“No, we can’t,” I said. I glanced over my shoulder to see Violet smoothing her hair back, her lips a little pink, her eyes cool and remote. Fuck. She’d been liquid fire in my arms less than a minute ago and now the ice queen was back.

I loved the ice queen. When Violet went all frosty and formal she was hot as hell, but I’d liked where we were, wrapped in each other, her fingers in my hair, her lips under mine.

I stepped forward, preparing to lead Violet past Gage. He shifted to block me.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked, under his breath.

Behind me, Violet stiffened. Fucking fuck. All I wanted was one fucking night with Violet. We all knew the game we were playing, and we all knew it had to end at some point. I couldn’t imagine Violet planned to keep up her secret identity forever, especially since she knew that I knew. She didn’t know how much I knew, but she knew enough. And not being a fool, she could guess that Gage was in on it.

“This isn’t the time,” I said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Violet shifted to the side, maybe thinking to escape. I wound my arm through hers to hold her still and said to Gage, “We’re leaving. We can talk tomorrow. If you think you’re going to stop us, or make a scene, know that I will fucking level you. I don’t want to ruin Abigail’s event with a brawl, and I know neither of us wants to make the papers tomorrow, so keep your mouth shut, step aside, and let us leave.”

“I hope you have a plan,” Gage muttered as he moved out of our way.

“I always do,” I answered as I led Violet down the terrace and back into the ballroom.

The dancing was in full swing, and between the noise and the dimmed lighting, we managed to escape attention. Violet let me guide her down the hall towards the elevators in silence.

Eventually, she said, “You’re taking me home?”

“Not exactly,” I said, “just away from here.”

I caught a flash of uncertainty in her eyes, but she only nodded in answer. At the elevators, Violet caught sight of a discreet sign and pulled her arm from mine.

“I have to powder my nose. I’ll be right back.”

She wasn’t wearing powder, but I let her go without objection. If Gage had spooked her and she thought to take off she’d be disappointed to find out there was nowhere to go.

While I waited I checked my phone and saw an answering text from my driver. He was out front and had prepared the back of the limo with a freshly opened bottle of champagne and two glasses.

We want to go for a ride, I texted.

Destination?

Not at the moment, I answered.

You got it, Boss.

Violet reappeared and came straight to my side. Something tight in my chest eased as I realized she hadn’t been looking for escape. Any stray tendrils of hair had been smoothed back into place. Her makeup was flawless, the gloss reapplied to her lips. The ice queen in full form.

I loved that she didn’t let Gage intimidate her. Whatever was going on under the surface, Violet had a spine of steel. No one would get past her guard unless she let them.

No one except for me.

The elevator doors opened and we entered. I had the momentary thought of pressing her into the corner and messing up everything she’d just straightened. I held myself in check. In moments we’d be safely hidden away in the limo. We would leave as Aiden Winters and his Ice Queen. I’d melt her soon enough.

Violet made herself comfortable in the back of the limo, her eyes flaring the tiniest bit when she spotted the open bottle of champagne in the bar. She raised one delicate blonde eyebrow and waited.

I poured us both a glass of champagne and handed her one. “I thought we’d go for a ride.”

“A ride where?”

“Just a ride,” I said and watched her take a sip of the champagne. She took a long, slow look around the inside of the limo, her eyes settling on the partition separating us from my driver.

Answering her un-asked question I said, “It’s soundproof. Completely private.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Trust me.” I wasn’t going to tell her how I knew it was soundproof. There were details about my life Violet didn’t need to hear. Other women were the past. Violet was the only one who mattered now. Echoing her promise from earlier in the night I said, “I won’t embarrass you.”

She took a sip of the champagne and said, “This is all terribly decadent. The champagne. The limo. You bought me Valentino.”

“I saw it and thought of you,” I said.

She rolled her eyes, the champagne working its way through her shields. “When did you see it? When did you have time to troll the women’s formals department?”

I wasn’t about to tell her I’d had my personal shopper send me pictures of the selection of gowns in her size and from those I’d chosen the one she wore.

“I have my ways,” I said.

“I bet you do,” she said, rolling her eyes again. “I bet you have all sorts of ways.” She let out an abrupt laugh that turned into a snort, and clapped her hand over her mouth, giggling.

