"Ignoring it doesn't seem to be working out too well."
"No," he agreed. "No, it doesn't."
"There's Gaby to consider," Tess said, clearly looking for anything to hang on to.
Max noted the way her eyes went darker as he shifted even closer. "Who is second only to Aurora in playing matchmaker."
"You know," she said, shifting toward him, "I'm not going to be around much longer."
"Only if you don't want to be." He bent his head down toward hers.
She pulled back slightly. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you could keep coaching Gaby, travel with us. But I really don't want to talk business—"
"We need to talk, Max. I need to tell you someth—"
"Tess, for once, business later. Come here." He slid his hand around the back of her head and tilted her mouth up to his, "I've been dying to do this pretty much from the moment I stopped doing it yesterday," He kissed her, gently at first. "And call me greedy, but I want you all to myself. No cameras, no crowd."
She murmured against his lips as he kissed her again, then gave up and let him kiss her. Slowly, almost shyly, she shifted a little to allow them both a better fit. He felt her fingertips skate across the back of his neck, tentatively.
This wasn't the Tess he knew. The feel of her touching him, the way her skin warmed beneath his touch, the scent of her shampoo as he pulled her to him and damp strands of her hair slid across his face, all combined to drive him wild. He took the kiss deeper, heard her make a noise, deep in her throat, which drove him to take it even further.
He pushed her back, and they slowly slid down onto the leather bench seat. And then she was opening for him, letting him take the kiss deeper, her fingertips biting into the skin on the back of his neck and shoulders as she pulled him closer.
He was never so thankful for a limo in his life. P
lenty of room, tinted windows…
and a discreet driver tucked safely away on the other side of a nice, opaque privacy screen.
He liked how she fit beneath him. Her legs tangled with his, all long and strong. She lifted her hips, and pressed right into his, making him groan. He buried his hands in her hair, holding her so he could continue the long, slow, torturous kisses. Then she was gripping his shoulders, kissing him back, dueling with him for control. Breathing heavily, he shifted his attention
to the long line of her jaw, alternating kisses and gentle nips along the soft skin leading to the side of her neck.
She turned her head, allowing him access, groaning a little herself as he took full advantage. He buried his face in her hair, his lips next to her ear. "It's insanity, you know, how badly I want you."
"Why insane?" she asked, breathless herself, her hips still restless beneath him, driving him completely wild.
"You make me want to lose control." He nudged her, made her turn so she looked at him. "I never lose control."
A slow smile curved her lips. "Well, don't you think it's about time you started?"
He matched her smile with one of his own. "Yeah, I think maybe it is."
This time the kiss was far hungrier, and there was nothing shy or tentative about her response. Losing control was followed quickly by losing all restraint. He wasn't sure
who started pulling off damp T-
shirts first. He was too caught up in exploring every inch of her to care. She writhed beneath him, held his head where she wanted it, then gasped in delight when he did whatever he damn well pleased. And pleased her, as well.
Shorts quickly followed shirts. He'd seen most of her already, as had most everyone in the Northern Hemisphere. Southern, too, come to think of it. Her clothing choices on court over the years had often left little to the imagination.
She left nothing to his now.
And he couldn't help but to simply stop and stare in abject appreciation,
"What?" she asked, her gaze so needy, so hungry.
"You. You're stunning."
She grinned, but it was the pink that darkened her cheeks a little that charmed him most.
"You're pretty damn amazing yourself." She gently drew her nails up along his back, traced them over his shoulders, then down along his chest, makin
g him shudder in anticipation. "
Lucky me." Then she laughed as she buried her fingers in his hair and tugged him back down.
And he very willingly allowed he
r
to take his mouth, only he slowed it down this time, lingered rather than conquered, until she was moving more slowly, sinuously beneath him. Only then did he slide down her body, taking time to inventory every inch along the way. She was writhing, moaning, demanding. And it was highly likely she was leaving footprints on the interior of the roof of the limo. Normally that kind of thing would worry him. However, his biggest concern at the moment was digging a condom out of his wallet, which was twisted up and tangled in his shorts pocket.
"Here," she said, her voice throaty and rough, "let me." She snagged the packet from him and ripped it open with her teeth.
For whatever reason, that look, that wild grin she shot him while she did it, made him laugh. She joined him, and somehow they ended up sliding to the floor of the limo, still laughing as they untangled themselves just enough for her to take matters into her own hands. And then he was sliding on the opposite seat and pulling her into his lap. He groaned long and deep as she slid down on top of him. "Sweet—Tes
s. I've never felt anything…
you'r
e so incredibly…
"
"Perfect," she said, groaning as she took him deep, bracing her hands on the seat behind him as she began to
move. "That you definitely are.
"
"Come here." He turned her head, took her mouth in a kiss every bit as binding as their bodies were.
