by Zara Cox
‘Forget the one dare. I dare you to spend every minute of free time you have while you’re in Singapore with me.’
My heart dropped into my stomach.
‘Why?’
He shook his head. ‘Did I say you were bad at this game, rosebud? You’re beyond bad. Number one rule, you don’t ask why a dare is a dare. It just is.’
‘That’s not going to work for me, Bryce.’
‘Why do the details matter? You say I’m important to you. That you want things to be different. I’m giving you a chance to prove it.’
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. ‘You want me to prove myself to you? Are you serious?’
He shrugged. ‘It’s my dare. I can frame it any which way I want. And I’m not done.’
‘Aren’t you?’
‘Oh, no, rosebud. A significant amount of that free time will be spent in my bed, building up to that naughty little thing you want me to do to you.’
My fork clattered onto the table. It was a good thing I’d already consumed half of the impressive steak and was full, otherwise I’d have been seriously pissed off at my sudden loss of appetite and the wasted food on my plate. Although another appetite had swiftly taken its place. ‘Sorry, you getting to call all the shots doesn’t work for me either.’
‘Fine. You get to call some shots along the way, but not all of them. I won’t risk you running off the moment you get what you crave so first I get a taste of that tight pussy, then we’ll work our way to the...what did you call it? The back door? Deal?’
I set my knife down next to the fork and picked up my wine glass. I took my time to savour the Chilean Pinot before I swallowed, revelling in the heated gaze that moved over my throat. If he was going to torture me, I intended payback in equal measures. ‘No.’
His jaw went slack for a moment before he snapped it shut. ‘No? To what exactly?’
‘To you still treating me like I’ve committed some cardinal sin by leaving the morning after you...after we...’
‘You gave me your word, and you went back on it. I don’t take that lightly.’
‘I know! But, damn it, are you going to hold it over my head for ever?’
‘No. A month, give or take, should suffice.’
‘And after that? We pat each other on the back and move on like our friendship never happened?’ Sarcasm dripped from my lips onto the table.
‘You broke it, Savvie. This new path is your idea. I’m just...making it interesting.’
A vice squeezed my insides tight despite this originally being my own plan. ‘If you think I’m just going to roll over and accept your terms, think again.’
‘I haven’t stopped being reasonable since you sailed off into the sunset. I’m willing to hear you out.’
I laughed again, conscious I was attracting more attention. Again Bryce glared at the man on the next table, who was wilfully ignoring his dinner date and shamefully eavesdropping. ‘You? Reasonable? When were you ever reasonable with me?’
‘Savvie...’
‘You didn’t talk to me for a week after I got my first modelling assignment. And when you turned up at the show you spent the entire evening in a foul mood, and snapped at anyone who came within three feet of me. If I recall, you never attended another show of mine.’
‘I sent flowers. Expensive ones.’
‘Yes, and a note written by some random florist saying you were proud of me. But you really think they made up for your absences?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘You expected me to drop everything and fly over to wherever you were just so you felt appreciated?’
Hurt lanced my diaphragm. ‘Of course not, but we were in the same city for some of the time, Bryce. You always had something more important to do.’
‘Gideon and I had decided to branch out on our own, away from the family business. Against the wishes of everyone but Aunt Flo. I needed to devote every minute to making it a success—’
‘Okay, I accept that, but...’
‘But?’ he jerked out tersely.
The pain intensified. ‘But I can’t help think, even before the whole thing with Dan, that you were already pulling away from me.’
His nostrils flared at the mention of Dan’s name and I wasn’t surprised when his expression closed off completely. ‘Don’t put this all on me. One minute you were lining up interviews for a marketing internship in the City, the next you were packing your bags to fly to Paris for a modelling gig simply based on a random scout’s offer of a job. I’d never known you to be flaky and even you have to admit graduating with a marketing degree, then abandoning it to pursue a modelling career, was a little surprising.’
‘Not when you knew I’d minored in fashion design and had a sizable portfolio locked in my closet.’
‘Doodles on art sheets you refused to show to anyone but me, and told me to ignore because you had no intention of doing anything with them even though I told you they were great.’
I tightened my grip around my wine glass, recalling another time he’d wholeheartedly believed in me even when I’d doubted myself. ‘So I changed my mind. Was I not allowed to do that? Or was I just not allowed to do that without your permission?’ I threw back.
His lips compressed and his gaze narrowed before it swept over my face, down my throat to my chest before rising again. The intensified gleam in his eyes escalated the heatwave sweeping through me. ‘We’re getting off-topic again, rosebud,’ he rasped, his low voice containing a dangerous edge that lit up my nerves.
I took another sip of wine before answering. ‘On the off-chance I accept this dare, here’s my deal. If you get to choose the time and place for when I get my secret wish fulfilled, then I get to choose the when, where and how you get to fuck me before then. It can be as early as tonight or two weeks from now. I get to say whether you fuck me on top of your car in a dark alley or on three-thousand-thread-count sheets in my private apartment.’
He shifted in his seat and his fingers resumed drumming on table. ‘It can’t be two weeks, not if you’re only around for another three weeks. Otherwise this is pointless.’
