Private Pleasures

Chapter Seven

"What time are we leaving today?" Mariah asked Grey as he helped her make the bed the following morning. Sunshine streamed through the lace curtains framing the bedroom window, warming her as much as being wrapped in Grey's arms during the night had. She'd missed the intimacy of sleeping with Grey, the way he curled his body around hers from behind, and the possessive way his palm always seemed to find the curve of her breast.

Smoothing her hand over a wrinkle in the quilt, she smiled at the memory of his sweet, nuzzling, good-morning kiss against her neck and his admirable restraint. She'd awoken to the feel of his arousal pressing against her bottom. It would have been so easy for him to shimmy up the nightgown he'd bought her, ease her panties down and slide deep inside where she'd wanted him last night. Where she'd ached for him that morning still.

Sighing, she glanced up at him, wondering if he'd heard her question. He stood at the opposite side of the bed, wearing khaki shorts, a red polo shirt and a determined look. "Grey?"

He picked up one of the throw pillows on the floor beside him and turned it over in his hands. "I was thinking about staying up here a few more days."

"A few more days?" she echoed, frowning. It was Sunday, and they both had businesses to run. Starting tomorrow morning.

His shoulders lifted in a casual shrug. "Just until the end of the week."

"The end of the week!" She came around the bed, unable to believe he'd suggest something so spontaneous and rash. To her way of thinking, a week constituted more than just "a few days." They'd shared a wonderful weekend together but they couldn't stay up in Arrowhead forever. "Grey, I don't think that would be such a good idea."

"I think it's a great idea. My best one yet." He tossed the pillow against the headboard, and when his gaze met hers again, the depths were filled with a recklessness that made her distinctly uneasy. "Mark said I could use the place as long as I need it, so why not make the most of things?"

She shook her head. It was unlike Grey to be so…reckless. "Because I have appointments to keep, clients to see, contracts to go over and sign. A business to operate!"

"So do I, but it can all wait a week." He braced his fists on his hips, his stance firm and unyielding. "I'm willing to clear my entire schedule for you. For us."

"I can't believe what you're saying!" She paced to the end of the bed, trying to reason with a man who'd once been so reasonable. "You can't hold me hostage for a week-"

"Wanna bet?" A wicked grin curved his mouth as he slowly moved toward her. "I kinda like the sound of you being my captive, at my mercy…"

She abruptly stopped, steeling herself against his words, his advance, that bone-melting, she'd-do-anything-ior-me smile, and held up her hand to ward him off. "Then you stay and I'll go. Give me the keys to the Jeep," she ordered.

"Search me for them," he dared her, holding his arms wide to give her access to every inch of him. "If you find them, we'll go."

The only thing she would find was a body to die for, and a man who'd enjoyed every minute of the frisking. She sighed in frustration and dragged her hand through her hair. "Why are you doing this?"

Quicker than she could anticipate, he reached out, slid his hand around her neck and brought her mouth to his. He summed up his answer in a deep, emotion-filled kiss that left her breathless, as soft as dew and clinging to him. A kiss so full of need and longing and a thousand other feelings that touched her heart and swept through her soul.

When he finally lifted his head, she stared up at him in a dazed fog, a willing prisoner-if it meant she might gain his love. Oh, Lord, was she wishing for the impossible?

"That's why I'm doing this," he said fiercely, his eyes blazing with heat, arousal and something more. He framed her face in his hands, holding her immobile.

As if she planned on going anywhere.

"Maybe sharing is all that it's cracked up to be," he said, a lopsided grin canting his mouth. "Something within me shifted this weekend, Mariah. Something that feels wonderful and scares me half to death because I don't understand completely what it is." He pulled in a deep breath, his gaze searching hers. "But whatever it is, I want to explore it with you, without the craziness of work and everyday life interfering. I want more time alone. No interruptions, no outside influences."

She pressed her hands to his chest. "Grey, we can't hide away for another five days, ignore our work, our responsibilities." This time her protest was weak. Anything that had to be done Jade was more than capable of handling. It was a matter of her sister cooperating enough to handle her absence.

"My mind is made up, Mariah." He slid his hands down her back and clasped them at the base of her spine, holding her body, as well as her heart, close. "I'm not giving you a choice."

His caveman routine should have irritated her, but the truth was, she wanted this time alone as much as he did. He was willing to give up so much for her to make their relationship work. How could she refuse?

