by Joya Ryan
She met his gaze and paused. “I can’t cook. I own my mother’s restaurant and can’t cook.”
She was entrusted to run her mother’s legacy and was failing. Reintroducing her mom’s food to the menu and renovating the balcony didn’t make Chloe competent. And that realization was one she struggled with every day.
“I’m sure that’s not true,” he offered. He was trying to be sweet, and she appreciated that, but…
“Nope, it’s true. And normally I wouldn’t mind so much, but there’s just one thing—” She stopped herself from going into details, because it was those details that made it hard to swallow the failure rising in her throat.
“What one thing, sweetheart?” he pressed. “You want to cook something special?”
She was playing a dangerous game with a man that she knew better than to play with at all. Their one rule, “casual,” had kept her safe every time he’d come and every time he’d left. But now he’d changed the rules. Now he wanted “romance.” Now he wanted her to open up to him. Now he wanted her to feel for him with her heart, not just her body.
“Forget it,” she said.
“No.” His voice was blunt and deep. Not harsh, but that one word was said with such authority that Chloe registered the intent. He was telling her he would not forget a thing.
“I want to make something specific for the restaurant anniversary coming up, but I’m struggling. Happy now?” she said with her own snap. She didn’t want to go into her shortcomings. Didn’t want to discuss “real” things, like how she missed her mother and how she hated the loss of her. Hated how her mother had lived her last several years with a broken heart because she was waiting on a man. Hated that deep down, Chloe feared she was looking at the man who could ruin her the same way.
She shook her head. No way in hell would she think about this, much less tell Gage about it. Time for the sex. Not the reality.
“Now can we get back to this…” She reached into his pants a little further.
“Chloe…”
“I’m right here.” She placed another soft kiss over his nipple. “The question is, what are you going to do about it?” She bit down on his meaty pec, and he growled and drove his hands into her hair. He pressed her against the nearest tree and kicked her legs apart.
Chloe smiled, and the low hum of need she’d been fighting burst into overdrive. She was done with reality. Done with talking. Now it was time for what they did best.
She clawed at his hips, pulled him close between her spread legs, and rocked on his hard cock, hitting the perfect spot. Even between their pants, he knew how to move, where to touch, how to turn her on.
He kissed her hard as the grip on her hair tightened further. He pulled—and she gasped. The shock of pain and pleasure always hit her like a surprise, and she loved it. Gage didn’t wait. Didn’t negotiate. He took her exactly how she liked it.
“You drive me crazy.” He bit her tongue. “So fucking crazy I want to remind you who’s in charge.”
“Yes, do it!” She grinded her hips against him. She was wild for him. Desperate. He looked like her personal Army of One, and she needed him.
Her eyes snapped open. She looked him over—a wall of muscle, glory, camo, and the face paint? He was rugged and “her type” to the Nth degree of hotness.
“You did this on purpose.” She shoved at his chest, but he gathered her wrists and locked them behind her, wedging them between the tree trunk and her back.
“You dressed like this on purpose. Tried to get me to give in to you,” she said.
With his free hand, he unbuttoned her jeans and tugged them down. Once they bunched around her thighs, he pushed them to the ground with his foot, then locked her legs at her ankles. With his weight on her pants, the bunched cloth acted like cuffs. She was standing, legs spread, and couldn’t move.
“Just because I happen to look like your own personal fantasy, doesn’t mean you should hold it against me,” he said. “Besides, isn’t this what you wanted?” He unfastened his pants.
Yes, but he’d made her give up a real detail about herself. “I want you. But you…you’re…”
“Not playing fair?” he finished.
He reached into his pants, gripped his cock, and ran the head along her folds. She groaned. “Kind of like that little stunt you pulled the other night with your ‘quick meal’?”
He had her there. She might have used that to her advantage, like Gage was using his camo and manliness to his. And she was melting for him.
“Please take me now,” she begged as the hot crown of his cock barely nudged her opening. She lifted her hips to try to take him into her body, but he stilled her.
“We haven’t had a dinner date yet. And fucking in the woods doesn’t count as romance.”
Her eyes met his. “Then what…”
He thrust hard against her, running his big rod along her sex, and her head fell back. Her legs and hands were pinned. His big palm pressed against her stomach to keep her from moving. He had her in every way. And he wasn’t going to take all of it.
The thought sent fire raging through her; a cocktail of frustration mixed with lust and pent-up need.
“Feels like a compromise,” he said. The way he worked his hips was out of some manual for How to Be a Sex God without Actually Having Sex.
The velvety head of his cock briefly prodded at her opening, then ran up and down between her folds, hitting every nerve ending. He pumped faster against her clit before sliding back down to her opening, but never breaching.
He was spreading her moisture, using nothing but his impressive cock, and she was on the brink of coming from him not fucking her.
“You’re evil,” she said, but when he thrust up, pressing hard against her clit and rubbing wildly, she lost her voice.
“Really? Because it sounds like you’re enjoying this. Perhaps a thank you is more in line.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you. Please…” She tried to wiggle and get more, but it was no use.
