“Of her accomplishments, always. Not of the way she looks. Too thin. Pale like she hasn’t seen the sun in a very long time. And if you take what I said personally, I’d have to spank you.” Her grandmother sipped her water calmly and Belle gave in to the smile threatening her face. “And you, Brian, you had residency and then set up practice here in town. We didn’t see you often for about two years and then it all calmed down. We want Belle to be successful but that doesn’t mean we want to trade her away and never see her again.”
Belle knew it. She knew her life had spun out of control and she’d had no time at all for anything but working. It was a crappy existence and she’d told herself as she’d driven away from the city that evening that some to do lists and perhaps even a spreadsheet was in order. Her life wasn’t the way she’d envisioned it, not at all.
Chapter 2
Rafe couldn’t quite believe he’d actually kissed Belle in his front entry. But she’d been standing there, looking so damned delicious and remote in her business attire and the mistletoe had been so convenient, he’d had to give in.
And now that he’d tasted her? He planned to do it a lot more before she disappeared back to San Francisco for another year.
Yes, she was pale and too thin as people had pointed out, but her pretty blue eyes had glittered in the lights hung in the entry and even now, the candles on the table gave her skin a warm glow. His fingers itched to slide through that gorgeous spill of dark blonde hair hanging in shiny waves to her waist.
Rafe had always thought of Annabelle Taylor as an obsessive, anal retentive, control freak of a little sister until five years prior at her law school graduation party. He wasn’t sure what exact moment had brought about the change but suddenly, he’d looked and the girl he’d grown up helping his friend torment had transformed into a beautiful woman. Still a complete control freak, but he wanted to strip her naked and make her lose control ever since that day.
She’d worked so hard and he’d spent so much time organizing his family dairy and taking on the marketing and PR for the Taylor’s organic farming venture that they’d never had the time.
From the look on her face and the tired way she held her shoulders, she needed some diversion in a major way and he was damned sure she wasn’t getting any between the sheets.
Fate put her right next door to his bedroom and he wasn’t one to look askance at fate now was he? When Belle went back to work after Christmas, she’d have some meat on her bones and a very satisfied glow about her.
“Here, have some pie.” He put a giant slice of apple pie on her plate and she goggled at him. He knew it would rile her and get her mother’s attention too. Rafe wasn’t above using others to get what he needed done, done.
“Whoa there! I can’t eat all that.”
“You will eat every bit, Annabelle Louise!” her mother chided from her place just down the table. “Rafe, put some whipped cream on top and I’m sending down the ice cream too. It’s fresh, Belle. I made it earlier today.”
Rafe wisely held back a laugh when Belle sat back and didn’t argue with her mother. The woman was raised right, didn’t argue with her elders so he knew when Rita Taylor backed him up on the pie, Belle would eat it.
“You involved her on purpose,” Belle hissed without looking directly at him. She forked up a heaping mouthful and his cock threatened to burst from his jeans at the sound she made.
“I did. And I’d do it again to make you moan like that. Better yet, I have other ways to make you moan,” he whispered in her ear.
“You think you’re gonna shock me? Don’t tease me, Rafe because I’ll totally take you up on your challenge,” she said back in an undertone.
“Not a tease at all. Now eat your pie and ice cream.” He plopped a huge spoonful of freshly made vanilla on top of the pie. “You’ll need your strength.”
“You’re going to have to roll me out of here.” Belle patted her belly and groaned she was so full.
“Whatever it takes.” Her mother handed her a sheet of paper. “It’s the schedule. I expect to see you over here tomorrow by nine. We’re going shopping and then we’ll do lunch and wrapping. The next day we’ll have tree trimming and after dinner tomorrow we’ll do cranberry and popcorn garlands. The rest is on there. Your aunt and uncle will bring their RV and stay Christmas Eve and your cousins will all come in between now and then as well.” Her mother kissed her cheek. “You all right staying over at Brian and Rafe’s?”
“Of course! I know Nana and Poppa need a bedroom without stairs and you need to have Chelsea and the kids all in one place. It’s just up the road and it’ll be a heck of a lot quieter tomorrow morning than it’ll be here.”
“Gives me a reason not to be so sad my nest is empty after a week with the grandkids.” Her mother winked. “We’re doing lunch and you’re going to talk to us about your job, so don’t even try to avoid it.”
“Good night, Mom.” She hugged her mom and moved to her father. “And you too, Dad. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Back at the house, Belle waved off Brian’s attempt to get her to talk and headed straight for the guest room.
“She’s going to work herself to death,” Brian muttered to Rafe.
“I don’t like it any more than you do. But you have to let her deal with it in her own way. Clearly she knows she has some prioritizing to do. If you push her too far, she’ll pull away entirely.”
“Shit. You have a thing for her don’t you?” Brian leaned against the kitchen counter and watched Rafe.
“What makes you say that?”
“First of all, you didn’t deny it right now, which you would have if I’d made the same comment about Chelsea or any of my other female relatives. Second of all, I saw how you looked at her earlier tonight and lastly, you just made sense about her and told me to back off. You’re usually a rush-in-and-solve-problems kind of guy.” Brian grabbed two beers and handed one to Rafe. He cracked it open and took several long pulls before he answered.
