Malibu Betrayals (10 page)

He pressed his lips together with a nod.

Sam stepped up next to him and watched the waves wash up on the shore. “You’re close to your dad and sister. I’m glad you have them.”

Gage dipped his chin and glanced at her. “Very. Our dad made us his focus. He was there every night to help us with our homework and tuck us in at bedtime. He never missed a game or recital.”

She smiled and ran her hand down his arm. “That’s wonderful. So…” She paused, and he wished she wouldn’t ask. “What happened today?” No such luck.

Gage drained his glass. “Like I said, we don’t get along.”

Sam set her glass on the closest table, stepped before him, and looped her arms around his neck. Wariness shone in her eyes, and she hesitated, but instead of pulling back, she inched up on her tiptoes and rested against his chest. He’d never tire of the feel of her soft body against his. The scotch on her breath and glistening on her parted lips was an invitation he’d never be able to resist or forget.

“I know what you need,” she whispered, just before brushing her mouth against his. She tasted of everything sweet and savory in his life. He wanted to ring Ethan’s neck for making her doubt herself.

Sam pressed closer, and her heart drummed insistently against his chest. Tightening his grip, he angled his head, diving deep, and taking her with him. She moaned and increased the pressure of her fingers gliding along his hairline, sending all the blood in his body straight to his groin. He slid his tongue along her lips, and she opened for him, sliding her tongue against his. She rubbed his back, caressed his shoulders, and then snaked her hands once again back into his hair. Her touch reached everywhere, much deeper than she’d ever intended, he was sure. She accepted him in ways he’d never known he craved. Against impossible barriers, she knew more about him than anyone outside of his sister and dad, and asked for nothing to keep the knowledge safe, secret.

Gage walked her back toward the long sofa, unfastening her pants along the way. Removing her shirt, her bra. He knew she was distracting him, using sex to ease his pain, and the sweetness of it all made him even more urgent to get his hands on her. To feel her softness. Now.

As soon as his palms filled with the weight of her breasts, relief and possession raced through him. He had to find a way to prove to her they could work, Hollywood be damned.

He broke from the kiss just long enough to tug his shirt over his head. Then he took her mouth with a groan. Following her down to the couch, he wrestled with his pants and kicked them off his legs before settling between her thighs.

“Now, Gage. Don’t wait.” Sam’s breathy demand pulsed straight through his dick. If it were possible to double in size, his would have in that moment, his pleasure so intense it hovered on the edge of pain. He kissed her mouth, then her neck, her breasts, laving one nipple with his tongue before moving on to the other, all the while torturing them both by pushing just the head of himself into her and then pulling back out. She fisted her hands in the sofa pillows.

He didn’t need to be told again. Enveloping Sam in his arms to anchor his weight, he flexed his hips, giving them both what they craved. A distraction, a break from the weight of simply living day to day bore down on them. Grabbing at his ass to pull him deeper, harder, she arched her hips up hard against his pelvis, and lost herself, taking him with her.

A growl tore from his throat, the tight, unbearable pressure at the root of him exploding.

Gage held on, shocked by the intensity. No doubt, by the way her body sprawled boneless beneath him, she’d felt it, too. She’d come with him tonight mind and body, but what he needed to do was make her stay.

He cared about her, could see a glimpse of the life they could have together. He’d been with other women before, he’d never deny it, but no one who accepted him the way Sam did. No one who made him feel like he didn’t have to keep secrets, or hide behind a shield of security and trusted friends and family. No one who didn’t leave him feeling used. He rolled to his side on the sofa, tucking her in close.

Her damn rule remained his biggest hurdle. He needed to find a way to get her to make an exception for him. To prove to her that when he was the celebrity, it would be an asset, not a death sentence.

Chapter Ten

Gage followed the curves west on Malibu Canyon Highway, staring through the windshield and wishing he were on the waves with his board and Sam, instead of in the car. He was looking forward to meeting her parents, but damn it was a beautiful day to enjoy the surf.

“Can you slow down? If I have to go, I’d like to get there alive.”