"We'll go into the village for more food, I'll call Jeanie at home and have her clear my schedule for the week, and you can do the same with Jade."

"Do I have to?" Mariah groaned into his shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut. "Jade is going to disown me."

Grey chuckled, then grew serious. "Jade will survive. What's between us is far more important."

He was right. She, too, had felt something more over the past two days with Grey…hope for the future. Unable to deny him his wish, she slipped from his arms and said, "Let's go make some phone calls."

He swatted her bottom as she passed and grinned when she glared at him from over her shoulder. Then he had the audacity to wink.

"I knew you'd see things my way," he said.

"Like you gave me a choice," she muttered.

"Are you totally and completely out of your mind?" Jade's disapproving tone drifted through the phone lines to Mariah. "Standing me up on Friday night and skipping town with Grey for the weekend is one thing, but an entire week?"

Mariah was in too good a mood to let her sister's interrogation put a damper on her newfound happiness. "I'm staying, Jade."

"The man has you brainwashed!"

Smiling, Mariah glanced toward the grocery store Grey had slipped into while she made her phone call in a nearby booth. The "man" Jade was referring to had her hopelessly in love. "Stand in for me on whatever appointments you can manage and reschedule the others for the following week," she told Jade. "There's nothing pressing on my desk or in the works, so everything else you can handle or it can wait until I get back."

A long-suffering sigh reached Mariah. "At least give me a number where I can reach you if something comes up."

"If the cabin had a phone and I gave you the number, I'm sure I wouldn't get a moment's peace. But there isn't a phone, so I'm in luck."

"How cozy," Jade said, her tone bordering on peevish.

"Actually, it is a nice little romantic retreat," Mariah said, deliberately goading her sister.

Jade made an exasperated sound. "I'm having you committed."

Mariah wound her finger around the phone cord, asking innocently, "Whatever for?"

"Your sanity has obviously fled. What else would possess you to run off with Grey for an entire week?"

The answer came easily, Mariah thought. Love had possessed her. And hope. Grey had given her a part of his past he'd never shared with her before. A vulnerable side that touched her and made her optimistic for their future together. He'd shared hopes, broken dreams and fears, and she wanted to reassure and soothe him. In time, and with an abundance of love and patience, she was certain she could replace those terrors with the knowledge that he'd be a good, loving husband and a better father than his own had been.

Her dad had taught her to fight for what she believed in. She believed in Grey and his ability to let his caring flourish into an emotion far richer and more rewarding. It was all a matter of showing him how wonderful love could be. Making him see that love was a good thing, and nothing at all like the disappointing memories of his childhood.

Another five days alone with him could make all the difference to their future.

"Have all my efforts been for nothing?" Jade asked. "Haven't you learned anything I've taught you the past couple of weeks?"

"Like what?"

"Like not to trust a man's motives, for one."

That was Jade's motto, not hers. Besides, Grey had never given her any reason to distrust or doubt him. "I believe Grey's intentions are honorable."

Jade gave a snort of disbelief. "You've slept with him, haven't you?"

"That's none of your business."

"I'll bet he's making you all kinds of promises, isn't he?"

"Not one."

"Well, considering the dreamy quality of your voice, you'd think he offered you a ring and marriage."

Not quite, but close. If you want the ring, it's yours. Grey's words echoed through Mariah's mind. Now she just needed a declaration and a proposal to go with it. She was confident she'd have both. Soon.

"I give up, Mariah," Jade said, a sigh of defeat escaping her. "You're a hopeless cause. The next time Grey breaks your heart, just remember that I told you so."

Sitting on a large, smooth boulder at the back of Mark's cabin, Grey stared out at the rippling surface of Lake Arrowhead, feeling more content and relaxed than he could ever remember.

It was a beautiful summer afternoon, hot-but a slight breeze and the tall pines surrounding the lake kept the day bearable. Families on vacation played on the lake in their ski boats, and kids floated by Mark's dock on rafts and inner tubes, laughing and frolicking in the cool water.

Casting a quick glance over his shoulder toward the cabin, Grey wondered what was keeping Mariah. She'd promised him she'd be down in a few minutes and he already missed her. He wanted to share every minute with her, make every moment special, and have it last forever. Up in the mountains, away from everyone and everything, anything seemed possible. Even forever.

