Surprised by Love: A Contemporary Romance (The Armstrongs Book 4) (9 page)

Douglas and his brothers had decided last night to travel to the beach for the weekend.

Before leaving, he hoped to see Toni and maybe a miracle would happen and she’d want to join them. They’d secured a big villa at the beach with three bedrooms, where she’d have her own bedroom.

But he didn’t find her, she was neither at her apartment, nor up at the gym and pool. Time was running out and he finally decided it wasn’t meant to be and they had to leave without her.

His first impulse was to leave a message for her in the lobby with the concierge, but then it struck him as a stupid idea.
She thought our making out was a mistake.
The memory sent an icy chill down his spine. How could she say that? Kissing her had been like a short trip to heaven.

Seeing everyone waiting on him, he pushed thoughts of Toni from his mind and joined his family. Monday was a holiday, which meant they had three whole days to spend at the beach. The four-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur was made easily enough, and the banter between the brothers and Kendra kept his mind from straying too far away.

When they arrived at the beach house, everyone rushed to take a plunge into the ocean, but soon enough, Douglas found himself alone with his thoughts once again.
I wish she was here with me.

Douglas had finally stopped denying the truth and admitted to himself that Toni was the perfect woman for him. And she’d also be perfect for his company. She’d be the best CFO ever back home in Chicago.
I want her. Not only in my bed, but also in my office.

He argued with himself, if he should even take the risk and ask her. She’s leading such a glitzy life, travelling all over Asia, what he has to offer would probably be boring for her. And he didn’t want her to get bored at his side.

His thoughts kept going around in circles and at one point, he even considered asking his father if he could relocate to Asia for good. Just the mere thought of relocating had his stomach churning painfully. He would miss his family and friends so much.

He enjoyed travelling, he really did. But even after two weeks, he was already missing his family.
But I would do it to be with Toni. If that’s what it takes.
Even as he prepared himself to make such a huge sacrifice, doubts crept in.
What if she doesn’t even want me? Then you need to try harder.

Kendra found him hours later and noticed his confused state of mind. She offered a listening ear, but Douglas wasn’t ready to voice his thoughts.

She figured it had to do with the young woman she’d met the night before and decided to give him some advice, whether he wanted it or not.

“Douglas, if this woman is important to you, you need to stop playing games and do whatever it takes to gain her trust and her love. Don’t be an idiot like Ryan and I. We lost ten years of happiness by not talking to each other. Ten years, Douglas! We got a second chance, but most people don’t. This might be your only chance with her. Don’t blow it.”

When he didn’t answer, she grinned before she took off. “You can thank me later.”

Douglas couldn’t get Kendra’s words out of his head. He thought about them most of Saturday night, and finally, near dawn he saw the truth. As soon as lunch was over, he announced that he was returning to Kuala Lumpur. His brothers had offered to return with him, but he declined their offer.

“You guys stay here with Kendra and enjoy the beach. This is just something I have to do. See you Monday night, okay?”

Kendra shot him a glance of understanding. “You won’t regret it.”

Then he hurried right back to find Toni and tell her how much he loved her.

***

Toni returned from her shopping spree with Tricia, having mustered up the courage to tell him she wanted to give their relationship a shot. She stopped by Douglas’ apartment, with sweating palms and a pounding heart only to find him gone.

When he didn’t come home several hours later, she finally gave up and went to bed. Disheartened. First thing Sunday morning, she rushed over to his apartment door, knocking again. This time when he didn’t answer, she went down to the lobby with sagged shoulders to see if the concierge had seen him leave.

“They left for the weekend, miss. They won’t be back until Monday night.”

Gone? He’d abandoned her? Gosh, she missed him and before she knew it, tears sprung from her eyes and she hurried up to her apartment to scream out her soul.
I should be happy. I wanted to cut him out of my life and my heart.

But now that she was alone, she was miserable. She even missed the arguments they’d had. They seemed to disagree on almost everything - business wise that is. At first, she had been very annoyed about that, but then found that his disagreements always challenged her to find an even better solution. They made a great team. She had even started to envision what it would be like to work with him always.

And then there was the kiss on the rooftop.
It was fantastic!
At least, she had thought so. But he’d taken off for the weekend without telling her. For him, it probably was just a kiss like any other kiss in the world and he was already off chasing the next woman.

No, it would be best for everyone involved if I resigned from my job and stayed away from him. Being near him is only going to lead to more heartache.

