“I don’t know why Meredith would attend a tech convention. She works in gene studies with me.”
He processed that but said nothing. “Honey…listen to me. Nothing’s changed between you and me.” He took her by the shoulder and turned her to face him.
The wildness haunting her eyes made him flinch, but he held her stare and bore the brunt of her fury. When she stepped up to him, grabbed him by the neck and yanked his head down to her, shock flared inside him.
Staring into his eyes, she gritted out, “You are not hers.”
“Fuck no.”
“You are mine.” Her anger hit him full force in her kiss. She crushed her mouth to his, and he stepped against her, trapping her to the balcony wall. Her soft body in that red dress had him wanting to rip it off her since the minute she donned it. She tore at his buttons and he practically shredded her dress getting the zipper down.
Their mouths slammed together again and again in an all-consuming claiming. He couldn’t get enough. She whipped his shirt off and raked at his shoulders as she stepped out of her dress and climbed up him like a tree on the Wynton Ranch.
His hands shook as he wound her long hair around his fist and tipped her head to get to her throat. He sucked at her pulse point and raked her ear with his teeth. With a cry, she managed to free his cock.
He took himself in hand, the length thick and pulsing. She dropped her panties.
Christ, she was so beautiful. Strong and smart and everything he could ever want in his life. The only woman he could see himself with from this moment on.
Staring into her eyes, he lifted her and thrust his cock into her pussy. She screamed. Not holding back. Her cry was snatched by the wind and carried off into the world as a war cry, as if she fought for Ross and won. But didn’t she know he only wanted her?
“I love you,” he said at her ear as he jerked his hips. Her walls clenched on his cock, trying to hold him, but it felt too good not to pull out and push inside again.
She gulped in another groan and rocked against him. “I love you too, you damn idiot man.”
“I am an idiot. I should have waited my whole life for you.”
“Damn right,” she rasped, her body going boneless in his hold, telling him she was on the edge of release.
He kissed her again, pummeling her plump lips, forming them to fit his and making her his. His balls swung forward on the churn of his hips. As the tip of his cock buried deeper in her wet heat, he lost his damn mind.
She cried out in bliss. His growl rumbled up from the pit of his soul as the first spurt of cum filled her. He hoped it coated her walls and found its way to her womb. He wanted a family with this woman. To bind them forever.
Her pussy tightened with each contraction of her orgasm. Her lips stole over his as the passion went on and on.
“Ross! Where the fuck—” Boone’s voice invaded his sexual haze.
Realizing his brother stood behind him, staring at his bare ass, he twisted free of Pippa’s kiss to look at him. Shielding her nakedness from Boone, he said, “What do you need?”
“The guys have that Letters dude locked up in an office and are interrogating him. Thought you might want to be there.”
“Gimme a minute,” he grated out.
Boone’s footsteps faded, and Ross listened for the room door to shut before he withdrew his cock from Pippa and let her slide to her feet. She shivered at the wind hitting her bare skin, and he bent to scoop up his shirt and drape it over her shoulders. She still wore her high heels and nothing else. Her hair disheveled and her eyes alight with a mix of bliss, fury and pain, he couldn’t stand to tear himself away from her right now.
But he needed to hear what Letters had to say. His men must have a damn good reason for removing him from the bar and locking him up to interrogate him.
Still, Ross stood there gazing into Pippa’s beautiful eyes. “I love you. You know that.”
She nodded.
“I have to go.”
“I’d like a few minutes alone anyway.” She stepped around him through the open French doors. He grabbed a black T-shirt from his bag and righted his clothes, settling his hat straight before eyeing her again.
“Boone will be just outside if you need him.”
She bit into her lower lip and then set it free.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Walking away from her felt like ripping a scab off his soul. But he held on to that wild need that drove her to make demands of his body…to claim him as her own.
Chapter Thirteen
Pippa cleaned up and dressed, but she couldn’t erase the feel of Ross’s hands on her—his lips on her. The passion and raw need that had driven them on the balcony seemed etched into the pores of her skin.
Part of her.
Working in a scientific field all these years had made her out of touch with a lot of her emotions and clouded her view of the world. Meeting Ross again had shifted all that for her. She hardly knew what to think of her actions a bit ago.
Jealousy and anger fueled her. Love had too. It swept her up into a tempest of emotions she didn’t know what to do with, so it all channeled into lust.
She sat on the side of the bed, her mind spinning and yet curiously calm. Ross had surrendered to her as much as she had him, and no amount of one-night stands from his past would break that bond. She couldn’t even be mad at Meredith, as she hadn’t known what Ross was to Pippa at the time.
She still didn’t. Pippa hadn’t exactly confided in her friend.
Sitting alone with her thoughts led her through several lanes of feelings, from nervousness at presenting her speech tomorrow and what would happen when she did. Someone still wanted her dead and to lay claim to her findings. Men were still guarding her with their lives.
When the phone rang on the nightstand, she jumped. Throwing a glance at the door, she expected Boone to burst in—again—and order her not to answer it. But the door remained closed.
She reached out and nabbed the phone. “Hello?”
“Pippa, it’s Meredith.”
Mixed emotions tangled in her throat. “Hi.” What did she say to her friend?
“I’m embarrassed. I made a fool of myself drinking too much in the bar. We didn’t get to talk at all, and then you ran off. I’m not sure what happened.”
“I think you do, Meredith.”
Silence met her words. After several heartbeats, she spoke, “I do. You have to understand it was a one-time thing and I didn’t know he was connected to you in any way, Pippa.” Regret rang in her tone.
“He said as much.”
“So he’s important to you. I knew it by the way he wouldn’t move from your side. I’d like to talk to you in person, Pippa. Is there any way you can come to my room?”
She slanted another peek at the door. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She chewed her lip in thought. “What’s your room number?”
“401.”
“Okay. If I don’t come down, please don’t take it to mean I’m angry. It’s just late and I have to be fresh for my speech in the morning.” Lying was coming more and more naturally to her, and that wasn’t a good thing.
“Of course. I hope to see you, Pippa.”
After hanging up, she sat there, contemplating their conversation and whether or not she wanted to talk to her friend and learn her side of the encounter with Ross. She wanted to put this all behind her as quick as possible. She loved them both.