‘A week with me in your bed is pointless?’
‘If you choose to make me wait for two weeks, something has to happen in between. I’m not walking around with this fucking hard-on for fourteen straight days, that I can guarantee you.’
My breath strangled in my throat. ‘What are you saying?’
His gaze dropped to my mouth and stayed fixed on it. ‘I get to kiss you whenever I want.’ His eyes skated several inches lower. ‘I also touch you in a few...specific ways with or without your clothes on. Agreed?’
Delicious shivers raced up and down my spine. ‘Agreed. My turn.’
He nodded immediately. ‘Go for it.’
‘Oral sex will be vigorously discussed and, when agreed upon, copiously engaged in,’ I said, going all in.
The first genuine smile broke across his face, stopping my breath. ‘Agreed. One hundred per cent.’
‘You have yourself a deal,’ I said, throwing in a porn-star huskiness to my voice just to intensify his torture. I expected a signal of his sweet discomfort.
What I got was a creepy grunt from the man on the next table.
Bryce’s head snapped sideways and he glared at the hapless, eavesdropping fool. ‘Seriously, mate, stop staring at my woman and pay attention to your own date,’ he suggested tightly.
I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. ‘Why yes, Bryce, have a go at the man. Because that’s so reasonable.’
He redirected his stare at me. ‘I’ve lost my appetite, rosebud. Are you going to make me sit through dessert or can we go?’
I toyed with letting him endure dessert just for the hell of it but I was happily stuffed to the gills and my instincts warned me I’d reached my threshold where riling Bryce for one evening was concerned. I mourned
my lack of dessert for all of three seconds before I grabbed my handbag.
Creepy Eavesdropper saved his hide by keeping his gaze averted as we passed his table. It didn’t stop Bryce from emitting intensely hostile vibes towards anyone who so much as glanced my way.
He was still pissed when we reached the car.
‘Seriously, what was the point of buying me dinner if all you’re going to do is give me indigestion afterwards?’
‘You want me to give you something else, just say the word.’
The threat of indigestion flew out of the window to be replaced by the threat of something infinitely more carnal. More immediate. The screw-public-decency-and-fuck-me-right-here-on-top-of-your-Ferrari kind of immediate.
‘Take me to your favourite place in the city,’ I blurted.
His eyes gleamed, his bad mood receding. ‘Why? You want to call one of those shots right now?’
‘Maybe.’
He dragged his eyes from my face, breathed in and out for a handful of seconds. Then he nodded. ‘I know just the place.’
He threw the car into gear and accelerated back into the street. The next few miles passed in thick, sultry silence. ‘Are you going to tell me where we’re going?’
‘You’ll see.’
Fifteen minutes later, I saw. ‘Your building?’
He turned off the ignition. ‘I never got to show you the best part of the building. Don’t worry, here you’ll be safe from my unreasonableness.’
I laughed. ‘Safe? That’s an...interesting outlook.’
He paused, his face shadowing. ‘You don’t feel safe around me?’
‘There are several interpretations of safety, Bryce. You looking at me as if you want to eat me alive makes me wonder if going into your building with you is wise.’
‘What if I guarantee that at least one of us is going to come out infinitely happier than they went in?’
‘How are we going to determine which one it is? Flip a coin?’
A slow grin spread across his face. ‘Why not?’
I shook my head. ‘I never win your coin tosses. Never.’
He flicked open the centre console and caught up a silver coin between his fingers. ‘Cheer up, rosebud. This might be your lucky night. Heads or tails?’ he asked with a filthy smirk.
In the past I’d always gone for heads and lost. The law of averages suggested it couldn’t always be the case. Could it? ‘Heads.’
Eyes gleaming, he flipped the coin, caught it expertly and slapped it on the back of his hand. Then slowly lifted his hand. His smirk widened. ‘Sorry, love.’
‘No way.’ I leaned forward to see for myself. It was tails. I reached for the coin.
He snatched it out of the way and slipped it into his pocket. Then he threw his door open, walked around to mine. ‘Out you get,’ he said, that gorgeous smile making my heart flip-flop.
Slowly, I slid out one leg, then the other, not bothering to pull my hem down when it rode up. ‘You’re suddenly chipper.’
‘Leave your purse. You won’t need it.’
‘Even if I feel naked without it?’ I asked, unable to resist teasing him.
‘You’re not a vacuous bimbo. You don’t need props to get you through an hour with me.’
‘I was thinking more along the lines of important phone calls I might miss.’
‘It’s almost eleven p.m. Who the hell is going to call you at this hour?’ he demanded, even as he drew me away from the door. He slammed it shut after I tossed my clutch inside.
‘We’re busy professionals. It’s not completely unheard of.’
He took hold of my arm and walked me towards the double doors of The Sylph. ‘Well, whoever needs you urgently can leave a message. For the next hour, you’re mine.’
In truth, I didn’t mind not having the distraction of emails and texts for a while. For one thing I was enjoying his hand on me a little too much. In the suddenly restrictive confines of my bra, my nipples tightened, my skin felt flushed, and electric tingles pulsed in my clit.
Just like this afternoon, we went past a fully manned security desk.