“Please what?”
“Keep doing this. I want to come so bad.”
“I want you to,” he rasped in her ear. “Because you’re going to make me come, too.”
He yanked up her shirt, exposing her stomach, and moved faster. “Do you have any idea what you do to me? Making me crazed with needing to be inside you, and you’re going to make me come without even getting the chance.”
She knew the feeling. He had more restraint than she did, because she was ready to hand over anything he wanted if he’d take her deep.
The fire in her veins boiled and climbed from her toes to her breasts, snapping flicks of pleasure along the way. Her orgasm swept her up, took her over, and she couldn’t breathe. Didn’t want to. Didn’t need to. Because Gage was right there to breathe for her. Catch her. Consume her.
He groaned low, and the hot lash of his release hit her stomach as he moved up and down. After several deep breaths, his hold on her loosened. They both looked at his seed marking her. He smiled like he’d won some victory, and truth was, he kind of had. Gage exercised control in a way she’d never seen—and now she was marked by him.
He kissed her once, tucked his cock back into his pants, then reached in his pack and grabbed a wet wipe. He cleaned her stomach, then pulled her pants up and fastened them.
“I’ll be honest, sweetheart. This is the best mock rescue to date.”
She took a deep breath, trying not to let frustration override the bliss. But Gage was winning. She was ready to give in to whatever he wanted if it meant she got to have him.
Stay. Strong.
Be the fantasy. Not the reality.
“Well,” she said casually and picked a piece of bark off of her shoulder. “If half of your team responds the way you do, they should be here in no time.”
His eyes turned dark as he warded off a snarl. She was being bratty, but she didn’t care. He was messing with her sexy time and holding his body hostage against her.
She needed
to make him break, and fast—before she broke first.
He was back against her in a millisecond. His big body pressed hard against her front and the tree against her back.
He cupped her face, and his fierce gaze was so wild and desperate, she couldn’t tell if he was mad or terrified.
“This is the last time.” He kissed her bottom lip. “The last opportunity.” Kiss. “Chloe, will you have dinner with me?”
She leaned back enough to meet his eyes once more. Gage McGraw, the man who issued orders and expected to have them followed, just asked her.
All the venom she’d built up, the wily exchange of wills, all fell between them. The only thing left was Gage gazing at her like he really saw her. And she couldn’t deny him.
“Please.”
That was her undoing.
“Okay,” she whispered.
A huge smile split his face, and he kissed her. Once hard and fast, the next soft, then small, light brushes of his lips, until finally he took her mouth completely.
“I promise romance isn’t as bad as you think,” he said.
Chloe somehow doubted it. Especially because she had no idea what she was doing. But she was sure of two things. One, she was getting in way over her head. Two, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself.
Chapter Five
Gage’s phone pinged with a text message from Chloe.
What’s your favorite dessert?
He stopped rolling the cuffs on his blue button-up and responded easily with the truth.
You.
Funnily enough, he was a bit nervous. While part of him had been confident he could eventually get Chloe to cave and go on a date with him, another part of him thought it’d never happen. But it was happening. Tonight.
After their little escapade in the woods, he’d replayed in his mind over and over the one word she’d said when he’d asked her again for just one date.
Okay.
She’d said okay. Now it was his shot to show her how much more they could be. And why he wanted to keep coming back to this town and to her.
His phone pinged again.
By the way, don’t worry about picking me up. I’ll meet you at the restaurant.
He almost protested, because walking to her door and getting her was part of the date. Granted, he’d never been strictly traditional, but with Chloe, he wanted to do things right—take her hand as she got out of the car, open the restaurant door for her, pull her seat out. But he was walking on thin ice with a date in the first place, and he didn’t want to push his luck. If she wanted to meet him at the restaurant, he wouldn’t push the issue.
Assuming this wasn’t some elaborate ruse.
If you stand me up, sweetheart, we’re going to have words.
A few seconds passed, and then she wrote back.
Please, God, no more talking.
He chuckled while responding.
Yep. Don’t think I don’t know how to punish you.
Her response came within seconds: You wouldn’t dare.
Gage grinned from ear to ear as he typed out his reply.
I’ll talk to you all night. Then again in the morning. I’ll talk to you so hard and so much you won’t be able to handle another conversation for weeks.
And send.
He called to double-check the reservation he’d made at Le Coeur’s—a fancy French restaurant in town. At first, Chloe had asked why she’d eat somewhere other than her own restaurant, but she’d seemed to melt with relief when he’d suggested that maybe she needed a night off from everything.
He thanked the hostess for confirming his reservation, then hung up and saw he had another text from Chloe.
Your threat is noted, and I believe you. I’m showing up tonight so we can finally get down to the good stuff. But I swear to God, if I buy you surf and turf and you don’t put out at the end of the evening, then I’ll be the one having words with you.
He laughed again. God, he liked her. So much. She was funny, strong-willed, and so damn sexy it made his head spin. Their little game was reversed in a lot of ways, but when it came down to it, they both played their part well. And his part was to keep a hold of Chloe and pleasure her until she couldn’t entertain the idea of anything—or anyone—else.
