His Four Poster Bed (Bedroom Secrets Series Book 2) (9 page)

He wore another black turtleneck and suit jacket, dark jeans, and what looked like cowboy boots. It was a perfect mix of classy and sexy with just a little bit of wild. I found myself reliving the touch of his bare skin against mine, the taste of his skin. I flushed at the memory and tried to concentrate on my mission. Which was what exactly? Oh yeah, have a nice pleasant evening and decide to trust this outrageously hot man who I feared had the power to steal my heart or break things off with him tonight.

He noticed me standing there and I jumped hoping he hadn’t caught me staring.

“Hello,” I said, opening the front door.

“Wow,” he said, stepping back from me and shaking his head. “You look gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling turned on already. This staying platonic was going to be more difficult than I thought. What had I gotten myself into?

Marco offered me his arm. “I’m parked in front of the loading zone.”

“Sorry there is no doorman,” I said, smiling and slipping my arm into his.

“You know I am able to navigate in a world without help sometimes.”

“Well, you did manage to track down my address, or did one of your employees do that for you?” I asked, purposely not mentioning Veronica’s name. I wanted to see if he would bring her up first, explain her away on his own.

“I looked it up myself, I like to keep my personal business off my family’s radar,” he said. “I’m sorry, I should have asked you before invading your privacy like that.” He held open the door to the car.

It was a silver BMW, a roadster of some sort. It looked fast and expensive.

“Thank you for the apology.” I hesitated before getting into the car. I needed to lay down some ground rules before my libido overruled my common sense. “If I join you for dinner tonight, I will need some more answers from you.”

“Absolutely,” he said. “I will answer everything.”

“And the truth, I always need the truth.”

“You mentioned that one before.”

“It’s a thing with me,” I said, shrugging.

Marco stood on the other side of the car door, he reached out and traced his finger along my jaw. “I promise to answer your every question Odessa Starr. I will tell you the truth about myself, the good, the bad, and the ugly and I will never betray you, never.” Then he leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips. My knees almost buckled.

“Well,” I said, after his lips left mine, my whole body tingling. “I guess I’m getting in the car now.”

“Please do,” he said, smiling.

As I sunk into the posh bucket seats Marco walked around the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

He started the engine, at least I thought he did. I noticed immediately that it did not hum like a normal car.

“Electric?” I said, eyebrows raised.

“Saving the planet, any way I can,” he winked and put the car into gear.

As we drove, I couldn’t help but notice the size of his hand on the gear shift and wish his hands were all over my naked body. I felt dizzy with longing and also from his promise to me. He had agreed to answer my questions and tell me the truth. The question was, did I believe him? Was I really allowing myself to trust a billionaire playboy who was clearly used to taking what he wanted in life?

“I can see the wheels turning in your beautiful head,” Marco said, as he turned down 45
^th
heading towards I-5. “You can trust me Odessa,” he said. He reached over and briefly squeezed my hand. “I am many things, but I am not a liar, or a stalker.”

“Well, you did show up at my work unannounced, you did send me presents unannounced, and you did send me flowers.”

“Unannounced.” Marco laughed. “Christ, I do sound like a stalker. What are you doing in the car with me? You should get out while you can.”

“No way, I’ve got a list of questions for you,” I said, laughing as well. “You’ve agreed to an interview and that’s what’s going to happen tonight.”

“Sounds sexy,” he said.

“It could be,” I answered in a teasing voice. It was impossible to keep from flirting with this man.

“What is your first question?”

“Easy one to start. Where are we going tonight?”

“I thought that I would make you dinner.”

“At your place?”

“I do have a kitchen, yes.”

“I’m not sleeping with you again,” I said, faster than I intended.

“Understood,” he smiled. “I enjoy your company Odessa in whatever way you feel you want to spend time with me. You want an interview, you get an interview; you want a home cooked meal by me, you get it; you want me to kiss every inch of your naked body, you get it; you want me to fuck you until you beg me to stop, you get that too.”

I inhaled sharply knowing he had made me wet. A single phrase and the man had me dripping for him.

“I see,” I said, my pulse roaring with heat. “You’ll have to give me a minute to decide.”

“In the meantime, lets discuss dinner. This may amaze you, but I cook. I like to cook, my mother taught me. She told me she wasn’t going to raise a boy who expected to be waited on hand and foot by the woman he loved.”

My body tensed at the word love. I noticed Marco was staring straight ahead now. I looked at his profile, it was so strong, his gaze fixed on the road.

“Your mother sounds like a very smart woman.”

“She is, she was,” he added. I didn’t need to look into his eyes to hear the sadness this time. I could feel it all around him.

I reached out and squeezed his thigh leaving my hand to rest on his leg. “I’m sorry. How old were you when you lost her?” The word died felt too raw, too harsh to me.

“I was just a boy, barely a man, sixteen years old.”

Marco turned the roadster onto I-5, hitting the accelerator. We silently raced past the other cars, the BMW’s electric motor so quiet it was almost unnerving.

I tried to imagine Marco as a boy saying good-bye to his mother. I remembered how strange it had felt to me in the days after my father left. He hadn’t died, but there was loss to process, even if I hadn’t realized it at the time. Losing the people you love breaks you into pieces and you have to figure out how to glue yourself back together again and hope you are stronger where you’ve healed.

