“Stuck?” Chris asked.
“That man doesn’t have any idea what he’s about to get into, but I have a feeling he’s about to learn a thing or two.”
“From a virgin?”
Evan nodded. “A virgin who never flirts with him or tries to get his attention.”
Chris frowned. “He likes a challenge.”
“But have you ever heard him say he went without sex?”
Chris’s eyes widened. “Holy shit.”
Even chuckled. “Exactly. Our friend is about to have some of his asinine theories about falling in love with a woman tested.”
Chris practically rubbed his hands together. “This is definitely going to be fun.”
Chapter Seven
Dee looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. The dress looked great. She’d bought it over a year ago but this was the first time she’d worn it. It made her feel…odd. She didn’t wear dresses or skirts that often, but for some reason she wanted to dress up tonight. Sadly, this dress was her last choice. She loved it, but found it a little too snug for her liking. The blue soft fabric clung to her hips and it was a bit too low cut for her liking. She glanced at the small pile of clothes on her bed. She was out of options at the moment. This was the end of the line.
Micah would be here any minute and she was far from ready.
She turned and looked at the back of the dress…or the back of the halter that was missing. Maybe this was a really bad idea. Okay, the whole date thing was a bad idea. She’d blurted out that she was a virgin to the man, allowed him to talk her into several dates, and basically drive her crazy for the last week. Why he wanted another date, she had no idea. She couldn’t seem to help herself. She wanted to be near him, with him. And for once, she found herself wanting to be a girl.
She wasn’t a woman who could dress up that often. She worked, that was it. Every now and then, she would go out with Keisha, but that was just for girls’ night out. Her dates had dwindled in the last six months or so, mainly because she was just so damn sick of explaining why she wasn’t in the life, why she wasn’t going to sleep with the guy on the first date. They all thought she was a woman with loose morals because she worked at the club.
Drawing in a deep breath, she grabbed her lip gloss. A quick brush or two and she replaced the cap just as the doorbell rang. Damn. Her heart slapped against her chest and the breath in her lungs stalled.
She ordered herself to calm down and went to the door. This was just a dinner, nothing big. They had done it before. It wasn’t as if they were going to go to Rough ’n Ready and get it on.
Her nipples tightened against the fabric of her dress and her body heated. Crap, the thought of being taken publically by him should not turn her on. But it did. More than any kiss she’d had in the last few years.
By the time she got to her door, she’d settled herself down. Or at least talked herself off the ledge. Opening the door, she lost her ability to think.
Micah was always a gorgeous man, and he was one who dressed for his job. Meaning, as the owner, he wore suits most of the time. But nothing compared to what he now wore.
Dark steel gray fabric fit over his large body as if it had been made for him. Of course, knowing the kind of money he made, there was a good chance it had been. Her father had worn the best of clothes, always tailored to fit. This definitely had the mark of a hand-tailored suit. His hair shimmered down his back. She could imagine it sliding over her skin, the silky strands slipping across her bare breasts, teasing her nipples.
She squeezed her thighs together as he turned. His gaze slipped down her body and then traveled up to meet her eyes. One side of his mouth curled up and her heart started smacking her chest again.
“Wow.”
His voice deepened over the one little word. God, the man was making her melt and all he was doing was looking at her and saying wow.
“I have to get my purse, if you’d like to come in.”
He nodded and followed her into her house, shutting the door behind him. He made her living room look miniature. He was a large man, larger than most of their patrons. Added to his solid six-foot-four-inch frame was a wealth of sinewy muscle. It was shame she had definitely sworn off sex, because she was sure Micah would know just what to do. She turned away from the temptation and grabbed her purse.
When she faced him again, she found him studying her living room. When he zeroed his gaze on hers, the air backed up in her lungs. His gray eyes always had that ability. They wiped whatever thought she had from her mind. How could this man do this to her? Before the mess her life had become, she had played with guys. Teased, and had gone as far as oral sex. But she had never had a problem turning down a man. Oh, there were times she wanted sex, had needed it. She might be a virgin, but she understood desire. Still, there was never a time when she’d felt an overpowering craving for just one man. It constantly took her by surprise.
“Well.” She fidgeted. She never fidgeted. Humor lightened his eyes, informing her that he recognized her tell also.
“I take it you’re ready to eat.”
Dammit. With anyone else, that would sound like a normal question. But with him, nothing was simple—or normal.
She straightened her spine. There was no way in hell she was going to let that seductive smile work on her. Sure, she knew it promised long nights of loving, controlling, dominating, beyond anything in her dreams. That wasn’t what she needed to be thinking about.
“Sure,” she said, offering him a smile.
He chuckled but said nothing else as he followed her out of the house. She stopped on the step and he took the keys from her. She frowned as she watched him lock her door.
“You know, this is the twenty-first century. I can lock my own door.”
He finished the task and gave her back her keys. “Of course you can. You can do a lot of things. I told you the other night, you’re going to have to learn that some things are better left up to others.”
