“I can’t believe he’s taking you to the French Riviera for your honeymoon.” My sister releases a dreamy sigh and props an elbow on the table in her kitchen.
“I can’t believe he gave up control of his casino operations to do philanthropy work.” My chest swells for the thousandth time in three weeks.
Three weeks of utter bliss in Trace’s bed, on his stage, and in his arms. He nourishes me physically and soulfully. All forms of happiness are insubstantial beside him.
“He what?” Bree’s jaw drops, her voice shrilling against my ears.
“Shh.” I shoot her a glare.
We both turn our heads toward the doorway and stare at the far corner of the living room. My five-year-old niece, Angel, perches on a tiny chair at a kid’s activity table. Beside her, Trace sits on the floor with his legs stretched out beneath the table. He’s such a big man it looks like a plastic tray on his lap.
With their backs to the kitchen, their heads bow in concentration as they color with crayons. They connect on some enigmatic level I don’t understand. It’s irresistibly charming.
I shift back to Bree and speak quietly. “He launched a private foundation to help homeless people secure jobs, but it’s not just about finding employment. Through donations, he’s funding training programs that teach job skills. Skills that will increase their earnings as they transition out of homelessness.”
She reaches across the table and grips my hand. “You’re so excited your voice actually rises an octave when you talk about it.”
“I am excited. We’re talking huge donations, Bree. With his network of business partners, he’ll be able to pull in high-profile sponsors for events like charity dinners and galas.”
“The kind of dinners and galas you used to perform at? Will you dance at them?”
“That’s the plan.” Happiness doesn’t begin to describe the huge feeling in my chest. “I have no doubt he’ll run this like he runs everything else.”
“Like a boss.” Bree smiles.
I was going to say meticulous, overbearing controller, but yeah… “Like a boss.”
“He made this career change for you?”
I shake my head. “He started pursuing it six months ago. When I was with Cole.”
“He definitely did it for you.” She gives me a knowing look. “Whether you would be part of it or not, you inspired him.”
We fall silent, our attentions returning to the quiet, imposing man and his tiny demonic sidekick in the living room.
In one week, I’m going to marry Trace Savoy. I didn’t choose a ballroom dance or a song, and there won’t be any choreography. Just like love, our first dance isn’t a choice. I won’t control it. It’s just going to happen, and I’ll hold onto every second of it for dear life.
When I told him this, I ended up naked and thoroughly pleasured on the counter in his kitchen.
Our kitchen.
I moved in with him immediately, and we spend most of our time together in bed. I wake every morning tucked into his body, his muscular arm clamped around my back and his thigh bent between my mine. The best part of my day is watching those sleepy blue eyes whisper good morning to me.
When I’m not working, we run errands, go to dinner, watch movies. Really, we don’t need to do anything to pass the time. We just need each other.
I haven’t sold my house. I won’t. As much progress as I’ve made on healing the jagged hole Cole left behind, I can’t give up the home he bought for me, the dance room he built for me, or the memories that cling to the walls. So I’m renting it to Nikolai. It’s twice the size of the crappy apartment he lived in, and he no longer has to borrow space at another school to teach his dance students.
I don’t have any plans to reopen my dance company. Teaching was a means to pay the bills and never my passion. That said, I haven’t worked much over the past three weeks. When I negotiated the employment contract that night in my house, I failed to look at the fine print. Trace sneaked in a restriction that states I can work a maximum of two hours per night. No wonder he didn’t argue when I changed the schedule to seven days a week.
His deviousness is irritating in the best way possible. He challenges me constantly, dominates me to no end, and keeps me coming back for more.
“I need to use the bathroom.” Bree rises from the table and vanishes around the corner.
I stand, too, and make my way to the living room.
Crouching behind Trace, I rub my hands over the crisp fabric of his t-shirt. “Did you starch this?”
“Maybe.” He looks at me over his shoulder.
I immediately forget what we’re talking about because that devastating grin, it ravages my senses and catches at my heart.
Resting my cheek on his shoulder, I hug him from behind and breathe in his masculine heat. He returns to his crayons, letting me caress his chest and pepper kisses across his nape. There’s so much sexual energy contained within his powerful body it’s bone-melting when he unleashes it. And he will unleash it the moment we get home.
I lean between him and Angel, studying the drawing beneath his crayon. The cartoon-ish lines were etched by a child—a rather artistic child—but why did she draw a picture of a horned, dog-like beast with blazing red eyes? I can only imagine what Trace is thinking as he colors it in.
“Trace drew this one. See?” Angel holds up a stick-figure woman dancing on tiptoes. “It’s sexy Aunt Danni.”
Sexy? How does she know that word? I glance at Trace and find his smoky eyes fixated on my mouth.
“You can’t teach her that.” I bite down on my smile.
“I just did.” His voice, bedroom gruff and pure naughtiness, steals my breath.
“I don’t think it looks like you.” Angel examines the picture. “Your face looks more like a dog.”
