Secrets and Seduction: Solacia Cellars Read online

  Secrets and Seduction: Solacia Cellars

  By

  Alicia Roberts

  Copyright 2012 by Alicia Roberts

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Adult Reading Material

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content. It is intended only for those aged 18 and above.

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  Secrets and Seduction: Solacia Cellars

  ***

  After a series of career mishaps, former independent-film actress Terra Foster has been out of work for over a year.

  On a whim, she answers a help wanted ad for an assistant to live and work on Rafe Jackson’s organic winery in northern California. Terra is skeptical, but when Rafe tells her that the salary is six figures, she accepts the job.

  When a chance encounter after working hours brings unexpected intimacy with Rafe, Terra is torn between her desire for him and her suspicions, as she wonders how he made his fortune and why his story never quite seems to add up.

  Chapter 1The wind from the ocean blew through Terra’s long black hair as she drove north up the Pacific Coast Highway in her Miata convertible.

  The car was already six years old, a reminder of better times in her career and her life. Back in Los Angeles the little car was too slow to keep up with the city’s infamous freeway traffic, and it exposed her to exhaust fumes on the rare days that she drove with the top down. Today, with LA already a distant memory in her rearview mirror and the overwhelming beauty of the central California coastline surrounding her, she was glad again that she had bought it.

  Her destination was just south of Monterey, five hours north of LA, for a job interview as a “project manager” for Solacia Cellars, an organic winery. As Terra pulled up to the security gate, she reflected on the fact that she had just driven more than 300 miles and still had no idea what type of projects she might be managing. She hoped she wouldn’t end up picking grapes.

  The gate lifted automatically for her and she drove through, wondering whether it opened for any total stranger who pulled up. If it did, she thought, then what was the point of having it?

  Or perhaps someone was expecting her.

  Inside the high fence that surrounded the property, the road wound downhill toward the ocean and led to a four-story house built in contemporary style with entire walls made of glass. Behind it, pine trees gave off a woodsy scent, and the blue Pacific framed the house as if in a painting. She thought she heard waves crashing in the distance as she turned off the car and got out.

  The door chime was answered by an intercom, and at last someone asked her for her name. “Terra Foster,” she replied.

  “Be there in a few,” the man’s voice said.

  While she waited, Terra tried to decide whether the man behind the speaker was the same man she spoke with on the phone yesterday. She had been checking the online classifieds on her break after the lunch rush at the trendy LA restaurant where she worked waiting tables when she saw the ad and e-mailed her resume.

  Within half an hour a man had called back to set up an interview, and she had decided it was time for a job change. The restaurant’s hipster clientele tipped generously, especially when she wore a short skirt to work, but waitressing was exhausting, and she was tired of being stared at and hit on by middle-aged men so doughy and self-absorbed that she wouldn’t have slept with a single one of them even if he had paid her.

  The door opened and she stood before a tall man with trendy Bollé sunglasses casually pushed up into his thick, copper-brown hair. She briefly met his eyes, which were piercing blue, before letting her gaze descend and take in the rest of him: a dazzling white polo shirt covering well-muscled shoulders, plaid madras shorts, strong tanned legs, and brown leather fisherman’s sandals on his feet. He looked about age thirty, but something in his expression told her he was older than that.

  “Terra, good to meet you. I’m Rafe Jackson.” He extended his hand. When she accepted it, she felt a flash of warmth run up her elbow, down the center of her body, and end up between her legs. She blushed and averted her eyes.

  He seemed to sense the effect he had on her. “Excuse my lack of formality,” he said, his eyes sweeping her body and noting her interview clothes. “I can’t resist working outdoors when the weather is good, which is most of the time here. Please come this way.”

  She walked behind him and sneaked a glance at his athletic butt as he led her to a patio ringed by a low stone wall. An enormous tree grew in the center and provided deep, cool shade in the heat of the day. The view of the ocean was stunning.

  Rafe held a chair for her to sit down and then stepped over to a fully equipped wet bar located under an awning. “Something to drink, Terra?”

  She weighed the offer against her limited employment options and settled on a response. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

  He grinned. “I’m a typical California health nut even though I own a winery. No alcohol before dinnertime for me.” She watched as he expertly combined freshly squeezed orange juice with sparkling water and slices of lemon over cracked ice, inserted a straw for her, and brought the drinks to the table. “Mimosas,” he said. “Shirley Temple style.”

  “Very nice,” Terra said. “All that’s missing is the parasol.”

  “You don’t seem like the parasol type,” Rafe said, looking at her intently.

  Terra had no time to wonder what he meant by that before he started the interview. “So, Terra, if you could have your dream job today because of this interview, what would it be?”

  She had expected him to ask the usual questions about her current job, how long she had worked there, and her project management experience, which she planned to dance around as best she could. His inquiry startled her into answering honestly.

  “I’d like to play the starring role in an Oscar winning movie. Something both artistically perfect and commercially successful.”

