“That’s why Trent was waiting for us—for you?”
“Yes. Tonight they moved Dad out of intensive care. He’s going to pull through. That’s the only reason I came home. For a shower and some sleep.”
“Gage, I’m sorry.” Her sincerity shone in her eyes and his lungs took a siesta. He wasn’t used to someone caring for him. And then he realized he’d never allowed anyone to. He’d kept his acquaintances at a distance and never let them see behind the wall he’d built around himself. Only Lauren had blasted through, by refusing to back off when he threw up barricades.
Head reeling at the discovery, he tried to remember his point. “I wish I could believe this would teach Dad a lesson, but it won’t. Lauren, our parents make choices over which we have no control. You can’t beat yourself up over it. You have to let them live their lives the same way you want them to let you live yours.”
Her wide gaze held his and he saw acceptance slowly seep in followed by gratitude then regret. She mentally pulled away before she stiffened in his arms. “Thank you for helping me make sense of this. I should get out of here and let you rest.”
The idea of her leaving repelled him. “Stay.”
“You need sleep.”
“I need you more.” The minute the words left his mouth he knew they were true. After seeing his father’s failure and his mother’s and ex-wife’s fickle natures, Gage had sworn he’d never allow himself to need anyone again. But Lauren made him want more than just a financially secure future. She made him want someone to share it with.
And allowing himself to want something he couldn’t control scared the crap out of him.
Ten
The warmth of the fire at Lauren’s back couldn’t compare to the heat in Gage’s eyes. Her heart blipped wildly and her mouth moistened as Gage lowered his head.His lips swept hers so tenderly, emotion welled up in her throat. Choking back a sob, she broke the kiss, buried her face in his neck and wrapped her arms around his middle, hugging him as tightly as she could.
Gage soothed her with long strokes down her spine and soft kisses in her hair, on her temple, along her jaw. The tumultuous feelings inside her morphed into something altogether different, and by the time his mouth returned to hers, Lauren ached for him and for the passion and momentary oblivion he could offer.
She tunneled her fingers into the opening of his robe, gliding her hands over his warm, supple skin and savoring each hiss of his breath. She wasn’t supposed to feel this close to him, this emotionally bonded to him. He was supposed to be temporary, a plane that passed in the night-dark sky.
He rose, pulling her to her feet, then with one powerful kick he sent the ottoman skidding out of the way. He peeled away her clothing with economical precision. Her sweater, bra, pants and panties landed in a pile on the floor. He stepped back, his eyes devouring her as he stripped off his robe and spread it on the rug in front of the fire.
He scooped her into his arms, startling a gasp out of her and knelt to gently lay her on his robe. Thick velour fabric cushioned her back. Seconds later his hot body blanketed her front, before he slid to her side, freeing his hands to map her body with devastating, bone-melting thoroughness.
In the past they’d made love feverishly, but this time Gage lingered, painting languorous circles over her br**sts, belly and thighs alternately with his palms and fingertips, making her core shudder with every pass closer and closer to her center.
Hungry for him, she captured his face in her hands and brought his mouth back to hers. His tongue plunged in, sweeping, stroking. His fingers mimicked the action, delving into her curls, finding her moisture, caressing her most sensitive spot until her back bowed as pleasure twined ever tighter inside her.
She tore her mouth away to gasp and grip his shoulders as release shuddered through her like the rise and fall of turbulence, and then drained, she melted into the floor.
He pulled her into his arms and soothed her with gentle kisses. She forced her heavy lids open. Banked hunger still raged in his eyes and in the erection pressing to her hip, but he made no move to drive inside her the way she wanted him to.
“Your turn.” She tried to push him onto his back, but he resisted.
He brushed his lips over hers. “This time was all about you, baby.”
She stroked her fingertips down his chest until she reached the rigid flesh between them and coiled her hand around him. “Gage, let me make you feel as good as you made me.”
He caressed her face. “You do that by being here.”
Her heart and lungs contracted as if a giant fist had squeezed them, and Lauren knew she was in trouble.
This wasn’t just about sex or two people finding comfort and pleasure in each other.
She’d fallen in love with Gage Faulkner.
Run, run home to Daytona. You have your answers. Now you can go.
She mentally dug in her heels, even though she’d already lived through the rich man–working girl scenario once before and knew a happy ending was unlikely. The ugly finish of her relationship with Whit had nearly broken her, and she hadn’t felt nearly as connected to him as she did to Gage. That had been a Cinderella fantasy.
This…this was love. And it was terrifying and exhilarating. And she was not going to run from it.
Her life was a mess. She had no business dragging Gage into it. But if she wanted even a slim chance of a future with him, she had to tell him the whole truth, and hope he believed her and not Trent’s poison. And maybe if she was very, very lucky, Gage would help her find a way to save Falcon Air.
She opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come out. She wouldn’t tell him, not tonight. Tonight he was tired, and she wanted to sleep in his arms knowing she loved him.
Tomorrow would be soon enough to find out if he was going to break her heart.
Gage absently stirred the eggs while he tried to figure out what about the way he and Lauren had made love this morning bothered him. The prolonged episode, while still hot and extremely satisfying, had felt like a goodbye.
Everything in him rejected the idea. He wasn’t going to let her go. Lauren tormented and tested him, but she’d also made him feel more alive than he had in years. Having her in bed beside him when he’d awoken this morning had felt right—like a habit to which he would like to become accustomed.
How could he make it work when her life was in Daytona and his business was here? It would be business suicide for her to move Falcon Air onto Hightowers’ home field. But he’d worked long and hard to build a Faulkner Consulting team he could trust. He wouldn’t break them apart. The past few weeks had proven that with a jet and a pilot on call he could get anywhere faster. Would a long-distance affair last?
“Gage,” Lauren called from behind him. The quiver of her voice caused the fine hairs on his nape to prickle with unease. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
He knew before he turned off the burner and faced her that whatever she had to say would likely blow his good mood to smithereens.
She hovered near the entrance of his breakfast area, her long legs bare beneath the hem of one of his white T-shirts. He could see the shadows of her areolas and the points of her n**ples through the fabric. Desire pulsed in his groin even though he’d made love to her barely an hour ago.
Worry clouded her eyes and furrowed her forehead. He nodded, indicating she continue.
“I learned more from my mother than about my father’s crash.” She pleated the hem of his shirt between her fingers, flashing him glimpses of her upper thigh.
He forced his gaze from her sexy legs to her face. “Go on.”
“Please hear me out before you jump to conclusions.”
The burn in his stomach intensified.
“Jacqui has been funding my father for years, beginning with paying for the aeronautical engineering study then for improvements to the plane.”
That answered Trent’s question about where the money had been going. “How much?”
“I don’t know exactly. She wouldn’t say. And then…” She bit her lip and glanced away. Her br**sts rose and fell on a deep in-and exhalation before her cautious gaze returned to his. He braced himself.
“She paid off my airplane loan.”
Her words hit him like a sucker punch. The missing two hundred grand.
“I found out while we were in San Francisco when I tried to make my payment online.”
If you won’t give me what I need, then I’m going back to Daytona and we ’re done.
Lauren had been furious and insistent with the person on the other end of the phone. Looked as if she’d gotten her way, and her way was little better than extortion.
“Gage, I didn’t ask her to pay it.”
He didn’t believe her. He’d heard the argument.
“I’ve told her a hundred times that I don’t want her money. I’ve never wanted her frilly dresses or dumb dolls or useless manicures. All I wanted was a mother who’d braid my hair, kiss my boo-boos and teach me about boys and makeup. Things money can’t buy. And all I wanted when I came to Knoxville was answers. Until last night she withheld those.”
Her words gushed like water from a broken mainline, pouring over each other in a tumbled rush. Was she protesting too much? In his line of work he’d learned that those with something to hide always gave more information than the situation required. They talked fast and avoided eye contact—exactly the way Lauren was doing now.
“I intend to get a loan and pay her back. If I can. But—”
“But what, Lauren?”
She fidgeted uneasily with fussy fingers, wiggly toes, shifting shoulders. “Falcon Air is in trouble. Before my father approached Jacqui for money, he borrowed heavily against the company to finance building his plane. If the insurance company finds out he knew the plane was faulty and chose to fly it even though he’d been warned against it by the engineer, they may not pay. If that happens, I might lose Falcon Air…” Her pleading gaze met his. “Unless you’ll help me.”
He recoiled. Trent had been right. Lauren had been trying to get her hooks into the Hightower fortune. Gage felt like a fool for once again being taken in by a woman’s lies.
What was his problem? A little sexual attraction and his brain ceased to function? He’d be damned if he’d let her humiliate him the way Angela had—Angela, who’d strung him along with her professed adoration, her duplicitous nature and her betrayal.
“What you’re telling me is you and your father have been milking Jacqueline for cash for years, and now you want to tap into me, too.”
She paled. “No. No. I want your business consulting expertise to help me turn Falcon around. I’ve seen you work, Gage. I know you can do it.”
“You want to hire me?”
She bit her lip. “I’m not sure I can afford you. But I’m sure we can work out something.”
“Like what? Sex for services rendered?”
She flinched and then her chin lifted and her shoulders squared. “How can you say that?”
“Seems obvious. You want something from me, and you’re willing to sleep with me to get it.”