“What kind of dog?” Please don’t say a horned beast with red eyes.
“A dead dog.”
I don’t even know what to say to that.
“Angel.” Trace drops his tone in warning. “We talked about this. If you want to persuade and intimidate, do it with your attitude, not your words.”
“I want to be like you.” She lifts her chin, staring at him with adoration.
“I’ll teach you.” He pats her head, making her pigtails bounce.
“Oh, dear God,” I mutter under my breath.
“There is no God. Only Zuul.” She smiles, but it doesn’t touch her huge, brown demonic eyes.
My mouth falls open. She’s been all about God for as long as I can remember. What changed?
“I’m afraid to ask who Zuul is,” I say just as Bree walks into the room.
My sister looks over the drawing of the horned dog and makes a pained face. “Her obsession with Christianity has moved on to…Ghostbusters.” She lifts Angel from the chair and gives her a nudge toward the hall. “It’s bath time, young lady.”
“I like him better.” Angel points at Trace as she struts by. “The other one had holes in his cheeks.”
Dimples.
Cole.
My heart freezes in my chest, my entire body paralyzed beneath a wave of torment.
As Bree and Angel disappear down the hall, Trace wraps a hand around my neck and uses his grip to guide me onto his lap.
“Talk to me.” He pushes the coloring table to the side and leans back against the side of the couch.
“I’m fine.” I curl up against his chest and wrap my arms around him. “It’s just… Sometimes, she’s painfully honest.”
“She’s five.” He strokes his thumb across my throat, the touch possessive and comforting. “And logical. Of course, she likes me better. I don’t have holes in my cheeks.” At my ragged sigh, he brushes a lock of hair behind my ear. “Keep talking.”
“When he died, it left a permanent wound inside me. I think I’ve been subconsciously moving on from him for years, but the tiniest thing can reopen the wound, and once it’s open, it takes a while to stop the bleeding.” I straighten and meet his eyes. “I don’t regret, but I think about him often and feel heavy with sadness. I miss him.”
“I know.” His expression softens. “I miss him, too.”
“But you talk to him.”
“Yes.”
“I need to know.” I shift on his lap, putting my face in his and clutching his shoulders. “You have to tell how he’s doing.”
“He’s okay, Danni.” His thick lashes lower, lift again, revealing eyes warm with compassion. “He threw himself back into work.”
“The job offers…” My breath stammers, and my stomach turns to ice. “He said it was dangerous.”
“His job has always been dangerous. He’s good at it. Good enough that I don’t worry about his safety.” He runs his fingers through my hair, soothing me.
“Did he let me go so easily because—?”
“I talked him into working again. After you left.” His hand tightens against my scalp, punctuating his words. “I know him. He needs the distraction. Understand?”
“Yeah.” I don’t like it, but I gave up all rights to have a say in his life. “Thank you for telling me. And for being there for him.”
“He was there for me. Funny how that worked out, huh? Despite it all, we salvaged our friendship.”
It’s more than I could’ve ever asked for, and I’m so fucking grateful.
“Go tell your sister good-bye.” He lifts me off his lap. “We’re leaving.”
And just like that, the conversation is over. I love that I can count on him to listen when I need him and to shut it down before it becomes repetitive and unproductive.
On the ride home, I sit beside him in the Maserati, thoughtfully silent and focused on the future. I’m getting married in a week. Trace is spearheading a foundation for the homeless—a cause that’s near and dear to my heart. And I’m sitting beside a man who sets my skin afire with merely a look. Like now.
“You should probably keep your eyes on the road.” Just the thought of having him inside me again, all swollen heat and hunger, makes my thighs clench.
“Then I’ll have to use my hand.” Deliberately lowering his voice to the pitch of sex, he roams a hand up my thigh and teases the fly on my jeans. “I told you to wear a skirt.”
“And I told you it was too cold.”
He slides his touch away to shift through the gears, and I’m momentarily distracted by how strikingly attractive he looks driving this sporty piece of hot metal. His hand drapes over the steering wheel, the leather seat molding around all that powerful muscle, as he zips through traffic with a wildness that magnifies his confident male beauty.
The night sparkles around us, shining brighter up ahead where the casino towers over the horizon. He veers onto the next street and heads in the opposite direction of the penthouse.
“Where are you going?” My lower body melts as the hand returns between my legs.
“It’s a surprise.”
“What kind of surprise?”
“The kind I won’t tell you about, so don’t ask again.”
He crosses the bridge into Illinois and drives twenty minutes to the town of Belleville. There’s not a lot in this area, but the moment he pulls up to the huge Skyview Drive-In sign, I bounce in the seat.
“Is it open?” I only see a couple cars in the parking lot.
“365 days a year.” He pays the attendant at the drive-through window and parks at the far end of the lot, away from the other two cars.
