Chapter Four
A soft, distant voice invited Gabe to enter, and as soon as he stepped into Chloe’s condo the next night and took in his surroundings, he knew he’d walked into a very provocative kind of seduction. After two nights of non-consummated foreplay that had left him permanently hard and aching, he couldn’t help but wonder what Chloe had in store for him tonight—fulfillment, or more sexual frustration.
The entryway and living room were dim, lit only by a dozen strategically placed candles that filled his every breath with the distinctive scent of vanilla underscored with arousing cinnamon. The flickering flames cast shadows in the room and along the walls, adding to the stimulating and very alluring atmosphere.
Hand still on the doorknob and his pulse registering the slow thrum of awareness flowing through his veins, he glanced around for Chloe but couldn’t find her anywhere in the living room, though he knew it had been her who’d invited him inside. As he gave the ambiance another quick glance, the significance of this particular fantasy hit him, making him realize that the cloak of darkness was most likely Chloe’s way of protecting her feelings and keeping her distance. The veil of obscurity was like a shield, keeping him from seeing all the emotions her expressive eyes couldn’t conceal.
After everything that had occurred between them last night he suspected she was feeling a bit threatened emotionally and needing the reins of their affair back in her hands. He’d give her complete control over his body, his heart, his soul even, if that’s what she demanded. But he refused to let her hide from him in any way whatsoever. She might need the darkness to feel safe, to believe she was protected from his ultimate intentions, but he only needed to feel her passionate, candid response to him to know the truth…that she cared for him more than she was willing to admit.
And it was that admission he sought. He had tonight and tomorrow to convince her that he needed her in his life and to make her realize that there had always been something more between them than just friendship, and now sex. Two more nights to gain her forgiveness and the love he’d forsaken six years ago, and he hoped like hell that she’d give him both.
“Lock the door, Gabe.”
Chloe’s soft, sultry voice wrapped around him, but he couldn’t pinpoint the origin. He did as she requested, squinting his eyes as he waited for his pupils to adjust to the shadowy darkness. His nerves were on alert, anticipating how this latest scenario of hers would unfold.
“Are we playing hide-and-seek tonight, sweetheart?” he asked, his tone low and sexual. “Because if we are, I have to warn you that I play for keeps.”
“You don’t have to find me,” she said somewhere to his left. “I’m right here.”
He caught a movement as she stepped out into the open and the candlelight illuminated her slender body and the tempting sway of her hips. He watched her approach, looking like an ethereal vision in a white, gauzy blouse so sheer he could see the outline of her bra underneath, and a pair of white low-riding shorts. The flames added golden highlights to the hair she’d left down, making the strands shimmer and dance with a life of their own.
His stomach clenched and his groin tightened with unquenched lust. She stopped in front of him and pressed her hand against his chest, right over his rapidly beating heart, which he was certain she could feel through his T-shirt. This close, the cinnamon fragrance was hotter now, the incandescent sheen on her skin leading him to believe that she’d rubbed that exotic, delicious oil all over her body.
A vixen smile curved her luscious mouth. “I want you, Gabe…if you’re daring enough to follow me into a night of decadent, forbidden pleasure.”
His eyes caught and held hers, and an equally wicked grin appeared on his lips. “You should know by now that I’ll dare anything when it comes to you.”
“Perfect,” she murmured, seemingly pleased by his promise. Gathering his shirt in her fist, she stepped back and pulled him until her spine flattened against the entryway wall and his body imprinted the length of hers from breasts to thighs. She lifted her mouth up to his, a breath away from a kiss, and whispered huskily, “Dare to be my lover. Dare to fulfill my wildest, most erotic fantasies. Dare to surrender all to the carnal side of pleasure.”
As if he’d say no to such a proposition. “Lead the way,” he said, letting her set the pace, the tone, the direction of this intriguing seduction.
She did…blowing his mind with a deep, silky, tongue-tangling kiss that skipped all coaxing preliminaries. Her mouth was soft and sweet, assertive and greedy, and he matched her unbridled aggression yet was acutely aware that this was her fantasy and she was the one in control of where and how far they would take this impetuous adventure of hers. So when she lifted his hand to the collar of her blouse, he didn’t hesitate to follow through on her silent order to undress her. Except his big fingers fumbled with the small, slippery buttons of her blouse, and he growled in frustration against her lips.
She pulled back, breaking their kiss. She was breathing hard, panting with need, and her eyes glowed with fire and passion. “Rip it off,” she told him.
