Authors: Jan Bowles
Tags: #Romance
When Paige came back into the room, he had to do a double take, because the mud-and-seaweed facemask along with the sexless quilted robe had gone. No wonder it had taken her so long to find a corkscrew. In the time she’d been away, Paige had obviously rushed to the bathroom, rinsed away the face pack, and then shrugged on some clothes she felt less self-conscious in. He had to admit that she scrubbed up well and looked simply stunning in a pair of hip-hugging Levi’s and a white blouse that deliciously followed the contours of her shapely breasts.
Mmm, nice. Very nice
.
She placed the wineglasses on the coffee table and deftly filled them with a feminine elegance he liked before raising those stunning green eyes to his. “Château Lafite Rothschild ’96. This doesn’t come cheap.”
“About three hundred dollars a bottle. I’ve two cases laid down in the cellar. Rumor has it that Lafite was the favored wine of the extravagant French king Louis XV, and in Europe is known as The King’s Wine.”
Paige handed him a glass. “You’re clearly a cultivated man, Leon.”
He liked the way she perceived him. “I like to think so, and I’ve always been attracted to beautiful things. Beautiful houses, beautiful cars, beautiful artwork, and of course beautiful women.” He watched long lashes sweep down and cover her stunning green eyes as she blushed a little. That was something he’d always found sexy in a woman.
She took a sip. “I may not be a connoisseur of fine wines like yourself, but I know when something’s good”—she took another sip—“and this is exceptional.”
He motioned with his glass of wine. “The picture of the dog on the wall. Yours?”
Leon adored the way she sexily licked her lips, swiping away the plum-colored liquid. “Yes, that’s Duke. My parents gave him to me on my seventh birthday. It was dad’s idea to call him that, because he was a lifelong fan of John Wayne. Duke was a lovely old thing. He followed me everywhere and didn’t have a nasty bone in his body.”
“And I take it that the one next to it is of you and your parents.”
Immediately her chin dropped to her chest, and he knew he’d hit a raw nerve.
“They’re both dead,” she barely whispered. “Killed in a car crash three years ago. It was a traumatic time for me.”
“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry to hear that.” As someone who’d lost a much-loved parent himself, he genuinely was, and he felt the irresistible urge to wrap Paige in his arms. Her body trembled in his embrace, and he thought he heard a sniffle or two as well.
After a few moments, she patted his arm. “I’m all right now, really I am. It’s just occasionally when I think about it or someone mentions it. I’m an only child, and as I was over eighteen, it was up to me to identify my parents’ bodies. The hospital had done their best to make Mom and Dad look…well…you know…like they were sleeping, but they were a strange color, a color they never were in life, and the waxy look to their skin let me know they were never gonna wake up. I instantly knew I’d never hear my mother’s wonderful laugh again or feel my father’s comforting hand on my shoulder while telling me, ‘There’s nothing you can’t achieve in this world, Paige, once you put your mind to it.’”
Leon felt she wanted to talk, wanted to let it all out in some sort of cathartic release, so he held her in his arms a little longer and kissed the top of her head, allowing her the time to pause or continue, whichever she wished.
“And then there was the funeral. I had to arrange that all on my own, too. Mom had a brother, and Dad had a sister, but neither of them seemed willing or able to help.”
“You were very brave, Paige, and you carry that courage with you wherever you go. I already know you well enough to say that courage will never leave you.”
“Thank you, Leon. Your opinion is very important to me.”
He took a deep breath and squeezed her vulnerable, warm body a little tighter. “We already share so much in common, Paige, and I’m not just talking about our sexual preferences.” What he was about to say, he wouldn’t normally volunteer, because even after all these years it still made him feel bitter. However, Paige had willingly opened up to him, adding more detail than she needed. So he felt it his duty to cement their growing bond by opening up to her, too.
“My father died when I was ten years old. I was there. It happened right in front of me.”
