The Billion Dollar Bachelor(11)

Because clearly the limo didn’t give it away. Or the thousand-dollar suit. Or the expensive whiskey he had been drinking.

Pandora ignored the snide voice. Okay, so he had money. So what? That didn’t mean he knew her father. And anyway, it was too late now, wasn’t it?

He opened the door and got out, holding it open for her. Pandora slid from the car. Of course it was too late. She’d already decided that.

His fingers wrapped around hers as they went up the steps and she could barely breathe for the heat that flashed across her skin in response. Then she was being led inside to an elevator that opened almost as soon as he touched the button. The interior was mirrored glass, her white face reflecting off so many surfaces she had to close her eyes.

As the doors closed she braced herself, expecting a touch. A kiss. Something.

But he didn’t make a move. Only said, a minute or so later, “Here we are.”

She opened her eyes and stepped out of the elevator into an expansive space of massive windows, exposed brick, and polished wooden floors. Lights came up almost immediately but they were subtle and indirect, casting moody shadows here and there.

A huge black leather sectional sofa took up center stage in the room, large enough to be a decent-sized bed. For two people.

She was still staring at it when she felt warmth at her back and the spiciness of his scent around her.

Her breath caught. This was it. This was the moment. A shudder swept through her, a tight mass of fear, excitement, and desire tangling in her gut. What should she do? Stand there? Move? Take her dress off or let him do it?

She turned around.

He stood right behind her, blue eyes glittering with an intensity that sent shockwaves of heat over her skin. The tiger was hungry and ready to pounce …

And yet he didn’t move, tension in every line of his posture as if an invisible barrier was holding him back. “Do you want a drink?” His voice sounded husky, strained.

She blinked, not expecting the question. “Uh, no. I think you know what I want.”

“Tell me.”

“You.”

He didn’t say anything, continuing to stare at her, tension wound tight as a clock spring.

Slowly, Pandora took a couple of steps toward him. “What’s wrong? I thought you weren’t going to be holding back?”

“That’s the problem. I should.”

“Why?”

“You don’t know me. I don’t know you. And I …” He stopped abruptly.

There was something conflicted in his blue eyes. Second thoughts, clearly. How strange that now they were alone in his apartment, in his territory, it was him getting cold feet.

His hesitation made her own fear and nervousness drop away. She was here, her choice made and she’d chosen him. There could be no second thoughts, not for her anyway.

Pandora closed the gap between them and put a hand on his chest, pressing her palm down onto the warm cotton, feeling the hard wall of muscle beneath it. She heard his breath catch and when she looked up into his eyes, the blue flame burning there almost made her gasp, too.

“I told you I wanted this,” she said. “I’m not going to change my mind. And I don’t want you to hold back, either.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“Are you sure?” She didn’t know where her sudden bravery had come from but she went with it, sliding her hand down over his chest to the waistband of his trousers, then down further to his zipper. “Because I’m pretty sure I’m asking for this.” He was hard already, she could feel him. Jesus, really hard. And really big.

The breath hissed between his teeth as she traced the outline of his erection with her fingers, the expression on his face changing, his jaw going tight.

God, how incredible to know that she was doing this to him. That she had this kind of power. For someone who’d never had any kind of power at all, it felt amazing.

She looked into his eyes as she touched him, saw the fight going on there. Felt the rigid tension in his body. Why? Was he was locked up somehow? Trapped, like she’d been trapped? Perhaps that’s the whole reason she’d been drawn to that particular bar, to this particular man.

She was here to free him.

“I know,” she murmured. “Let’s play a game. I have to make you touch me and you have to hold back. First person to either give up or break is the loser.”

“I’m not here to play games, Snow.”

“Yeah. I thought you were here to give me an orgasm.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “You said, back at the bar, that you didn’t know what you were doing.”

She should really have felt self-conscious about her lack of experience and perhaps annoyed that he’d picked up on it. But for some reason she didn’t. The balance of power between them had changed and even though she was the one at a disadvantage, what with her virginity and being in his territory, she didn’t feel like she was.