Losing Control(57)

I put my hands on his shoulders so I don’t look like an unwilling mannequin. Richard has lied, of course. He’s a great dancer. His hips move easily to the rhythm and his hands drift lower, fingers splaying to reach more intimate parts of my body. I back away, but there’s little room on the packed dance floor.

Under my palms, his body feels alien to me and I don’t want to touch him, but in the small space that the crowd has allotted for us, I can’t do anything about it. When he slides a thigh between my legs, the intimacy is simply too much and I feel claustrophobic. This isn’t what I want. I don’t want to have to touch him, dance with him, or kiss him. God, will I have to kiss him?

Before I can break away, there’s a commotion behind me and then a familiar hand wraps around my waist and pulls me firmly against a hard body.

“I’m sorry, Rich, but Victoria has to leave.” Ian doesn’t wait for a response from me or Richard. Instead, he literally lifts me off my feet and carries me to the edge of the dance floor, the crowd parting before him with ease. About five steps beyond the dance floor, Ian sets me down and I totter, momentarily disoriented and unused to the heels. His hand, still latched to my side, braces me.

“Don’t you think Victoria should be the one to decide when she leaves?” Rich has followed us, but Ian doesn’t even turn to look at him. He buries his nose into my hair, and I feel the whisper of a kiss against my head.

“She’s got an urgent task to take care of,” he says flatly.

“At midnight?” Richard’s voice is full of skepticism.

“Yes, at midnight.” The hand at the small of my back presses me forward as Ian gently propels me toward the rear of the club, past the centrally located bar and the huge circular aquarium. Beyond the dancers, the partiers, and the watchers and out into the night.

“I don’t get you,” I mutter, shivering a little.

“What’s there to get? I don’t like other men touching you.” His words are clipped. When we’re at the street, the big gray car is idling, waiting like a giant gray panther to whisk us away. He opens the door and almost shoves me inside. Over the top of the roof I hear him say something to Steve, something like “long way around the park.”

As Ian settles next to me, he presses a button and the privacy screen rises. I stare at it until Steve’s head is completely cut off and we’re entombed in silence in the back. There isn’t even music and almost no street sounds inside this luxurious car.

“Are you really that compartmentalized?”

“Your change of subjects is dizzying.” He reaches for me. “And you are much too far away.”

“It’s that you told me you want me and then it turned off when Richard showed up. I can’t keep up with that.”

“You’re wrong.” His hand comes up to the base of my throat, his fingers curling around to press on the pulse of my heart. No doubt he can feel it beating rapidly.

“Stop it.” I push his hand away. “What are you doing? You ignore me for twenty minutes and then pull me off the dance floor to grope me in the car?”

He lets out a loud snort and then turns to look out the window. The lights of the street and stores flash by as Steve maneuvers us around the north side of the park. In a gruff, low tone, almost as if he doesn’t want to say it, Ian admits, “I always want you. Watching you with Howe was a miserable experience I don’t want to repeat. I hadn’t realized I’d feel this way.”

“I’m confused, too,” I mutter.

Then he lifts me onto his body in one swift move and covers my yelp with his mouth. His tongue is inside my mouth before I am even settled against the very hard column of his erection. His tongue is bold, and his lips move over mine with specific intent. This is no soft romantic kiss, this is a claiming. He’s growling and his one hand is tangled in my hair, holding me imprisoned against his mouth. The other hand is kneading my butt cheek through the silk.

I can’t help but kiss him back, playing with his tongue until we are a tangle of tongues and mouths and wetness. I have no oxygen, but I don’t need it. Ian is breathing for me. His tongue is everywhere inside my mouth. There is no place inside that recess he doesn’t explore, and all the while he holds me tight against him.

Then he breaks away almost as suddenly as the kiss started and rasps out, “I want you, Tiny Corielli. I’ve wanted you since the minute I saw you and that want has turned into a need I’ve not been able to shake. I tried to ignore what I was feeling, push it aside, but it kept returning. I’m not going to fight it anymore.”