by Faye Avalon
He smiled, kissed her. “I try my best.”
“Hmm. Now it’s my turn.”
His eyebrows rose toward his hairline. “What did you have in mind?”
“As it happens, I’m feeling a little hungry myself about now.”
The gleam in his eyes could have lit up a few rooms. “Oh yeah?”
“Uh-huh.” She touched her hands to his firm, muscular chest, her fingers brushing lightly through the dark smattering of still-damp hair. Then she trailed her fingers across his pectorals and down toward his burgeoning erection. His stomach muscles jerked as her fingers played against his flesh.
The stormy intensity of his dark grey eyes pushed her on, as did the way he drew in a sharp breath when she wrapped her hand around him. He felt hot, hard and incredibly large. Maddie’s core clenched. How could she keep wanting him inside her? How was it possible? The need just seemed to keep on growing, building, expanding.
She hiked off the counter, placed her hands on his arms and encouraged him around until his back was to the counter.
Dropping to her knees, she took him in her hands and licked him once at his very tip, enjoying the grunt he gave in return. She slid her hands to his base, then pressed forward and, slowly and deliberately, took him into her mouth.
He tasted like the sea, like the salty air of the harbourside beyond the apartment. She moved her mouth slowly up and down his length, taking care to let her tongue slide over his hot and rigid flesh.
“Shit... Maddie... You’re fucking amazing at this.”
His hips moved in time to the rhythm she set—pushing forward as she took him in, then easing back. Drawing in his scent, his heat, Maddie enjoyed the power that came with his response.
She glanced up, saw him wince as his hands came to her head and held firm.
“Maddie...” Hissing in a breath, he eased her away and lowered his chin to his chest. “Fuck,” he grated. “Need a minute.”
“Why? Wasn’t I doing it right?”
He raised his head at her sarcastic tone. “Any better and I wouldn’t need time to get my shit together. I’d have lost it completely.”
“Why do you need to get your shit together? You go down on me and don’t stop until I come.”
He frowned deep. “It’s different.”
“I know that.” For some reason, it pissed her off. “I’m not stupid.”
He sucked in a deep breath, let it out on an edgy sigh. “Then stop acting like you think you are.”
What? Where did that come from?
Affronted, Maddie glared at him. “I beg your pardon.”
He reached down, encouraging her to stand. She wanted to push him away, tell him where to shove his opinions, but bloody hell, how was she supposed to do either when he brought his hands to her face and looked at her in such a way that made warmth flood through her entire being?
“You don’t need to keep proving how strong you are,” he said, holding her firm when she tried to turn away. “It’s okay to let go. Okay to accept help.”
Her chest hurt, her lungs squeezed. “I’m not sure what that has to do with me giving you a blow job.” She shook her head at his wry look. “And since when did you ever stand back and let people help you?”
Maddie couldn’t imagine an occasion when Gabe Harrington required the help of anyone. He was the type who stormed in, took what he wanted, left everyone reeling from his magnificence, then left with his chest puffed out. Mission accomplished. She’d love to be that kind of person. The kind people could rely on, lean on, trust to do what needed to be done. The kind of person who basked in an overwhelming confidence and self-belief.
Frustrated, Maddie pushed at his chest. “Name the last time you felt the need for help. The last time you felt...powerless.”
His expression turned dark so fast that she wished she could take back the words. Had she touched a nerve? She didn’t have the opportunity to question that further, because as fast as it had come the darkness left him.
“Can’t say it’s a concept I’m familiar with.”
His eyes didn’t reflect his easy tone, and the tension held in his muscles. Something there, Maddie thought. Something deep and mysterious? Not that he’d reveal it without extensive pushing and prodding. He was an incredibly private person, but she couldn’t quite let the subject drop without at least trying to make him reveal even the tiniest sliver of information.
“Problem?”
“Only that you talk too damn much.” Lifting her into his arms, he strode into the bedroom. He dumped her on the bed, whipped her over until she was face down. Tiny shivers trailed down her spine in reaction to the light stroke of his fingertips. Stopping just short of her backside, he stroked back along her hips and up to her shoulders, across her neck.
She shivered as he replaced his fingers with his mouth, pressing light kisses to her trembling skin. Maddie slid her arms above her head, turned her face to the side and closed her eyes.
Sensation shimmered over every inch of her body, delicious chills and tremors. His mouth was like a furnace against her damp flesh, setting off mini explosions in every nerve ending she possessed. His tongue joined in the onslaught to her system, the tip of it barely touching her as he journeyed down her neck, pulling her wet hair away to travel across her shoulders, down between her shoulder blades, the curve of her spine.
Maddie raised her hips slightly, anticipating the feel of his tongue across the curves of her bottom, but still he didn’t touch her there. Instead, he circled his tongue around the small of her back, and sensation rocked into her pelvis and deep into her core.
His fingers stroked across the back of her knee, trailing upward to her thigh and down between her legs. He didn’t touch her slit, but he came so close that Maddie had to bite her lower lip to stop from begging him to do exactly that. His hand worked down the inside of her thigh and toward her calf muscle.
Coaxing her to bend her knee, he took her foot in his hand and slid his tongue along the sole.
Sharp and intense sensation rocked through her core, making her inner muscles clench. She moaned softly. The sole of her foot? Who knew?
Taking his time, he explored her other foot, licking slowly around the sole, her ankle and up her leg. This time, he slipped his hand between her legs and cupped her mound.
Maddie writhed against his hand, coaxing him to do more than just hold there. But he remained still, letting his hand rest where her heat soared, while he pressed light kisses up and down her spine.