He didn’t think anything she could say or do would shock him, but this request definitely gave him a jolt of surprise. And excited him beyond reason. And in that moment, the meaning behind tonight’s fantasy crystalized and made complete sense. In the darkness she could be naughty, more outrageous, more sexually explicit. Without the lights on and his features obscured in shadows, she could imagine he was a faceless stranger.
But they weren’t strangers, and no amount of pretending could change just how intimate they’d been with each other thus far. She was attempting to keep things physical between them, but what she didn’t realize was that she was trusting him to be that faceless stranger, trusting him to fulfill her desires, yet keep the fantasy within the realms of reality.
His entire body remained tense, and her chin tipped up a fraction, taunting him. And then he knew. She was testing his resolve, wanting to see how far he was willing to go, if he’d play the part she’d asked, if he’d go all the way and take her. Hard and fast and without reserve. He had no boundaries with her, just so long as she was a willing participant, too.
Making his decision, he took a half step back, grasped each side of the flimsy material in his hands, and tore the blouse completely open with one firm tug. Those itty-bitty buttons popped, hitting his chest, the wall, the floor. She gasped as the thin fabric shredded beneath his hands, and he stared at a white bra so sheer she might as well have worn nothing at all.
He covered her lush breasts with his hands and bent his head, scattering warm, moist kisses along her cheek, her jaw, her throat, all the way down to the fullest part of her heaving breasts. Cinnamon flavor tingled on his tongue, and grew hotter with every taste of her skin, making him burn all the way down to his burgeoning erection. Dragging his open mouth across the generous swell of flesh, he tongued her stiff nipples and plucked at them with his teeth through the sheeer lace material.
She whimpered and thrust her hands in his hair, arching her back to accommodate him, his mouth. He continued paying homage to her breasts while his fingers skimmed down her belly to her shorts. He unbuttoned and unzipped them with ease, then slipped his flattened palms just inside and followed the waistband around to the small of her back. He shoved the shorts over her hips so that he could fill his hands with her silk-clad bottom and tilt her pelvis against his. He moved against her, grinding his rock-hard cock between her legs, his movements slow, lazy, and precise.
As soon as he heard that sexy catch to her breath that told him she was gearing up for an orgasm, he stopped, drawing out the anticipation, the hunger. For both of them.
He lifted his head, connecting with her entranced gaze. In the soft candlelight he could see the flush of excitement on her skin and the blatant wanting etching her expression. His own heart thundered in his chest as he pushed her shorts down her thighs and long legs, and she kicked them aside. More sheer lace hindered his ability to touch her intimately, and he only hesitated a second before he ripped off the insubstantial panties and let the scrap of material fall to the floor at her feet.
Widening her stance with his sneakered feet, he slipped his hand between her thighs and grit his teeth at the bounty he discovered. Christ, she was so hot, so slick and wet, her essence drenched his fingers the moment he touched her. But it wasn’t enough, and he filled her first with one long finger, then two, while using his thumb to stroke her soft, swollen flesh. She was tight, her inner muscles clenching around his fingers, and he thrust them in a little deeper while imagining how her snug sheath would feel enveloping his aching cock.
She sucked in a sharp breath and shuddered. Closing her eyes, she let her head roll back against the wall and licked her dry lips. “Gabe…”
There was more to that husky plea, and he wasn’t about to make this easy on her when she’d been the one to issue the dare. “Tell me what you want,” he said, kissing the corner of her mouth, coaxing her to state her desires out loud.
The pulse at the base of her throat fluttered wildly as she swallowed. “I want…I want you on your knees in front of me.”
“I’m there, baby,” he rasped and knelt before her, scattering kisses across her belly, dipping his tongue into her navel, inhaling deeply of her arousing scent, and finally replacing his seeking, gliding fingers with the heat of his mouth. Spreading her soft, pouty lips apart, he laved her with a slow, searing stroke along her cleft that made her moan and her legs tremble. He flicked the tip of his tongue over her clit, then drew the distended nub into his mouth, suckling her hard and strong.
A shuddering breath escaped her, and he felt her hands moving restlessly in his hair, heard the mewling sounds of pleasure she made deep in her throat as he increased the pressure and friction of his tongue. She rolled her hips forward to give him better access and widened her legs even more, enabling him to delve deeper so he could indulge in the sweet honeyed taste of her as her orgasm pushed her over the edge.