She could feel her face heating. Hell, her whole body was sparking with enough electricity to light up Waikiki Beach.
Without another word, he offered her his arm. “Ready?”
Looking up at him, she felt her mouth dry up. Those gray eyes always captured her attention. They hid so many secrets, desires. She would give him this, allow him this little dominance. It wasn’t that big of a thing. She slipped her hand onto his arm and she heard a barely audible sigh.
Had he been worried? There is no way he could have. Micah Ross crooked his finger and women came running. If he didn’t get her into bed, bent to his will, he would move on to someone else.
As they walked to his black vette, she wondered why that thought gave her equal parts arousal and pain.
Micah tried not to hum. It was hard not to since his whole body was humming. Having her beside him, giving in to that little bit of dominance he had shown her, shouldn’t have thrilled him. He had gotten women to do more with little effort. This woman was going to make sure to fight him all the way. He was too self-aware to not understand that was part of her appeal.
“Do you mind telling me where we are going?”
He smiled. It had taken her about five minutes of talking about the weather before she’d finally given in and asked.
“My place.”
He didn’t look at her as he punched the gas to pass a slow-moving sedan, but he could feel her gaze settle on him.
“Your place. I didn’t agree to that.”
He wanted to laugh at her suspicious tone, but he instead he smiled. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed a woman’s company this much before he got her to bed.
“You said you would have dinner.”
She didn’t respond for a few seconds. He could almost hear her thoughts turning over in her head. “You said this is only dinner?”
He shrugged. “Up to you. You want more, you get more. Just like the other night.”
She sighed and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. Even from th
e corner of his eyes, he could see her succulent flesh move above the neckline of her dress. Micah was still amazed he could function. From the moment she had opened the door, most of the blood in his brain had headed south. In the two years she’d worked for him, he had never seen her dressed like this. The fabric clung to her curves, leaving little to the imagination. He knew without a doubt that she wasn’t wearing a bra or panties. There were absolutely no lines beneath the fabric.
Arousal thrummed through his blood. His control was legendary. Micah never had a problem drawing out the pleasure or waiting until a woman was ready to take that final step. With his bastard of a birth father, a rapist who liked to beat his wife on a regular basis, Micah had never wanted to be like him. Never wanted to cross that line. It was one of the reasons he had been drawn to BDSM. He had been afraid too much of the bastard’s blood was in him, and Micah did have a temper.
“So, just dinner.”
He could tell she was trying to get some kind of promise from him. “And dessert.”
“Micah.” Her voice held a lethal warning. He knew he had to be careful around her. One little slip up and she would be out. It would take him months to get back to the position he was in now.
“I got a cheesecake.”
There was a beat of silence. “Cheesecake.”
When he saw the expression on Dee’s face, Micah wanted to kiss Keisha. When he’d peppered the waitress for answers about Dee’s likes and dislikes, she had let him know about Dee’s love of New York Cheesecake. In fact, her friend said it was her one big weakness.
“Yeah, New York style.” She said nothing so he glanced over and shrugged. “You don’t have to eat any.”
She shook her head. “No I l—” she licked her lips, “—I like cheesecake.”
He laughed. “Well, then we do have one thing in common.”
“I have a feeling we have a lot in common.”
That gave him pause as he slowed down for a stop sign. “How so? I mean, I don’t think I would be wrong in thinking that you don’t want to be involved with me. Or I should say, you don’t think you should be.”
She ignored his last comment. “What I mean is that we both have control issues.”
“That’s true, but I don’t think you understand yours.”
“Oh believe me, I understand mine.”
The sadness he heard in her voice pulled at him. For the first time in a long time, he really wanted to get to know a woman. His lovers in the last few years had been players, there for the challenge of being his sub. He hadn’t really known them beyond the bedroom. He didn’t work out their issues, know of their families, their habits. Hell, he already knew more about Dee than he did most of his previous lovers and he had yet to get her into his bed.
“Understanding them and dealing with them are two different things.”
He took the exit to his neighborhood.
She sighed. “I know. I just don’t have the ability to figure those things out. And sometimes things are out of our hands, don’t you agree?”
He thought it over, thought about his temper, his father’s proclivities. “I do to a point. But how can you live a satisfied life if you don’t deal with it?”
“Sometimes surviving is all you can hope for.”
Loneliness threaded her tone, tugged at his heart. He knew there were things in her past she let no one know. Not even Keisha knew exactly where she had grown up. She never had anyone visit her and she rarely left the island. He didn’t either, but he had no idea where his family was, and he was pretty sure they could care less about him. He wanted to know what caused her to run at the age of seventeen. Was it abuse? He knew there was more to it than just a controlling father.
But that could wait. It would drive him insane, but he would try for patience. He had yet to initiate a reluctant woman. This was a first. And wasn’t that just a bitch. Micah knew he’d been spoiled the last few years. Being the main Dom at a BDSM club offered him a lot of benefits, one being that women regularly threw themselves at him. He didn’t have to try. With Dee, he’d had to pursue her.