Then there was no more talking. It was just the two of them, finding their rhythm, finding each other, mouths joined, bodies
joined, moving faster, then faster still, their moans filling the rapidly steaming inside
of
the limo as the
r
ain continued
to
drum down.
"Max," she panted along his jaw, then buried her face in his neck, he
r
body tightening around him, little whimpers escaping her as she bucked against him once, then again.
"Tess," he said, then groaned as he felt her begin to climax. He pulled her hips down, holding on, until she cried out—and dro
ve him right over the edge after
her.
When the bucking finally stopped, both of them were breathing heavily. He slid sideways and shifted their bodies so she was sprawled on top of him. Both of them so spent, they just lay there for several long minutes, their chests rising and falling. Slowly other sounds filtered in. Rain beating on the moon-roof glass. Cars idling in the lane nearby as they rolled to a stoplight. Muted sound of a bass stereo throbbing the air. Laughter from someone, somewhere outside.
Then the limo moved on, and it was quieter again. And all he heard was his own heartbeat. And the feel of hers, thumping against his chest.
It had been sex. Wild, fun, exciting, and definitely satisfying. But sex all the same.
At least, that's what he struggled to tell himself as his hand drifted to her hair and he fought against the urge to tilt her mouth up to his and kiss her again. Only this time the kiss would be gentle, and tender. And claiming. As if he had any right. Or any hope. She was his only for the moment. He'd be wise to remember that.
She'd probably done wild stuff like this a hundred times.
He'd done it precisely once. And exciting as it had been, had it been up to him, he would have rather had her in bed. A nice big one, where they could play and taunt and tease. But also where they could fall asleep in each other's arms. And where he
could wake up and watch her as she slept. Then make love to her again as the sun came up.
God, he was such a sap.
Any minute now he was going to get over this sentimental crap and sit them both up so they could collect themselves and get dressed. Then he'd figure out what the new normal was going to be between them. At least for the next couple of days, anyway.
His heart clutched a little at the thought of that. Of her leaving. So he decided not to think about it. It was going to happen soon enough, whether he did or not. For once in his life, he wasn't going to plan and schedule everything. For once, he was going to do his damnedest to live in the moment.
Tess shifted up from where she'd been nuzzling into his chest, so her lips were pressed beneath his chin. "Do you know what I can't believe?" Her voice was delightfully drowsy and soft.
Talk about a loaded question. Max could name a long list of things he couldn't believe at the moment. For once he took the safe route. "What can't you believe?"
She lifted her head and smiled up at him. "I can't believe we've been under the same roof at Wexley for weeks now, with a gazillion bedrooms, all outfitted with huge, down-filled beds—" She laughed. "And when we finally do this, it's in the back of a limo."
His arms tightened around her, seemingly of their own volition. "I was just thinking something along those same lines myself."
"Were you?" she teased, then nipped his chin.
Given the considerable effect she had on him, it shouldn't have come as any surprise that his body stirred again. Why, why did he only carry one condom? was the first thought that came to mind. "Maybe we should do a compare-and-contrast kind of
study," he told her, sliding one hand up her back so he could cup the nape of her neck. "Bed versus limo."
"You think?
" She didn't need any provocation to tilt her head back and invite his kiss.
Yeah, he was
in such serious trouble here. J
ust as his mouth brushed against her, the chirping of a cell phone filled the air.
Chapter 24
"
N
ot mine," Tess said, slipping down, nipping his jaw along the way, before nuzzling against his chest once again.
Max groaned a little, held her closer, but the phone kept chirping. Swearing, he re
ached a hand out and grabbed for
his shorts, fumbling in the pockets.
"Who is it?" she mumbled, quite intent on her exploration expedition.
"I don't care, I'm going to turn it off." Then he looked at the screen and flipped it open instead. "Aurora?"
Even Tess could hear Aurora's excited chatter coming through the phone, and an instant later they were both shifting to a seated position.
"What's wrong?" Max asked, gripping the phone to his ear. "Slow down, I can't understand you."
"What is it?" Tess scrambled off his lap and began gathering their clothes in a heap on the seat. "What's going on?"
He held up his hand to stall her so he could hear. "What?" he said a second later. "She what?"
"
'She what'
what?" Tess asked in a heated whisper. "Who 'she'? Gaby?"
Max shushed her and switched the phone to his other ear.
"
How in the hell did she disappear in the middle of high tea at a five-star hotel?"
Tess dug
her
nails into his thigh. "Gaby took off?"
"Yes, yes," Max said into the phone. "I know, Aurora. Listen, just—listen, don't worry about that right now. You think she's with who? Who the hell is Ranee?" He shot a look at Tess, who shot him
a look right back and shrugged.
"I have no idea," she mouthed.