Her soulful green eyes widened, and she put her hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp of surprise. “Oh, no, Leon. No. I mean, I’ve read enough about you, like everyone has, to know that your father died when you were young, but I didn’t know the details. I mean…”
He sat down and pulled her onto his lap. “Well, I suppose it’s all ancient history now, but I remember it as though it were yesterday.” Leon sighed. “My father was a larger-than-life character, and the boss of Caparelli Motors. Going back almost thirty years, he and his team of engineers developed the revolutionary new Caparelli Mirage. You see, my father, much like myself had a need for speed. It excited him. It made him feel alive. With this adventurous risk-taking attitude to life, I suppose it’s unsurprising that he wanted to be the first manufacturer to produce a two-hundred-mile-per-hour road car.” He shrugged. “Of course, Lamborghini, Zonda, Ferrari, and Bugatti all produce road cars that go that fast now, but back then, in those heady days, two hundred miles an hour was uncharted territory. My father, Carlo Caparelli, wanted to be the first to break through that magical barrier, and as his son, I’m proud to say he did.”
He heard an unsure little voice say, “Do you want to talk about it?”
A simple question, and if it had been anyone else other than Paige, he’d have told them to mind their own fucking business, or feel his fist in their face, but the new lady in his life seemed to possess that purely feminine quality that made him want to continue.
“Everything was perfectly set up. The press and television were all present, and my father had been giving interviews to as many reporters as he could. For much of the time I was standing at his side, and felt far more grown up than just about any other ten-year-old. Dad was an extrovert character and loved all the attention being paid to him and his car. He certainly wasn’t publicity shy. The location he’d chosen was perfect, too—the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where land speed record attempts had been made for many years.”
Leon breathed in and closed his eyes, and then started to relive that blisteringly hot June day some twenty-eight years ago. “It’s hard for a woman to understand, Paige. Maybe it’s a man thing, but the sheer excitement and exhilaration of being part of such an event was overwhelming. I can still recall the Caparelli engineers, Gino and Paulo, rushing around to check everything was perfect for the record-breaking run. It was.
“I’d never felt so proud of my father as when he fired up the car and headed down the endless expanse of pure white salt. The engine howled with a magical sound that’s hard to describe, but when I heard it for the first time, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. That was the exact moment I realized I wanted to be the boss of Caparelli Motors one day. It was my destiny.
“As the technically advanced car, with my father at the wheel, triggered the timing equipment, everyone went completely quiet for about ten seconds, then a huge cheer erupted, and I was lifted into the air and spun around by every single member of the Caparelli team. My mother did it, too. She looked so happy and proud. ‘He’s done it, Leon. Your wonderful father has done it,’ she excitedly shouted with tears in her eyes
.
‘Look at the printout. Two hundred and six miles an hour.’ When I saw the figures, I shouted with excitement, too. It was the proudest day of my life.” Leon briefly opened his eyes then reached across and touched Paige’s hand. Her emerald-green eyes were wide, and she listened intently, clearly intrigued by this tale from his past. “I still have that faded piece of paper with the figures on. It’s very important to me.”
“So he did it then?”
“Yes, but—”
“But what, Leon?”
“For the record to be verified, the car needed to achieve an average speed of two hundred miles an hour in both directions. This was to cancel out the effects of the wind.”
“Oh, God, no.”
“I watched entranced as my father turned the car around and then started on his second run. I heard the incredible sound of that magnificent engine growing louder and louder as he sped toward us. To my ten-year-old eyes, the car seemed to be flying through the air. It was traveling so much faster than on the first run, and I can remember the silver paintwork shimmering in the heat haze from the overhead sun as it drew closer. He was going to do it. My father was about to make history. And then…
“And then suddenly an almighty bang resonated from the car, causing everyone to jolt with surprise, and although I was just a kid I immediately knew that a tire had blown. Like a surreal nightmare, I watched events unfold as though viewing an action movie in slow motion. The car first slewed wildly to the left, then to the right as my father fought to regain control.” He heard himself sigh.