“Well, Chelsea is eight months pregnant and married with two small kids. So not my type. No offense or anything.” Rafe sobered a moment. “Would that be a problem? If I had some indefinable something for Belle?”
“Chelsea wouldn’t have you. As for Belle? Depends on what you did, now, wouldn’t it? Like say, if you used her for sex and hurt her? Yeah, that would be a problem, a big one. At the risk of sounding like a cliché, what are your intentions?”
Rafe took a deep breath before he said anything. She’d had his head swimming since that moment earlier when he’d sniffed her neck. “I don’t quite know. I’ve been attracted to Belle for several years now. But we don’t see each other more than a few times a year and in the last year or so, not even that. But tonight I kissed her. Things feel different. By the way, I don’t use anyone for sex, asshole. But what I feel for Belle isn’t casual. She’s someone special to me and she has been for pretty much the entire time she’s been alive. I know her. She knows me. I’ve never been attracted to someone I already had such an intimate relationship with before. It’s intense and sort of scary. But the time is right, or at least it might be.”
Brian put his hands over his ears theatrically a moment. “Okay. That’s enough. For now. Hell, maybe you can give her a reason to quit her job and move back to Davis. Slow down and work at a job that doesn’t kill her. But please, for the love of all that is holy, if you…well, just keep it down. I’ll turn on the fan so I can’t hear anything.” He shuddered and Rafe laughed.
“That’s enough of that topic. Never fear, I have no desire to involve you in my romantic life.”
They spoke for another half an hour or so, working through the oddness of Rafe and Belle possibly being an item. It was important to Rafe that Brian understood he’d never intentionally hurt Belle. Important to have his blessing in a sense and in the end, it felt like he had it.
“I have to be up at four-thirty tomorrow. I’m going to bed.” He put his empty beer bottle in the recycle bin before
nodding in Brian’s direction and heading toward his room.
Belle had gone back to her room and changed. She’d brushed her teeth and gotten into bed, closed her eyes only to end up tossing and turning.
She’d wanted to think about Rafe but instead the scene at her office when she’d been leaving came back to her.
Everyone had known she had plans to leave early. She’d gone in way before dawn to tie up any loose ends and had promised her family she’d be home well before dinner that night.
“Annabelle, are you actually going to leave now?” David Pendergast, the lead attorney on the Morgan project stood in her office doorway as she grabbed her things and made ready to finally get the heck out of there.
“It’s already six, I’ve been here over twelve hours and I promised my family I’d be at dinner by seven. I’m already going to be late.” Belle looked him square in the face, knowing the situation demanded that sort of calm assertiveness. How depressing to think that even just leaving her office was like a PhD project in psychology.
He remained blocking her exit and she sighed inwardly.
“You really should rethink this vacation, Annabelle. It doesn’t look right, a junior partner taking this much time off. You’re at a very important point in your career.”
Said the man who took three weeks in Aruba just two months before. He could kiss her booty because she wasn’t going to make excuses for taking a mere fraction of her accrued vacation.
Belle smiled tightly and pushed her way past. “I’m aware of that. I need to go, David. Enjoy your ski trip. I’ll see you next week.”
He grabbed her arm and she looked up at him sharply, pulling back. “I think you’ve done a great job on this case, Annabelle, but you’re needed here. You can’t just hare off to bumfuck nowhere to play family for five days! No one but senior partners do that sort of thing.”
She knew what this was really about. He’d hit on her repeatedly and she’d said no. He was married for goodness sake! And he was a butthead to boot.
“First of all, don’t put your hand on me again. Let me be clear with you—I’ve put in my time and more. I lead in billable hours for this entire year. I’m at double the highest average for last year. Do you know what that means? I’ve been here eighty hours a week for pretty much this entire year. I have not had a single day off since January. I missed my mother’s birthday. I missed my dad’s birthday and my sister’s baby shower. I am taking this time. Period. The project is finished. There are no motions left to file, the final judgment will come back in early January. Have a nice holiday.” She narrowed her eyes at him. He sighed heavily and she darted past him quickly, heading toward the elevators.
“Don’t cry to me when you don’t get top pick of cases next month,” he called out and she didn’t let her breath out until the doors closed behind her and she headed away from the toxic pit her life had become.
As she finally got through town and headed east, the chest pains began to ease. This was so not how she’d envisioned her life would be after the back-breaking universe of law school and then clawing her way up and into a junior partner spot at Hansen, Petelman and Gruber.
Making matters worse, the freaking blowout had happened. She’d sat on the side of the road for ten minutes, finally giving in to tears she’d been saving up for many frustrated months.
No doubt about it, her life was a mess and she hated her job. The real question was what she would do.
“I should have sex with Rafe, that’s what I should do.” Instead, she got out of bed and began to make a list.
He heard her muttering and tapped on her door. When she opened it, she stood there tousled and holding a legal pad and three different colored pens.
“Hi.”
“Hi there. You want to come in?” She stood back and he took the bottle of tequila and the shot glasses in with him.
“You look stressed. I say we do a few shots, make out a lot, you let me get to, oh say third base and we call it a night.”
