Dr. Needham had been giddy with excitement at the prospect of showcasing a Michelangelo. He’d also told us that having the painting by Vermeer and the sketch by da Vinci was “an astounding privilege.” The works of art were now in the process of being transported to the National Gallery, where they’d be reframed and professionally cleaned.
Tobias was demonstrating now how fast he could type midair. “Am I boring you?” He gave a dashing smile.
“It’s just a little over my head, that’s all.” I gave his arm a squeeze. “You’re so clever.”
He brushed his hand over my cheek. “Can I get you anything?”
“I’m fine.”
“Coming to terms with your father’s paintings finding a home? It’s more than just a resolution to all you’ve been through.”
“Not that I want to put any pressure on you,” I said, “but you’ve been a nice distraction. Other than earlier, of course. When I was convinced you were that burglar Interpol’s chasing.”
“Icon?”
“Yes.”
Tobias cupped my face with his hands and leaned in to kiss me, and I tipped my chin, my lips ready and needful for his lips.
He paused, his gaze narrowing. He stepped back from me. “Logan.”
My head snapped round to catch her standing in the doorway.
She gave a nod my way. “Tobias, are you okay if I head home?”
“Yes, of course,” he said. “Thank you for setting that meeting up for us.”
I almost cringed when I saw the hurt in her eyes. “Would you like to join us for brunch, Logan?” It came out before I’d had the chance to think about it, but still, it felt like the right thing to do.
“No, thank you.” She gave a nod, turned on her heels and headed back out, closing the door behind her.
“Why do I feel dreadful?” I muttered.
“You shouldn’t. Everything’s good between Logan and me.”
“Clearly it’s not.”
“Look, you’ve had a difficult time.”
“That’s got nothing to do with me seeing her sadness.”
“That’s how she looks most of the time. She’s intense. Driven. You don’t know her like I do.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to halt any more words from escaping. Tobias had only just admitted he wanted to date me and the last thing he needed was a jealous girlfriend.
I stared at the spot where Logan had stood. “You do know her better than me.”
“Yeah, I see what you’re doing there.” He kissed my nose.
“What do you see?”
“Everything, Zara. You don’t need to agree to placate me.”
A tingle shot up my spine as I held his fierce gaze.
“Though I’m not an easy lover,” he said. “I’m domineering and—”
“Bossy.” My smile thinned. “I didn’t mean...”
“Well, as I am the boss that makes perfect sense.” His voice turned husky. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
I blinked my amazement at the way even his voice affected me. My gaze slid to his mouth, and I yearned to be kissed by him.
“Zara, I want to possess you entirely.”
Dragging my teeth over my bottom lip, I ran that through my brain as swirls of excitement rose from my core.
“Your mouth is dangerously delectable.”
I doubted I’d ever be able to push him away as his kisses trailed over my throat and he eased my chenille sweater up. And it was impossible to protest at his mouth lowering to my bra, his firm hand easing the cup down to free my nipple and his lips encircling that sensitive skin until it knew only bliss. He set to work on the other breast, rolling his finger and thumb to maintain pleasure on the one he’d abandoned with his mouth.
I said breathlessly, “Possess me entirely?”
“Let me show you.” He dragged his teeth over my nipple. “Now.”
We strolled to the far corner of his office and paused before a blank white wall.
He faced it. “Jade, I’ve brought a guest. Allow.” He gave me a heart-stopping grin of excitement.
The wall went from pure white to showing a doorway.
My free hand slapped to my mouth to prevent me from swearing. I’d never seen anything like this. An optical illusion so profound my brain strained to process it.
I felt the pull of his hand as we stepped inside a small, oval space. I waited for Tobias to push another button to take us through to the next room.
The space was too small, like a large cupboard, and I felt the hairs prickle on my forearms.
He leaned against the back wall. “Pick some music.”
“Ellie Goulding.”
“Jade, comply with guest.”
The soft tones of Ellie Goulding oozed through hidden speakers, and I giggled at how quickly the computer reacted.
“What is this room?” I whispered.
With a wave of his hand the door slid closed. “My secret domain. Jade, dim the lighting a little. Little more.” He laughed. “Not too much. I want to see my girlfriend. Good, bring the temperature up a degree. Activate invisible field.”
“What’s invisible field?”
He grinned.
“Why are we in here?” I whispered.
“I come in here to think with no distractions. I need complete silence when calculating unit conversions, hypothesizing engineering software and double-checking speculations. That’s where Jade comes in. Right, Jade?”
I frowned at her silence. “She understands every word? Jade’s not the computer that went haywire, is she?”
He brought his finger to his mouth. “Shush. Jade believes she’s real.” He frowned at me questioningly.
“I read GQ occasionally. You just so happened to be in the one I read.”
“I’m flattered.”
He didn’t need to know I’d just read it.
Tobias looked amused that I’d researched him and leaned into my ear. “Don’t believe everything you read.”
“She didn’t crash?”