Trying not to wallow in self-pity, she dragged herself up to the pool. She loaded a good romance book onto her Kindle and took it up to the rooftop with her. Nothing better than crying about someone else’s story to expel the thoughts about her own misery.

The book got her thinking about happily ever after, and what that might look like for her.
It won’t happen to me. I’m destined to become an old and bitter spinster.
It for sure wasn’t going to happen with Douglas. Ever.

Her life was too busy, constantly travelling, working eighty-hour weeks. He was the kind of guy who needed to be rooted somewhere, and she had no idea how to do that. She hadn’t been in the same place for more than six months since she was twenty-three.

As she was already bawling, she didn’t have any strength left to control her thoughts. After years of denial, her grief about the death of her parents surfaced.
Oh my gosh!
She could now see with clarity how stupid she had behaved. She hadn’t wanted to accept the reality and clung to her brother, pretending they were still a family. He’d become her best friend, her supporter, and her source of life. But then he’d kicked her out.

It still hurt to think about that time of her life. Looking back on it, she acknowledged he’d only been trying to help her, but hadn’t known how.

He’d told her she needed to get on with her life, but after her parent’s death, she had come to rely on him for everything. It had made her weak and allowed her to avoid confronting her grief. To avoid growing up. She saw all of that now.

What she had done to him hadn’t been fair. He was just one year older than she was and they had comforted each other and been super-close until her denial to deal with the grief had driven him away.

She hadn’t spoken to him since that day, and she decided that first thing in the morning, she would call him. It was time. She’d find a way to make amends, but not right now. All of this thinking had given her a tremendous headache.

Closing her eyes, she relaxed and tried to still her busy mind. She’d done enough soul-searching for one day. Now, she just needed to get her mind to turn off.

Douglas reached Kuala Lumpur, and after a brief stop to buy flowers, he went straight to her apartment, but she wasn’t there.
Where can she be?
He had driven four hours to tell her he loved her, but now he couldn’t find her. Again.

Letting his shoulders sag in defeat, he stepped into the elevator and rode up to the rooftop pool. He needed a quiet place with fresh air to sit down and think. Perhaps then the debilitating ache inside his chest would go away.

When he stepped off the elevator, still holding the bouquet of roses in his hand, he peeked through the glass door into the open pool area. His heart did a little flip and his pulse started racing.
She’s here!
Toni was lying on one of the loungers in a very small bikini. She had a semi-transparent sarong loosely draped over her body, but it did nothing to conceal her from his view.

It was already dark outside and her body shone brighter than the sparkling skyline with the Petronas Towers in the background. His mouth dried up and he clasped his hands around the beautiful roses he was holding. He approached her on silent feet and softly whispered to her, “I have missed you, beautiful.”

She was startled by his voice, so much so that she dropped her book when she jerked around to see him. Her eyes brightened when she saw him and he held the roses out to her. “For the most beautiful woman in the world.”

He saw the joy in her eyes, but within moments, worry overshadowed the joy. Douglas hesitated for a moment when she put the roses away. The urge to pull her into his chest was strong, but he didn’t want to scare her.

It was a very awkward situation, both of them eyeing the other, unsure about their next step. When he finally took heart and moved to pull her into his arms, she quickly ducked beneath his arms, tossing her sarong to the ground and jumped into the pool.

Surfacing in a safe distance, she challenged him, “Catch me if you can.”

Douglas didn’t need another invitation. He took a second to kick his shoes off, and then jumped in after her. Fully clothed. A chase ensued, with her splashing him and diving to swim away from him time and time again.

He was too slow with his soaked clothes and had to think of a trick to catch her. He dove to the bottom and stayed underwater as long as he managed. From beneath the water, he could see her approach to where he lay and in the very moment she reached the spot above him, he leapt up like a shark and captured her in his arms.

She scolded him, but he just laughed, “In love and war, everything is allowed.”

He didn’t give her a chance to respond, but sealed her lips with a kiss. Her body quivered in his embrace and he felt the heat radiating from her body, heating up the water around them.

His hands were feeling out her wonderful curves. He skimmed them down her back, clutching and squeezing her butt before bringing them around to her front and taking the same path from her shoulders down to her breasts. Her naked skin felt deliciously smooth beneath his hands and while he continued to kiss her senseless, he pulled at the strings holding her bikini top up and then slipped it off her, letting the material float away.

