A Diamond in the Dark (5 page)

Ax had no idea how to get out of that one. When he told Jack he was going to Houston for the weekend, his brother had thought it was fantastic. Axton hadn’t understood his enthusiasm until Jack pretty much ordered him to take Tia with him.

“Seeing as Tia is headed there and all, I reckon it would be best if she goes with you.”

Ax had just stared at his brother.

“You can share a room. It’ll save some money, and that girl’s hiding something from me. You can spend some time with her and try to find out what it is.”

Jack sometimes forgot that he was only his brother, and not his pa. And the way the man carried on about money, anyone would think they were poor. In fact, quite the opposite. The McGraettys had been ranching in Lewisville for five generations, and they were very successful. They all had a couple of million in their respective bank accounts, and the business account was even heftier.

When he tried to explain to Jack that he wasn’t just going to Houston for the auction, Jack had raised his eyebrows and told him he could get laid in town—he didn’t need to go to Houston for that.

“Wouldn’t it be more important to watch over your niece?”

And there it was. He was going to Houston because the one he wanted, but couldn’t have, was here.
His niece.
How was he supposed to spend a whole weekend in a room with her?

The woman had been tempting him for years. He’d wanted to strip her naked the other night and re-cloth her with his body. Watching her sleep in the small bed at Smokin’ Tom’s had been maddening. Every breath she had taken had pushed her breasts into his back. If he’d been facing her, the evidence of his arousal wouldn’t have been missed. When he had awoke to her wrapped in his arms all he’d wanted to do was pull her closer. It had taken all his willpower to get out of that bed.

He’d never wanted another as much as he wanted her. His heart actually skipped a beat every time she was near. He knew he love—
Niece! Think of her as family. Grrrr. Fuck.
Mentally, he banged his head on the nearest wall.

“Are you sure?” Tia asked, her voice bringing his thoughts back to the present. “You don’t look too happy about taking me with you.”

He hadn’t realized he was pouting like a five year old. Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he looked into Tia’s weird eyes. Jesus, it was going to be a long weekend.

“Sorry, just have a lot on my mind,” he said. “What are you going to Houston for anyway?”

“Umm. I’ve just got a few things I need to take care of. Give me a minute to make some sandwiches to take with us and I’ll be ready to go. You want me to make you a couple?”

If that wasn’t the vaguest answer he had ever heard. But he didn’t want to know if there was someone in Houston she was seeing. He had a feeling the way he would react to the knowledge would not be in an uncle-type way.

“Sure. But we’ll have to stop to get gas anyway, so we can eat then,” Ax said while staring at her ass. With her head stuck in the refrigerator as she got the fixings to make the sandwiches, her delectable ass waved hello to him. He quickly adjusted himself before she turned around.

“You can eat at a truck stop if you want, but never again will I eat at one.” Tia smiled over her shoulder at him.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, about a year ago, on the way to Houston, I did the whole gas-and-eat thing and ended up with a horrible case of food poisoning. So since then, I’ve sworn off any places that truckers stop to eat.” Tia’s laugh filled the kitchen.

“What’s so funny about that? You must’ve felt terrible.”

“Oh, nothing really. I was just remembering a meeting I had to go to at the time. And I wasn’t exactly comfortable during it. I spent the whole time worrying if I was going to crap my pants. And it wasn’t something I could get out of either. Let’s just say it was a close call.” Her radiant face turned toward him; Axton loved it when she smiled like that, he just wished it was for him and not about her dodging disaster.

He watched Tia as she made sandwiches, her ass swaying in time with the radio which played softly in the background. How the fuck was he going to keep his hands off her while they were sharing a room? Hell, the six-hour car ride to Houston was going to be hard enough.

* * * *

Tia watched as Axton put her bag in the back of his truck, and she released a frustrated sigh, because wasn’t this going to be fun-fucken-tastic—stuck in a car with Ax for a little over six hours.

Would he spend the time ignoring her like he normally did? Hell, the conversation they’d just had in the kitchen was the most he’d spoken to her in what felt like a very long time.