"Okay, okay," he said back into the phone, "we're on our w
ay—yes, I'm with Tess. We're…
hell, I don't know where the hell we are, we're in the limo." He paused, looked at Tess again. "Yes, still. Look, I'll be there as fast as I can. Don't go anywhere. And for God's sake, don't talk to anyone."
Max clicked off and immediately began dialing again. "They can't reach Gaby on her phone." After repeated tries, he didn't have any better luck. He finally flipped the phone shut and threw it against the back of the opposite seat. "I take my ey
e off the ball for one second…
" He swore under his breath as he took the clothes Tess handed him and began quickly dragging them on.
"Hey now, wait a minute," Tess said, not ready to be so easily dismissed. "I know you're worried, but Gaby isn't a little kid."
"She's certainly acting like one."
Tess yanked her
damp
T-shirt
ove
r
her head and shuddered
as the cold cotton clung to he
r
skin. "She's acting like a teenager with raging hormones, who's been kept barricaded in her room for
too
long."
Max paused in the middle of tugging on his shorts, his expression incredulous. "Are you blaming this on me?"
"Of course not. I know you've only done what you thought was best for her. God knows, I wouldn't have had the first clue how to raise a younger sibling, much less one who is a professional athlete. Thank God Bobby was already grown when our mom died. You've done an amazing job. Gaby is a tremendous young lady. I'm just saying, she's at an age where she needs to be given a little room to take some personal responsibility, make some personal decisions—"
"Oh yeah. And look at the first one she makes! Running off in the middle of tea to race around London with some Belgian punk."
Tess tried not to smile. It would be a wholly inappropriate response at the moment. From Max's point of view, anyway. But he was being such a
…
well, a guy about this. "Of course she screwed up and did something over the top. Isn't that sort of a teenage rite of passage?"
"She could have come to me! Could have asked me—"
Tess just folded her arms and stared at him.
Max looked like he was about to pop a vein. But a moment later, he slumped back in his seat and blew out a long breath. "Hell."
"You couldn't have known, okay? This is the trial-and-error part of life." She smiled a little. "Just ask my dad. You'll both learn from this little escapade of hers." Tess saw that beneath the anger, he was truly concerned about Gaby, afraid for her safety. She leaned forward and put her hands on his knees and gripped them tightly. "Listen to me. I know you're scared for her. But despite immediate evidence to the contrary, she's a very smart girl. A very smart girl who has a lot of personal pride and very strong opinions about things. She's not about to let
that 'Belgian punk
'
as you call him, do anything he shouldn't
be doing."
Max let his head drop back and covered his face with his hands, groaning. "I'm going to kill them both."
Now Tess laughed. Which brought Max's head back up as he glared at her. "I'm glad you're so highly amused by this. She could be out there right now—"
"In a cute little sports car, being driven around London by an even cuter young guy, and just enjoying herself. Nothing more."
"What do you know about this guy? Ranee somebody. Apparently he's on the men's tour. I don't know him."
"I wish I could help you out, but I don't know him, either. As much as you don't want to, you might trust Gaby just a little bit here. I know that teenagers make stupid mistakes all the time, so do full-grown adults, but she just wanted a few hours to be young and carefree and fancy herself in love a little. It's romantic."
"Only you would think this is romantic. That's the girl point of view. Trust me, Ranee isn't thinking anything of the sort."
"I think Gaby can hold her own. And if things get out of hand, she can use her celebrity to help her out. Someone would recognize her if she wanted or needed them to."
He swore again. "Christ, you're right. And we thought the paparazzi situation was bad already."
Tess smiled. "It'll be okay. We'll weather this storm just like we have all the others. And it's harmless. She's sixteen and having a spin around town with a boy. Yes, it might make the papers, but come on, it's not like she's hanging out in some nightclub and being snapped leaving at three in the morning, underage, and doing God knows what."
"Are you speaking from personal experience?"
Tess let the snide tone and accusation slide, because she
knew he was under extreme stress at the moment. And because she was still foolishly hoping to salvage at least a little of what had just transpired between t
hem. A moment in time that was r
apidly receding into the distant past as the limo continued to roll along. "If I am, then know that everything I'm saying today carries some merit. We'll find her, and you'll have your turn to jump all over her. All I'm saying is to listen to what she has to say. Sure, she can't just go taking off. But maybe you two need to talk, figure out some sort of compromise for her to have a little personal freedom, too." She paused for a moment, and when he didn't say anything else, she pushed a little harder. Someday she'd learn, but apparently that day hadn't arrived yet.
She slid across the space between them and sat next to him, tugging at his shirt until he turned to look at her. "I'm sorry. I know you're scared. She's going to be fine. And you two will work things out. But before all hell breaks loose here, I want to tell you one more thing."
He just stared at her. And she hated the distance she saw in his expression. He was pulling back, and pulling back fast.
