Page 16 of Price of Paradise

She smiled and got into the foamy water. “Thank you, Gunner.”

Gunner waited for her to relax before stepping in behind her and sitting down. Pulling her against his chest, he ground out, “Ah, yeah, that’s good.”

She sighed. “I agree one hundred percent.”

They sat there for a few minutes, enjoying the hot water and fragrant bubbles. It was Mae who broke the silence. “Tell me about your parents.”

Gunner scowled. Not a topic he wanted to get into with her. “Why?”

She tilted her head back to look him in the eye. “Because I want to know more about you.”

“You know a lot of it already.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “My mother was sweet and giving. Dad wasn’t. That’s about it.”

She slapped his thigh beneath the water. “That’s a fairly short story, Gunner.”

He picked up a sponge and squirted some bath gel onto it. “I don’t know what you want me to say.” He started on her shoulders, rubbing the sponge up and down her arms. “Dad was all about money. He made his first million by the time he turned thirty. He was cold, calculating, and he wasn’t above screwing over his friends to get what he wanted.”

Mae relaxed against him, her hands drifting up and down his thighs on either side of her body. He wasn’t certain she even knew she was doing it. “He sounds awful. What did your mom ever see in him?” she asked in a faraway voice.

“He could turn on the charm when it suited him.” He worked his way over her chest, paying special attention to eachof her breasts. “I think he was good to her at first. After Jake and I came along Dad started drinking. That’s when things changed.”

She stiffened. “He became abusive?”

“Yeah.” Gunner tried to shut out the memories, but he’d learned long ago how impossible that was. “Mom tried to shield us from it, for the most part.”

“Why didn’t she leave him?”

“She tried once.” Gunner still remembered his mother waking him in the middle of the night. They’d slipped out while his father was passed out after a night of binge drinking. “I was eight at the time. Jake would’ve been six.”

Mae’s soft hands continued to massage and soothe as she asked, “What happened?”

“Dad threatened to file for full custody of us if she didn’t come back.”

Her hands stilled. “And with his money, his connections…”

“There’s no doubt Mom would’ve lost us. She didn’t want to chance it.”

She clutched his thighs in her hands, her short nails digging into his skin. “God, that’s awful, Gunner. For all of you.”

He nuzzled the top of her head as he drifted the sponge beneath the water to her belly, and beyond. “After Jake and I moved out on our own, Mom filed for divorce.”

“Then the breast cancer. Life can be so cruel.” Her exploring hands moved higher, coming precariously close to his cock. “Is it awful to admit that I’m not sorry your father is no longer alive?”

“Trust me, the world is a better place with him gone,” he muttered. Gunner caressed the sponge over her pussy, and he felt her shudder from the gentle abrasion. “What about you? Your parents live in Arizona, right?”

“Y-Yes,” she stuttered, clearly distracted by his playfultouches. “I had a pretty average, middle-class upbringing. Mom stayed home to raise my sister Shelley and me. Dad worked hard, but he always hugged and kissed us at the end of the day. After he retired they moved to a warmer climate because of Mom’s arthritis. We talk daily and I visit them on holidays.” She sighed. “Like I said, average.”

“You and I are so different,” he mused aloud.

She leaned her head back, catching his gaze. “Is that a bad thing?”

“No.” He paused and tried to put his feelings into words, something he seriously sucked at. “Life with my father was always tense. Always waiting for the next bomb to go off. What you just described is completely foreign to me, Mae.”

“You aren’t your father, Gunner,” Mae whispered, running her hand up and down his thigh.

Gunner dropped the sponge and cupped her chin. He tugged until she was looking at him. “How can you know that? I can be just as ruthless. Just as cunning.”

“No, you’d never destroy someone else just to make a buck,” she explained, her voice firm. “You aren’t that guy.”

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