“We discovered a cyber spy working for us. I sabotaged the AI. I’ve upgraded her since then.”
“But the article?”
“A planted story. She works fine.”
“You’ve turned her back on?”
“She was never off. And she’s evolved.” He gave a seductive smirk. “And she gets jealous.”
“Seriously?”
“For example, she turns a little ‘green’ when I do this.” He knelt at my feet, reached for my zipper and tugged my jeans down.
A soft green hue turned our space into a soothing hub.
His fingers touched my sex, his face inches away from the scorching heat rising between my thighs.
“This is your world?” I said wistfully.
“This—” Tobias eased apart my cleft and ran a thumb along it “—is my world.”
I felt a tinge of pleasure at his caress.
“We’re doing it in your secret room.”
He grinned. “Yes.”
“You’re into kinky sex?”
“Into control.” His tongue swept along my cleft and flickered there, his hands reaching up to pinch my nipples and tweak to the same rhythm. “And as you’ve learned I’ve mastered the ability to have you come at will.”
The way Tobias suckled with precision felt and looked so erotic. I shattered into a thousand pieces, this stunning pleasure between my thighs forcing my eyes to shut and my jaw to clench in response.
Ellie Goulding was singing about chasing after love and finally finding it...
I grabbed locks of his hair and held him to me, my heart racing with excitement. These walls were closing in—“It’s small in here.” My uneasiness rose.
&n
bsp; “You taste amazing.”
A blast of pleasure radiated from my center and outward as my mind tranced out.
The tip of his tongue circled my clit slowly, and I tilted my hips and thrust my sex forward nearing climax. My moan echoed and my short, sharp gasps proved I was about to fall into a climactic abyss.
He pulled away and rose to his feet. “I’m going to show you what it’s like to be truly cherished.”
“Tobias, I’m close.” My breathing was ragged.
“You’ve never been nurtured the way you deserve.”
I keeled forward, too weak to stand straight. “I’m grateful for all you’ve done.”
He pinned me against the wall and crushed his lips on mine, his tongue rippled against mine, his mouth prying mine open farther to forge on through a deeper kiss. I tasted myself on him, causing my legs to weaken. His strength was the only thing keeping me upright.
His hands slid to his belt and he freed himself, lowering his body until the angle was perfect, his cock aligned, and with one quick shove he was inside me. A jolt of tightness and this tautness morphed into a shocking pleasure.
Hoisted up by him, I wrapped my legs around his waist and threw my arms around his neck.
He stepped back into the center. “Ride me. Hard and fast.”
I gripped his forearms, and swirls of excitement distracted me from these looming walls.
His strong arms lifted me, guiding me through this thrilling pace, and gripping his hips with my thighs I set off rising and falling, my slickness enabling my glide, my head spinning with this rush.
“Let me know when you’re close,” he whispered.
With my pelvis thrust forward the pleasure was blinding, and I sucked in air to fuel my continued thrusts.
“Jade,” Tobias whispered.
I dug my fingernails into his back to punish him for mentioning her.
He pulled me farther through my downward glide, sending a jolt of pleasure.
Trembling, coming hard, I buried my face into his neck, thighs shaking and my sex gripped him as I swept through each cycle.
“Tobias.” I squeezed my thighs tighter as I ground against him.
“On my mark,” he whispered. “One. Proceed.”
My body detonated into brilliant prisms of pleasure, shuddering against him, a frenzied ride through this blinding orgasm; weightless as though free-falling, my stomach muscles and thighs had to work harder to fight this sensation of gravity.
He groaned as he came, his heat filling me and sending me over into a continuous state of bliss. We both froze, shuddering out the remnants of euphoria.
I leaned back a little and smiled at him, admiring his impressive strength, and reached up to swipe away a trickle of perspiration from his brow. “That was amazing.”
“You’re amazing.” He lifted me off him. “And devilishly addictive.”
This loss of him inside me caused a soft groan to escape.
Wearing the biggest grin, he tucked himself away, and then helped me to dress, pulling my jeans back on and straightening my clothes.
“I could do that all day,” I muttered.
“Point taken.”
I slammed my palm to my mouth in embarrassment.
“Glad to see the earth moved for you too.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Sure did.”
“Close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Just do it. Don’t open them until I say.”
“Okay.” I squeezed my eyes shut and felt the soft touch of his lips on my mouth. Tobias took my left hand and interlocked his fingers with mine.
Trying to obey, I wondered what other surprises he had in store. “What was all that ‘on my mark’ thing? Tobias, just so you know, women can’t come at will like that.”
“You seem to.” He pulled me out and we reentered his office.
We walked for a little and I trusted him to watch out for the furniture so I didn’t crash into anything.
There came the echo of our shoes, hushed voices... “Open your eyes,” he said.
Adjusting to the wide-open space, my gaze tried to make sense of the expanse of the foyer, those tall pillars, that long marble desk with the perky receptionist, her face looking as stunned as mine, considering the last time I saw her I’d made a run for the—
Lift...
