The Jarrods: Temptation: Claiming Her Billion-Dollar Birthright / Falling For His Proper Mistress / Expecting the Rancher's Heir

“It’s medieval.” She took a step away from him, turned around and came right back. Looking up into his chocolate eyes, Erica felt that bone-deep hum she always did when she was around him. She knew he felt it, too. She could see desire in his eyes, feel heat rippling off him in thick waves. Erica looked up at him. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You know why,” he said and his eyes darkened even as his mouth tightened into a hard line. “Because there’s something between us.”

“So you want to stop it.”

“Didn’t say I wanted to,” he corrected with a shake of his head. “But this is my life. One I worked damn hard for.”

“That’s right,” she countered. “Your life. And mine. Don Jarrod has nothing to do with this.”

He snorted a laugh. “The fact that you can say that and mean it just goes to prove you didn’t know him.”

“No, I didn’t. But even if I had, I wouldn’t let him make my decisions for me,” she snapped. Anger shot through her and she let her words ride the wave of it. “I didn’t let Walter decide whether I’d move here or not. I won’t let Don decide who I become involved with or not.”

“You think I like this?” he asked, reaching out to grab hold of her shoulders. “Do you think I like dancing to Don’s tune? I don’t. It goes against everything that’s in me.”

“Then why?”

“My mom worked hard her whole life,” he said tightly. “Thanks to my work here, my shares of Jarrod Ridge, she’ll never have to work again. I bought her a condo in Orlando. She has friends. She plays golf. She gets her hair done in a fancy salon and she buys her clothes at the best boutiques in town. She takes cruises with her friends and she has fun for the first time in her life.”

Her heart twisted in her chest as everything nebulous that she’d felt for him over the last several days solidified into something bigger. More important. Staring up into his eyes, she saw the kind of man she used to hope she’d meet. The kind who saw loyalty as a virtue. The kind who took care of his family no matter the cost to himself. The kind who put his own needs last behind everyone else in his life who mattered.

“No matter what I feel for you, or might feel for you,” Christian said, “I won’t take that away from her.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to.”

“So you understand that this can’t go anywhere.”

“No,” she said, “I don’t. But I understand why you believe that.”

He hissed in a breath, grabbed her hand and said, “Come with me.”

She refused to move when he would have tugged her along. “Where?”

“We need to talk this out and … I want to show you something.” His gaze searched hers for a long moment until he said, “Please.”

Erica nodded and went with him, her fingers curled tightly around his. He led her off the concrete path and down a short slope that ran behind a short row of shops. In the distance, the forest loomed, green and filled with shadows, and he was walking right for it.

“Where are we going?” She held on to his hand and quietly enjoyed the rush of heat that linked them together.

“Thought I’d show you something here that Don Jarrod had nothing to do with building.”

“You’re kidding, right?” she asked as she ran to keep up with him. “I thought this was completely his.”

“Most of it,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder. “But this part was here first.”

He led her through the trees, his steps sure as he continued on, deeper into the cool gloom. The farther they got from the resort, the quieter it became. Erica heard birds high overhead and from a distance, there was a muted roar of sound that got louder and louder as they approached.

Erica looked back over her shoulder and couldn’t see the resort at all. The trees were so thick it was as if a dark green wall had been erected between them and the grounds of Jarrod Ridge.

When Christian at last came to a stop and released her hand, she was simply staggered by the beauty around her. A river rushed past them, growling and roaring over stones in its path. Lined on either side by thick stands of trees, and a narrow ribbon of rock and sand, the water was frothy and beautiful and completely untouched. It was an oasis of privacy in a sea of people and Erica loved it.

She walked closer to the water’s edge, her sandals sinking and sliding on the sand. She felt the spray on her face as a soft wind kicked up, rattling the leaves of the trees until they sounded like whispered conversations.

“This was my spot when I was a kid,” Christian said softly as he came up behind her. “When I needed to think, when things got bad, I came here and everything felt … all right again.”

“I can see why,” she said and wondered how anyone could be sad or depressed if they had somewhere so beautiful to go. She looked at him and asked, “And how many women have you brought here, I wonder?”

“Counting you?” he asked, gaze fixed on hers with an intensity that shot a lick of flame through her center. “Just one.”

“Why did you bring me?” she asked, her voice as breathless as she felt. “After everything you told me about Don and the will and everything … why did you bring me here?”

“Because,” he admitted, his gaze moving over her face like a caress, “I had to.”

Then he pulled her in close and kissed her.

He took her mouth with a hunger he’d never known before. Instantly, her lips parted, allowing him access, welcoming him into her warmth. He’d known, somewhere deep inside him that it would be like this with her. Known that the pulse of electricity between them would erupt into a shower of light and heat the moment he got close enough to her.

With a groan, he surrendered himself to the sensations pouring through him, refusing to think about anything beyond this moment. This kiss.

This taste of her that was filling cold, dark corners within him.

Their tongues tangled together, breath mingled and her soft sighs gave him all the encouragement he could have wanted. Sweeping one hand down her back, he traced her curves and wished he could peel her out of the dark red shirt she wore. Instead, he settled for tugging the hem of her blouse free of her crisp, white linen shorts and then slid the palm of his hand across her bare skin. She shivered as his fingers caressed the line of her spine, up and down and then up again. He needed the feel of her as badly as he needed her taste in his mouth.

Her arms came up and wrapped around his neck as she leaned into him. Her breasts flattened against his chest and he felt the hard points of her nipples pushing into him. He groaned again, felt his body go hard and ready and ground his hips against hers, looking for ease, but only managing to torture them both.

Christian kept his mouth on hers as he lifted her off her feet and deepened the kiss further. Slower, longer, hotter, he wanted all, wanted everything. For days now, his mind, his body had been clamoring for just this and now that he had his hands on her, his mouth on her, he didn’t want it to end.

The roar of the river was right behind them, the insistent rush of it playing counterpoint to the thudding of his own heartbeat. When he finally tore his mouth from hers and dragged in a ragged breath, she smiled up at him.

“So much for medievalism.”

His breath strangling in his lungs, he nodded. “I’ve never had to work so hard to stay within the rules. But I’ve wanted to taste you since the moment we met.”

“Good to know,” Erica said, moving one hand to cup his cheek in her palm. “I felt the same way. I still do. I want you, Christian.”

His body tightened even further and he wouldn’t have thought that possible.

“You’re not making this any easier,” he said, setting her back on her feet, keeping his arms around her, one hand on her bare back.

“I’m glad. It shouldn’t be easy. It should be damned hard to walk away from whatever it is that’s between us.”

“It is. That’s why I brought you here. I need to have you to myself. If only for today.”

“And that would be enough for you?”

“No,” he admitted, sliding both hands under her shirt now, moving over her skin to cup her breasts over the lacy cups of her bra.

She gulped an unsteady breath.