He pulled onto his street and then made the right into his drive. Dee had no idea just what a big deal this was for him. He kept an apartment in town, had his own private bedroom at the club. He rarely brought anyone back to his house. It was his sanctuary, where he could be himself. He also never wanted to share this part of himself with women he barely knew. It wasn’t until he’d been planning their date tonight that he realized what he had been doing all these years. He parked in the driveway, then got out and rounded the hood to let Dee out of the car. By the time he reached her, she already had one leg out of the car. He grabbed the door and offered her a hand. She looked down at his hand, then back up at his face. Those luminous eyes danced with humor.
“I can get myself out of the car.”
“Like I said, some things are better left to others.”
She blushed but took his hand. He led her to the front porch, his heart pounding harder with each step. After unlocking the door, he stepped aside to let her enter. He followed her in, closing the door and leaning against it.
Until this moment, he hadn’t realized just how much he wanted—needed—her here. He loved his house, had spent a fortune building it. Now, for some reason, for the first time it seemed like a home.
He brushed the thoughts aside as he led her toward the kitchen. He watched her as she studied the Corinthian countertops, the ceramic-tiled floor and the Viking appliances.
“Wow. You could fit about five of my kitchens in here.”
She didn’t sound upset by that fact. He didn’t want to win her over with his money. Although, he had to admit, there was a part of him that did. He wanted to impress her with the money he’d earned, and just how far he’d come in life.
“I take it you like to cook?” she asked.
She hadn’t stepped into the kitchen and he smiled. He had a feeling that Dee wasn’t much of a chef. He took her hand and led her in.
“I love to cook.” He pulled out a chair at the breakfast bar. “I know you know a little bit about me.”
She nodded. “Of course people talk. It’s natural since you’re the boss. They don’t know as much as I know now. As you said, you came from nothing.”
He chuckled as he pulled out the ingredients for dinner. “I came from less than nothing.”
He put the container of sea scallops on the counter and pulled a pot off the rack to fill with water for the pasta. Setting it on the burner, he turned the gas on and looked at her. Again, a sense of rightness stole over him. In his kitchen, at this moment, with this woman.
He leaned over and brushed his mouth against hers. A small taste and his body was yearning for more. He had to use a large amount of control to push it aside.
“What was that for?” she asked.
“For a while,” he teased.
He smiled when she frowned at him. Turnabout was fair play in his humble opinion. The woman was already driving him beyond sanity. He pulled out the pasta and he felt the weight of her gaze again. It was one thing he had learned these past few weeks. Dee was a cautious woman, one that weighed every option before coming to a decision. He set the box on the counter and glanced over at her.
“Do you need some help?” she asked.
“Sure. Why don’t you start on the salad?”
Dee took one more bite of the seared scallops and closed her eyes in appreciation. Damn if the man didn’t know how to cook. Granted, it wasn’t anything hard to do. A few scallops with garlic, pasta and roasted asparagus, but it had been so long since someone had cooked for her. The simple delight of having another person take time for her, make her a meal, it was a little too wonderful to ignore.
She opened her eyes as she swallowed.
“I take it you liked the scallops?”
She offered him a smile. “Considering I’m trying to control myself enough not to lick the plate, I would say that is a yes.”
He smiled as he sip
ped his water. She’d had one small glass of wine, but switched to water like Micah. She knew from experience that he didn’t drink much. She had never seen him get drunk, never heard of him losing control like that. Of course, he always seemed to be able to master his emotions. There was no way he would allow himself to drink too much. It should comfort her since her oldest brother had been well on his way to being a drunk when she’d run—and a mean drunk at that. But there was a tiny part of her that was afraid of a man like Micah. A man with that much self-restraint should make any woman scared.
She smiled. “Odd that you seem to know some of my favorite foods.”
He said nothing.
“So, been spying on me?”
He laughed as he stood and took both their plates. “No. Your friend Keisha was happy to help in my date plans.”
She could feel a flush of heat fill her face. “Trying to win the pool.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She watched him as he cut a generous portion of the cheesecake. He returned to the table and slid into the chair beside her with one plate and a seductive smile. She didn’t know which tempted her more, the man or the cake.
“You’re not going to have any?” she asked.
He nodded. “We’ll share.” He cut off a piece.
And then his gaze followed the fork as he moved it to her lips. He didn’t mean to feed her, did he?
“Open up.”
Well, crap. Fear and arousal twisted through her. She didn’t want this. It was almost too…intimate. This was all about proving she wasn’t for him, but no matter what, he kept slinking past her defenses.
She shook her head.
“You want some, you better open up.”
She frowned as butterflies fluttered in her tummy.
“I told you, some things are better when someone does them for you.”
The way his voice rolled over those words, she knew the meaning behind them. She would have to be an idiot not to understand. She wanted to refuse. Being fed by a man was…a little bit too much for her to take. He slid the fork along her bottom lip. The scent of the graham cracker crust and the sweetness of the cake filled her head. She raised her gaze to his. His attention was on her mouth.
A Little Harmless Lie Page 9