“You still haven’t told me who’s your date, X.”
At that moment the bell over the elevator sounded, the door opened and Farrah waked out. Xavier smiled. Saved by the bell. “And I won’t. Goodbye, Y.”
He quickly disconnected the call and stuffed the phone in his coat pocket. His smile widened when Farrah came to a stop in front of him. She was wearing her full-length coat again, but he couldn’t wait to see the outfit she had on underneath it. “Ready?”
She smiled up at him. “Yes, I’m ready.”
Xavier doubted very seriously that Farrah Langley was ready for what he had in store for her tonight.
“The play was wonderful, Xavier. Thanks for taking me,” Farrah said, glancing across the length of the rear car seat. She really hadn’t been surprised when he’d swept her off her feet again to put her in the car at the hotel, and again when they’d arrived and left the theater. But she was surprised he had kept distance between them in the car now.
Although he’d ordered the privacy shield drawn and the lights dimmed, things were a lot different tonight than they had been last night when she’d practically sat in his lap during the car ride back to the hotel, and he’d kissed her so fervently her panties got wet.
“I thought so, too,” he agreed. “And I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
She glanced out the window and saw they were headed in the opposite direction from her hotel. “Where are we going?”
“I thought I’d take you for a ride across the river on a ferry boat.”
“A ferry boat? In this weather?”
He chuckled. “It’s a private barge and we won’t have to get out of the car. I thought you’d like seeing the Statue of Liberty up close.”
“You were able to arrange something like that tonight? At this hour?”
“Yes, as much as security would allow, which is understandable.”
She nodded, knowing it was. She looked out the window and saw they were at the New York harbor. Several huge cruise ships were docked, and glass lanterns that were hanging from light fixtures brightened up the entire area.
“Everything is ready, Mr. Kane. Should we proceed?” the driver asked over the intercom.
“Yes, Jules, and you can darken the lights back here.”
On cue, the lights in the panel of both doors went out, drenching the rear of the car in total blackness. The only illumination came from the light reflecting off the tall buildings of the Manhattan skyline.
Farrah knew the exact moment the car drove onto the huge barge, and moments later she heard the sound of the car door opening and closing. She glanced questioningly over at Xavier.
“Jules is leaving,” he said. “He’s joining the captain of the barge in the wheelhouse. They’re old friends.”
“Oh.” She knew that meant that she and Xavier would be in the car alone.
Moments later she could actually feel the swish and sway of the water beneath them when the barge began moving. She had ridden a ferry once before while visiting a friend in Florida. It had been a passenger ferry, and it had been during daylight hours. However, this ferry ride provided a beautiful view of New York City at night.
She glanced over at Xavier. He was still sitting across from her and was looking at her. Although the lights reflected off his features, she couldn’t see his entire face. However, knowing his eyes were on her was enough to send a luscious shiver up her spine.
Why did he have to be so mind-bogglingly handsome? Why did being here with him and sharing this space with him remind her of other times she’d shared more than space with him? She couldn’t help but recall when she had shared her body, given it to him whenever and however he’d wanted it.
She decided the best thing to do was strike up a conversation to ease the heated tension flowing between them, although she doubted it would do a single thing to douse the hot-blooded desire flowing through her veins.
“We won’t be running into the passenger ferry that runs twenty-four hours a day, will we?” she asked.
“No, we’re taking a different route so we’re safe.”
She wondered just how safe she was alone with him in the darkened backseat of a car while rolling down the Hudson. There was the scent of a predatory male circulating in the air, but she was determined to stay in her corner. If anyone made the first move it would be him…although he didn’t seem in a rush to do so.
Silence hovered between them for a few moments, and then he asked, “Would you like some wine, Farrah?”
She lifted a brow. “You have wine in here?”
“Yes.”
He proceeded to press a button, and a compartment opened that transformed into a minibar.
“Wow, I’m impressed,” she said.
He chuckled. “Are you?”
“Yes.”
He uncorked the wine bottle and poured two glasses. He then leaned over and handed one to her. “Umm, you smell good,” he said in a deep, throaty voice.
They were passing beneath a brightly lit building that illuminated his features. Heated lust was definitely shining in the dark depths of his eyes.
“Thanks. I think.”
He smiled. “You aren’t sure?”
She took a sip of her wine, liking how it tasted on her tongue. She looked at her wine in the glass and then at him. “Yes, I’m sure. I think you smell good, too. I guess our noses are in rare form tonight.”
“That’s not the only thing. Slide over here for a moment.”
Farrah met his gaze and decided she was either a glutton for punishment or eager for pleasure. Ignoring the voice inside her head advising her to stay put, she slid over the warm leather seat toward him. What she’d told him earlier was the truth. He smelled good. Good enough to lick all over.