Her brow furrowed and the cutest little line etched between her eyes. “Really?”
“Belle Taylor, I know you’re not offended. You get a totally different look on your face when you’re offended. Why are you confused?” He put the bottle and glasses down before tossing himself on the bed.
She put the pad on the desk on the far side of the room and lined her pens up, horizontally, one by one, in a neat and orderly row. Then she exhaled and pursed the lips he knew tasted like heaven.
“I’m confused because you’ve always treated me like Brian’s pesky little sister and tonight out of the blue you kiss me and then tease me and talk about sex and show up in my room and suggest third base!”
“I did indeed. I’d suggest more but I want to drag that out. At least for another day or so.” He laughed, loving the way she snorted at him.
“I could use a drink. Move over. Jeez, you’re a bed hog.” She smoothed out the blankets before she sat. “What? No salt or lime?”
“If I had it, you could lick it off my belly.” Wait, that wasn’t a tease, that sounded just fine to him as a matter of fact.
“Well do you?” One of her regal eyebrows slid upward and her mouth struggled against a smile.
He sat up and filled both glasses with the tawny liquid. “Go on, you first. God knows you look like you could use it.” He could too after her little tease.
She took the glass and drained it, her eyes watering a bit as she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand very uncharacteristically.
“Belle Taylor, did you just wipe tequila off your mouth with the back of your hand like, oh I don’t know, like me?” He laughed before doing the same thing and refilling their glasses.
“When does the kissing start?” Her eyes widened and she quickly drained the next shot. “Crap, I can’t even blame that on the alcohol yet.”
“You want another?”
“Why not?”
Belle let the heat of the alcohol settle into her, bringing a languid fluidity to her muscles. She sighed and looked at the man in bed with her.
“You’re really gorgeous, you know that?”
“I like it when you’ve been drinking, Belle.” He winked and she snorted.
“Whatever. You were going to tell me why you’re suddenly interested in my bases after giving me sweaters for Christmas for the last dozen years.”
He grabbed her ankle and yanked, pulling her down as he rolled on top of her. Wow, he was good.
His mouth met hers, insistent, wet and hot. It was just the two of them, no worries about someone walking into the hallway. She let go of her control and gave in, sliding her hands up his arms, over his shoulders and into his hair. Soft, so soft and cool against her skin.
Heat licked at her insides when his tongue confidently invaded her mouth. When he rolled his hips, she moved, wrapping one of her calves around his ass, opening herself to him and holding him in place.
He broke the kiss, and looked into her face. “Just making sure you’re still with me. I think about your bases a lot. I have for several years now. I told myself it was stupid to give in but you taste too good to resist. You’re here, I’m here and we’re both adults who know and like each other.”
“I’m still with you, although you’re not feeling me up or anything, which if I recall correctly, is part of the bases thing, right? And how long? God, you’ve wanted to kiss me and…” she shivered violently when he trailed fingertips up her belly, against her bare skin under her tee shirt, “…do that? You just kept it to yourself when I’ve like had the dirtiest fantasies ever about you?”
He tweaked a nipple then as he appeared to have to make a lot of effort to breathe.
“Christ, Belle, I can’t believe you just told me you had dirty fantasies about me.” He leaned down and sucked her nipple right through her tee shirt, leaving her no alternative but to hold on and enjoy it.
“I do. I did. All the time. You have no idea how good you look. Or crap, maybe you do. Should we get under the sh
eets?”
He laughed, breaking free of her nipple and looking at her again. “Honey, it’s killing you to muss these blankets isn’t it?”
“Well, the coverlet will get wrinkled and…oh my…” She lost her ability to think when he reached between them, into the waistband of her loose cotton pants and stroked over her pussy through her panties.
“You’re so wet and hot I can feel you through your panties.”
“Fuck the coverlet. Let me touch you! Why do you keep moving away?” she demanded.
“First things first. No fucking tonight. I want us to be totally sober when that happens so I can take my time and make you fuck drunk instead. I will make you come though because I have to see it. I’d invite you to sleep with me tonight but I have to be up at four-thirty and you need your rest. Tomorrow night you will tell me all your naughty fantasies though.”
She blew out an exasperated sigh. “Whatever it takes to get you to let me touch you.”
He laughed and she thought he’d never looked sexier. Rolling away a moment, he pulled off his jeans and shorts while she made quick work of her clothes too. When he turned back to her he groaned.
“Belle, you’re beautiful. A glorious invitation to sin right there wrapped in velvety pale skin.” As he moved to touch her, they both gasped at the shock of pleasure from bare skin meeting bare skin.
His mouth touched every part of her. The spot just below her ear, the hollow of her throat, the sensitive skin just beneath her breasts, her nipples, the backs of her knees. All the while, his hands touched wherever his mouth didn’t.
But he wouldn’t let her do much other than receive pleasure. “No, Belle, if you touch me I won’t last. Please, let me love you.” A lock of hair fell over his forehead, obscuring his right eye.
She managed a shaky nod, needing him so ridiculously bad she couldn’t speak. However, that was nothing compared to the way it felt when he slid down, between her thighs and shouldered them wide open.