She screamed hoarsely, clawing wildly at his back as her entire body shook with the strength of her orgasm. Then her fingers twisted in his hair to pull his mouth away from the now-sensitive flesh that pulsed beneath the press of his tongue.
With one last defiant lick that made her whimper, he abruptly stood back up and fastened his mouth over hers, kissing her aggressively, giving her no choice but to accept the long, deep sweeps of his tongue as his lower body took up a gyrating rhythm against her pussy. He was so hard for her, mindless with wanting, his groin throbbing, aching, craving her—a culmination of three nights of erotic foreplay and six years of imagining her just like this.
A desperate hunger rushed through him, along with the primitive need to brand and possess her as his. With that urgent thought filling his head, with his taut body keeping hers pinned against the wall, he buried his face against her neck and groaned…and finally gave in to a dark, forbidden fantasy of his own.
“I have to get inside you,” he panted against her ear, his voice as raw, carnal, and emotional as the moment between them. “Let me fuck you.”
The explicit, unrefined plea escaped him before he could curb his choice of words, but much to his surprise, his frank request seemed to excite her. A delicate shiver rippled through her, her breathing deepened, and she gave him the permission he sought.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He moved away from her for a handful of seconds, just long enough to yank off his shirt so he could feel her lush, naked breasts crushed against his chest when he took her, then unbuckled his belt. He jerked down the zipper and pushed his jeans just low enough on his hips to release the throbbing length of his cock. He shuddered, feeling triply erect and twice as thick as he’d ever been before.
He glanced back up and found her leaning against the wall, taking in his size and length, her eyes heavy-lidded with passion and her expression a mixture of fascination and hunger. He closed the distance between them, sandwiching her between the wall and his hard, muscular body. His massive erection slipped between her thighs and nestled between the lips of her pussy, and he was instantly surrounded by the sultry heat and dampness of her desire. She moaned softly, her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and he knew once he was inside her it was going to be a quick, fierce ride.
“Wrap your arms around my neck and hold on tight,” he ordered, his voice low and rough.
She did as he asked, entwining their bodies more intimately than before. His hands smoothed over her bottom and gripped the back of her thighs. Then he was lifting her, spreading her legs apart and tilting her hips up to him. He pushed into her in one long, relentless thrust that had her sucking in a quick gasping breath, and him growling deep in his throat at how perfectly they fit together. Locking her legs around his hips, he forced his way deeper, until she was utterly impaled on his cock and it was impossible to tell where he ended and she began.
He moved inside her, a slow, slick, in and out glide that sent spirals of heat shooting up his spine. Her fingers clenched his shoulders, holding on tight, and her head fell back against the wall, her expression so incredibly beautiful and rapturous his heart swelled with indescribable emotions. He wanted this moment to last forever, but he was too overwhelmed with pleasure, too consumed by needs he’d denied for too long.
His body instinctively picked up the pace of his thrusts, his movements rhythmic, wild, desperate. His mind spun as his climax built, hot and fast, consuming him, searing him from head to toe. He drove to the hilt one last time, and stiffened and groaned as his orgasm slammed into him in a white-hot rush of ecstasy that seemed never-ending.
Once the tremors subsided, Gabe carefully lowered her feet back to the ground, keeping her steady with an arm around her waist. He slipped from the warmth of her body, still semi-erect, and silently berated himself for letting their first time together, no matter how earthy and torrid, be so one-sided. His jaw tightened in self-reproach. He’d never meant to get so caught up in his own satisfaction that he left her behind.
Determined to make it just as good for her, too, he gently pushed her torn blouse and bra from her shoulders, then lifted her limp body into his arms and carried her to the couch. He lowered her so that she was lying on the cushions, and admired the way the candlelight illuminated her body and cast a rosy-golden hued flush to her skin.
Absently, she touched her fingers to the upper swell of her breast and looked up at him questioningly. He said nothing as he quickly peeled off the rest of his clothes so that there was nothing to hinder the sensation of flesh against flesh. Nothing to get in the way of him pleasuring her.
Pushing the coffee table out of the way, he knelt beside the couch, and grasping her hips, he gently pulled her down to the carpeted floor with him. He turned her, positioning her so that she was on her knees and her upper body rested against the soft cushions. His gaze took in her spread legs and pert, slender bottom, upturned and ready for him. That quickly, that easily, he grew hard once again at the seductive image of taking her in such an erotic, primal way.
