Manhattan's Most Scandalous Reunion by Dani Collins, Caitlin Crews

CHAPTER FIVE

SHEREALLYHADN’Tcome here to pick up where they’d left off.

Reve wet his arid throat with wine, absorbing that.

“Where will you go?” he asked. “Back to Albuquerque?”

“Not if, um...” She swirled her wine and licked her lips. “Dad’s going to call one of his air force buddies who became a commercial pilot. He keeps a flat in Frankfurt and has offered it to Dad in the past. Dad said he’d ask if I can use it. I feel so light now I’ve told him. Like I can think. Thank you for pushing me to call him.”

She gave him the smile he’d been missing, the one that lit her up as though she had swallowed pure sunshine. She beamed it at him so hard his chest stung with the force of it.

“That’s it, then? You’ll leave in the next day or two?” He had the bizarre sensation of a bandage being peeled very slowly from his chest, taking one hair at a time and a layer of skin with it, but it was happening on the inside of his rib cage.

“Depending on flights, yes. I’m still eligible to fly military, but it’s space available. I don’t want to hang around here like bait for the photographers, so I might have to book commercial. And I have to look into whether I can work once I’m there,” she said with a distracted frown. “I’m sure a bar or club would hire me for cash. At least I brought my passport. That interview was good for something,” she said with another overbright smile.

He could already see ten things wrong with her plan, but her phone pinged with a text.

She moved across to peer down at where she’d left it faceup on a side table next to the settee. Whatever photo appeared on the screen made her shoot him an uneasy look.

“My brother.” She tucked her hands into her neck as though her phone was a coiled snake she was being forced to pick up.

Chewing the corner of her mouth, she cautiously let one finger dart out to tap the screen. The AI voice read, “Marco. I love you, sis. Tell me what you need.”

“Oh.” Nina moved her hands to stack them over her heart. She glanced at Reve with eyes like exploding stars. Her mouth was a wobbly line. “Isn’t he the best?”

Her phone pinged again. She tapped.

“Angela,” the AI voice read. “I always knew you were special. Get a hotel on me. You don’t have to stay with him. Call as soon as you’re there. I want to hear everything.”

“What have you been telling them about me?” Reve asked with offense.

Nina didn’t meet his gaze as she picked up the phone and voice texted to both of them, “I love you both. I’ll call as soon as I’ve figured out my next steps.”

“You’re not going to a hotel,” Reve said when she lowered her phone. “The paparazzi will find you and we still have things to talk about.”

“The press release? Say whatever you want, but it would be better if I wasn’t here when you issue it, don’t you think?” She polished her screen on her hip, then set her phone back on the table.

When she glanced at him, there was a deep vulnerability in her expression. Only a heartless bully would throw such a lamb to the wolves.

“We’ll circle back to the press release. You know you don’t have to go to Europe, right? I looked up Oriel while you were sleeping. Her new husband is a VP at TecSec. He’ll want my business.” The global security company had been on his radar for a while as an alternative to the one he was using. “I can make a call right now. He’ll pick up.”

“You don’t want to be involved,” she reminded, rolling her wine in the bowl of her glass. “I’m not sure I want to be involved. I mean, I do. I want to know if Oriel is my sister. I definitely want to meet her if she is, but...” She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I’m not ready to reveal myself. Oriel seems fine with the attention she’s getting, but today’s taste of it makes it seem pretty awful.”

“It is. But you won’t stay anonymous walking around with her face.”

“There’s nothing I can do about that, is there?” She paced down the length of the terrace and turned back, brows tugged into a wrinkle of consternation. “The problem is, I have questions that can’t be answered by meeting her. She was legally adopted, but I was given to my father in a way that seems...opportunistic. As though someone was trying to hide me. That’s weird, right? I’m not imagining it?”

He’d been thinking that, too. “It suggests criminal activity, yes.” Which concerned him.

Her mouth tightened. “I keep thinking that right now is my only chance to poke around for answers, before whoever did this realizes I know who I am and starts to cover their tracks.”

“Okay, but you can’t go jabbing hornet nests without knowing what you’re up against.”

“I don’t have time to take a more cautious approach.” She pointed at her face. “This is a ticking clock.”