‘Back again, Mr Mortimer?’ one of the guards said with a respectful nod.
‘I am. Glad to see you awake, Bob.’
The guard reddened and grimaced. ‘I’m never gonna live that down, am I, sir?’
Bryce’s lips twisted. ‘No, you’re not.’
‘What was that about?’ I asked when we entered the lift.
‘Nothing I wouldn’t have left alone if I hadn’t seen him checking you out this afternoon.’
My jaw threatened to drop.
‘What?’ he asked, eyebrows raised.
‘Where is this Neanderthal side of you coming from?’
His smile was calculated, sending a skitter of something not quite unpleasant up my spine. ‘You seem to think you know me so well.’
‘I do know you,’ I insisted, even though a voice inside me mocked me mercilessly.
He didn’t say anything, just stared at me with those impenetrable eyes until the lift pinged to a stop.
‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’ I blurted when he propelled me forward with a steady hand on my back.
‘No. You’re in the mood to argue a point just to prove you’re right. You’re not. Leave it alone.’
‘And if I don’t?’
He shook his head. ‘You’re not going to distract me by starting an argument, rosebud. Not tonight. And not here.’
We’d been walking through a glass-encased atrium at the very top of his building as he talked, and arrived in front of a wall of glass with the city spread out below us. The view was simply breathtaking. Across the bay, the city sparkled like precious gems tossed on an endless blanket of black velvet. Dazzling and magnificent.
‘Wow.’
‘It’s something, isn’t it? Takes my breath away every time,’ he murmured, the last traces of tension gone from his body.
Even before I’d chosen the Singaporean investment vehicle to back my business, I’d fallen in love with the city. I didn’t want to think that Bryce’s presence here had anything to do with it, but I couldn’t help but think it did. And to know he loved this place as much as I did...
‘How can you bear to tear yourself away from this?’
I sensed more than saw his shrug. ‘Like all great things, I enjoy it when I can and learn to do without when more important things hold my attention.’
My breath snagged somewhere between my lungs and my throat. I didn’t want to look at him just in case he wasn’t referring to me. Or just in case he was. God, he was turning me into a basket case.
Despite my warning to myself, I found my head turning, meeting his gaze, getting lost in the ferocious intent in his eyes.
‘Bryce...’
He stepped behind me and caught my shoulders. For the longest time we basked in the view, his head aligned with mine as he pointed out landmarks.
But slowly heat and tension built, my heart racing with other sensory delights I wanted to fulfil. When I turned away from the view, he was waiting. With my back against the glass, I stared up at him.
‘Truth,’ I whispered.
He smiled wryly, as if he’d expected me to say that. ‘Hmm?’
‘I’ve wondered, once or twice, how you would taste,’ I stated brazenly.
He exhaled choppily. ‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying, rosebud?’
I took his hands from my shoulders, placed them on the glass above my head. ‘Are you prepared to find out?’
‘Yes.’ The sound was ejected from him.
With a smile, I slowly slid down the glass until I was perched on my heels, looked up at Bryce’s stunned, gorgeous face. ‘Stay right there and don’t move.’
CHAPTER FIVE
Bryce
; FOR THE FIRST time in a long time, I was...dumbfounded.
While sex had been on my mind ever since she’d confessed her fantasy, I truly hadn’t brought her here to have sex. To get my hands on her luscious body every chance I got? Yes.
But this...?
My ability to think straight fractured when she reached for my belt and slid it out from the buckle. Her eyes stayed boldly on mine while her plump lips parted in anticipation.
Every step of the way since my absurd proposal at dinner, I’d expected her to laugh and tell me to stick my filthy desires where the sun didn’t shine.
So far she hadn’t. Hell, that glaze in her eyes said she was into this, just as much as I was.
I didn’t know how to wrap my head around it. Was it even me she wanted or did all this stem from that stubborn need for her to prove something to us both? Frankly, I had no idea.
But was I going to stop her?
Hell, no. My scrambled brain was already turning to soup and she hadn’t even lowered my zip yet. The sound of her doing just that ripped the breath from my lungs.
Pitching forward, I rested my forehead on the cool glass, hoping to gain a little control. No chance. My normally revered view of the botanic and hanging gardens by night paled in favour of the more enthralling view of Savvie tugging down my trousers and gasping softly as she took my dick in her hand.
She was rapt with her ministrations, but I was rapt with her. The way she looked as she stroked me guaranteed to turn me into a blathering fool in under a minute. But before that happened I had time to accommodate a few things. Firstly, that, despite my having seen her naked twice before, this was the first time she was getting intimate with my cock.
Secondly, dear God, where had she learned to do that?
That bite of jealousy from earlier resurged. I pushed it down in time to hear her sigh. To watch her swallow. To see her gorgeous eyes lift from my cock to meet mine. Her sultry arousal weakened my knees, forcing a groan up my chest.
‘Bryce...’
God, the way she breathed my name. Was she even aware she sounded like that?
‘What is it, rosebud?’ I asked, my throat thick with lust.
Her gaze dropped for an instant but I felt the heat of her stare all the way to my scalp. ‘You feel amazing.’