Movie trailers flicker across the massive screen, revving my excitement. I’ve never been to a drive-in, especially not in January. I suspect it’s a lot busier in the summer months, when movie watchers can sit atop their cars and enjoy this uniquely American experience beneath the stars.
“Where are the speaker poles?” I scan the empty parking lot, wondering how we’ll listen to the movie. “I thought there were little boxes that hang on the car windows.”
“They were replaced with an FM broadcasting system.” He leaves the engine running and cranks up the heat.
As he tunes the radio to the right FM station, the screen lights up with a movie intro that hitches my breath.
“Dirty Dancing.” I shake my head, grinning. “How did you—?”
“I made a request a couple weeks ago.” He hits a button that reverses his seat as far back as it will go. Then he bores his gaze into mine. “Remove your clothes.”
Deep and gravelly, his command tightens my nipples against the satin of my bra. The man is raw, hard, biteable perfection, and the pleasure he ignites in my body is ruthless.
Even if the tinted windows didn’t conceal my nudity, I would obey simply because it pleases him. Jeans, sweater, boots, undergarments—I remove it all and kneel on the seat, facing him.
His lashes hood over eyes glowing with male approval. “Come here.”
Fragile tremors tiptoe across my skin as I crawl over the console. The space is so tight I don’t know how we’ll fit behind the steering wheel.
Hands on his shoulders for balance, I place a knee on the seat between his thighs. With my lips so close to his, he kisses me, his mouth hot and moist, his tongue rubbing against mine and the hand on my bare butt possessive as always.
The heat of his body heightens the kiss, stirring and warming the deepest parts of me. He caresses my backside and licks lazily inside my mouth. No tension. No time lines. Nothing but the contentment of togetherness humming between us.
The movie soundtrack streams through the car speakers, drowning out the panting sounds of our breaths. He pulls me closer, breaking the kiss to position my body on his lap with my back to his chest.
“I want your mouth.” I twist toward him.
“Watch the movie.” He clasps my waist and turns me back.
Gritting my teeth, I rein in the compulsion to steal another kiss. He intends to torment me, his hands already wandering over my nude skin. The best movie of all time fills the windshield, but I can’t concentrate on it. Not with his grip on my thighs, spreading me open and hooking my legs around the outsides of his.
He has full access to my body and takes advantage. Cradling my back with his chest, he nibbles at my throat and swirls his fingers through my wet heat until pleasure weighs down my bones.
The lips on my neck are relentless as he presses his wicked touch inside me. Sinking to the deepest knuckle, he grinds in and rubs the spot behind my pelvic bone as his thumb plays with my clit.
The first orgasm hits hard and fast, priming me for another. I squirm on his lap, and he pins me tight against him, thrusting his hand and holding me on the precipice.
“I love to feel you come.” The thickness of his voice makes my body ache, but deeper and longer lasting is the grip he has on my heart.
He continues to finger me and buries his face against my neck, sliding his cheek against mine, his hips moving just enough to let me feel how badly he wants me.
Desire hot in my veins, I come again, this one harder, tighter, robbing my breath.
“Trace!” I writhe on his hand, my nipples pointing skyward, which he doesn’t hesitate to torture with a brutal pinch.
When he finally removes his fingers, he wraps a hand around my throat, angling my head back to attack my mouth.
His kiss is raw and aggressive as he releases himself from his pants. “Sit on my cock.”
Breathless and shivering, I reach beneath me, curl my fingers around the hot length of his erection, and stroke. He could easily haul me down and slam himself to the root, but he seems utterly lost in the kiss. Lips raw and tongue deep, he focuses all his attention on my mouth.
I caress his cock through the kiss, but eventually I can’t wait any longer. Dropping my head back on his muscled shoulder, I position him against me and slide down on his hardness. We both moan, and his hands sweep over my chest, my hips, and my pussy.
He widens my thighs and pushes deep, rocking into me, his body tightening and shaking around me. I reach between our legs and play with his balls as he thrusts deeper, faster. With a groan, he returns his lips to my neck, biting and licking and pushing me closer to oblivion.
I moan in the back of my throat with every grinding flex of his hips. Blissful fulfillment waits on the peak, luring me, demanding my surrender. But it’s his fingers wrapping around my throat, the perfect pressure of his iron fist, that unravels me.
My legs fall open to the thick, relentless slide of his cock, and I scream, shuddering in ecstasy. As he joins me, it’s with my name on his breath, his muscles clenching and releasing and fingers pressing against my skin with unbridled passion.
After, I lift off him, twisting to straddle his lap. Then I kiss him the way I want to, with playfulness and affection, sliding my hands beneath his t-shirt to molest all that hot skin over steely muscle. His lips taste like untamed love and his breaths fill my lungs with the strength of his happiness.
“It’s always going to be like this, isn’t it?” I trail a path of kisses across his bottom lip.
“Yes.” Dauntless and inviolable, his confidence is my sanctity.
“I will always, always love you.” I kiss him again. “Down to the very depths of you. Thank you for showing me how to smile again.”