  “That’s a tough combination,” Rafe said. “In all things, not just the movies.” He thought for a minute. “What actress do you admire most and why?” He leaned forward to hear her reply, as if her answer truly mattered to him.

  Again his question moved Terra to be candid. “Angelica Huston.”

  Rafe nodded. “I love Angelica. She’s intelligent and sexy at the same time, and she can play any role, good girl or bad girl.” He smiled and looked directly at her. For a moment Terra was certain he was going to ask her which type of girl she was, but the moment passed, and his next question was one she was ready for. “So you’re an actress?”

  Terra smiled back at him, flattered by his interest in her work. “Yes. I’ve had a few good roles in independent films that never quite broke out and made it big.” Her memory brought her up short, and she hurriedly went on to describe the movies she had acted in, hoping to avoid any questions about why she wasn’t acting anymore.

  Rafe listened with interest and probed her for information about the movies and her roles in them. Then he said, “That concludes my half of the interview. I’ve already read your resume, so now it’s your turn to ask me questions.” He sipped his drink and sat back in his chair.

  Terra had mentally prepared a list of conventional interview questions on the drive up the coast, boring questions about the job description, corporate culture, and probationary period, but after fifteen minutes of being “interviewed” by Rafe, she couldn’t remember any of them, so she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

  “Where are
the grapes?”

  Rafe laughed uproariously, and Terra risked letting him see her look of annoyance. “They’re inland thirty miles, in the valley where there’s topsoil,” he said. “This is corporate headquarters.”

  Terra was still annoyed at him for laughing at her. “Corporate headquarters?” she said, looking over at the bar and then at the sunglasses still perched on his head.

  Again he laughed, genuine laughter, and finally she joined him. “Come on, Terra, life is too short to be so serious,” he said. “What are your other questions?”

  “Where are the rest of your employees?”

  “Besides the winery workers, you mean? Most of my support staff works online. There’s a gardener and a housekeeper on the grounds during the day, but I have a rule that everyone goes home at 5 p.m. We work hard and play hard at Solacia, but we don’t work overtime.”

  I’ll bet you play hard, Terra thought. “What’s the job description?”

  “Oh, the job.” Terra could swear he had forgotten about it. “I need a social media manager to promote the company on the big internet sites like Facebook, Twitter, the like. I’m too busy making wine to pay attention to that stuff, and it’s so damn tedious. I’ll pay you to surf the internet eight hours a day, find cool information about good wine and healthy organic living, and post it on the internet for me. You can even work in your pajamas if you want.” He grinned and his blue eyes probed Terra’s for a reaction.

  She gave him none. “It sounds interesting,” she said coolly.

  “You probably want to know the salary,” Rafe continued.

  “Of course.” She expected it to be as bad as her waitressing wages, with the expectation of sexual fringe benefits, of course. This wasn’t her first rodeo.

  “$139,000 annually, plus health insurance and an IRA with a two-to-one matching contribution from the company. The job is yours if you want it. Do you want it?”

  Terra’s head had started to spin after the first set of zeroes. “Yes,” she heard herself say.

  “Good! I’m delighted that you accept. By the way, you’ll have a private cottage on the grounds and full use of all facilities for as long as you want to stay here. That means you can help yourself to the gardens, sauna, fully equipped gym, and hot tub.” When he said hot tub, she could swear through her brain fog that he winked at her.

  Chapter 2The cottage was a tidy one bedroom house furnished in blue and white and shaded by a grove of trees. The windows were open to the breeze off the ocean, and the bed was made up with a puffy white down comforter. A computer with a large monitor sat on a work desk. Exhausted from the drive up the coast, Terra took a quick nap as soon as Rafe left her with instructions to get settled in and then come up with a plan for her first week of work.

  “Make yourself at home, and we’ll talk when I get back tomorrow evening,” he had told her, touching her arm before he left.

  When she woke up, the sun had already set. After checking the computer to make sure everything was working, Terra changed into her bikini swimsuit, tied a gauzy wrap skirt around her waist, and set out to find the hot tub. She did find it, on a deck in a grove of pine trees overlooking the ocean. Even though Rafe had told her he would be gone until the following evening, she approached the deck stairs quietly and listened to make sure no one was around.

  Satisfied that she was alone, Terra grabbed a towel from a storage bin, untied her skirt, and slowly lowered herself into the hot water, which bubbled quietly and gave off a wonderful aroma of redwood. Closing her eyes, she relaxed and let the tensions of the past year leave her thoughts as the heat worked its way into her tired body.

  A year ago her acting career still held promise. The director of her first film had later become famous, which renewed public interest in his early work, and interest in her. Although she hadn’t enjoyed the same fame, her agent sent some good scripts her way and made sure she kept working.

  Then she caught the attention of Jim Mann. The powerful horror movie director had a reputation for gory filmmaking genius matched by a taste for mentally and physically abusing the women who worked for him. Ten years ago he had stood trial for murdering his third wife, a blonde actress with more talent than she ever got credit for, but there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him. The Hollywood rumor mill had whispered for years that he had connections with organized crime.

