And then he’d go back to Gwen.
Chapter Six
“Have you been lying to me?”
Okay, so she hadn’t meant to just blurt out that question as soon as they were back at Chance’s office. But…
They were back in his office. The door was shut. Lex and Dev weren’t around. It was just her and Chance. And she was desperate to know the truth.
Chance strode behind his desk. He didn’t sit, though. He just stood there. All big and sexy and strong, and he stared at her.
She stared back. Then she marched across the room. Gwen was really happy that her knees didn’t knock together when she walked. She thought—hoped—that she looked as cool and in control as he did. She stopped in front of his desk and notched up her chin. Her father did that. He lifted his chin whenever he got pushed into a corner. She’d learned that move from him.
I definitely feel like I’m in a corner. I have to know the truth.
“The guy is fixated on you, Gwen,” Chance said, his voice deep and rumbling. “He would have said anything to get himself out of trouble today. He’s been videoing you—”
Yes, and that creeped her out plenty. “I’m not talking about Ethan right now. I’m talking about you. About me.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Have you been lying to me?”
“I’ve been back in your life for less than twenty-four hours,” Chance said. “Dammit, Gwen, I—”
“Did my father pay you?” She was looking for a reaction. Sharp denial. A guilty flush. Something. Anything.
But his self-control—damn that self-control!—held strong. He didn’t change expressions at all. His breathing didn’t so much as hitch.
“Why did you come looking for me?” Gwen asked. She had to keep pushing him.
“Because you’ve been in my head for months.” His gaze held hers. “I want you…I need you. And I was done waiting.”
She wanted those words to be true but… “My father tried to give me a new guard last week. I ditched him.” Because she hadn’t wanted to live in her father’s cage. Of course, back then, I didn’t realize someone had planted cameras in my home! She might not have been so angry about that extra protection if she had known. “I’ve pretty much ditched all the guards he’s put on me over the years.” Her smile felt sad. “Except for you. Did you ever wonder why that was?”
He started to reply.
She waved her hand, stopping him. “It’s not because you’ve got some super awesome spy skills, so don’t think that. I’ve been slipping away from guards since I was six. Since my mom died.” Don’t go there. Don’t! “I could have slipped away from you, too, if I’d wanted.”
One brow lifted. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”
Cocky. “I am.” Gwen had evasion down to an art. “I didn’t ditch you because I wanted to be with you.” A simple, stark truth. “And my father…he knew how I felt about you. So if he wanted to make sure I had protection, he’d call you. Because he would know that…” Say it. “He’d know that I wouldn’t be able to turn you away.”
Not Chance. The others, yes, but not him.
His eyes had darkened even more with a surge of emotion—but it was emotion she couldn’t read.
“You have too many secrets, Chance,” Gwen told him, hating that he could be so controlled when she felt so raw from the rip of her emotions. “I don’t have any, not from you. I need you to share your secrets with me.”
He stared back at her. Just stared.
Fine. She spun on her heel and marched for the door. She wasn’t going to bare her soul anymore while he stood there and said nothing. Did nothing. Not while he—
“You father knows how I feel, too.”
His words stopped her near the door.
“He knows that I would do anything, anything at all, for you.”
Hesitant now, Gwen turned back to face him. He was still behind the desk. But his expression wasn’t unreadable. There was need on his face. In his eyes. Need, fury.
So much desire.
All for me.
“I’ve wanted you for a long time, baby. Hell, since the first day I met you. But you were the boss’s daughter, and if anyone was hands-off, it was you.”
She wanted his hands on her.
She had…since the first day.
“I needed that job, at first. I was looking to build more security contacts, and I knew that job would give me the opportunities I needed. So I worked for your father. I focused on my plans. The dreams I had for my own business. I knew I could make those dreams come alive I if I bided my time. If I did my job for Will.”
VJS Protection.
So, right. He’d had his dreams.
She’d had hers. My dreams were about you, Chance.
“Then something changed.” His voice deepened even more. “I started dreaming about you. You got into my head, and I couldn’t get you out. I tried to keep a distance between us, but you were smashing right through every wall that I put up. And then that night…shit, that one night when the champagne had been flowing and the snow falling and you—you were in that sexy red dress and you came to me. That damn night—the night I kissed you for the first time…”
“Christmas.” No, she hadn’t meant to say it, but she had. It had almost been a year before. Christmas Eve. She’d been at her father’s home. Chance had been there. He’d just seemed so…lonely. Aloof. She’d learned that he had no family. No one had been waiting at home for him. She’d actually felt his pain, and she’d wanted to comfort him.
But when she’d followed him outside and wrapped her arms around Chance, comfort had soon been the last thing on her mind.
He’d kissed her with wild passion. Kissed her with hot desire. And she’d thought…finally. Finally, we can be together. Finally, I can have him.
Then he’d pushed her away.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered.
“Gwen—”
“Those were your words, when I was offering all of myself to you.” Not just her body, but her heart. “And you turned and you walked away from me.” She’d just been left standing out on her father’s balcony as the snow fell on her. The snow and her tear drops had felt the same as they slid down her cheeks. So cold.