When she was basically plastered to his side, he stretched his arm across the back of the seat. “Now,” he said when she was snuggled close to him, “this is where you belong.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
She would have thought such a statement—a bold proclamation made by him or any man about where she belonged—was out of order and deserved a blistering retort, but she didn’t have time to do so when he eased the glass from her hand and placed it in the holder next to his seat.
Then he turned toward her. “You have on too many clothes,” he whispered in a deep, husky voice.
“Mainly to stay warm. I get cold easily,” was her response.
“I promised to keep you warm, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but that was last night.”
He began unbuttoning her coat. “That promise stands whenever we’re together.”
Farrah drew in a deep breath as she studied his face. His gaze was focused on every button he was opening as if what he was doing was a very important task. She knew she should probably tell him that when it came to promises from men, she found they didn’t hold water, so he didn’t have to waste his time making one that he expected her to believe. But for some reason she couldn’t say it. Not when he had kept her warm last night. And not when he was taking his time now, handling her like she was a piece of fine china. He was opening each button slowly, with painstaking deliberateness, as if he was about to expose something beneath her coat other than the short blue dress she was wearing.
The dress might be short, true enough, but her black leather boots were long, stopping at her knees. Did he intend to remove them as well? Would she let him? Before she could think further on that question, he whispered, “Now scoot up a bit so I can work your arms out of the sleeves.”
Like a dutiful child, she did what she was told. When she leaned forward, she placed her hand on his thigh and almost snatched it back when she felt his hard erection. Her eyes flew to his face and there was nothing apologetic about the look staring back at her. Instead it was a look that almost made her regret they were no longer bed partners.
And she didn’t want to have any regrets. Although she’d found it extremely difficult to forget him and get beyond ever
ything they’d shared, she was convinced she had done the right thing when she’d made up in her mind not to fall back in bed with him.
Fate, it seemed, was working against her now. It was as if some fragment of her brain was trying to convince her that getting back with him would be a fantasy come true and that her sex-deprived body would thank her for the chance to get laid again. But a part of her, the part that had endured pain of the worst kind at the hands of a man she’d once loved, was holding back, keeping that guardrail around her heart firmly in place. She doubted that even Xavier could knock it down.
She knew she should remove her hand from his thigh, but the feel of his erection beneath her palm was doing something to her, reminding her how it had been a vital part of her life at one time. And how it had given her so much pleasure.
She felt his erection begin to throb beneath her fingertips, a slow, steady pulsating thump that was causing her hand to tremble while causing certain parts of her body to vibrate. She was so in tune to this part of him and remembered well how once it was inside of her, it could stroke her into a frenzy of the sweetest kind. She felt the inner muscles of her feminine core clench just thinking about it.
Farrah glanced up and met his gaze when he pushed the coat off her shoulders. There was a look in his eyes that sent a delicious warmth through her body. She couldn’t help wondering how she had endured a half year without this. Without him.
When her coat was off, he tossed it to the other side of the backseat and his gaze slid down the length of her outfit, which wasn’t much. What little it was seemed to have his attention.
“I like blue,” he said, running his fingers along the hem of her dress. “Do you?”
“Yes. It’s my favorite color. And these boots look good on you.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
“So tell me,” he said, easing closer to her after removing his own coat and lowering his head to whisper huskily in her ear. “What does a man like me have to do to get you out of a dress like this?”
She grinned and looked at him. “Umm, I don’t know, Mr. Kane. You’ve always seemed to be a very innovative kind of guy. What do you have in mind?”
She couldn’t help but take note that her hand was still on his thigh, still in contact with his throbbing erection. For some reason she couldn’t let go just yet.
“What I have in mind is stripping you out of every stitch of clothing you have on. Here and now. What do you think about that?”
She couldn’t help but chuckle. “Umm, not sure that’s a good idea.”
“But you would consider it?”
She smiled upon seeing the challenging glean in his eyes. “Let’s just say I don’t have a problem with you trying to convince me that I should consider it.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute, as if giving her words some thought. “I hope you know I can be very convincing when I want to be.”
“I’m very much aware of that.”
She knew Xavier well enough to understand her words were like a carrot dangling in his face. A carrot he intended to devour. This was the most fun she’d had lately. The summer months had been a complete bore to her and autumn hadn’t been much better. When Natalie and Donovan had returned from their honeymoon, the amorous newlyweds hadn’t socialized a lot, preferring to stay inside behind closed doors, probably burning the sheets. So with no lover to sleep with, no best friend to talk to, Farrah had had a lot of free time on her hands and had wondered if she’d done the right thing in breaking things off with Xavier.
But then, all it had taken was running into Dustin, his wife and daughter at the mall one Sunday evening in mid-October to recall why it had been the only thing she could do in order to protect herself and not get hurt by any man again.
“So what do you think about the view?”