“Hire someone,” he threw out. “Tell your family to keep their mouths shut, lock down your social media and lie low. That buys you a little more time off the radar while you wait for a report.”

“I don’t know first thing about hiring a private investigator let alone have the money to pay for one. I certainly can’t sit and watch game shows in a hotel room while they try to get answers to questions I’ve barely articulated.”

“I’ll pay for it.” He shrugged that off.

“No, thank you,” Nina bit out, cheekbones darkening with temper.

“Which brings us to something else we need to discuss.” Ire prickled at him as he noted her hackles were rising. “Where did you get the idea you owe me for the things I bought you?”

“I already told you where I stand on this. You bought it. You own it.” She walked past him and went inside, snapping the door back into place.

“For God’s sake, Nina,” he said as he followed her. “What are we even talking about? A few yards of silk and a few pairs of shoes?”

She flung around to face him, pronouncing spitefully, “Twenty-nine thousand, four hundred and seventy-eight dollars and sixty-eight cents. That might not be much to you, but it’s a lot to me.”

That took him aback. “You kept track of how much you spent?”

“Of course I did! I was always going to pay you back once I established myself.”

“So why haven’t you?” he asked with exasperation.

She jerked her head back.

“I mean, why haven’t you continued trying to establish yourself? Put on a show. Get some orders. Find a factory to produce it. What the hell are you waiting for?”

“Oh, it’s just that easy, is it?” Her face was crimson, her eyes wearing the glossy sheen of venomous fury she’d worn when she’d walked out on him. She looked to her phone, which was still outside, then her bag on the floor.

It made his stomach clench, but he kept pushing.

“All I did was underwrite your ambitions. Stand here and explain to me why that was such a crime.”

“I may be thick, Reve, but even I know that sex work is a crime! Buying and selling. Thanks for implicating me in that because I wasn’t aware that’s why I was here.” She chucked back the last of her wine and clanked her glass onto the bar top.

“How the hell do you make that leap? How?” he demanded, astounded.

“Oh, were you in love with me?” Her sarcasm held a rawness that scored deep into him. “Was that why you asked me to live with you? Because I thought you were. That’s why I was here. I thought I was in love with you, Reve. Then I found out I was here to keep your bed warm. ‘We’re comfortable,’” she mocked. “‘Why does it have to go anywhere?’”

Thought. He leaned back on his heels, sternum vibrating under the force of her anger and sense of betrayal.

He wouldn’t have believed her if she had claimed to have actually been in love. Love was like the spirit that had guided her into her grandmother’s tender arms—a nice thought, but mostly existing through acts of deliberate self-delusion.

He was starting to see that Nina was prone to that, though. She was a romantic, which made him the sort of person who took advantage of that, and he didn’t like that view of himself one bit.

“I thought you wanted me to help you.” He tried for a reasonable tone.

“And I thought you were helping me because you believed in me as an artist.” She blinked fast. Even from across the room, he could tell her lashes were wet and matted. “You didn’t care about my work, though. You wanted sex on tap.”

“Not true. If all I wanted was a warm body in my bed, Kelly Bex would have been here. I want you, Nina.” He pointed at her.

She took a step back.

Because he’d spoken in the present tense.

He ran his tongue over his teeth. He hadn’t meant to reveal that, but yeah, his craving for her was circling him like a school of sharks. He kept batting his urges away because she was going through some stuff, but for one second he let her see it. He wished what he felt for her was the sort of base attraction any woman could satisfy. It wasn’t. It had to be her.

Her expression twisted in confusion and she crossed her arms defensively.

“I wanted you to succeed,” he insisted. “Maybe I don’t know the fine points about fashion and trends, but I knew how hard you were working to have a voice in that world, how passionate you were about every stitch and pleat. Your sketches alone were enough to show me you had talent. Hell, Nina. I believe in you more than you believe in yourself.”

“That is the most arrogant thing you have ever said in your life.” Her arms shot straight down at her sides. “Which is saying a lot.”

“Your dream was right there.” He waved toward the hall. “And you walked away from it. You’re still trying to walk away. That has nothing to do with me. If you want it, it’s there. Quit making excuses and make it happen. But you’re too afraid to pull the trigger. Aren’t you?”