Gage cut his eyes at her. She had a white-knuckled grip on the door armrest. “Sam, I’m only going five miles over the speed limit.”

She opened her eyes wide. “There’s a specific speed limit for a reason.”

He eased off the gas pedal, wondering what was really bothering her. “Are you looking forward to seeing your mom?”

Sam turned in her seat to face him better. “I am. She’s amazing.”

“But?”

“But, they’re nosey and bossy, and have been worried about me, which makes all of those other qualities increase by the nth degree.”

Gage picked up her hand and placed it on his thigh, enjoying the heat of her hand through his slacks. It made him feel connected, whether she was aware of it or not. “That’s their job. What else would you have them do? What would you do if it had been your sister who’d gone through what you have the past few years?”

Glancing at her and then shifting his gaze back down the road, he could feel her eyes roaming his face.

“You see a lot more than I’m used to from a man.”

He pulled one corner of his lip up. “What are you calling me, a woman?”

She squeezed his thigh. “No way, you’re not that perfect.”

His jaw dropped, and he grabbed her hand when she tried to remove it. Pulling it to his mouth, he nipped the sensitive skin on the underside of her wrist, grinning as she squealed.

“Okay, okay. You’re the most perfect
man
I know.”

With a wink thrown in her direction, he pressed her hand against his crotch and immediately grew as her warmth seeped through his jeans. But instead of yanking her hand away in shock, she flexed her fingers and rubbed her hand up and then back down. He went from teasing to teased in a fraction of a second, and he was hard as fuck to prove it. He loved this side of her, when she let her walls down and had fun.

Grabbing her hand back into his, he laughed. “Whoa. We’ll never get to dinner if you keep that up.”

Sam crossed her arms over her chest and stuck out her lower lip, which only made him want to suck on it. Pulling his thoughts back under control, he asked, “Why’d you stay with Ethan for so long?”

She remained quiet for a minute, and he thought she might not answer. Tapping her finger lightly against the passenger window, she said, “I was going to leave the day of the accident. Then I couldn’t, and then his death came not long after.”

“Suicide.”

She pulled in a breath. “Suicide. Since then, my family, and just about everyone else I know, won’t stop telling me what an asshole he was. It’s embarrassing. Not because I don’t agree, but because I do. I can only take so much of what a fool I was being shoved in my face. That’s why I haven’t been to my parents’ in a while. I thought it was easier to just stay away so we didn’t argue—”

“Why?”

Sam turned toward him. “What?”

“Why? Why did you argue?”

She ran her hands back through her long brown hair and arranged it about her shoulders. His fingers itched to slide through the silky softness.

“Look, it’s taken me time to discover, or rather accept, how Ethan really was. Nobody likes to fail. I portrayed a happy, functional marriage, and not one of my friends or family questioned me, no one ever told me otherwise. Even when I’d decided to leave him.”

Gage watched her.

“I’d decided to leave, but like I said, the accident. After he’d died, everyone took great pleasure in letting me know just how much of a douche he was. On top of the aggressive persistence with the paparazzi, it hurt. And it was humiliating.”

With her chin resting in her hand, she leaned against the door and stared out the front window. “If nobody liked him, why didn’t they tell me when he was alive? Why didn’t they encourage me when I’d decided to leave? I felt like, no,
feel
like a fool when I think about it.”

Gage nodded. He understood. People in his life helped shape him into the person he’d become. Some he’d like to thank, and others he could have done without. Second-guessing himself, his true talent, the kind of man he was, had become a daily habit. A habit he was determined to break. It wasn’t easy. “Because they love you.”

She snorted.

“Seriously. They didn’t want to hurt you. You wouldn’t have believed them or admitted it anyway, so what would have been the use?”

She sent him a disbelieving look.

“Think about it. How often do people kill the messenger?”

“And now?” She dropped her hand to her lap and straightened in her seat.

“Now, everyone who loves you wants you to move on, and I think they believe it would be easier for you to do if you realized you really haven’t lost anything. When it comes to your relationship with Ethan, you still have you. Which is all you really had all along.”

“Wow, I sound pathetic.”