But there was no point in stressing over a situation she had no control over. At least when they got to Houston they could go their separate ways.

Any other weekend, she would have been thrilled with the idea of being given an opportunity to try and seduce Ax. But not this weekend. Not when she had to stand up in front of a panel of professors who held her future in their hands. If she spent too much time around Ax over the next twenty-four hours, she was likely to stand there and describe his body for three hours instead of presenting and defending her work.
Grrrrr.

The slamming of the driver’s door pulled her from her musing, and she got inside the truck, Ax waiting until she had buckled her belt before starting their long trip to Houston.

Her worry over him treating her like she wasn’t there had been a waste of time. For the most part the drive had been pleasant. Well, when she hadn’t been squirming in her seat to move the uncomfortable wetness away from her skin, a dampness which was caused by his close proximity. They had chatted about the goings-ons at the ranch and gossip they’d heard in town. When they weren’t talking, there was a comfortable silence, which Tia spent going over her dissertation in her head. It was when they actually got to Houston that the shit hit the fan.

Axton pulled the truck into the JW Marriott. The McGraettys might be ranchers, but whenever any of them traveled they liked to stay somewhere that offered the luxury they could afford.

The thing was Tia wasn’t booked at the Marriott.

“Ax, I didn’t book a room here. I’m booked at one of the little B-and-B’s on the other side of town.” Which was only about ten minutes from the college. Not wanting to travel through Saturday morning traffic, she’d opted to stay closer to campus. Apart from the auction that Ax was going to, there was also a big rodeo in town. Meaning Houston was going to be busier than normal.

“Yeah, about that...” Ax said. He was biting his bottom lip like a little kid, and Tia had the most unbelievable urge to lean over and nibble on it herself. She shook her head to clear away the thought.

“What?”

“Well, ya see, Jack thought it would be better if you stayed with me. He didn’t want you staying by yourself, with Houston being so busy this weekend, so he canceled your booking. But wait,” he continued before she got a chance to interrupt. “It’s okay, I got a suite that has a pullout, so we can share,” Ax said as he got out of the car. He handed his keys to the valet, then went around to the back of his truck to get their bags.

Tia was mad as hell. How dare Uncle Jack cancel her accommodation without talking to her about it first! And Axton had six fucking hours to prepare her for this, he didn’t have to wait until they pulled up at the friggin’ Marriot. She was well and truly pissed when she caught up with him.

“Isn’t that going to be a problem for you, Ax? I know what y’all get up to when you come into Houston.” The knowledge depressed Tia to no end. “I’ll see if I can get another room.” With that Tia stormed toward the reception desk, fuming at herself because now she had images of Ax getting hot and sweaty with some unknown bimbo.

Turned out they didn’t have any other rooms available.
Friggin’ hell, couldn’t one of those higher beings give a girl a break?
So half an hour later she was locked in the bathroom, trying to calm herself down.

From the quick look she’d gotten of the room before storming into the bathroom, it was beautiful. It was an open plan and had a king-sized bed. As soon as the image of her and Ax rolling around on that bed jumped into her brain, she closed her eyes and tried to dispel the vision before opening them again. Near the window, that undoubtedly looked out over Houston, was a bar and eating area. In the center of the room was a large, flat screen TV that acted as a divider, slightly separating the couch that would double as a pullout from the main bed.

Even though they both lived on the ranch, they hadn’t lived under the same roof since she was ten. That’s when Axton moved back into his childhood home, a beautiful older house which sat about two miles west of Uncle Jack’s. There were another two houses being built on the ranch. Rick and his best buddy Tiny were building one, and Ethan was building the other. They’d been working on them for the last five years. Their houses were located closer together and about a mile south of their dad’s place. If everything went as planned, they would all be moving out of the big house by the end of the year.

How the hell was she supposed to survive being in such close proximity to Ax for the weekend without trying to hump his leg like a horny dog?