Picking up a small, flat stone from the ground beside him, he tossed the rock into the lake and watched it skip four times before sinking. He hadn't known what to expect when he'd kidnapped Mariah-it had been a last-ditch desperate effort to persuade her to his way of thinking-but never would he have imagined that her caring and gentleness would change him.

And he was changing. While she'd coaxed him to open up and confide in her about his painful past, a cold, hardened part of him had subsided. Resentments he'd harbored for so long had eased, making room for the more tender emotions Mariah inspired in him. As impossible as it seemed, his feelings for her had altered over the past couple of days, too, growing stronger, richer and infinitely more fulfilling. He felt like the luckiest man on earth and knew Mariah had everything to do with his newfound elation.

Yet he was hesitant to put a label on the unique emotion settling so warmly in his chest. Love wasn't possible, not for him, yet caring didn't seem like a powerful enough word to describe how he felt, either.

Well, hell.

"Hey, you," Mariah said, sliding onto the rock behind him. She scooted close, bracketing his thighs with her long, bare legs. "What are you doing?"

He turned his head and glanced at her. "Waiting for you."

"Well, I'm here." She smiled and placed an affectionate, kiss on his cheek. "What do you want to do today?"

Looking at those sweet lips so close to his, and feeling her thighs tighten at his hips when she shifted to find a more comfortable position, there was only one answer that sprang to mind. He wanted to spend the entire day making love to her, in bed, on the sofa, out on the deck in nature's glory, in front of a nice, warm fire… A hundred, erotic scenarios flashed before him, but he'd made her a promise he wasn't about to break, no matter how badly he ached to be physically close to her.

So, instead, he suggested an activity certain to keep his mind off of sex. "I was thinking we could follow one of these trails around Mark's cabin and go hiking."

She shuddered. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she rubbed her palms over his flat belly. "Grey, I'm up here to relax. I refuse to let you torture me that way."

"We'll find an easy trail." Hooking his fingers beneath her knees, he lifted her legs and draped them over his thighs, so her calves were more accessible to his hands. He cupped the firm flesh in his palms and kneaded. "And when we get back we can soak any aches or pains you might have in the spa. And if that doesn't work, I'd be happy to be your personal masseur."

"Hmm." A tiny sound of pleasure escaped her and she all but melted around him. "Sounds tempting."

Grey nearly groaned at the press of her breasts against his back as she arched, and the way her hands slid to his thighs gave new meaning to the word temptation. "Give me a few more minutes, sweetheart, and you'll agree to just about anything I ask."

She laughed into his ear, the sound husky. "I'm just about there."

At that moment, three young, tow-headed boys came barreling down the path from a nearby cabin and onto the dock next to Mark's, forcing Grey to ease up on his seduction, though he didn't stop touching her. The trio hooted and hollered and jumped into the water in a succession of dive-bombs and belly flops, then came back up sputtering to splash one another. Grey chuckled at the rambunctious youths and their antics.

"Umm, that does look like fun, doesn't it?" Mariah asked.

"Feeling a little hot and bothered, are ya?" he drawled lazily. "Like maybe you need to cool off?"

"I'm perfectly fine," she said, giving him a poke in the side to behave himself. "I just meant that those boys look like they're having a good time."

Smiling, Grey watched one boy dunk another. With a war cry, the third kid jumped off the dock and into the water to join in the playful battle. "Yeah, they do."

They watched the boys for a few quiet minutes, then Mariah asked, "Did you ever miss not having a brother or sister to play with while you were growing up?"

"How can you miss something you've never had?" There was enough cynicism in his voice to contradict the casual shrug of his shoulders. Thankfully, Mariah didn't call him on it. More times than he cared to recall as a child he'd wished for a brother or sister, someone to play with and share secrets. Someone who would have been there for him, just as he would have been around for them, to make them feel wanted, cared for and maybe even loved.

Which had been a foolish whimsy…the selfish longings of a youth searching for acceptance and attention. He hadn't had much experience in feeling wanted, cared for and loved. What made him think he could offer a sibling a part of himself he didn't have to give?

Mariah laughed as one of the boys pushed another into the water, then the third snuck up from behind to shove him in. "I can't imagine what my childhood would have been like without Jade."

"Probably very peaceful and quiet," Grey said wryly.

"And lonely," she added softly.

"Yeah," he agreed, the word lonely summing up his entire childhood. "Did you two get along?"

"Not always," she admitted, amusement and sisterly affection in her voice.

