by A. C. Arthur
“I always travel alone.”
“Yet you always find someone to spend your time with,” she countered.
Chaz looked over to her.
“What?” she asked as he continued to stare. “You’re in the papers a lot. With this woman and that woman. Between you, Maurice and Major, I don’t know who the true Fashion House Playboy is.”
Considering she’d lumped him into a category with two of her brothers, Chaz figured the comment wasn’t a total insult.
“For a person burned by the lies in tabloids, you should know better than to believe anything they print,” he replied, anyway, but then wondered if he’d gone too far. The last thing he wanted was to irritate her.
“You’re right,” she countered, quicker than he expected.
“But if you want to know if I have a girlfriend, the answer is no.”
Her fingers moved on her thigh, but she didn’t speak. They’d slowed down, Chaz thought. From the time they’d first come up here, until now, her fingers had gone from clenching together, to rubbing along the stem of the wineglass, to resting on her thigh. Chaz had never seen Riley nervous. He doubted she felt that way often and he almost smiled with the realization that she must be relaxing with him.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
Chaz was almost positive she was single, but he didn’t want her to think he was presumptuous.
“No,” she replied. “I’m not in the market for a boyfriend, fiancé or husband. I’m fine being single.”
Because the other way hadn’t worked for her. Chaz knew and had no desire to rehash any of that for her.
“So am I,” he said.
“Why? Your uncle definitely believes in the institution of marriage. I’m surprised he’s not pressuring you to settle down.”
“That’s precisely why I’m still single,” Chaz admitted. “Uncle Tobias was on his fourth wife when he took me in after my parents’ deaths. Twenty-four years later and he’s on wife number eight. He averages around three to four years with each one, before he decides to trade for a newer model.”
“Wow, that’s a little harsh. You don’t think he’s really falling in love with them?”
“Only if he can fall out of love with them just as often. It seems like a vicious cycle to me.”
“A cycle indeed,” she added. “My parents may be the exception to the rule. They’ve been married for thirty-eight years this coming June. I think theirs is a real, true love.”
“But you’re not looking for that yourself?”
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. My focus right now is on RGF. That’s all.”
“Yes, it’s about to get busy on the work front for both of us. But you should always have a balance between work and play,” he said and then stood. “Do you want another glass of wine?”
Another drink, more small talk, whatever it took to make Riley feel comfortable with the deal they’d made. He could still smell her sweet and intoxicating scent on his fingers and his erection hadn’t abated, but there was no rush. They had all night.
Then what?
Then nothing. They’d get up in the morning and go home. Done.
When she nodded, Chaz took their glasses inside. He poured them both some wine and returned to the terrace. Riley was standing now, too, leaning a hip against the railing as she watched him walk toward her. Chaz handed her the glass.
“Do you have a New Year’s resolution?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Never make them. My professional goals are the same each year.”
Chaz watched as one of her elegantly arched brows lifted.
“What about your personal goals? Balance of work and play, remember?”
She smiled and Chaz felt the air leave his lungs. Straight white teeth and plump lips. The memory of their scorching kisses would forever be emblazoned on his mind. But it wasn’t her mouth that had physically assaulted Chaz in that moment, it was the light he saw flash in her eyes. The little bit of laughter that had joined her smile.
“I want to take more time to paint,” he admitted. Something he’d never told anyone else.
“You’re an artist?”
“Something like that,” he said before downing the contents of his glass. He was suddenly very thirsty.
And very ready to take her. Chaz looked at the empty glass momentarily and then walked over to a table and set it down.
When he returned to stand in front of Riley, he asked, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?”
She tilted her head as she contemplated a response.
“To have a kick-ass launch at every event this year,” she replied without hesitation.
Chaz stepped closer, lifting a hand to cup her cheek. “Then let’s not think about work tonight. If this is the only time you’ll have for play this year, let’s make it count.”
He’d been rubbing his thumb over the smooth skin of her cheek when it brushed past her lip. In seconds she was licking the same spot. His cock jumped.
“I agree. We’ll make tonight count,” she whispered.
Chaz took her glass and set it on the table next to his before pulling her into his arms, taking her mouth into a hot kiss. She returned his kiss with fervor, twining her arms around his neck and pulling him closer.
There wasn’t any part of her that he didn’t want to touch, kiss, lick and thoroughly enjoy. He couldn’t thank her enough for agreeing to this, for wanting this as much as he did. Dragging his mouth from her lips, he suckled her neck, his hands going flat on her back before he unzipped her dress.
“Happy New Year, Riley,” he whispered the moment his fingers moved along her bare skin.
She shocked and pleased him immensely by pressing a hand between their bodies and finding his rigid erection before unzipping his pants. “Happy New Year, Chaz.”
CHAPTER FOUR
HE WAS HARD and hot in her hands. When her slim fingers wrapped around his thick cock, Riley sighed with pleasure, while the persistent hum of arousal grew in the pit of her stomach. After unzipping his pants and freeing his erection, she’d closed her eyes to savor the feel of him and the wonder of this moment. She was actually doing this, and she was enjoying it.