I owed it to myself to be strong with Marco. I needed answers.

“I want to ask you another question,” I said, softly. My hand moving up and down his thigh felt so natural. Every touch between us felt electric.

“Anything,” he said, glancing my way.

“Who is Veronica really?” I braced myself. “Is she your roommate?”

“My roommate?” he repeated. “No, absolutely not.”

“Did she tell you that I ran into her this morning, in your kitchen.”

“Christ, no,” he exhaled slowly. “She was supposed to arrive after you left. She’s helping me with a project that’s time sensitive. She should have told me.”

“See, that sounds weird to me,” I said, unable to stop my pulse from racing. “You aren’t really telling me anything about who she is, project, time sensitive. Those are just words.”

Marco put his hand over mine. “You have to trust me. There is nothing romantic between us. Veronica is like a sister to me.”

“She’s beautiful, she’s charming,” I said.

“She is all those things and I love her as if she is family,” he said, emphasizing the last word.

“You should have told me she’d be at your place. She probably heard me crying out in ecstasy last night.”

“Ecstasy?” he said, grinning. “I’m glad to know we feel the same about our night together.”

I took a breath and let the knowledge that he’d enjoyed our night together as much as me sink in for a moment.

“I apologize for this morning,” Marco said, his voice grew serious. “I would never intentionally embarrass you.”

“That’s good to know,” I said.

“Veronica is the daughter of my mother’s best friend.”

“And she lives with you?”

“She stays with me sometimes. Veronica works for the government,” he said. “She works for an agency that requires her to go undercover which means she has a home of her own in San Francisco, but she is rarely there.”

“I feel silly asking this, but is she a spy?”

“She is not a spy. She works on drug cases, the DEA.”

“And you two are just friends.”

“I grew up with her. As a boy before my mother died, we lived half the year in Guadalajara, the other in New York City. Veronica was my first friend in the United States. She has been a good friend to me through the years. She and her family were a tremendous support to me when Mom died. She has never and she never will be my lover. Do you believe me?”

The car idled at a stoplight downtown. He turned to face me and I studied his expression as he held my gaze steady. A single word kept running through my mind. Yes. Say yes to this man.

I couldn’t breathe in the silence between us. I felt as though this moment had meaning, that my fate hung on this one question. Did I believe him? Would I let go of my fear and let my heart choose my future instead of my mind?

“What do you say Odessa. Do you believe me?” Marco asked again, his voice just above a whisper.

“I do,” I said, a feeling of intense joy and freedom moving through my body. “Yes, I do.” The double meaning of my words were not lost on me, and for once I didn’t back pedal and pull them back.

Marco grasped my face between his hands and kissed me sending shivers through my whole body. Our lips pressed together I felt as though we were sealing a bond, an agreement between our souls binding us together.

The spell was broken by a honking horn behind us.

“Lights changed,” I gasped looking at the green light overhead.

“All right, all right,” Marco said, turning back to the wheel. “You have got me so distracted.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, running my hand up his thigh and moving it across the crotch of his pants. I felt him instantly respond growing hard with my touch.

“No, not a bad thing,” he said. “I want to get you upstairs. Quickly.”

“Drive faster then,” I said, pressing my hand against the hardness between his legs.

Inside the hotel, Todd the bellman was standing guard by Marco’s private elevator.

“Mr. Amador,” he said, his eyes growing wide as we approached. “Good evening, Ms. Starr, welcome back Ma’am, I mean Miss.”

Marco leaned over to Todd and whispered something as he handed him his silver keys.

“Of course sir,” Todd said. He pressed the up button and then immediately walked away.

“What did you say to him?” I asked, as the elevator doors opened.

“I asked for some privacy.” Marco turned to face me as the doors closed.

I threw my arms around him as he lifted me and pressed me up against the elevator wall. His tongue in my mouth, my legs wrapped around his waist. I felt his hand slide up my skirt and inside my panties. He parted my lips with his fingers and slid deep inside as he rocked against me.

“More,” I gasped as his fingers slid in faster and faster. The elevator flying skyward I felt that familiar heat start to build in my core. The elevator chimed as we hit the top floor and the doors opened.

Marco slid his fingers out and carried me across the entry way, his lips against mine still. He threw me down on the couch where we had talked that very first night and hiked my skirt up over my hips. Then before I could say a word his lips were between my legs. His tongue moving in circles with just the right amount of pressure.

I moaned and leaned my head back grasping his head with my hands pushing him against me even harder. He brought me to the edge of coming faster than I thought possible. And then suddenly I felt that unfurling feeling as my body shook and shuddered against his lips, pleasure rippling through me like an enormous wave.

I looked up and Marco kissed me on my lips, his hands discretely pulling my skirt back down over my hips. “Now, that’s better, isn’t it,” he smiled.

“I don’t think I can stand now,” I said, laughing. “This may be a problem.”

“You don’t need to,” he said, brushing a hair off my forehead. “You can just stay here and be gorgeous while I slave for you in the kitchen. As long as you are here with me, it’s all I need,” he said.

Marco’s dining room table was set for two with simple white plates and crystal glasses. In the kitchen I heard him chopping what I assumed were vegetables and the sound of meat sizzling. Soon the condo was filled with the aromas of sweet and hot spices.