“What do you know about it? You think it’s easy to put yourself out there?” Her arm flailed and she knocked her glass flying into the bar sink with a tinkle of broken glass. She made an infuriated noise, barely glancing at the damage. “It’s not just ego, you know. Not for me.” She smacked a hand onto her chest. “I’ve always had to do everything twice. Once my way, then I had to reverse engineer it so I could prove I knew how to do it the ‘right’ way.” She made air quotes with her fingers. “Then Kelly picked apart everything I made.”

So she could steal Nina’s ideas. He’d watched her hurt and confusion as she saw her modified designs appear under Kelly’s name.

“I’ve never understood why you let her get away with that.”

“It was my first job in this industry! I thought I was learning.” She touched her brow. “I thought I wasn’t good enough yet and she was mentoring me, making me better.”

Yet. That word encapsulated Nina’s hopefulness and conviction in her ability to succeed, but where had her faith in herself gone?

“I was giving you a chance to do it your way, Nina.”

“Because you wanted to have sex with me,” she accused.

“Because I liked seeing you happy. What a jerk to want to put a smile on your face,” he scoffed. “But even if I was doing it as a transaction, so what? Why would that matter if you were getting what you wanted?”

“Don’t be gross!”

“I’m not being gross. I’m asking how badly you want that dream? Not bad enough to do whatever it takes to get it.”

“Because I’m not like that,” she cried.

“Like what? Ruthless? I am.” He moved to pick up the cordless house phone. “If you don’t want all those boxes of clothes you made, fine. I’ll call Kelly, tell her to get them out of my storage locker.”

“Oh, you just try it, you bastard. I’ll—” She stormed right up on him, glowing with incendiary fury.

His heart nearly exploded in reaction to the threat rolling off her even as another part of him gloried in how magnificent she was.

“You’ll what?” he invited, heart galloping. “Fight for it?”

“Yes, damn you, I will.” She grabbed the phone out of his hand and blindly threw it.

It hit the coffee table, where it bounced and skittered to the floor, possibly breaking into pieces.

He didn’t look. Their gazes were locked, and all of his senses were drinking her in. Her loose hair with its shocks of pink, fine strands lifting as if electrified. Her pupils were exploded so there was only a glow of dark gold around them. She breathed in uneven pants.

He could feel his teeth showing as he smiled in atavistic glee. He was hard, so freaking hard for her in an instant. His blood had become hundred-proof alcohol, sharp and hot in his arteries, searing through his system and making his head swim. All his logic and calculations of risk and brain cells melted into the simmering pool of testosterone he was drowning in.

“Are we doing this?” He barely recognized his voice it was so guttural and raw.

“Yes.” She grabbed his head and dragged his mouth to hers, lifting her mouth to meet him.

His arms went around her, and he tried... He honestly tried not to ravage her. Her fists knotted in his hair, and the pain made him realize he was squeezing her with all his strength, but she wouldn’t let him lift his head. Her teeth raked his lips and he knew they would both have bruises after. Maybe she would even break his skin, but he’d be damned if he would protest her kissing him as if she wanted to bite his lips from his face.

He ran his hands down to her ass and squeezed, bracing his feet in a signal that was so well practiced between them he didn’t even think of what he was doing until her weight landed against him. Her breasts mashed into his chest as he absorbed the force with a single staggered step back.

Her arms looped behind his neck, and her legs wrapped tight around his waist. His muscles strained as he held her tight and kissed her again. Plundered. Swept his tongue into the hot, wine-flavored cavern of her mouth and sucked her tongue into his.

He wanted to take her to the sofa, the floor, against the wall. They were both making noises like animals landing prey after weeks of starvation.

He was starved. He’d been suffering deprivation since she had left, and he was furious with her for it. Did she think any woman would be good enough after he’d had her? No one had even tempted him.

Holding her tight, he strode into his bedroom.

Nina had forgotten—or blocked out—how good it felt to be held by him. How his strong arms made her feel as though he wanted to meld them into a single being.

The friction as he walked stimulated her in primitive ways. Their mouths met, tasted and tangled and pillaged. She knew she was making carnal noises. So was he. She could hardly breathe, but she didn’t want to give up one second of having her mouth sealed to his. She started to feel herself being pulled away and scrabbled her hands against the hard cords of muscles across the tops of his shoulders, hanging on.