  Terra remembered the single time she met Mann and shuddered. Afterward she had instructed her agent to tell him she was under option to another studio and couldn’t work for him. At the time that was true, but shortly after she sent the message, Terra stopped getting scripts to read, any scripts, even bad ones. After more than a year without any acting work, she was sick to death of Hollywood and had taken the job in the restaurant in LA that she had kept until yesterday.

  She wondered about her new boss, who never seemed to get upset about anything. Probably a trust fund baby, she thought. Must be easy to be mellow when you’ve never had to fight for what you have.

  She heard footsteps on the wooden stairs and her eyes flew open. Her first impulse was to run, but the stairs were her only way out. Shaking, she decided to stay in the tub, where her nearly nude body was at least covered up by the water.

  As her visitor came into view, Terra was shocked to see it was Rafe, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. His bare chest was smooth and tan, with a noticeable six-pack marking his abs.

  Taken aback, she said the first thing that came into her mind. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes fell on the bulge of his cock hanging under the towel. He’s hung, she thought, in spite of herself.

  Rafe grinned. “Hello Terra. My meeting was canceled, so I thought I’d come up here to soak and relax. It’s great to see you’re here too.” He started unwrapping the towel.

  Oh my God, Terra thought, turning her head away from him and closing her eyes as he dropped the towel on the deck and slid into the hot tub next to her.

  After the silence had grown uncomfortable, Rafe spoke up. “You’re from the Midwest, aren’t you?”

  Offended, Terra forgot that she was talking to her boss. “What do you mean by that?” she demanded, opening her eyes and facing him.

  Rafe was unfazed. “Corn belt or rust belt?” His smile was friendly, inviting her not to take herself so seriously.

  Terra looked at his well-muscled shoulders and felt a stab of sexual desire between her legs. “I’m from Minnesota,” she said. “I thought you said you read my resume.”

  Rafe grinned. “We do things a bit differently in central California,” he said. “Like take off our clothes.”

  Involuntarily, Terra wet her lips as she looked at him. “I see that,” she fired back.

  His gaze drilled into hers for what seemed like an eternity, and then he moved to her side. Transfixed as his face drew closer, she half closed her eyes and offered him her mouth for a deep soul kiss, his tongue seeking hers and devouring it. Beneath the water, she felt him take her hand and place it on his bare hard cock.

  His big erection felt so good in Terra’s hand as she stroked its length. As Rafe untied her bikini top and let her breasts drop free of their support, her pussy gave a single throb so intense that it almost hurt.

  “There, that’s better,” he murmured, cupping each breast under the water with his hands. He kissed her again as he explored the heft of her breasts and skillfully pulled at each nipple, just right, not too hard but hard enough to make her gasp with pleasure.

  “Come this way, Terra,” he commanded. He hoisted himself out of the water and reached down to help her climb up on the deck. Terra accepted his hand and fixed her eyes on his well muscled body and half-erect cock. She loved his complete lack of embarrassment at his nudity as she followed him to the deck overlooking the ocean, his hand still in hers.

  Rafe deftly peeled her bikini bottom down over her ass and legs and unhurriedly dried her off with a fresh towel. After quickly toweling his own body dry, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her as his han
ds slid down over her bare ass. The breeze off the Pacific tickled her skin as Rafe kneaded and massaged her bottom until it seemed to Terra that he owned it. His cock sprang back to a full erection and she eagerly threw the weight of her belly against it, feeling his steel-hard male flesh against her skin.

  His lips were close to her ear. “Come closer to me, Terra,” he whispered. “All afternoon I’ve wanted nothing except to get my face in your red hot pussy. Now I’m going to do it, and I can tell by the way you’re acting that you’re going to love it.”

  He led her to a pair of chaise lounges and laid her down on her back with her knees raised and her ass almost hanging off the edge, giving him full access to her sex. Terra pulled a pillow under her head and closed her eyes, anticipating the pleasure of this gorgeous hunk of man going down on her.

  Rafe wasted no time. He knelt down and wrapped his tongue around her clitoris. Terra moaned and thrust her hips up at him, spreading her thighs out into the dark as his tongue engulfed her flesh with wetness and warmth. His tongue seemed enormous, as huge as his cock, so warm and wet and generous. He scooped up big laps of her juices with his tongue and savored them as he rolled his face around in her pussy and caressed her lips and clit with his face as well as his tongue.

  Terra was fucking his face now, heaving her hips rhythmically and rubbing herself off against his tongue strokes. She felt the familiar fire building in her inner parts and heard herself panting and sighing as her orgasm drew closer. When it came, she cried out over and over again as Rafe gradually decreased the pressure from his tongue, skillfully extending her pleasure several minutes as her womb throbbed and heaved.

  When it was over, Rafe lay down on the second chaise lounge next to her and wrapped them both in a warm, fleecy blanket. “Good vibes, baby?” he inquired, pulling her close to him.

  “Just the best,” Terra said, her voice low and soothing. She thought for a minute about how she didn’t usually like being called baby, and how right it seemed when Rafe called her that.