The Billion Dollar Bachelor(7)

No one had ever touched her with desire, at least not with desire she wanted to reciprocate. In fact it had been years since anyone had touched her at all. Literally years. Her father wasn’t a physically demonstrative man and since her mother had died, she didn’t have any other relatives or even any friends. Not ones who weren’t online or daughters of her father’s lieutenants at least.

God, it was intense, almost overwhelming. Like he was touching her bare skin.

She shivered, her hands automatically covering his to pull them away, to lessen the sensation somehow. But the look in his eyes stopped her. Fire burned there, a twin to the fire that also burned in her. And it challenged her. Dared her.

He was dangerous. She knew it. Felt it. A fascinating, beautiful kind of danger. The kind that made you want to stroke the man-eating tiger just to see if he were as sleek as he looked. Or leap off the cliff to see if you could fly. You could destroy yourself chasing that kind of danger.

And that was okay. She could use a little destruction. God knew she’d burned every bridge she had by escaping the limo tonight anyway so it wasn’t like she had anything left to lose.

Shouldn’t you be planning your escape?

Probably. But escape where? With what? She had nothing but the clothes she wore and a credit card she couldn’t use. At least going with this man would get her off the streets.

So why the hell not? She was still a virgin for Christ’s sake. She’d never even kissed a guy since either Thing One or Thing Two would have castrated any male who got close. That was, if her father didn’t get to them first.

But this guy—no, she couldn’t call him a guy, he was a man—didn’t know who she was. And if she were quick, she could maybe even get out of here with him before her bodyguards found her. Which meant he’d be safe from her father’s wrath, too.

She could have this, couldn’t she? A night to feel like a normal woman instead of a stupid princess locked up in a tower. A night to make her own choices for a change.

Pandora let her hands drop away, relaxed against his hold. “I think I’m getting some idea of what you’re talking about,” she said in a voice that sounded way more breathless than it normally did.

“I thought you might.” He didn’t move, kept his hands right where they were. Then his thumbs shifted, a caressing movement on her hip. Gentle and light.

Sensation flooded through her, a wave of heat that made the breath catch in her throat.

“It’s my birthday tomorrow,” she said thickly. “I’ll be twenty-five.”

“In that case, happy birthday. I’ll have to get you a gift.” His thumbs continued their movement, a slow sweep across her hipbones, causing ripples of fire to move outwards over her skin.

“It’s okay. I already know what I want.”

“And what’s that?”

She stared right into his blue eyes and gathered her courage. “You.”

He didn’t smile but the flame in his eyes burned hotter. “You have me.”

“Good.” She tried to get more air in her lungs, because she couldn’t quite get in enough oxygen.

His thumbs kept moving, a steady, hypnotic kind of caress that made her knees want to give out. “Are you sure you don’t want to know who I am? Going home with a stranger isn’t the type of thing I’m guessing you normally do.”

“How would you know what I normally do?”

“I don’t, but you’re nervous, Snow. You admitted it. And now you’re shivering.”

Yeah, she was. “It’s not because I’m afraid, Hunt.”

“Hunt?”

“I’m Snow, you’re Hunt.”

“Fair enough, but still. You don’t know me. I could be anyone.”

All this was true. And yet she didn’t care. It was either go home with him or let her father find her. Be forced into an engagement to a man she didn’t want—what kind of choice was that?

“As long as you give me an orgasm before you kill me, I don’t care.”

He smiled, that slow dangerous smile and she knew it was too late. Too late to refuse. Too late to leave.

She’d made the mistake of petting the tiger and now he was going to swallow her whole.

“Only one?” he said lazily. “I think I can do better than that.”

“I was keeping my expectations low.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I like a challenge.”

The sensual movement of his thumbs was driving her crazy, the heat of his body only millimeters away. She’d tried sex once basically the only way she could—via the Internet. Cybersex with some guy called Deathlord832. But all it had done was only emphasize how isolated she was. How arid her existence.