He trailed a finger up her leg and beneath her knee, tickling the sensitive flesh there. She shivered and sighed. "Sibling rivalry?" he guessed.

"No, we never really competed. We fought and argued over stupid stuff, like who got the bathroom first and whose turn it was to do the dishes. And Jade was forever borrowing my clothes and not returning them." She gave a growl of frustration that lacked any real annoyance. "She'd swear she never took them, and I'd find whatever it was that was missing in her closet months later. She's one of the most disorganized persons I know."

"And I'm sure you never did anything wrong."

"I was a complete angel," she replied primly.

"Till I got hold of you." His voice dropped to a low, sexy rumble.

"Hmm." Her mild response told him that she'd willingly let him corrupt her. "No matter what, though, Jade was always there for me when I needed her. She still is. I wouldn't trade her friendship for anything, even though she does tend to get on my nerves from time to time." She propped her chin on his shoulder. "There's nothing like a sibling's love and friendship. You missed out on something special, Grey."

"And a brother or sister missed out on a lot of hurt and dejection." His voice was harsher than he'd intended.

His edge of anger didn't stop her from pursuing the sensitive subject of his childhood. "You didn't have much fun as a kid, did you?"

"Like I told you the other night, my parents weren't exactly the type to interact with children, or to have 'fun.' We never went anywhere as a family, and I didn't have many friends because my father always scared them off."

"It doesn't have to be that way. Not with your own children. Look at how much fun siblings can have together." She waved a hand toward the dock and the boys playing there. "Wouldn't you just love to watch children of your own grow up, have fun-be a part of their lives? And give them wonderful memories to share with their own children one day?"

He didn't answer, just kept watching the boys. How could he give children memories when he didn't have the first clue how to make them?

"I want that, Grey," she went on, her arms tightening around his waist. "I want kids, and I want to give them fun, laughter and even the lessons that come with the right kind of discipline. I'm sorry you never had the playful times, the laughter, the closeness."

Grey squeezed his eyes shut, trying just as hard to shut out the emotions swirling within him. He wanted to tell her not to pity him. And that he'd never chance subjecting a child to the kind of verbal and mental abuse he'd suffered.

A tall blond man strolled down the path the boys had taken earlier. He glanced toward the rock where he and Mariah sat, gave them a neighborly grin and waved, then headed toward the dock, yelling, "Come on, boys, your mother has lunch ready."

"Aw, Dad," one complained, "we haven't been in the water that long!"

"Do we have to?" another said.

"We're not done playing yet!" said the third, then pushed his brothers into the lake and dive-bombed after them. Grey clearly expected their father to get upset, but instead he laughed and let them play a few minutes longer. One of the boys climbed up the ladder onto the dock while his father was talking to one of his brothers. The youngster whooped, ran full force into the bigger man, and they both went tumbling into the water. From there, an all-out water war ensued.

The fun they were having was infectious, and Grey found himself chuckling, too, which eased the lingering tension from his conversation with Mariah. Finally their father insisted they get out and head back to the cabin, before their mother strung every one of them up.

After more grousing and a promise from their dad to return to the lake once they ate lunch and rested, the foursome disappeared up the path.

Wanting to experience some of that spontaneous fun, Grey pulled off Mariah's leather sandals and let them fall to the ground. Then he wrapped his forearms around and beneath her thighs and stood. The abrupt move made her squeal in alarm. She looped her arms around his neck to keep from falling, and hooked her legs tight around his waist. He toed off his own shoes, and proceeded to carry Mariah toward the dock, piggyback-style.

"Grey?" she asked uneasily. "What are you doing?"

Anticipation filled him with every step he took closer to the water. "I thought we might play a little."

She laughed happily, the sound warming Grey's heart. "I have to warn you," she said, her tone light and mischievous. "I've had more experience at this than you, and you might come out the loser."

Grey didn't know how he could possibly lose, not when he was already having a great time. "I'll take my chances," he said, and jumped off the dock and into the summer-warmed lake. The last thing he heard before they went under was Mariah's name on his lips, and his own wicked chuckles.

They came up laughing and absolutely drenched. As Grey took a great gulp of air, he got shot in the face with a spray of water from Mariah. He coughed, and she giggled, saying, "I told you so."

He dove after her, dunking them both beneath the water. From there, time lost meaning as Mariah showed him how to have fun, how to laugh and how to make memories.