She looked past Xavier to glance out the window. It was hard to believe they were in a car, riding down the Hudson on a barge. If he had deliberately set out to impress her, he had achieved that goal. “The view is beautiful. You definitely know how to wow a girl. I’m impressed.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Enough to let me take this dress off you?”
She shook her head smiling. “You won’t give up, will you?”
“Not until I have you naked.”
There was a determination in his tone that made shivers run up and down her spine. Heat began spreading through her stomach, and she felt a tingling sensation take life between her legs. She wondered if he had any idea just what was happening to her, how much she was fighting the temptation of giving him everything he was asking for. And then some.
She looked past him out the window again. Only Xavier would go to this trouble to impress a woman. And it was working.
Farrah glanced back at him, and the look he was giving her sent a burst of desire exploding through her. She found herself leaning toward him and his masculine mouth that was so sexy it should be declared illegal.
“And once you have me naked, what’s next?”
The erection beneath her hand seemed to get larger. “Then I plan to taste you all over.”
With his words, blatant and hot, her thighs seem to automatically spread apart, and she couldn’t help but remember how it felt to have his tongue between them, licking her with hungry strokes to sweet oblivion, fueling not one orgasm but several.
“So what do you think of that, Farrah?”
She swallowed, not wanting to think at all. Her body was pushing her to feel instead. Making her crave things she was better off not having, but making those damn hot memories invade her mind anyway. They were just too delicious to ignore.
She met his gaze, felt the heat emanating from the dark depths. And it was heat that was generating a slow yet intense sizzle within her. “Why are you doing this to me, Xavier?”
Without responding, his gaze seemed to say it all. The heat from his eyes nearly burned off her remaining clothes. Lust flowed up her spine as a fierce degree of need filled her all over. He continued to look at her, saying nothing, yet saying everything.
“I think you know the answer to that, Farrah,” he finally said in a deep, throaty voice. “But in case there’s a possibility that you don’t, the reason is simple. I never got over you. Our split was your idea, not mine.”
She lifted a brow. “But you didn’t disagree.”
“Because I knew it was what you wanted.”
“And now?”
“And now I plan to convince you that decision was a mistake.”
She saw the determination in his gaze. “What if I said you can’t do that?”
A smile touched his lips. “Then I would say I intend to die trying. I want you back, Farrah.”
Farrah knew he was dead serious. She forced herself to breathe in before asking, “And you think wanting me back is simple?”
A smile touched the corners of his lips. “Yes, wanting you back is simple, but getting you back will be the hard part.” He paused and then said, “And speaking of hard…”
She held his gaze as the throb beneath her hand increased, and she could feel his erection grow and harden even more. “Yes, what about it?” she asked, not even trying to ignore the burning sensation in the pit of her stomach.
He placed his hand over hers. “For the past six months, I’ve been working hard, Farrah, harder than I wanted to. But I had to do it as a way to try to forget you. And I failed at doing that.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip, surprised that Xavier would admit something like that. It would have been just as easy, less messy and a whole lot simpler for her to think he had moved on without any passing thoughts of her and what they’d shared. But to know he had thought of her, had worked doubly hard to forget her, yet failed, made something inside her swell to gigantic proportions, and that wasn’t good.
“And can you honestly say you didn’t think of me, Farrah?” he then asked.
That question was a no-brainer. Of course she had thought about him.
Constantly. Every day. In the middle of the night. When she woke up in the morning. And she’d definitely thought of him during those times her body went through a physical meltdown when it needed the kind of toss between the sheets only he could give her.
She could admit such a thing now, while sitting here with him alone, in the privacy of a car where they had a spacious backseat. She had no qualms saying it because regardless of all of that, she believed she had done the right thing in ending their affair.
And she would be doing the right thing in not letting him talk her into starting things back up again between them.
“Yes, I thought about you, Xavier, but I had to end things between us for all the right reasons,” she said quietly.
“And what are these right reasons?”
Now that would be a little harder to explain. How could she eloquently break it down so he would understand that she had to end things to keep her sanity? That with him, for the first time since breaking up with Dustin, she had begun to feel things, want things and need things that she knew could only cause her heartbreak.
How could she explain to him that every time he showed up at her place, looked at her, touched her, tasted her and made love to her until she screamed her throat raw, her heart swelled? That was the part she wouldn’t try explaining since there were some things about a woman’s emotions that a man didn’t need to know or understand.
She had gotten a lot smarter since her Dustin days, but because of Xavier, the part of her heart that had hardened had begun to soften each time she saw him, each time he held her in his arms and kissed her with that sinful tongue of his.
“Tell me, Farrah.”
Gathering her control, she removed her hand from his thigh and shifted in her seat, placing her hand into her own lap. For this she needed some semblance of detachment and distance…as much as she could get. But she was well aware that no matter how much space she put between them, she would still be able to feel his heat, the same heat that could succeed in melting the ice encasing her heart. But he needed to hear what she had to say.
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