Cool air bathed her thighs and bottom as he lifted her skirt. He slid his hands inside her panties, knowing exactly how to touch her. Knowing exactly what she wanted. What she needed.
What she’d been craving every single second since he’d been gone.
She tugged at his belt, his zipper, and somehow they were on the bench, and she was straddling him, her panties gone.
“Yes yes yes yes,” she whispered. He was in her hand, hot and hard, like steel.
He held her face in his palms as she stroked him, his eyes closed. “You don’t know how many times I’ve thought about you, needed you, made myself crazy thinking about you. Remembering every glorious moment we were together.” When he opened his eyes, his gaze burned through her, deep and dark and bleak all at the same time.
“I want you, Cal. Please. Now.” She’d never begged before in her life. But she wouldn’t stop begging him until he gave her what she wanted. Everything she wanted.
She rose, sliding down on him until he was so deep she swore she felt him in the center of her soul. And finally—finally—she felt whole again.
“You feel good. Too good. So good.” Then he kissed her, ravenously, with everything he had.
Their lovemaking was crazy and wild and frenzied, his mouth and his body consuming her at the same time she consumed him. She’d never been so out of control. Never needed anyone like she needed Cal.
Sensation shot down to her center, their bodies joined as one. When she felt him pulse inside her, it was her undoing. His name was on her lips, and he took the sound into his mouth.
Bliss was all there was. All there ever needed to be.
As long as she was with Cal, she’d never need anything more.
* * *
He had lost himself in her. It didn’t matter how wrong it was. Lyssa was all he’d thought about—obsessed about—for more than a month. And now that she was in his arms again, he didn’t know how he’d ever convince himself to let her go.
But in the back recesses of his mind, he couldn’t forget that she deserved so much more—he could give her jewels, but he couldn’t give her a whole, undamaged heart.
At last, the music drifting down from the hotel seeped back into his senses. And he belatedly remembered where they were and what they were doing. The place was swarming with Mavericks. Her brothers or parents could stumble upon them at any moment.
Something broke in him when he forced himself to lift her away.
She swept her thumb across his mouth. “My lipstick,” she whispered. “It’s all over you.”
There wasn’t even a smudge left on her luscious mouth. It was all over his lips, a beautiful, heartrending symbol of what they’d done.
With one last caress, she said, “There, all better.”
He was dazzled, he was dazed, but he wasn’t even the slightest bit sated. He needed so much more of her. More he couldn’t have.
He smoothed her dress down her thighs, then bent to retrieve her shoes and hand them to her. She was slipping into them as he did up his belt buckle.
Which was when he heard footsteps on the path. He found himself at the opposite end of the bench without even knowing how his feet moved. A good, safe distance.
Until he saw her panties on the ground just under the bench. His heart pounded, his gut twisted, and he’d only just scooped them up and shoved them in his pocket when Daniel Spencer stepped through the break in the hedge.
“Hey, I wondered where you’d got to,” Daniel said.
Cal now knew exactly what my blood ran cold meant.
Daniel was looking at Lyssa. Did he notice her lips were bare of lipstick? Had she gotten every smudge off Cal’s face?
Being with Lyssa had been fast and cataclysmic, unbearably divine, and insanely stupid. If Daniel had arrived thirty seconds earlier, he’d have caught Cal buried gloriously deep inside his sister.
Cal knew he was all kinds of an idiot, but his fingers caressed her silky panties in his pocket.
“I needed a few minutes to talk to Cal about the gala,” Lyssa lied smoothly. “He hasn’t been around the office much lately.”
“The gala?” Daniel asked, a little dumbfounded.
“Yeah,” she said. “The fundraiser for the foundation. The one Dane Harrington is spearheading out of the goodness of his heart.”
She sounded so normal, so in control, as if they hadn’t just screwed the hell out of each other five minutes ago.
Screwed. It was the wrong word. Hot and crazy and amazing, what they’d done couldn’t possibly be called screwing. It was something more. So much more. Something he was terrified to put words to.
He’d never felt wild like this, not until Lyssa. But when he was with her, such warmth blossomed deep in his chest. A warmth that would spread through him, if only he could pull her into his arms again and never let her go.
But even then…he could feel the brokenness inside him. He could never give her everything she truly deserved.
“I thought Gideon told you.” She prodded Daniel. “We’ll all be dressed to the nines again and heading to Dane’s resort in the wine country to inspire as many Silicon Valley moguls as possible to give freely to the foundation.”
Whatever her brother might have been on the verge of suspecting, she was quickly making him forget. She was beautiful, magnificent. Even regal as she handled her older brother.
“Oh, yeah,” Daniel said, clearly having forgotten all about it.
“And wasn’t the surprise wedding absolutely fabulous? Evan looked so happy, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, sure. It was great.” He looked a little dazed by his sister’s fast talk.
As dazed as Cal felt.
“I hear music. Has the dancing started?”
Daniel cocked his ear toward the ballroom. “I guess so.”
“What are we waiting for?” She linked her arm through her brother’s. “I’ve got my dancing shoes on.”
Daniel looked down at her heels. “You’ll break your neck in those things.”
She laughed, and Cal felt it wrap around his heart and squeeze.
She led Daniel out of the glade.
The moment before she disappeared, she looked over her shoulder at Cal.
And winked. Only Lyssa would go commando to a wedding dance.
* * *
Lyssa wondered if Cal would dance with her. Probably not. He wouldn’t want to give her brothers any food for thought. Especially if they realized just how much heat was radiating off the two of them.
Back in the banquet hall, she’d thrown herself onto the dance floor, partnering with Kelsey and Chi and Ari, Rosie and Noah and Jorge, her mom and dad, the newlyweds, all her brothers, their wives or fiancées. It was a dancing free-for-all.
She thought about making a quick trip to her room for another pair of panties, but the loss of them was a sexy reminder of her encounter with Cal in the garden. And her skirt was long enough to hide bare skin, even when she was in full twirl.
Being with Cal with everyone so close had been risky, but the need that came over her had been irresistible. Now all her senses were on high alert as she waited with delicious anticipation for him to reappear.
Her feet were aching, and she skipped to a nearby table, slipping off her high heels and grabbing a glass of water. Maybe it was crazy to be with her boss—and one of her brothers’ best friends. Okay, it was definitely crazy. But being with Cal was so good. So sexy. So right. She made herself shove away any misgivings about how crazy, and potentially destructive, their affair was. They were two intelligent people. Surely they’d figure out a way to make it work, wouldn’t they?