Opening her eyes, Riley glanced down to see her hands on him. Their skin tones were different, hers lighter, his darker. Her fingers seemed too small against his length and width, yet she jerked him slowly, sliding her fingers from the base of his cock until her thumb brushed over the tip.
Chaz sucked in a breath and groaned, “Do that again.”
She did, but not because he said so, because she liked it, too. His skin felt silky and the sound of his groan rubbed along the most primal part of her. The part that enjoyed the power she had at this moment.
“I thought about...this.” She’d almost admitted that she’d thought about him specifically instead of simply fantasizing about the physical that was now happening. For Riley there was a distinct difference—thinking about him on a personal level could include wondering what his hobbies were, his favorite meal or movie, while considering how it would feel to kiss him or have sex with him was physical, pure and simple.
“You thought about jerking me off until I came in your hands.” His voice was low but deep.
Her fingers stilled over his tip, feeling the first drops of warm moisture.
“I thought about you, too, Riley. I thought about taking your mouth in a hot-as-hell kiss.” As if to punctuate that statement he cupped her cheeks and pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was chaste for only a second, before his tongue pushed through the barrier of her lips, tangling instantly with hers until she was breathless.
“I thought about getting my hands on you,” he continued when his mouth was moving over the soft skin of her jaw.
Riley continued stroking him while tilting her neck back so he could have better access. Just a few minu
tes ago they’d toasted the New Year, now Riley felt as if she needed another drink. Anything to cool the heat that was soaring through her at this moment.
“Harder, Riley, honey. Stroke me harder.”
He was pumping into her hand as his tongue trailed a hot path down her skin.
“Yeah, like that,” he groaned and nipped the skin of her collarbone with his teeth.
Riley shivered and clenched her teeth as she fought to hold in the moan of pleasure that soared through her body. This was just sex. It wasn’t some epiphany that would change the way she viewed relationships or even how she felt about Chaz and his family.
She needed his clothes off and moved her hands from his rigid length up to his chest, where she was about to push his jacket over his shoulders. A loud sound stopped her and Riley realized it was more fireworks popping off. She looked around them quickly and felt a cool breeze over her bare skin.
Damn! They were still outside on the balcony. Riley backed away from him, praying no one had seen them. Chaz’s gaze found hers, and before she could speak he scooped her up, carrying her through the glass doors and into the bedroom.
While he took his time laying her down on the bed, his hands moved furiously to remove her dress. Riley was just about to lift her leg to remove her shoe when he said, “Leave them.”
She shivered, this time from a chill and the way he was staring at her with such raw hunger. For a moment Riley thought she might have gone too far. Was she really going to do this? It had been so long...too long.
“Everybody thinks you’re perfect. They have no idea.” He sounded as if he were in awe, his voice running like warm oil along every nerve in her body.
She propped herself up on her elbows and dragged her legs onto the bed slowly until the spiked heel of her shoe dug into the cream-colored silk duvet. With her eyes locked on his, Riley let her knees fall apart and reveled in the quick hiss of breath he expelled before the guttural curse that followed.
If nothing else, Chaz Warren was damn good for her ego.
He looked at her as if she were the only woman in the world—no, as if she were the only woman in the world he wanted. That want was apparent in his eyes, which had grown darker than their usual russet-brown color. His lips thinned as his tongue snaked out to ease over them. He looked hungry and she felt as if she were sitting on a sterling-silver tray, offering herself to him.
Chaz snatched his jacket off. His fingers moved lightning fast over the bow tie and buttons of his shirt, until his chest was bare and it was Riley’s turn to lick her lips at the delectable specimen standing before her.
“I’ve watched you for so long, wondering what this moment would finally feel like.”
Why did his voice arouse her this way? He was just a man talking as men sometimes did during sex. It should not have sent shivers down her spine or caused her thighs to tremble. But it did.
She’d already undone the buckle of his pants so all he had to do was push them and his boxers down his toned legs. He paused to remove his wallet from his back pocket.
He pulled out a strip of condoms and tossed them onto the bed beside her. “I don’t know if this is gonna be enough for twenty-four hours.”
“I have some,” she told him before reaching for the plastic and ripping one packet from the others.
While he finished removing his pants, boxers and shoes, Riley tore open the condom packet and tossed the plastic to the side. She was just about to sit up so that she could put the condom on him, when Chaz stood at the end of the bed. Her fingers paused over the latex while she soaked in every gorgeous inch of his body. In the dimness of the room—there was only light from the small lamp near the window she’d forgotten to turn off when she left—he looked like a chocolate Adonis. Every part of his body was perfectly sculpted, from the bulging biceps and pectoral muscles to his tapered waist and beautiful erection, which jutted forward as if it, too, were glad this moment had finally arrived. But even with all that, Riley’s eyes went right back to his shoulders. She definitely had a thing for good strong shoulders on a man.
“Tonight, you can have whatever you want, Riley.”