A few months later, she’d walked into Wicked. She’d given into the urge to let go of her emotions. To feel. She’d hooked up with Ethan—
“You stopped coming to your father’s. You stopped talking to me.” His voice sounded wooden. “You know how some people say they don’t even realize what they really have until it’s gone? I always thought that line was utter bullshit, but then you slipped away from me. Everything else in my life seemed worthless then. Shit, I used to stay extra hours at your father’s business, just hoping I’d catch a glimpse of you. I needed you. I missed you.”
She shook her head.
“And when I realized you were more important than anything else, it was too late. You were with Ethan.” His jaw hardened. “He wasn’t good enough for you. I knew it. I didn’t need your father to tell me that. But when Will asked me to dig into the guy’s past, I did. And I found the skeletons there.”
Shady deals. An ex-fiancée who’d died under mysterious circumstances. Another former lover who swore that Ethan had become obsessed and attacked her…or at least, that was what the police report claimed. The woman had later dropped those charges and seemingly just vanished from the face of the earth. The dark secrets from Ethan’s past had kept piling up, and they’d terrified Gwen.
But even before Chance had revealed all of the dirty details of Ethan’s past to her, Gwen had already realized she was done with the other man. Her heart had never been with him. She’d been trying to escape the emptiness she felt inside by being with Ethan. But there was no escape.
I could never get away from Chance.
“I was planning to break up with him, even before you came with your evidence.” He’d been so cold that day. Just seeing Chance had hurt. And to learn so many painful truths about Ethan. I s
uck at choosing lovers.
Either she picked men who didn’t want her…like Chance.
Or she picked men who were psychotically determined to never let her go. Like Ethan?
So screwed.
“I was jealous of him,” Chance said.
Her brows pulled together.
“Insanely jealous.” Now he walked from behind the desk. His steps were slow. His gaze fierce. “I hated the thought of him touching you. I hated the thought of him being anywhere near you. I wanted him gone from your life long before I found out about his past.”
“Chance?”
“Some of the things he said today at Wicked were true. I did think the bastard never should have touched you.”
He was closing in on her, and Gwen’s feet felt rooted to the spot. She couldn’t have moved then, no matter what. But, well, she didn’t want to leave. Not when he was telling her his secrets.
“I wanted to be the one touching you.” He stopped in front of her. And Chance lifted his hand. The back of his fingers slid over her cheek. “I wanted to be the one holding you. The one giving you pleasure. The one giving you everything that you needed. But first, I had to get Ethan out of your life.”
Her gaze searched his.
“You broke up with him. Told him to stay away, and I thought I might have a shot with you.” His fingers fell away from her. “Then he came after you and…that night…you saw me for the man I truly am.”
She grabbed his hand. Her fingers curled around his.
“You told me to stay away, and I did.”
Gwen licked lips that had gone too dry. “I was terrified and angry that night. Haven’t you ever said anything you didn’t mean?”
His gaze fell to her lips. “Yes.”
She waited, hardly daring to breathe.
“I can’t do this,” he whispered.
Those were the words—the four painful words—that had pierced her heart on Christmas Eve.
“Those are the words I didn’t mean. Because there was never anything more that I wanted to do…than just to be with you.”
She blinked because her eyes were filling with tears. Crazy, ridiculous tears but—
A knock sounded at the door. No, not now!
“What is it?” Chance demanded, his voice roughening.
The door opened behind Gwen. She didn’t look back. At that moment, she just couldn’t take her eyes off Chance.
“Dev and I are going out for some recon work,” Lex said. “You and Gwen going to stay here for a while?”
Chance’s gaze was on her. “For a while,” he agreed.
Her heart nearly leapt from her chest.
“We’ll swing by the police station,” Lex continued, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the room. Tension that was about to rip Gwen apart. “If the cops have more evidence on Ethan, we’ll let you know.”
Chance nodded.
A few seconds later, the door closed with a soft click.
Alone.
Chance eased around Gwen and walked toward the door. Frowning, she turned and stared after him—
He locked the door. The lock swung into place with a very solid sounding snick. His back was to Gwen. Her gaze slid over his broad shoulders, shoulders that looked a little too tense. His hand flattened against the wood of the door. “I’ve waited too long for you.”
It got even harder for her to breathe and her heartbeat seriously needed to slow down.
“I don’t want to make a mistake again. I am so fucking afraid of screwing things up with you.”
Big, bad Chance Valentine—afraid? No, that didn’t make sense. Gwen shook her head, but then realized he wouldn’t see the motion.
“I’m afraid if I don’t act now, I’ll lose you. You’ll walk away or some other bastard will come and take you away.” He turned toward her. The hot, hungry look on his face stole the breath that she’d struggled to inhale. “I want you, Gwendolyn Hawthorne. I need you, and, I’m pretty sure that if I don’t have you soon, I may just go insane.” His lips twisted in a rough smile. “If I’m not already there.”
This was happening. Actually happening. The desire on his face wasn’t a lie. The need in his voice wasn’t some careful trap to lure her in. It was real. He was real.
“I want you, too,” Gwen said. That was her truth. Past her fear and the hurt, the desire had always been there. The desire for Chance. To see what they’d have together.