The mattress hit her back and his weight came down between her legs, knees pushing behind her thighs to shove her higher onto the mattress. He yanked her kimono open, his hands busy between them as he fought with her belt. She drove her hands into his hair, dragging him back to kissing the hell out of her.

He did, and then swept his mouth to her throat. She felt the sting of him planting a hickey against her skin and let a jagged, encouraging cry scrape from her throat. She arched and his touch slid under her top, up to her breast.

The sensation of his hot palm claiming the swell was so acute she lifted her hips and bit through the shoulder seam of his shirt just hard enough to express the intensity gripping her.

They were both being rough and greedy. She was, anyway, but she needed this. She needed to see his gaze come up blind with lust. When she moved her hands under his shirt, skating her fingertips over his hard abs and up to his tight nipples, she couldn’t get enough of the light scour of hair against her palms. She drank in the sight of him closing his eyes and smiled as she felt him shake under her touch.

He rocked onto his elbow and pushed her top up, baring her stomach as he slid down to open his mouth across her belly, taking soft, wet bites. He kissed his way up to the underside of her breast, pushing her top up to expose her, causing heat to swirl through her and lewd craving to pulse between her legs.

Their clothes kept getting in the way, but she didn’t want to stop to undress and he didn’t seem to want that, either. He captured her nipple and gave a strong, wet pull, drawing another keening cry from her. She wrapped her arms around his head and held him there, tortured by the delirious pleasure he was bestowing on her.

As he moved to her other breast, his hand went under her back, slid into her silk shorts at her tailbone and started to push them off. As they went down her thighs, so did he, his mouth kissing wetly down and down as though called there.

“Reve,” she gasped, trying to pull her ankle free of the silk.

He used two fingers to part her folds, the way he’d always done, and set his mouth to her bared flesh. He paused—one breath, two—waiting for her to catch up to the intense heat and acute sensations. Waiting for her to want the circle of his tongue. Waiting for her to get over her moment of shyness and relax into this caress.

As she shivered and instinctually lifted her hips, spearing her hand into his hair, inviting him, he settled in to pleasure her with his clever tongue.

It was everything she remembered and more. Sharp streaks of pleasure went down the insides of her thighs. Tension coiled in her belly. It was so good, so good, but not enough.

“I want—” She tried to roll to the nightstand.

He rose and reached.

“And the stuff.”

He handed her the lube and stood on his knees over her, pushing his shorts down only far enough to bare his erection so he could roll on a condom.

She spread cool gel across latex and he stole a dollop, touching her shoulder in a signal to lie back. He worked the slippery coolness into her and it nearly made her cry. She had missed his touch so much. She had missed the way they knew each other’s bodies and spoke without words. He knew exactly how to press and tease and make her gasp with pleasure.

It had been so painful to lose that a latent sob throbbed from her throat.

“Hurt?” He started to withdraw his touch.

“No. I want you in me so much.” She beckoned him to cover her again. She guided him herself, closing her eyes as she lined him up.

She wasn’t completely ready. There was a pinch as he pressed for entrance. It made her shiver but, oh, it felt good to have him filling her, so thick and hot and hard.

He was swearing, eyes glazed. She could feel him shaking with an effort to hold himself in control.

“Don’t be gentle.” She let her nails bite into his buttocks, then drew her knees up to his rib cage. “I’m really so close.”

With a groan, he kissed her open mouth with his own, lascivious and proprietary. Then he began to move with firm thrusts, watching her through slitted eyes.

She was so aroused, so ravenous for his powerful body moving in hers, she met his thrusts with lifts of her hips, encouraging him to let go. It was raw and gratifying and made her breaths shorten.

Her grip on him tightened. He increased his tempo. The sensations redoubled, and she slipped into a place of pure pleasure that seemed to have no peak, only more and more hot joy as all of her awareness narrowed to that point of potential inside her. She tensed, reaching. “Don’t stop. Harder. Please...”

She shattered. All of her exploded into a thousand pieces while he roared and pinned his bucking hips to hers. His iron-hard arms caged her tight while he groaned into her neck and pulsed deep within her.