Hidden Love by MINK

8

Gaines

She nibbles her lower lip as we whip through the city streets. “I can’t believe she just knocked it out of my hand. I mean, who does that?”

I grit my teeth. I still want to strangle Selena, but she’s nothing and no one. Not to mention, there’s absolutely no way she can pay the winning bid. I’ve already messaged the director and told her Selena is no longer allowed at any event where I’m in attendance or where my funds are used for so much as a floral arrangement.

“I don’t want to talk about her.” I reach out and take Pansy’s soft hand, her skin like silk against mine. “I want to talk about you.”

“Me?” She gives me a high, nervous laugh.

“Yes. Where are you from? What’s your last name? Who invited you to the event tonight?” I stop questioning and swallow hard. What if some other man brought her? I grip the steering wheel a little too tightly. But it doesn’t matter. She’s in my car, headed to my home, and I intend to keep her there as long as need be. I have to get to the bottom of her mystery, and more than that, I want to taste her treasure, every last drop of it.

“Oh, the event. Um. Well, I was just sort of in the neighborhood, you know?” She smiles.

“In the neighborhood?” I shoot her a sideways glance.

She shrugs, her breasts perilously close to spilling out of her strapless dress. I lick my lips.

“Just kidding. Right? I mean, obviously, I was invited. I couldn’t have gotten in otherwise. Don’t be silly.”

I stroke her inner wrist with my thumb, pausing to feel her quick pulse every so often. She’s nervous, maybe excited, maybe both.

“You weren’t there with someone, were you?” I try to keep my tone nonchalant, though my mind goes to dark places about what I’d do to any man who tried to stake a claim on my mystery woman.

“I was with you.” She looks at me, her eyes wide and questioning. Innocent.

“Yes, you were. You are.” I squeeze her fingers and take the bridge out of town and into the countryside. The moon is high, lighting the expanse of trees and big estates that line the highway.

“We’re going to your house.” She says it like a statement more than a question, then clears her throat. “I mean, I’m guessing that’s where we’re going, right?”

“Yes.” I hadn’t even asked if she wanted to go home. Not that I would’ve obliged her. She isn’t getting away from me. Not now.

“Okay.” She smiles a little.

“Last name?” I press.

“Oh. It’s … Well, it’s . . .” She turns to look out her window. “It’s Box,” she blurts.

“Pansy Box?”

“Yep.” She gives a definitive nod. “That’s my name.”

“All right. So where are you from?”

“Here and there.” She’s clearly trying to evade my questions, but I won’t let her. If I can recover the lost headdress of Kamunen Ra, I can get answers out of the ripe peach by my side.

“Your accent has a Southern lilt to it. Far South, actually. I’m thinking Mississippi. Maybe Louisiana?”

She whips her head back around to me. “What? No.” Her voice deepens.

I laugh at how purely cute she is. “Are you trying to disguise your accent?”

“Ha ha. What?” It goes even deeper.

I laugh even more. Who is this woman?

“Look, Ms. Box.” I turn down the lane toward my estate. “I know you’re being clever. But I promise you, I will get to the bottom of you.” I keep dragging my thumb across her wrist as we enter my gate. “I’m going to discover every one of your secrets. Dust them off, polish them up, and display them.”

“Like a treasure?” She arches a brow.

“Exactly like a treasure, which I happen to collect.”

She pulls her hand from mine. “You like to collect things that don’t belong to you?”

I can’t read her tone, but what little I can get, I don’t like.

I pull up to the front of my home and kill the engine, then turn to her. “What do you mean?”

She thins her lips a little, as if pressing them between her teeth.

“Pansy?” I take her hand again, gently. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No.” She looks down at where our fingers are joined. “Sorry. I just … Never mind.” She forces a smile. “Let’s go inside.”

I want to say more, to dig deeper, but not in my car. I need her in my house behind a locked door. Safe from everything but me.

I get out and open her door for her. She steps out and hurries up the front stairs, her dress perfectly molded to her round ass.

I lead her inside, and once she’s there, I turn and lock the door. Then, I finally do what I’ve been wanting to do from the moment Pansy Box fell into my arms.

Pushing her up against the bolted door, I claim her surprised lips in a kiss. She’s so warm, her startled stiffness giving way to a delicious softness that I want to sink into.

Her hands go around my neck, and I grip her waist and lift her, pulling her up to my level and pinning her against the door. She parts her legs for me, wrapping them around me as if instinctually as I deepen the kiss, slanting my mouth over hers and pushing my tongue into her sultry mouth.

She answers with her own, and her fingers stray to my hair, mussing the unruly strands even more as I press against her body and feel every curve she has to offer. My cock is demanding I take her here and now, but I focus on her mouth, on the way she tastes, her scent, the hard pounding of her heart against mine.

When I move my hands lower and cup her ass, kneading lightly, she moans into my mouth, and I swear I’ve never heard a sexier sound in my life. My hips rock forward, everything inside me howling that I have to make her mine.

I pull back. “I need to be inside you.”

“Gaines,” she gasps, her tongue darting to her swollen lips.

Sliding a hand between us, I feel her wet panties. “Tell me you want me right here, as deep as I can go.”

She makes a strangled sound, her eyes rolling back before she meets my gaze again. “Gaines,” she whimpers.

“Tell me it’s my treasure. Just for me.” I nip at her bottom lip.

She darts her eyes up, then stiffens. “Who--”

“Well, isn’t this a delightful surprise?” Mrs. Pettyford’s amused voice has me biting back a curse. Her giggle may force me to end her.