Lowering his head, he pressed his open mouth to the small of her back and ran his tongue up her spine, covering the length of her body with his own until they were aligned from shoulders to thighs and his rigid cock glided across the silky, damp flesh between her thighs.
A violent shiver rippled through her and she curled her hands into fists against the sofa. She looked over her shoulder at him, the brightness in her eyes underscored by a glimmer of uncertainty. “Gabe…”
“Shhh,” he soothed from behind. Burying his face in her fragrant hair, he reached around and caressed her breasts in his hands, plucked at her nipples with his fingers, and smoothed a flattened palm down her quivering belly. “I’m not done with you yet. Just relax and go with the fantasy…”
She moaned when his fingers parted her folds, and sighed breathlessly as he slowly eased his shaft deep, deep inside her. His hips thrust against hers, slow and easy, and he stroked her swollen pussy until she was rocking back against him, uninhibited and greedy, setting the pace and letting him know precisely what she liked.
Spearing his fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck, he wrapped loose strands in his hand, tenderly tugged her head back, and dragged his mouth across her cheek and along her arched throat. His lips blazed a trail up to her ear, and in the cloak of darkness, and in a rough, husky tone of voice, he whispered all the naughty, erotic things he’d like to do to her, the varied ways he wanted to make her come, and shared all the different, shameless ways he’d dreamed of taking her.
Her eyes fluttered closed, shutting him and any emotional connection out at the last possible moment, and her lips parted on a soft, keening cry as her entire body began to quake.
The convulsions started deep, an incredible rippling sensation that clenched and squeezed his cock like a tight fist. She sobbed his name, and the sound on her lips and the feel of her intense orgasm pulling at him triggered his own. And then he was swept away, lost in the heat and sensuality of Chloe, riding one long continuous crest of a shattering climax that left him lethargic and completely sated physically, but wanting more emotionally…like forever with this woman.
After a few moments, he separated their bodies, lifted her back up to the couch, and stood. She lay there, spent and languid, a drowsy, satisfied smile on her lips. In the candlelight her gaze finally met his, and something she witnessed on his own face made her expression change, drawing forth confusion, uncertainty, and a wealth of vulnerability.
He knew what she’d seen…love. He loved her. He’d carried the knowledge in his heart for years, since the first moment he’d laid eyes on her in high school. He just hadn’t been able to embrace the feelings because he’d never felt worthy. Old insecurities died hard, but now, having finally come to terms with his past and the man he’d become, he was willing to risk everything for her.
“Chloe…”
“The fantasy is over,” she said, cutting him off, a touch of panic in her voice, as if she knew what was tumbling through his mind. As if she wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say.
Curbing the impulse to blurt out his feelings, he reached for his boxer briefs and pants instead and quietly put them on. His shirt followed, along with his socks and shoes, and when he glanced back at Chloe a minute later he noticed she’d covered herself with the throw blanket that had been folded over the back of the sofa.
Feeling distinctly uneasy, a whole lot frustrated, and not wanting to leave with this subtle tension between them, he clung to what had ultimately brought them together. The bet. And regardless of how complex this game between them had become, he owed her one last night. “About tomorrow night—”
“It’s all yours,” she said softly.
He blinked, not certain he’d heard her correctly, or what she really meant. “Excuse me?”
“Tomorrow night is yours,” she repeated huskily. With her hair tumbling wildly around her face, she pressed the blanket to her breasts, the barest of smiles brushing across her well-kissed mouth. “Whatever you want, whatever you desire, whatever fantasy you want to fulfill…It’s yours.”
Once again she’d thrown him off balance, made him wonder if she even realized the trust she was extending, and the implications of relinquishing her control to him. But he didn’t question why, and he wasn’t about to refuse such a generous gift and offering.
One he would use to his advantage in every possible way.
He grinned wickedly. “I hope you’re into bondage.”
Her eyes turned a dark, velvet shade of green. “I can’t say that I’ve ever been tied up for a man’s pleasure, but I’m game.”
Oh, he hoped so. Except what he had in mind wasn’t only bondage of the physical kind, but of the emotional variety as well, and by the end of the night he wanted her complete and total surrender.
“I promise the pleasure will go both ways.” Not wanting to shatter any of the illusions she’d created for tonight’s intimate fantasy, he turned and left, leaving her in the same darkness in which the fantasy had begun less than an hour ago.
“Look what just came for you,” Chloe’s friend and coworker, Anita, announced as she sauntered into her office with a huge floral arrangement in her hands. “Do you have a secret admirer you haven’t told me about?”