“No, you sound loyal, strong, and determined.” Gage ran his hand along her arm to her shoulder and gave a light squeeze. “There’s nothing for you to feel humiliated about.”

Sam breathed deep and cracked her neck. “Yeah.”

Gage tilted his head, glanced at her, then back to the road. “What?”

A quick shake of her head ended the conversation, and she grabbed his free hand. “No, you’re right.”

“Sam, did he ever hit you?”

She scoffed. “That would mean he’d have to touch me. No, his was more of a very specific kind of verbal lashing. Consistent and mean, but said in a way that sounded as if he was trying to help. About my weight, my talent, my looks.”

He gripped the steering wheel wishing it were Ethan’s neck. The fucking bastard never deserved her. “I’m sorry that he did that to you.”

She dipped her chin. “I’m sorry I let him.” Leaning into his side, she dropped her head to his shoulder and laced her arm through his. “You are really good at taking care of people, Gage.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. In one moment she dismissed their relationship as nothing more than a casual fling—which stung like a son-of-a-bitch—and the next she declared he very capably took care of her. The contrast, the bouncing back and forth, made him hopeless
and
gave him hope. He couldn’t help but read into every word, every action. It was exhausting.

Gage peeked down at her. Her pert nose and softly squared chin, her deep brown eyes—he’d lost himself in them more than once. Her hair, he loved to bury his face in the silky mass and breathe her in. She left the scent of spicy citrus everywhere, on his clothes, his pillow. How many times had he dreamed of her with that scent floating about his head?

“We’re here.” He grabbed a trucker hat and sunglasses from the back seat and put them on. They pulled into the driveway of her parents’ home in a gated community, Malibu Canyon, and straight into the garage. “Looks like a fun place.”

Sam nodded as she got out of the car and hit the button to lower the garage door. “Yeah, they moved here a few years after my sister moved out. They wanted to downsize but still have a lot of activities for…” Color rose in her cheeks.

Gage dropped the hat and glasses to the passenger seat and got out of the car. “What?”

“Grandkids.”

With a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth, Gage walked around to the passenger side and leaned against the front. He wanted at least two, but he wasn’t about to share that tidbit with her. She’d bolt before he finished the sentence, so instead he shoved his hands into his pockets.

The garage door reversed its descent, grating its way back open, and he stepped back.

“Sam, darling!” A woman with one too many injections of Botox dipped under the door with her miniature Shar-Pei. “Oh, honey, it’s been far too long.” She spared Sam the briefest glance before stepping up to him and tapping his chest with each word. “And you are even better in person.”

Gage tilted his head, and with a step back, stuck his arm out to its full length, making the woman take it while staying at least two feet away. “Gage Cutler, and you are?”

“Oh, I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are.” She licked her lower lip at him, something he loved when Sam did it, but on this woman it was all he could do not to laugh. Changing tactics, she stepped back and swung her arm around Sam’s shoulders. “Hasn’t Sam told you? I’m practically her aunt, since me and her mom are positively inseparable.”

Sam shook her head. “I don’t—”

The woman grabbed Sam’s cheeks between boney fingers and thumb, squishing Sam’s lips forward into a pucker. “You’ve been gone far too long. I keep telling your mother to get you here for dinner, and look—”

She whispered toward Gage, “Dee always takes my advice.”

Dropping her hand from Sam, she sauntered back to Gage. “Now for you, my handsome young man. After dinner, why don’t I show you around the neighborhood—”

Sam stepped between them, shoving the woman gently aside, and grabbed Gage by the arm. Talking over her shoulder, she led Gage to the door into the house. “So sorry, we’ve got to go. Dinner’s ready, and you know how Mom hates to serve a cold meal.”

“Samantha!” The woman tripped over her dog, which let out a yelp.

The door swung open, and Mrs. Dekker held Gage at arm’s length with a grin. “Gage Cutler.”

With a look directed at Sam’s mom, Mr. Dekker made quick work of getting the nosey neighbor out of the garage.

Sam scolded in a hard whisper. “Mom.”

But Gage leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek, then handed her a bottle of wine and chocolates. “Thank you for including me, Mrs. Dekker.”