Like he could read her mind, Chaz reached out to take one of her ankles in his hand. She had no idea what he was about to do but didn’t really give a damn as long as he buried his long cock deep inside her as soon as humanly possible.
Chaz lifted that leg until it was extended straight into the air. He kissed her ankle and rubbed his hand up her bare calf. The closer his fingers came to her inner thigh, Riley’s fingers trembled and she almost dropped the condom she’d forgotten she was holding. He inched higher until his fingers touched the tender folds of her pussy, easing through them to find that she was already slick with need.
“Is this for me?” he asked, and Riley had to gulp hard before she could form a coherent response.
“Tonight,” she whispered.
For a moment Chaz looked as if he wanted to say something else, but he nodded instead. He dragged two fingers down her slit, back and forth until the sound of her arousal mixing with the motion echoed in the room. She gasped because a single touch had never made her this edgy and needy before. Riley wanted to jump up and wrap her legs around him. She wanted him inside her. Now!
With that thought, she rose and reached for him. Chaz was faster. He grasped her wrists, stopping her from touching him.
“We don’t have to rush,” he said. “I want to take my time with you, Riley. I want you to remember every second of this night.”
Riley shook her head. “I want it now. Hot and fast.”
He did not immediately respond and in those quiet seconds Riley realized she ached enough to beg. But, oh, how she prayed she wouldn’t have to. Every higher deity in the universe must have heard her prayer because in the next seconds Chaz slipped the condom from her fingers and sheathed his thick length. He pushed her back onto the bed and lifted both her ankles to rest on his shoulders.
“This time,” he said, his brow furrowed as he eased onto the bed. “Just this one time we’ll go fast.”
Riley didn’t know if she should thank him or not, but the thought died when Chaz planted his hands under her ass cheeks and spread her enough so that his dick could slide into her with one slow and viciously erotic thrust.
* * *
Chaz knew exactly what was happening here. He should have guessed it would go this way. Riley would fight to control every situation. She would hold on to that control like a safety net and the only way beneath the shields she’d erected around not just her heart, but her entire life, was through pleasure. It was the one thing she couldn’t fight, because she hadn’t received enough of it in her life. She hungered for it even though she would never allow herself to admit that. But Chaz knew and he’d waited long enough for the moment where he could start to push past her barriers.
He’d eased into her until his heavy sac touched the warm wetness of her folds. She’d stretched for him so beautifully, her walls opening and then gripping him so tight he’d had to close his eyes to the staggering bliss. His entire body had gone still as his mind wrapped itself around the feel of her.
Now Chaz pulled out until only the tip remained sheathed by her heat. He watched her arms slam down onto the bed, fingers gathering the duvet as she squeezed, and shook her head. “Don’t,” she whimpered.
“Shh. I got you,” he promised and slammed into her again.
She wanted fast and hot. Chaz would oblige.
His knees were on the bed now and he grasped her ankles again, spreading her legs this time until they were in a wide V. He thrust into her in quick succession, watching as every emotion from surprise to fulfillment flitted across her face. Her hair had been so neat he’d been afraid to touch it while in the ballroom, but now strands had broken free of the smooth knot, falling around her face in an angelic fashion.
“Yes!” Her teeth were cl
enched as the word fell from her lips. Her eyes were closed, full breasts moving with each thrust.
Chaz moved a hand down until his thumb covered her clit. She gasped and he smiled on the inside.
“This hot enough for you?” He circled her clit with the gentlest touch.
She panted and nodded.
“Look at me, Riley.” Chaz didn’t want her to just remember every second of this night. He wanted her to remember everything he did to her. Every touch, kiss and spark of pleasure he elicited from her.
Her eyes opened slowly as if she were waking from a deep slumber—lovely cognac-brown eyes with just a hint of red along the edges. How many times had Chaz awakened in the middle of the night, dick hard and on the brink of embarrassing the hell out of himself, because those eyes had taunted him in his dreams? Too damn many.
He pulled his hand back and slipped a finger slowly into his mouth, his dick throbbing inside her as her intent gaze followed that finger from his lips and back down. He touched her clit again and she closed her eyes.
“No, Riley. Open those pretty eyes, baby. I want you to see everything I do to you.”
Her eyes popped open quickly and Chaz circled her clit with his damp finger while only marginally slowing his thrusts into her. She yanked a hand away from the blanket to reach up and cup her breast. Squeezing so her pebble-hard nipple peeked between her fingers. Chaz clenched his teeth at the sexy sight.
“Tell me you want it faster, Riley. Tell me now!”
She was moaning and stroking her breast. “Faster!” It was an emphatic whimper and Chaz loved the sound.
He pounded into her, continuing to work her clit until she was gasping and moaning. He wanted to hear her say his name but knew she wouldn’t. Not without him prompting her. And Chaz wasn’t going to prompt her. Not for everything. There were pieces of Riley he wanted, but only if she gave them freely. And right now, all she was about to give him was her release.
“Fast and hot,” he groaned. “You’re so fuckin’ hot, Riley! I don’t care what anybody else says, you’re scorching hot, baby!”