Violet was adorably tipsy. I’d seen her ice queen, and her passion, but I’d never seen her cute. I wanted to pull her into my lap and kiss the giggles from her lips. And I would, in a minute. First I had to know why she was laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just that—” she struggled to get out the words, her shoulders shaking in amusement. “Gage is imagining that I’m some kind of seductress out to take advantage of poor defenseless Aiden, but you’ve got moves for days and I wouldn’t know how to seduce anyone, much less a man like you.”

“I don’t know,” I said, entranced by the sparkle in her eyes, by the way she was laughing at herself and not the least bit worried about Gage. “You’re doing a pretty good job right now.”

Violet tossed back the rest of her champagne and handed me her empty glass. She shook her head, negating my words. “Please,” she said with derision, still laughing a little. “You’re just playing with me. I have no idea what I’m doing with you. And you’re going to be disappointed. I’ve never even—”

She cut off abruptly, her eyes flying wide with horror. I had to know what she’d been about to say.

“You’re not a virgin,” I stated, positive of that fact. She was close to thirty. There was no way she’d never had sex. I watched the laughter drain from her. She let out a sigh, her teeth sinking into her lower lip as she appeared to consider something.

“No, I’ve had sex, I’m just not good at it,” she said, bluntly. As if wishing she could take the words back, she closed her mouth tightly and gestured to her empty champagne glass.

I held it up and said, “Not until you tell me what that means.”

“Champagne first.”

I might have argued, but I sensed that another glass of champagne was the only thing that would pry an explanation out of her. We’d only kissed twice, but after the way she lit up for me, there was no way this woman was bad at sex. Inexperienced maybe. I’d buy that. But what she didn’t know I could teach her. She had all the instincts she’d need.

I handed her back her champagne glass, now full, and watched with greedy eyes as she lifted it to her lips and sipped. She’d seated herself on the longest side bench of the limo, maybe thinking to put some distance between us.

I was done with distance.

I slid closer as she drank.

“So?” I asked.

Violet shrugged one bare shoulder and looked away. “I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just that I freeze up, or get shy. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, and then it’s over. That’s all. It’s not a big deal.” Embarrassment heated her cheeks and she drained her champagne glass. Plucking it from her fingers, I put it aside. I didn’t offer to refill it, and she didn’t ask.

“So you’ve never had an orgasm?”

Violet’s eyes looked everywhere but at mine. She hitched her shoulder up in an attempt at a shrug and mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that?” I asked, softly.

She shook her head and I leaned forward, sliding my arm around her back and pulling her across the seat into my arms.

Brushing her ear with my lips I whispered, “Tell me.”

I grazed my fingertips along her jaw, tracing her lower lip and stroking down the curve of her neck. She let out a breath and shivered.

“Tell you what?” she asked, the question vague. Distracted.

I nipped the lobe of her ear lightly, loving the way she jumped in response, arching her back and pressing her breasts into my side.

“Have you ever had an orgasm?” I pressed. My hand dropped to trace her bodice, stroking across the upper swell of her breasts, so tightly contained in her ball gown.

Violet swallowed hard and shook her head. Her words were little more than a whisper when she said, “Only by myself.”

Pressing a kiss to the edge of her jaw, just below her ear, I savored the thrum of her pulse against my lips. “Do you want to have one with me?”

In a voice heavy with arousal, she answered only, “Aiden.”

I didn’t know if it was permission or a plea, but the sound of my name from her lips sent a rush of blood straight to my cock, I’d never been this hard. I’d never wanted a woman this much.

I tipped her head back and ran my tongue up the cord of her neck, tasting her skin, the heat of her. She drew in a sharp breath and murmured, “Aiden, please.”

Permission and a plea.

It was all I needed.

Pulling her beneath me on the wide bench seat, I took her mouth with mine. Hesitation and embarrassment fled as she opened for me, her tongue seeking, twining and stroking, her lips, her mouth, her body—all hungry. Eager. I kissed her until my breath strangled in my chest, my cock a pulsing bar. I held onto my control by my fingernails.

I’d asked her to trust me. I wouldn’t fuck that up, but I had to have more.