Chloe smiled and set aside the contract she’d been preparing for web site services. She knew without reading the enclosed card who’d sent the gorgeous bouquet of roses, tulips, and carnations. A tiny thrill fluttered in her belly. No man had ever catered to her every desire, need, and fantasy, and she had to admit that she liked feeling romanced and pampered by Gabe. All part of a bet, yes, but she’d enjoy the feeling…for one last night.
“My lips are sealed,” she told her friend. “That’s why they call it a secret admirer.” And Gabe was her very own sexy, private secret, one she’d share with no one.
Anita perched her skirt-clad hip onto the corner of Chloe’s desk and grinned at her. “Well, regardless of who the lucky guy is, I have to say it’s about time you let a man sweep you off your feet.”
Chloe inhaled the fragrant scent filling her office, realizing that she’d foolishly let Gabe do just that. “It’s just a temporary thing,” she said, the brutal words causing an ache in her chest. “A fun, brief fling.”
“You sure about that?” Anita’s light brown brows raised questioningly. “From the blissful look that’s been on your face all week, I’d say you’re further gone than you realize.”
Chloe knew that for a fact, and it was her own damn fault for letting her emotions intertwine intimately with the great sex she’d had with Gabe. “He’s leaving to go back home to Chicago this weekend,” she said, determined to put things back into proper perspective. “It can’t be anything more than a temporary affair.”
Anita tipped her head, regarding Chloe speculatively. “Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?” Her mouth creased with a teasing smile, but there was too much wisdom and knowledge in her hazel eyes.
Anita’s comment struck deep and lingered long after her friend left her office to get back to work. Leaning back in her chair, Chloe swallowed the tight, aching knot in her throat, wondering when a simple bet to finally get Gabe out of her mind and heart had become so complicated. And when had she started craving more?
The answer came too fast, too easily. She’d never stopped wanting Gabe MacKenzie, despite the pain of his past rejection. Now he was more entrenched in her heart than ever, and in the quiet and solitude of her office she was forced to admit that she’d missed him for six long years…the easy camaraderie they’d shared, their friendship, the underlying attraction and awareness that made her body buzz with excitement whenever she was near him.
She’d been empty inside and lonely for too long. Now, with him, she felt fulfilled and joyous…yet there was no denying she’d experience that same vast emptiness once he left again.
No matter her feelings for Gabe—then or now—he’d given her no other promises this week other than pleasure, which he’d given her in spades. By mutual agreement they’d embarked on an affair, which in itself implied temporary, and she’d walked into the situation with her eyes wide open. He’d given her exactly what she’d asked for, memories so erotic they threatened to singe her mind just thinking about them, and he’d obviously gotten what he’d come for, too. As he’d stated that first night at the poker game, he had loose ends to tie up, and those loose ends obviously included her.
Funny how he’d selected bondage for tonight’s fantasy.
With a heartfelt sigh, she banned her tumultuous thoughts for now and reached for the small envelope tucked into the middle of the gorgeous arrangement. She retrieved the card inside and read the note Gabe had written in a bold, masculine scrawl: Be at my mother’s house at 7 P.M., and bring a big appetite. Love, Gabe.
Love. Her heart leapt at the sentiment, and her thoughts tumbled back to the previous night and the intense emotions in Gabe’s eyes after the second time he’d made love to her, how nervous and afraid she’d been that she’d say something to reveal her own feelings for him when she was so determined to be strong and in control of their affair…and her own emotions. Unfortunately, Gabe was one of her greatest weaknesses, and that was something she refused to let him know.
Judging by Gabe’s past actions, once this week was over he’d leave, return to his life in Chicago, and quite possibly never come back to San Diego since his mother would no longer live here. Nothing had changed in the past six years…except his apparent need to make up for the chance he’d lost on that long-ago night up on the hill in Del Mar. And as she’d told him, she wanted the same thing, and she had only herself to blame for craving more now.
She fingered the satiny petal of a rose, forcing herself to accept that unpleasant truth, and knowing that tonight would be the end of their brief relationship.
She’d given Gabe tonight’s fantasy to do with whatever he wished because she wanted to know and experience his deepest desires. Whatever happened between them tonight would be another sexual memory for her to tuck away and dream about when the emptiness in her felt too all-consuming.
Ultimately, she’d enjoy the evening for all it was worth. She’d keep her emotions locked away, and after she enjoyed her final, glorious night in Gabe’s arms, this time she’d be the one to walk away from him.