"You need some personal freedom, too. Don't beat yourself up because you both decided to try to fit a little fun in your life. You both deserve it. And though it sounds a little self-serving at the moment"—she paused and smiled at him—"you'll both be better off if you find a little balance."
He held her gaze for the longest time, then said, "I appreciate what you're saying. I do. But she's my sister. And you're going to have to let me handle this my own way."
Anything else she might have said was cut off when the limo pulled to the curb and Aurora, Vivian, and Mercedes came rushing out of the hotel lobby to greet them. Max opened the door and went to get out, but the three women pushed their way in, instead.
Tess had a moment of panic as she looked around the inside
of the limo for any telltale signs of just what she and Max had been up to before Aurora had called. If any of the godmothers were thinking along those lines, they didn't show it. Their faces were lined with worry. And, in Aurora's case, abject apology.
"I'm so sorry, Max. I should have talked to you about her little crush sooner," Aurora said as they crammed together on the opposite bench seat, facing Tess and Max. "I never thought she'd do something rash like this. One moment we're having tea, the next she's excusing her
self for the ladies' room, and—"
Vivian sighed. "Aurora, honestly. She's a young woman having her first romance with a boy. And a very handsome one at that."
Everyone turned to look at Vivian.
"What?" she said, looking innocent, or trying to, anyway. "While you were on the phone with Max overreacting, and Mercy here was making certain the hotel security kept mum about the situation, I went back and asked to take a look at the security cameras for the rear entrance to the hotel and saw him come in and meet her." She smiled. "Very cute. Nice choice."
Tess thought the top of Max's head might blow off.
" 'Cute'? 'Nice choice'? Vivian, she's out there in London with some hooligan—"
Vivi reached forward and patted his knee. "Dear boy, calm down. I borrowed the security office's computer—and he was quite the charmer, I must say—and did a little search on our young Belgian. He's from a very good family and there are no scandals attached to his name."
"And yet he came to the rear entrance of a hotel and helped a sixteen-year-old girl sneak off."
"Almost seventeen, and my goodness, Maxwell, didn't you ever do anything daring when you were a teenage boy?"
"Of course I did. Why do you think I'm so worried?"
All three godmothers smiled at that. Tess, on the other hand, just looked
at him. "You did daring things
?"
He didn't look at her. "This isn't some little game here. She's not some regular teenager. She's God knows where. Paparazzi could be chasing them through the streets. We have to do something!"
Mercedes spoke up for the first time. "I think
the best course of action is for
Vivian and me to remain here, in case she returns to the scene of the crime, as it were." Her tone was well modulated and calm, as it always was. "You three should head back to Wexley and wait for her there. If any of us gets word of anything, we'll communicate accordingly."
Mercedes was always the voice of reason, and the tension in the idling limo seemed to go down several notches almost immediately.
"I think we should do more than sit around and wait," Max insisted.
"Like what," Vivian asked, "drive around London in hopes we cross paths? Call in the local constabulary? Involve the media? I think that is asking for more trouble."
"It's the middle of the afternoon, broad daylight," Aurora said, trying to sound reassuring, but obviously more worried than her counterparts. Guilt was still clearly written on her face. "Perhaps Mercy is right and we should wait her out. The police wouldn't do
anything at this point, anyway.
"
"Overkill, trust me," Vivian said. "She's fine. You can play big brother when she gets home and send her to her room, or ground her, or take away her tennis rackets if you want. But being any more alarmist than we've already been won't resolve this situation any faster."
"I understand what you're saying, Vivian, and I appreciate all of your concern, but if you think I can just sit by and wait while she's out there—"
"There she is!" Tess shouted.
A shiny black convertible zipped past the limo, which was still idling curbside in front of the hotel. The top was down—at some point the rain had ceased—and Gaby's long, shiny ponytail flashed in the sun as they whipped into the narrow lane that ran alongside the hotel.
Max immediately rapped on the partition. "Follow that car!" he shouted.
Vivian clapped her hands together. "I've always wanted to say that."
Before they could turn into the side street, two motorcycles and a tiny Renault tucked in right behind Gaby and Ranee.
"Photographers," Aurora gasped, nose all but pressed to the tinted glass of the passenger window.
"Goddamn son of a bitch," Max swore, pounding on the partition. "Get moving!"
The driver was already on it. He moved them in behind the little motorcade, turning into a rear circular drive, enclosed by a small, walled courtyard in the back of the hotel. After pulling through the gates, he turned the car so it blocked both entrance and exit.
"Nicely done," Mercedes observed to no one in particular. "I'll make sure to note that on his service record with Valerie."
Max was already lunging for the door as Vivian reached across and grabbed his arm. "Remember, she's young and fancies herself in love. Don't do anything rash. You'll regret it later. And there are cameras recording everything."