His teeth grazed over her lips and nipped at the fullness. It had just enough sting to tell her who was in charge. And then he gentled his movements, following it up with a sensual lap of his tongue, and then soft kisses over the bow of her mouth.
“God help me but I’ve wanted to do that for the longest time,” he said in a raspy voice.
She was stunned. Her legs wobbled and shook, and she prayed she wouldn’t go down, a victim of the heels she’d worn. Nothing could have prepared her for what had just happened. Gabe Hamilton had kissed her. Not just kissed her, but he’d dragged her onto the terrace and ravaged her.
Her lips still tingled from his sensual assault. She was wrecked. Utterly wrecked. It was like having a total buzz, the highest of highs. She hadn’t had that much to drink so she knew damn well she wasn’t reacting to the alcohol. It was him. Pure and simple. He was lethal to her senses.
“Stop looking at me like that or it’s going to get you into some serious trouble,” he growled.
If it were the delicious kind she suspected, she wouldn’t mind getting into trouble with him at all.
“How am I looking at you?” she asked huskily.
“Like you want me to peel that flimsy excuse for a dress from your body and fuck you right here on the terrace.”
She swallowed. Hard. It was probably better not to say anything at all. She wasn’t at all sure what had just happened here. Her senses were reeling, and she couldn’t quite come to terms with the fact that Gabe Hamilton had just kissed her and then talked about fucking her on the terrace of his hotel.
He moved in close again, until his heat swallowed and consumed her. Her pulse beat erratically at her neck, and her breathing was ragged and tight.
“Come see me tomorrow, Mia. At my office. Ten sharp.”
“W-why?” she stammered out.
His expression was hard, and his eyes glittered with a fierce light she couldn’t interpret.
“Because I said so.”
Her eyes widened, and then he reached out to take her hand, pulling her back toward the entrance to the ballroom. He never paused, and kept walking until they reached the lobby. She struggled to keep up with his determined stride as her heels tapped across the polished marble floor.
Her mind was a flurry of upheaval. “Gabe, where are we going?”
He walked outside and motioned to his doorman, who rushed over the moment he saw Gabe standing there. A few seconds later, a sleek, black car pulled to the front and Gabe ushered her inside.
He stood, bent over so that he could see inside the back of the car as his hand grasped the door.
“You’re going home and getting out of that fucking dress,” he said. “Then tomorrow you’re going to come into my office at ten.” He started to close the door but then leaned over to stare at her once more. “And Mia? You better damn well be there.”
chapter two
“So let me get this straight. You bailed on going to the club with me and the girls so you could go to some stuffy grand opening of your brother’s hotel, and while you were there, Gabe Hamilton dragged you onto the terrace, kissed you and then sent you home with explicit instructions to be in his office at ten this morning.”
Mia slouched on the couch across from her roommate and best friend, Caroline, and rubbed her eyes in an effort to get rid of the fog hanging over her. She hadn’t slept at all the night before. How could she? Gabe had tilted her entire universe and now ten o’clock was bearing down on her and she had no idea what she was supposed to do.
“Pretty much, yeah,” Mia replied.
Caroline made an exaggerated face and then fanned herself with one hand. “And here I thought you couldn’t possibly have as good a time as we did. But I sure as hell wasn’t kissed by a gorgeous billionaire.”
“But why?” Mia asked, frustration making her voice edgy. It was a question she’d asked herself repeatedly during her sleepless vigil. Why had he kissed her? Why did he want to see her now when he’d seemed to spend so much time avoiding her?
It hadn’t been a request, but then Gabe Hamilton never asked for anything. He gave orders and he expected results. And she didn’t know what it said about her that she found that particular trait delicious. It made her all warm and shivery inside.
Caroline rolled her eyes. “He wants you, chica. And why wouldn’t he? You’re young and hot, and I bet you’ve starred in his fantasies a time or two over the years.”
Mia wrinkled her nose. “You make it sound so icky.”
“Oh for God’s sake. It’s not like you haven’t lusted over him since you were a teenager. And it’s not like he ever acted on those urges. You’re twenty-four now, not sixteen. Big difference.”