Christ, she had hoped with all the visitors to Houston, she would be able to go out and have a night of fun. She couldn’t have done anything serious with anyone else other than Ax, but she could have had…something. She just needed to have someone touch her in a non-family type of way.

Tia was all for getting a little bit of experience. Maybe even get some hand or mouth action. That plan had been shot to shit, because the only man she really wanted to touch her in that way, in any way really, was outside the fucking bathroom door.

Filling the spa bath with hot enough water to have her looking like a lobster, Tia climbed into the tub and mentally went over her dissertation as she soaked. It helped for a while, until she started fantasizing that Axton was the dean of the school.

“Fantastic presentation, Miss Teeford. We have loved working with you. Before you leave today the dean has requested your presence. He is expecting you in his office. Please make your way straight there.”

What could the dean want with her? She had only met the man once. Walking to his office, she began to worry. That worry escalated when she saw a girl around her own age come running out of his office crying, sobbing something about professors knowing nothing and deans that wouldn’t give her the distinction she was due. Tia waited a minute before knocking, hoping the time would allow the dean to calm down after his meeting with Miss sobs-a-lot.

“Come in.” His deep Texas accent was clearly heard through the partially opened door, and that voice started doing things to her body that only one man before had ever done.

Entering the dimly lit room, she found the dean sitting behind a large oak desk. He looked so much like Axton, making her already quivering body almost visibly vibrate. Tia took one of the seats in front of the desk. She was shaking inside, not only from worry, but also from the sudden flush that had her pussy pulsing in time with her now racing heart.

“Miss Teeford, we would all like to thank you for your hard efforts,” he said as he came around the desk to stand before her. Perching his fine ass on the edge of that sturdy-looking desk, he took one of her hands in his big, callused one. He was still talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him.

When he had started running his fingers over her knuckles in a hypnotizing rhythm, her brain had switched off. Her breathing was starting to sound like she was panting, her nipples were hard and achy. The small piece of floss between her ass cheeks was irritating her, she wanted—no,
needed
it gone.

“Umm sorry, I didn’t catch that,” she said as she looked up into his emerald green eyes. Eyes just like Axton’s.

He pulled her from her seat, standing so close she could feel his powerful muscles. He bent down to whisper in her ear. “I have never wanted another person the way I have craved you. I see you walking around campus and I yearn for your monthly visits,” he whispered, then licked the shell of her ear.

Her body shivered so strongly at the erotic touch of his tongue it caused her to lose her balance, and she fell into his large chest.

Not missing a beat, he swept her into his arms. Spinning around, he placed her on his desk. Instinctively, her hands went to his broad shoulders. She didn’t have time to think as he quickly brought their mouths together. The kiss was hot and hungry. His hands were busy ripping her blouse open, the cooler air hitting her lace-covered nipples. Kissing his way down the column of her neck, he sucked at the soft upper swells of her breasts. She’d never known that any other part of her tits were as sensitive as her nipples, but the slow pull he was inflicting made her crave more.

Releasing his shoulders, she undid the front closure of her bra, freeing herself from its confining feeling. Wasting no time, he latched onto her now almost painfully erect nipples, while his hands moved to lift her skirt. Tia couldn’t believe she was doing this, but it felt too good to stop. His deft fingers snapped the thin fabric of her panties, exposing her pulsing cunt, and bringing forth a moan of want from her. Without hesitation, he plunged his long, thick fingers into her—

“Tia, are you all right in there? I thought I heard you moan. Tia, you all right? Did you slip?”

Crap.
Tia looked down her body to see that, yes she did have her fingers as far as they could go in her pussy and had just been busted, by none other than the man she was imagining shoving his fingers up her vee-jay-jay. She moaned again, this time in mortification.

“Tia, if you don’t answer me, I’m going to break this door down.” Ax’s worried voice ricocheted around the bathroom.

“No! Ah, I’m fine. You’re right, I slipped and bumped my head. Don’t come in, I’ll be out in a minute.” Right after drowning herself.