I see we understand each other then. See you soon, sweetheart.
His phone pinged once more.
Yes, you will.
Chloe had no idea what she was doing. It’d taken her all day and more research than she’d care to admit to prepare for tonight’s date. The cute little restaurant was on the waterfront, and Gage sat at a table nestled in the corner with a single candle in the middle. She hadn’t meant to be late, but she was.
Now he probably thought she was standing him up. Well, maybe that’d make him all the more eager when she finally went over. Assuming he didn’t walk out.
She shook her head and banished the thought. He wouldn’t walk out. And she shouldn’t care if he did.
She stood near the bar and watched the strong, capable search and rescuer sitting alone. Waiting for her.
She’d give him what he wanted just this once. This one night, one date, one act of romance, she could handle that much. At least, that was the pep talk she’d been dishing to herself since the almost sex they’d had in the woods.
He’d asked her questions as though he really did want to know her more. Know about her mother. Her past. And that scared her. Because deep down, she wanted to open up to him. She trusted him. Which was why she’d shown up at all tonight. But if she thought too long about it, she might back out.
Instead, she took a step forward.
She adjusted her purse—which felt heavier than normal—and then smoothed one hand down her dress and walked to her…date.
When he caught her walking toward him, those incredible eyes of his lit up. A man looking at her like that did weird things to her chest. Then again, it wasn’t any man who could do this to her with a look; only the man she wanted.
Heat rushed to her cheeks, and she suppressed a nervous giggle.
Gage stood, walked around the table, and pulled her chair out for her. “You look beautiful.”
Oh, he was good. His simple gesture and smooth words coated her skin like rich honey.
“So do you.” She took in his pressed shirt and black pants. He smelled like leather, spice, and all man—she could get lost in his scent.
“Before I sit, I have some stuff for you,” she said.
Gage raised a brow as she fished through her purse.
“Here.” She handed him a mini bouquet of roses. Actually, now that she looked at the semi-smooshed flowers, maybe it hadn’t been the wisest idea to carry them in her purse.
He laughed and took them anyway. “Nice touch.”
She handed him a note. “And this is for you, too.”
He unfolded it. His soothing laugh came back, and her face warmed.
“You’re hot?” he asked, reading the two words she’d scribbled on the paper.
“It’s true.” She shrugged. “And here’s one more thing.” She grabbed the last present and handed it to him.
“Edible panties?” He grinned at the packaged strawberry thong. “I like where your mind is at, sweetheart, but I don’t think these will fit me.”
“These are romantic,” she declared proudly. “I Googled it.”
He took a step closer, and his smile turned into something more serious. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged, trying really hard not to feel like an idiot. But tonight was important to him, and she was actually trying. Even if, judging by his reaction, she was doing pretty terribly. Nothing to do but admit how much she was lacking in this department.
“I read up on romance.” She stared at her feet. “The top romantic suggestions included surprise your date with flowers…” She glanced at the ceiling, concentrating on recalling every pointer from the website. “Write your date a sweet note.”
Granted, all she’d come up with was You’re h
ot, but she was still a novice at the romance stuff.
He took a step closer and cupped her hip, silently asking her to go on.
She finally met his gaze. “And prepare your date’s favorite dessert.”
“That’s why you asked earlier?” he said.
She nodded. “And since you said your favorite dessert was me…” She leaned in a little, and the wrapper of the edible panties crinkled a bit in his tight grip.
“You’re very clever. And I love all of it.” He gently kissed her lips, soft but thorough, stealing her breath and thoughts.
This was so out of her element. “You don’t think it’s stupid?” She wasn’t good with romance, but she wanted to make Gage feel all the things he made her feel. Wanted. Special. Seen.
“You’re incredible, sweetheart,” he whispered against her lips. “Thank you.”
Chloe smiled—she’d won a small victory here. Maybe he was right. Maybe this romance thing wasn’t so bad. Granted, she’d given her date a fruit-flavored thong in the middle of a five star restaurant, but whatever.
She gave him a final kiss, then took her seat. Gage set his gifts on the edge of the table and sat, too.
Across the white linen and flickering candle, his eyes sparkled. Looking at this man made her melt. Just being across from him was its own delicious kind of foreplay hinting at what the night would bring when they finally made it to the bedroom. Why hadn’t she agreed to this sooner?
Oh, right. Because she was feeling something for him. A lot of something.
But she wouldn’t get caught up in those thoughts and fears. Not with so much riding on tonight.
Tonight, she wouldn’t overthink it. She’d just enjoy dinner.
And later, she’d enjoy him.
“Five star restaurant and we cut out for ice cream?” Chloe said, walking along Main Street, licking her vanilla ice cream cone. Vanilla. Not chocolate. As far as Gage could figure, her choice indicated she was neither sad nor stressed. Excellent.
He also knew the creamery was her favorite. Every time they’d talked in the past, she’d brought up the flavor she’d tried that week.
“Thought you’d like my dessert choice.” He took a lick of his own strawberry cone.