She didn’t want him being the lonely man who stood in the shadows, just watching everyone else. A man on guard, always protecting the others, while he stood alone. She moved toward him. Put her hand on his chest, right over his racing heart. It beat just as fast and frantically as her own.
No, she didn’t want him to be the man alone. She wanted him to be with her. Always.
So she’d take this risk, and she’d hope that maybe—please—he felt some of the same, intense emotions that she did. Not just need. Not just desire.
More.
Love?
Her fingers trembled as they slid down his chest. She opened the buttons on his shirt. Pushed back the material. His chest was so muscled. His abs a perfect six pack. She touched him lightly at first, her fingers grazing over him. She was so nervous because this moment, it mattered. He mattered.
She leaned forward and pressed a kiss right over his heart.
“Gwen, you’re going to destroy me.”
No, his destruction was the last thing she wanted. His heart? She’d take that. She pushed the shirt all the way off his shoulders and heard the faint rustle when it hit the floor. Then Gwen kissed a path down his chest. There were some faint scars along his rib cage. Slashes near his abs. Battle wounds that made her ache because she hated to think of Chance in danger.
She wanted him to be happy. The guy was always too guarded. She wanted his control gone. She wanted to see him go wild with pleasure. She wanted his laughter. His happiness. She wanted everything that he had to give.
But first…
She would give. The last time, she’d had the pleasure. It was only fair that, this time, he was the one who got his world rocked. Her hand slid down to the top of his jeans.
“Uh, Gwen…”
She glanced up at him. “No one else is in the office, right? Your friends just left.”
“But—”
“I want you, and I want you here.” So this was where she’d have him. Her fingers pulled open the snap on his jeans, and she slid down the zipper. Chance didn’t wear underwear, a sexy bit of information that she’d be remembering for future reference. So his cock sprang toward her. Long and thick and full. So hot.
Her fingers curled around him and she pumped his length, stroking him from root to tip. Once. Twice. Three times.
If possible, his cock got even bigger.
“Baby…”
She tipped back her head and met him in an open-mouthed kiss. Gwen loved the way he kissed her. Sensually, taking and giving at the same time until arousal had her aching.
And then she pulled away from him. Staring into his eyes, she slid to the floor in front of him.
Chance shook his head. “You don’t have to—”
Have to? She wanted to taste all of him. He’d seen her go wild with pleasure. This would be her turn. Gwen leaned toward him and put her mouth on his aroused cock. Her lips closed around the broad tip and she sucked.
“Fuck.”
She took him in deeper. Licked and stroked him. After all, she knew how to use her tongue, too. His fingers curled around her shoulders as he held her tightly.
“You’re driving me out of my mind.”
She wouldn’t be satisfied until he was out of his head. Until reason was gone. Control a memory. She just wanted him to feel.
She swallowed. Sucked him deeper. Pulled back to run her tongue over the tip of his cock once more. A light, salty flavor slid over her tongue and Gwen pressed forward eagerly. She wanted—
Chance pulled Gwen to her feet. His hold was rough and his eyes—she�
��d never seen them so dark.
“You.” The one word was guttural. Sexy. “In you.”
Then he picked her up. Carried her as if she weighed nothing and that in itself was hot. He took her back to his desk. Sat her right on top of that gleaming wood.
“I fantasized about you so much here.” He yanked off her shoes. Tossed them. Pulled down her jeans and her socks and she had no idea where her panties had gone but her sex was bare to him. “Now…I have the real you, not some dream. You.”
He jerked up her shirt. Nearly tore her bra when he yanked it off. Then she was naked on that desk. Gwen should have felt vulnerable. She didn’t. She felt sensual. She felt…turned on.
“Put your hands on the desk,” he ordered.
Her hands slapped down.
He pushed between her legs.
“Can’t wait…need you…” But he bent and took one nipple into his mouth. She gasped at that contact, loving the feel of his tongue against her.
Then the head of his cock began to push into her. Yes!
He sucked her breast harder. His hands were locked around her hips. She wanted him to thrust deep—
“Fuck.” He pulled back. His breath heaved out. “Condom. Give me one minute, baby.” Then he backed away. She wanted to scream with frustration because Gwen wanted him. Right then. They’d both waited long enough.
He came back to her quickly. Kissed her. Positioned his cock between her legs.
When he thrust into her, time seemed to stop. Pleasure rolled through her, and she held on to him as tightly as she could.
He kissed his way down her neck. Lightly rasped her with his teeth. “I’ve imagined having you a million times, but I never knew…” He withdrew, plunged. “Never knew…it would feel this good.”
Her legs lifted and locked around him even as her hands fisted on the table. Time was moving again—at super speed. Her body was wound so tightly and she arched up against him with every thrust. His fingers slid between their bodies. He stroked her clit. Stroked and thrust and she was so close to her orgasm. So close.
Her hands flew off the desk, and she grabbed his shoulders. Her nails dug into him.
This wasn’t some gentle bout of love making. It was intense. Hot. Frantic. She couldn’t get close enough to him. Couldn’t move her hips fast enough. Couldn’t take him in deep enough and—
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