“You bastard,” I hissed at him.
He waved off his security staff. “More compliments? It’s my lucky day.”
The receptionist ran toward us waving a Louis Vuitton umbrella. “Here you go, sir.” She looked over at me, not quite sure how to react.
Tobias took the umbrella. “Thank you, Candice, all’s well.”
She gave a wary nod and hurried back behind her reception desk.
Glancing back, I tried to reason out that trip in Tobias’s supersonic lift, and ran through my brain the trick he’d pulled. My heart raced as I realized the danger and was just a little mesmerized by his genius.
My legs weakened with the thought of the height from which we’d descended. Tobias seemed to sense my unsteadiness and wrapped his arm around me.
“Not sure about you,” he whispered, “but traveling at forty miles per hour always makes me hungry. Fancy some Belgian waffles?”
My feet wobbled and fond memories came flooding back of me tucked safely in my bed, a Kindle in one hand and a spoon in the other, a bowl of oatmeal balanced on my lap. Those comforting mornings where death-defying feats were only ever experienced on the telly. “Can we just go home?”
“Oh, Zara,” Tobias said, “you’re my woman now. This is where the fun starts.”
We burst out of the building and he opened that large umbrella. We both huddled beneath it to hide from the rain, trailing down the steps toward the curb.
His Bentley idled there.
Cooper leaped out of the driver’s side and opened the rear door for us. He took the umbrella from Tobias and shook it.
We climbed into the backseat and I snuggled against Tobias’s warmth.
He reached for his Burberry woolen coat lying on the backseat and wrapped it around my shoulders. “We need to buy you a coat,” he said. “You’ll catch a cold.”
“Oh no, look—” I pointed.
About fifty feet away, beneath a veil of rain, stood a young Buddhist monk with a shaven head who was clad in traditional orange robes. His expression was serene and he was seemingly unaffected by the downpour.
His eerie stance as he stared our way was trancelike.
“He’s getting drenched,” I said. “What’s he doing all the way out here?”
Tobias leaned forward. “Coops, give him the umbrella and money for a cab.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That’s a great idea,” I said. “He must be freezing.” Cooper opened his door.
“Oh, and Coops...” Tobias narrowed his gaze.
“Got it, boss,” said Cooper, registering the message. He opened the umbrella and splashed his way over to him.
The monk’s expression was painfully soulful. He acted thrown when Cooper offered the opened umbrella, but after some persuasion he accepted it.
I crooked my neck to see better. “He looks lost.”
Tobias turned to face me and reached out. “Give me your hands.” He rubbed them between his. “We need to warm you up.”
Anguish coursed through me that I was being so spoiled as my gaze fell back on the monk. Cooper had hailed a cab for him and was leaning through the widow and speaking with the driver.
“Oh, look,” I said, “Cooper’s making sure he gets home. I wonder where he lives.” I watched Coops open his wallet and pay for the taxi.
He returned his attention to the monk, who was now safely tucked away in the
backseat.
Coops handed him cash.
Tobias gave a nod of approval.
I felt a pang of guilt at suspecting Tobias for stealing my paintings, I couldn’t have been more wrong. This wonderful man came through every single time. I couldn’t get over how wonderful he was and, right now, as I snuggled into his chest, I knew how lucky I was to have found him.
“Could you be any more wonderful,” I said.
Tobias gave a smile. “We do what we can.”
23
Standing in the middle of this luxury hotel suite, while wearing nothing but Coco de Mer bra and panties, I posed for Tobias.
Just as he’d told me to do.
The lavish decor was beyond exquisite with soft silver tones, which were the minimalist theme Tobias seemed to favor, and I wondered if that was why he liked this hotel, The Dorchester, on Park Lane. Everything was well thought out to provide lush surroundings that were also comfortable. That vase of lilies in the corner, that opulent seating area of high-back chairs and a long plush couch, that door leading to the bedroom and its four-poster bed where we’d made love all night long...
I’d been seduced into the very center of Wilder’s world.
Half an hour ago he’d played Guns N’ Roses and it had blared through the hidden speakers. This was my punishment for changing the music while he was shaving in the bathroom. Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” blared in every room. Yes, I was being punished but my music continued to flow...
One tall chilled glass of champagne and I was up for this game; a siren glinting with happiness and almost naked before him. Tobias sat a few feet away in a large leather armchair. He looked so dashing in that tailored tuxedo with one long leg crossed over the other, his fierce green gaze reflecting a man admiring his prey.
We were heading out soon for a private party but there was still time to play. I’d grown fond of his frequent flashes of dominance that still made me feel safe.
I’d even relented when he’d requested The Dorchester’s beautician to visit our room. She’d worked her magic on my wayward locks by hot-ironing them into voluminous, bouncy curls and had used a similar alchemy on my makeup. I’d searched the mirror, seeing nothing of the old me and everything of the kind of woman Tobias deserved to be with.
The Chase Page 23