“Not even Carlo Caparelli could control such a raging beast of a car, and I stared in horror as it suddenly dug into the sun-bleached salt, before somersaulting onto its roof again and again, until it finally came to a complete stop.” He shook his head. “The sickening sound of the accident as my father’s car lay smashed to pieces will stay with me for as long as I live.”
Leon closed his eyes again as he recalled that fateful day, and he felt Paige’s warm hand brush against his. “You don’t have to say any more.”
“I want to. Huh, strange really. I was ten years old, and I’d never seen a grown-up cry. I thought it was only children who cried, but as we all piled into the back of a pickup truck and sped across the salt, I watched my mother along with Gino and Paulo openly weep with despair. That was when I knew my father was dead. I didn’t cry though. I got the feeling he’d be proud of me if I didn’t. Instead, I just felt numb, empty, like it wasn’t really happening.
“When we got closer, I saw that my father lay half in and half out of the mangled wreck. He wasn’t moving, and his face was covered in blood. My mother jumped from the pickup truck first, only to become hysterical. ‘No, no, no.’ I can still hear her anguished screams if I allow myself to. ‘It’s not happening, it’s not happening.’ Members of the team tried to calm her, but she was inconsolable with grief, and she eventually collapsed, curling herself into a fetal ball. She stayed in this position, twitching and muttering incoherently, until the medics who by this time had pronounced my father dead took her to the hospital, along with the body of the only man she ever loved.
“I remember one of my father’s engineers taking hold of my hand and quietly leading me away. By this time I was in a state of shock, so didn’t put up any resistance.”
Paige’s quiet sobbing roused him from his introspection. “That’s such a tragic story, Leon.”
He pulled her close and kissed her cheek. “Shhh, it’s okay, baby. It all happened a very long time ago now. The future is what counts. Our future.” He kissed away her tears, then topped up her glass along with his own. “That’s why I’m here. We need to talk about us.”
Paige was so achingly beautiful, he felt his cock harden beneath her ass as she sat on his lap. “No more tears.”
She nodded. “No more tears.”
A glass or two of fine wine always made him feel sexually aroused, and Leon couldn’t resist unbuttoning her Levi’s before lowering the zipper. “That’s a great sound.”
She was smiling again now. “Yes, for men and women.”
“Lift up your butt.” He wasn’t asking her to perform this simple task, he was telling her.
“Okay, boss.”
Fuck, her jeans were tight, and he had to wrestle them partway down her thighs, along with her panties.
“That’s better.”
Aware that the somber mood was retreating, he smiled as he slipped his hand between her legs. Her silky smooth pussy turned him on, and as he probed her slit, he met with virtually no resistance, her feminine wetness allowing him easy access. As he circled her clit with an index finger, she laid her head on his shoulder and moaned with delight.
“We need to discuss things, Paige.”
She wriggled on his lap as he pinched her clit between forefinger and thumb. “Oh, that feels good. What sort of things?”
“Sexual things. Things you like. Things you don’t. Things that turn you on.”
She squirmed on his lap again, this time forcing her gorgeous bare ass against his rock-hard cock, which was only restrained by the thick denim of his Wranglers. “Oh, I know what you mean, Leon, but I’m finding it hard to concentrate right now.”
Knowing she enjoyed every second of his stimulation, he whispered in her ear, “As you seem so preoccupied at the moment, I’ll go first. I’ll tell you what turns me on.”
Just the anticipation of what Leon was about to divulge turned her on. The delivery and timbre of his words would be an aphrodisiac for any woman, and his voice was deep, measured, and authoritative as he spoke.
“Now let me see. What turns me on the most.”
He knew exactly what he was doing to her, teasing her, and the index finger expertly circling her clit made it almost impossible for her to sit still. With her jeans and panties now gathered at her thighs, she felt the ominous presence of his probing cock all the more. My God, that beast of his had a mind of its own, because even the denim jeans he wore had trouble containing it.