Captivated by You

“You’re going to stop fighting me,” I told her calmly. “And I’m going to apologize.”

She went lax in my arms. Her submission was total and swift. I had the upper hand again.

I pulled her up and back, so that she was sitting on my thighs. Eva needed me in control. When I was reeling, she scattered, which only shook me more. It was a vicious cycle and I had to get a better grip on it.

“I’m sorry.” Sorry for hurting her. Sorry for losing my command of the situation. I’d been edgy after the nightmare—something she’d intuited—and getting hit with Kline immediately after hadn’t given me time to get my shit together.

I would deal with him. I’d keep a tight grasp on her. Period. There were no other options.

“I need your support, Gideon.”

“I need you to tell him you’re married.”

She leaned her temple against my cheek. “I’m going to.”

I shifted her to sit across my lap and leaned back against the wall, cradling her close. Her arms wrapped around my neck and my world righted itself again.

Her hand slid down my chest. “Ace . . .”

The coaxing note in her voice was one I knew well. I was hard in an instant, my blood hot and thick. Submitting to me turned Eva on, and that reaction from her fired me up like nothing else.

I pushed my hand into her hair and fisted the soft gold strands, watching the way her eyes grew heavy-lidded at the feel of the gentle tug. She was restrained and at my mercy, and she loved it. Needed it, just as much as I did.

I took her mouth.

Then I took her.

—

WHILE Angus drove Eva and me to work, I scrolled through my appointment calendar and thought of my wife’s eight-thirty flight.

I glanced at her. “You’ll take one of the jets to California.”

She had been looking out the window of the Bentley, city-scoping with her usual eager interest. She turned her gaze to me.

I was born in New York. I’d grown up in and near the city and eventually began to make it my own. At some point, I’d stopped noticing it. But Eva’s fascination and delight with my hometown had reintroduced it to me. I didn’t study the city with the intensity she did, but I saw it with fresh eyes all the same.

“Will I?” she challenged, her eyes betraying her countering attraction to me.

Her f**k-me look kept me redlined constantly.

“Yes.” I closed my tablet case. “It’s faster, more comfortable, and safer.”

Her mouth curved. “All right.”

That hint of teasing amusement captivated me, made me want to do everything wicked and raw to her until only complete surrender remained.

“You get to tell Cary,” she went on, switching the cross of her legs and revealing the lacy edge of her stockings and a peek of her garter.

She was wearing a red sleeveless shirt and a white skirt with strappy heels. A perfectly acceptable businesslike outfit that was elevated by the body inside it to understated sexiness. Electricity arced between us, the instinctive recognition that we had been made to fit together perfectly.

“Ask me to come with you,” I said, hating the thought of her being away from me for an entire weekend.

Her smile faded. “I can’t. If I’m going to start telling people we’re married, I have to start with Cary, and I can’t do that with you around. I don’t want him to feel like he’s on the outside of a life I’m creating with you.”

“I don’t want to be on the outside, either.”

She linked her fingers with mine. “Spending private time with friends doesn’t make us any less of a couple.”

“I prefer to spend time with you. You’re the most interesting person I know.”

Her eyes widened and she stared at me. Then she exploded into movement, hitching up her skirt and straddling me before I realized what she was doing. Cupping my face in her hands, she pressed her gloss-slick lips to mine and kissed me senseless.

“Umm,” I moaned, as she pulled away breathlessly. My fingers flexed into the generous curve of her gorgeous ass. “Do that again.”

“I’m so hot for you right now,” she breathed, rubbing my lips clean with her thumb.

“I’m good with that.”

Her husky laugh slid all around me. “I feel so awesome right now.”

“Better than you did in the hallway?” Her joy was infectious. If I could’ve stopped time, I would have at that moment.

“That’s a different kind of awesome.” Her fingertips tap-danced on my shoulders. She was . . . radiant when she was happy, and her pleasure brightened everything around her. Even me. “That was the best compliment, ace. Especially coming from the Gideon Cross. You meet fascinating people every day.”

“And wish they’d go away so I can get back to you.”

Her eyes glistened. “God, I love you so much it hurts.”

My hands shook and I dug them into the backs of her thighs to hide it from her. My gaze wandered, trying to latch on to something that would anchor me.

If she only knew what she did to me with those three little words.

She hugged me. “I want you to do something for me,” she murmured.

“Anything. Everything.”

“Let’s have a party.”

Seizing the opportunity to move on to other topics . . . “Great. I’ll set up the swing.”

Pulling back, Eva shoved at my shoulder. “Not that kind of party, fiend.”