips in a way that bent his cock down, allowing it to slip between the moisture between her legs. She took a step to the side, opened up to him, and arched her back again.

The tip of his cock slid into her and she groaned deep in her throat.

“Fuck,” he hissed. His grasp tightened around her stomach. The fingers on her clit squeezed and her pussy clenched, pulling on the end of his cock. “Christ Harper, you’re so fucking tight.”

Everything narrowed and the only thing that mattered to her was coming. While he was inside her. She jerked her hips back and gasped as he filled her completely. That’s all she needed, the added friction shooting her to the edge again.

“God yes,” she panted. “Don’t stop. So close Ethan.

He drove forward and she pushed back and their bodies slapped together noisily. He worked his fingers, pulsed her clit with every thrust and it hit like a freight train. This time it started deep inside and burst out of every pore at the same time.

Pleasure so sweet it hurt.

She screamed. Again.

His hands covered hers, gripped onto the railing as he pounded into her, extending the shocks coursing through her even as she convulsed on his swollen cock. With a hoarse ragged cry, Ethan stiffened behind her and she felt him pulsing inside her.

She sucked in air, tried to fill her burning lungs.

Her entire body shook and he held her there, his front to her back, while he moved back and forth inside her much slower now. If he let her go, she’d fall to the floor. Intense would be an understatement. Never in her experience had it been like that. She was floating, not quite one with her body yet.

She had to give him credit, that whole anticipation thing fucking rocked.

“Will you stay?” His voice was hoarse in her ear and she probably sounded the same.

“Yes.” They slowly disentangled and she shivered as air moved across her sweaty skin. He took her hand and led her inside, where he pulled back the covers and she slipped between. He moved in behind her and pulled her back against his chest again.

She laid her hand on his arm then turned her head and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. Exhaustion crept into her muscles and she relaxed in his arms. He kissed her hair and ran a thumb over stomach.

“Goodnight, Ethan,” she whispered, feeling sleep pulling her under.

“Goodnight, Harper.”

She snuggled against him, feeling safer and warmer and more relaxed and happy than she’d felt in a long, long time.

Maybe ever.

She wanted to just save this moment with him, freeze-frame it forever.

And then, she suddenly found herself wondering if maybe this wasn’t just one day in paradise with a sexy stranger. She felt something with Ethan that she’d never realized she even needed. He was like a living, breathing pain reliever—his touch and his smile could take away all of the troubles that plagued her worried mind.

Maybe she shouldn’t be so quick to assume that things couldn’t go further than just this little vacation. Maybe they could keep talking, fly out to see one another—assuming he lived far away from her, which he in all likelihood did.

But regardless, as she drifted off to sleep, she told herself that tomorrow she would actually try to feel Ethan out on whether or not he was interested in something more than a one-night-stand.

And then she was asleep, peaceful, calm, deeply content.

In the morning when she woke, he was gone.

At first, she thought maybe he’d only gone out to get food—something, anything.

Only, when she went to the doorway of the bungalow and glanced out, she saw a note that must have been taped to the door and fallen down, almost out of view.

She picked up the paper and saw a quick note scrawled in what could only have been Ethan’s handwriting.

I had to leave early and didn’t want to wake you. If things were different, I would be waking up with you every morning and never leaving. But things are what they are. Try not to live in your head too much…

-E

I
t had been
three weeks since she got back from her vacation and it was as if she’d never left. Sometimes it felt like it had just been a dream, but the way her body ached for days after told her it was all real.

Ethan had been real.

She’d gone to Tahiti to forget her life for a week and he’d made sure that for one night, she’d forgotten her own name. There were a few moments of regret, when she wished she’d gotten his number, and perhaps some lingering betrayal that he hadn’t even said goodbye in person.

But maybe he really had been thinking that it was easier to do it the way he did. And maybe he was right.

Regardless, she was filled with her own concerns about life in the present, life in the real world, where paradise was as far away as the North Pole.

Every single day since she’d been back had been filled with lawyers and press conferences and prepared statements.

Not hers.

Harper wasn’t allowed to speak to the media about her father, but her parents insisted that she be there at their sides during every single interview. To show solidarity. It didn’t matter if Harper thought her father was wrong or right, she had to put on a smile and do nothing. Say nothing.

Today they were on their way to the courthouse. In the town car, her father, Bud Matheson, was going over the cards his publicity manager had given him. Huge crowds were expected to be waiting, mostly to throw insults, Harper was sure.

That’s what happened when you swindled millions of dollars from people. They kind of hated you for it. Truthfully, so did she. They hadn’t needed the money. Her father was a very successful investor with a half billion-dollar portfolio.

They all lived in a beautiful townhouse in Back Bay, had a house on the West Coast, a chalet in Europe and several penthouse apartments around the world. Some people collected cars or antiques, her father collected houses.

So why had he felt the need to create the biggest Ponzi scheme in history to rob people of their money? She had no idea, but the fact that he did, that he didn’t give a shit about her mother or Harper or how this would affect them, made her hate him.

And because of his unparalleled greed, everything was at risk. By the time the courts were done with him, they might have nothing left.

Actually, less than nothing, since her father could potentially owe far more money than any of them would ever be able to earn in ten lifetimes.

The only reason she was even sitting in the car with them, on the way to listen to her father’s lawyers try and argue for a new venue for his hearing, was because of her mother. She might look calm and put together on the outside, but all of this had taken a toll on her.

Harper’s mother’s eyes had lost their sparkle, though she kept her head held high. Harper thought a part of her mother believed her father when he said he wasn’t trying to screw anyone over. That it was just a failed business model.