She made a swoon face with her hand at her brow, winning him over in a heartbeat, and waved his words away. “Please, Gage Cutler in my home? You’re always welcome, and call me Dee. All the kids’ friends do.”

At thirty-eight, being referred to as a kid made him chuckle, and he nodded. “Okay, Dee.” Sam was the spitting image of her mother but had her father’s dark, fathomless eyes. A warmth spread through his chest.

Addison Dekker, Sam’s sister, reminded him of his own. Blond hair like Mr. Dekker but the sparkling blues of her mother. She bounded up to him and pulled him in tight. “Oh, the dreams I’ve had about you.”

Sam’s jaw dropped. “Addison!” She turned to her mother. “Mom?”

Dee laughed and wrapped her arm around Mr. Dekker’s waist. “What? Who hasn’t?”

Gage laughed. He held Addison in to his side, enjoying Sam’s sputter.

A tall man, no mistaking him as Dekker Senior’s son—a twenty-year-younger duplicate—walked in to join them. “What’d I miss?”

Sam rolled her eyes. “You don’t want to know.” She extended her hand. “Luca, Gage Cutler. Gage, my brother.”

Addison released Gage to give her brother a hug. “Mom and I were just saying Sam had the perfect opportunity to spice up her sex life.”

“Oh my God. Dad.” Sam shot her father a look, appealing for some assistance.

Mr. Dekker shrugged. “Sorry, honey, but I can’t complain. After your mother watched
In Her Lover’s Arms
, she couldn’t get enough of me.”

“We’re just friends, colleagues.” Sam nudged her sister’s shoulder.

He’d normally be a bit uncomfortable with the attention, but this banter wasn’t for him. This was some sort of hazing for Sam. Besides, he was with Mr. Dekker on this one; the idea Sam couldn’t get enough of him was more than he could hope for, and it was a fool’s wish. He rubbed his chest.

Gage tried to hide his laugh behind his hand, but a chuckle slipped out.

Sam’s father laughed. “I like this one. He’s going to fit in just fine.”

“So who’s the big mouth, huh? One of you told Crazy Kat from next door that Gage would be here. She practically assaulted him in the garage.” Sam’s poor attempt to change the subject pulled more laughter from each of the Dekker clan—all except Dee, who looked around everywhere but back at Sam.

“I wouldn’t call it assault—”

Sam pinned him with a look. “She was all over you.” And then she abruptly stopped, eyes wide, and busied herself with something on her mother’s foyer table.

Gage did everything he could do to keep the satisfaction of that little encounter from showing too much.

Sam was jealous. He could smell it, and it was glorious. He’d have to thank Dee later for her big mouth, as Sam put it.

It only further solidified his belief Sam had feelings for him. She wasn’t the type of woman to be with someone she didn’t. Rubbing his hands together, he grinned. This was going to be fun.

The crew filed into the open space of the kitchen and dining area. Both rooms opened up to the living room and a large outdoor living area that overlooked a resort-style pool, surrounded by lush tropical flowers and palm trees. He could see his children jumping into the water and hear their screams of delight. He turned away. His fucking heart refused to listen to what his mind thought it knew, only making him more determined.

“Gage? Did you hear me? Which one?”

He swung back from the window, pulling in a breath, to find Sam holding up a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine. She tapped her foot. He grinned. She was so annoyed right now, which was so fun to focus on. Gage walked up to her and took both bottles from her hands, then handed them to her brother, Luca. “Red, please.” Then he winked at Sam, taking advantage of the fact the rest of her family had their backs to them, distracted with food preparations.

She rolled her eyes and looked away, with a half grin.

“Quit pretending you’re mad at me. Your sister’s right about your sex life,” he whispered in her ear.

The corner of her mouth quirked. “I’m not pretending.”

He wanted to drop a kiss to her mouth but held himself back. It sucked, but he’d just make up for it later. “Liar.”

Addison called out from the other side of the breakfast bar. “Sam, when you’re done with your new friend, I’ll take him. A good shower will take care of that sloppy-seconds issue.”