I found the zipper running down the side of her bodice and slowly, deliberately pulled it down. All it took was one hitching breath from Violet and her breasts rose, pushing at the filmy tulle of her gown. Bracing myself on one arm, I peeled the fabric away and drank in the sight of her.

I’d had a lot of fantasies about Violet’s breasts. I’d caught only the most miserly glimpses. A hint of cleavage, a curve beneath her blouse. We’d only kissed the one time in my office, and I’d barely touched her before we were interrupted. And now here she was, on display for me, and she was fucking gorgeous.

Full and round, capped with tight, petal pink nipples, her skin so pale I could see the blue veins running beneath, softer than silk. Her heart pounded beneath my fingers as I cupped her left breast and dipped my head. Her sweet pea sent was warmer here, flowers and the scent of Violet. Intoxicating. I ran the pad of my thumb over the top of her nipple and the tremor that ran through her almost had me coming in my pants.

I couldn’t wait. I stroked her nipple before I closed my lips around it, pulling hard. She gasped out my name in shocked surprise, going stiff for just a second before her head fell back and she arched, pressing her breasts into me, giving me more. Inviting me to take.

I went a little wild, stroking her breasts, sucking, licking, closing my teeth over her nipples in gentle bites that had her whimpering and writhing against me. I’d like to say I’d planned it, but I was as lost as Violet. I pulled her leg over mine, opening her, and drew my hand from her breast to slide it under her skirt. The rasp of lace met my fingertips, wet and hot.

Fucking hell. In my wildest, most debauched fantasies of fucking Violet nothing was as hot as her breast under my lips and my fingers grazing the slick heat of her pussy. The wisp of lace between her legs was in my way.

A sharp jerk tore the fabric, and I had free rein to touch. To tease. I wanted her wild, as wild as I was. Desperate and needy and hungry.

Her clit was swollen with arousal, begging for attention. I wanted it in my mouth. I wanted to push her skirts up, spread her legs wide, and feast on her. Even half mindless with need I knew that was the wrong move. If she’d never come before, she’d never had a mouth between her legs.

If I pushed her too hard, she’d freeze up on me, and if she pushed me away before I made her come, it might kill me.

I needed to see that, to see her unravel for me. I needed to feel it. To hear it. To smell it. I needed her pleasure to be mine, for me alone.

I dipped my fingers into her pussy, gathering the slick moisture and rubbed them in a slow circle around her clit. Her breath caught in her chest and she made a sound somewhere between pleasure and alarm.

Lifting my head from her breast, I moved to take her mouth with mine. I wasn’t going to let her get shy. I wasn’t going to let her wonder what she was supposed to be doing. I wanted her half-crazed. I wanted her to let go, to let me take care of her. To let me give her what she needed.

Her hand came up, her fingers fisting in my hair as she held my mouth to hers, throwing herself into the kiss. Her knees drew up and fell open as she unconsciously offered herself to me. I dipped a finger inside, my head spinning at the feel of her heat clasping me. She was so fucking tight. Tight and hot and rocking up into my finger, her body moving on instinct.

I kissed her harder and drove a second finger inside her, reaching deep, fucking her with my fingers, pressing my palm against her swollen clit. Her hips jerked into my hand, hard and fast, and she broke into pieces beneath me, the sharp rush of pleasure cracking her open, drawing out cry after cry as she shuddered through her peak.

I didn’t come with her, but it was a close thing. I hadn’t come without touching my cock since I was a teenager, but the sight of Violet overcome, her frantic moans, the greedy clench of her pussy on my fingers, was almost too much.

I’d dreamed about fucking Violet.

A lot.

I had a long list of places and ways I planned to fuck her, but not in this limo.

Not the first time we were together.

Ordering my cock to chill the fuck out, I feathered a kiss across her lips and straightened her bodice, not zipping it closed but preserving her modesty. When she came down, I didn’t want her to feel exposed. Vulnerable.

I didn’t know why it mattered so fucking much, but I needed her to feel safe with me. I needed her to know I would take care of her.

It was fucked up considering everything between us. Her lies and mine.

But this—what happened when we touched each other, the way she’d come apart in my arms—this was a deeper truth.

This was something real, and I wouldn’t let her regret it.