body felt as charged as though she’d gotten a shot of adrenaline straight in her veins. Flutters exploded
in her stomach.
Clad in a dark black gabardine that made his hair look even blonder, the tousled sun-lightened
streaks calling her fingers, he was a walking, talking sex bomb. “Wow. Did you fly here?” she said
teasingly, feeling warm inside when he smiled.
“I was actually down in the lobby all day, waiting for your summons.” He dropped his coat on the
coat stand, and he was wearing no tie. His hair was in disarray, his face incredibly sexy with that slow
smile that made her lungs burn, and she had forgotten how incredibly low and rich his voice was.
She signaled to the wine she’d poured for him. “Wine?”
“Don’t mind if I do,” he said, and he lifted the goblet and sipped, his eyes raking her form.
She had never been more aware of how revealing her night dress was. White and whispery as a
breath, it displayed her body underneath almost as if she were completely nude to him. Every inch of
her hips, her curves, her belly button, could be seen. Her hair was loose, falling in perfect waves past
her shoulders, but the tips did nothing to cover the tips of her breasts, and her nipples tightened visibly
through the material.
His expression tonight was not as playful as yesterday, she realized with a rapidly pumping heart. It
was dead serious and somber, and his eyes shone with a new predatory gleam when they finished their
foray of her body and returned to hers. Her chest tightened painfully hard. He’d seen her naked. He’d
penetrated her with his fingers. He’d come in her hand. The blood thrummed through her veins, slowly
and powerfully going to her sex, her breasts, tightening her skin.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, for lack of anything else to say, for lack of the courage to tell him, Do
me! Do me! Do me now!
His green gaze literally ate her up as he took another drink, then he set it aside. “So the little
princess needs to be tucked in.”
“It was either you or valerian.”
“He sounds old and definitely not straight, princess.”
“It’s an herb,” she said, laughing.
A full toe-curling smile flashed, and he reached out to rub his fingers along the bottom bow of her
peignoir. He stared at her mouth with undisguised hunger, and she stared at his in return, her heart
beating with wild tension. Her voice came out a croak. “I’m really nervous this time.”
There was a lengthened silence, both of them standing utterly still, then Daniel cupped her neck in
his big hand, the slow stroke of his thumb sending shivers down her skin. “It’s just me,” he murmured,
and he slowly reeled her in, until her breasts were grazing sensually against his chest, his erection
nestled between her legs, his eyes were so dilated they were almost black.
His finger slid up and down her cleavage, where the fabric had parted. Then it slid higher to seize
her chin and keep her gaze focused on his face, raw with desire. “I like you with your hair down. You
look soft and inviting.” The raw male lust in his eyes caressed her like his words, and her body
responded, her nipples visibly erect and poking into the flimsy material of her peignoir just as his eyes
dropped to take them in again. “And I like what you’re wearing, too.”
Trembling to her bones, she pulled his shirt free from the waistband of his dress slacks and began to
slowly unbutton it. “Are you going to make me take it off, or will you do it?”
His eyes glimmered, and her breaths became uneven as he bent his head. “Whatever the lady
wants.” Her stomach clenched in needy anticipation as his lips grazed hers, just a whisper. Her breath
tangled in her throat when they grazed hers again, then his hands slid into the mass of her hair as he
spoke, his voice getting thicker and thicker. “Are you just mine to play with for now … or are you
planning to be friendly with anyone else?”
He sounded possessive. Extremely possessive. Ecstasy trembled through her and she didn’t know
why, but she slid her hands up his hard abdomen and eased his shirt off his powerful shoulders. “Just
you. All my other special friends were busy.”
“Ahhh. Then I’m so glad I passed on all those other offers, too.”
She didn’t laugh. She couldn’t. Instead she felt a wave of jealousy rise within her, followed by a
harsh wave of longing so intense that she couldn’t wait a single second more wondering what his lips
felt like. She’d wondered at nineteen … at twenty … at twenty-one.… She wondered now what would
have happened if she hadn’t been so afraid of what she felt.…