He hissed at the amazing sight of her exposed breasts and her hardened dark nipples. Toni didn’t seem to mind him undressing her, she only protested feebly when his hands reached down to her butt and removed her panties. But when his hands started to move into her wet core, she asked, “What if someone comes up here?”

Not that there was a big possibility of that happening. He had rarely, if ever, met another person up here. But to be sure, he gave her a naughty grin, lifted himself out of the water, and strode to the entrance door.

By the time he returned to her with a very satisfied look on his face, she had already climbed out of the water, uncaring that she was completely naked. He stopped and stared at her for a moment. She looked breathtakingly beautiful, her white skin shining in the dim lights against the dark sky. Her dripping wet hair clinging to her shoulders and sexy drops of water rolling down her body. He wanted to be one of those drops of water, rolling down the length of her body, caressing and exploring each inch of naked skin. This thought stirred his erection again and he became painfully aware of his hard-on trapped beneath his zipper.

His stare must have reminded her that she was giving him a naked Toni show because she blushed and reached for a towel. But he stopped her hand. “I have a better idea. How about I lick you dry?”

His comment drew a sexy sound of need from her lungs, before she asked with a voice thick with desire, “But if someone comes in?”

“They can’t.”

She looked from him to the entrance door. “What did you do?”

He flashed her a mischievous grin, very pleased with himself. “I blocked the door with a sun chair.”

With these words, he approached her and hissed air across her bare skin, until goosebumps appeared and another sexy moan escaped her throat.

“You’re freezing.”

“Hot.” Her whisper is almost inaudible.

Picking her up, he carried her over to one of the loungers and carefully set her down. When she relaxed on her back and looked up into the night sky, he started licking the droplets of water from her body. His tongue was probing and testing every inch of her, tasting her sweet taste and the smoothness of her skin, making her shiver beneath his touch.

“You are tense sweetheart,” he murmured, massaging her shoulders and arms for a long time before his thumb grazed the underside of her breasts. Another moan of pure lust escaped her lungs and blanked out everything except her from his mind. His fingers roved south and she slightly opened her thighs. His muscles tightened at the sight of her wet and slick flesh, open and ready for him.

But as much as his throbbing shaft wanted to drive into her right now, he held himself back to pleasure her first. Sliding his fingers into her. First one, then two moving up and down, while his thumb searched for her little love bud. It was already big and swollen and he sensed her rushing pulse and knew she was ready to come. For him.

Her inner muscles tensed, and she gasped as he brought her up to the edge and held her there. A few moments later, she came with a vigor he hadn’t expected, crying out his name into the warm night air. His name on her lips warmed his heart in an unknown way and sent thrills rushing through his body.

He stilled for a few moments and then looked into the sweetest face, with eyes as big as full moons, still dark from the desire but mostly filled with love. Love for him.

“That was wonderful.” She breathed the words, still panting from her climax. Struggling to find her voice again, she added, “Douglas, wait.”

A sudden fear gripped his heart, her words like a punch to his gut. “Yes?”

“I have to tell you this. I wanted you from the first moment I saw you, but I was afraid. For all logical reasons this can’t work. Even if we wanted this, all facts are against us…”

She was about to say something else, but he put a finger on her mouth. “Antonia. We will figure out everything. Later. Now I want to make love to you the way you deserve.”

When he kissed her and brushed her nipples with his chest, she moaned again. And he knew she was ready for even more pleasure. Their problems could wait.

He felt his own desire rising again and the throbbing in his shaft painfully reminded him he was still wearing his wet clothes. Toni broke their kiss and eyed him with raw lust. “Don’t you think it’s about time you got undressed then?”

His lips curved into a smile; that woman sure voiced her wishes. She devoured him with her eyes while he took off his clothes. Her greedy stare aroused him and made him feel vulnerable at the same time. His hands trembled when taking off his boxer briefs.
Why the hell am I nervous? It’s not that this is my first time
. But it sure felt like it.

As she started stroking him with soft, strong touches, a groan escaped his lungs. For a moment he wished he could jump back into the pool to cool down because his body temperature had reached the boiling point. Her strokes left hot burning marks on his skin, marks that burnt their way through his entire body.

He tried to pull her against his chest, but she wiggled down from the sun chair and pushed him to lean back. Even in his lust-fogged state, he couldn’t stop his lips from curving up into a smile. He’d known she was straightforward, never afraid to take what she wanted. He’d admired that attitude at work. But he’d never thought she’d be like that in bed as well. The idea to let her command him struck a chord, tensing each and every muscle in anticipation of what were to come.