She wanted to scream at him to just get on with it, for pity’s sake. It was hard to breathe, hard to take in enough air to keep her head from spinning. She pushed her face into the mattress, grabbed hold of the pillows, all the while bucking her hips in the hope of making him slide his fingers inside her.
She almost shouted her displeasure when he drew his hand away, but he whipped her onto her back, straddled her, then grabbed her hips and raised her up. The movement caused her back to arch, her breasts to push upward. She didn’t know when he’d managed to get the condom on, but he was covered as he nudged her opening. He lifted her hips higher, making her breath catch.
The press of his fingers into her hips held her firmly, but she pushed her feet into the mattress to lift her hips higher still. Slowly, torturously slowly, he pushed forward, sliding into her. When he was deep, he held there, his gaze firmly on hers. Warmth moved through her, a shiver in the belly, a jolt to the heart.
Still watching her, he began to move, slow at first, then faster. She didn’t want to sever their visual connection, didn’t want to shatter the incredible closeness she felt to him right then. Yet it was terrifying, exquisitely so, and she closed her eyes, shutting off that powerful bond. She’d prided herself on managing to keep the barrier firmly erected between them, on keeping emotion from entering their sexual union, but Gabe was threatening that, and with ea
ch powerful thrust she felt the barrier wobble.
It had to be down to the incredible nature of the sex. Who wouldn’t be unsettled by such an overwhelming physical connection? While she was happy to submit to him where her body was concerned, she would never again allow him to take any other part of herself.
Her heart was hers to own. Hers to command and protect. At least there, she was in control.
* * *
The ferocious snap of his restraint left Gabe floundering around in some nebulous landscape where he didn’t know which way was up. One moment he was pumping into Maddie, safe in the knowledge that he was in control, that he could string out their pleasure until she got off. The next he was bursting into the condom like a randy teenager enjoying his first taste of pussy. Maybe it had something to do with the freedom he’d sensed in Maddie’s reaction, the way she’d seemed to lose that reticence that was so much a part of her. Not that she lacked passion or enthusiasm—fuck no—but he’d always sensed she held a part of herself back.
Until now.
And it had shaken him to the core.
She still had her eyes closed as she sank back to the mattress, panting—as was he—her pretty teeth digging into her lower lip. He watched her, mesmerised.
Usually, he could fuck a woman, enjoy her and send her on her way having shared a mutually beneficial experience. He liked it that way. He’d never been one to think too deeply about sex, but here he was doing exactly that. And really, what the fuck was there to think about? You laughed, you screwed and you went on your way.
Shit.
Lighten the mood, he thought. Bring it back to basics, where it belonged.
When he tapped the light vertical lines between her eyebrows, she opened her eyes. “Leaving a woman with the energy to think straight after sex means a man hasn’t done his job right. The trick is to leave them too damn tired to do anything other than smile.”
“I am tired.” She stretched her arms, wriggled her shoulders, exaggerated a smile. “See? Happy now?”
She scrambled out from underneath him and went to the closet to pull on a towelling robe. “I’m getting a glass of water. Want some?”
Gabe came off the bed and made for the bathroom. Despite the hour, he needed something stronger than water. “Why don’t you make coffee?” he compromised. “While I get sorted?”
She walked to the door. “Okay. Anything else? Do we have stuff for breakfast?”
Fuck if he knew. The bloody ground had just shaken beneath him, and he’d yet to regain his footing. “Go take a look.”
She smiled, as if what they’d just done was all in the course of a day’s work, then left.
Again, Gabe thought, shit.
In the bathroom he took care of business, then planted his hands on either side of the washbasin and leaned forward. His reflection stared back, indicating shadows beneath his eyes and the need for a shave.
The last couple of days had been tough, especially for Maddie. Maybe he’d been insane to start along this course of action. He could have called her, given her the facts about Oscar, told her what he knew, what he suspected, and left her to make her own decisions. Knowledge was power. She could have made up her own mind.
What the hell had he been thinking? Kidnapping her, bringing her here to his apartment, fucking her. Now he was all kinds of involved.
Turning on the tap, he splashed cold water over his face, pulled a fresh towel from the stand and dried himself. He glanced at the shower where minutes before he’d fucked the frigging life out of her, then toward the counter where he’d tasted her honeyed sweetness, and where she’d gone down on him. His body stirred, his cock jerked. Already he wanted her again. It disarmed him to realise how much he wanted her. She turned him on like no other woman ever had. Ever since the first time he’d seen her, she’d wrapped herself around him and threatened to squeeze the freaking life out of him.
So what did he do? He went and invited her to stay with him for a goddamn week. Yeah, way cool idea that was, Einstein.
Back in the bedroom, he shrugged into his trousers and pulled on a fresh shirt. Too late now to try to backtrack. The seed was sown. They couldn’t keep their damned hands off each other. And what harm could it do? They might as well scratch the itch that still prickled between them. It was temporary, after all. As soon as he had a firm handle on what Kingston was involved in, it would be over. She would go back to London. He’d be out of her life, she’d be out of his. What she chose to do then was up to her. None of his business.
Satisfied with his inner pep talk, he walked out into the living area tucking his shirt into his pants. The smell of freshly brewed coffee hit him first, and he followed its trail to the terrace, where he found Maddie. She leaned on the railing, looking down on the streets below. As usual, Monte Carlo buzzed with tourists and locals alike, the scents from copious restaurants wafting through the warm Riviera day.
Safe in the knowledge that they could enjoy this temporary affair, he slid his arms around her waist and drew her back against him.
Only a fool would fail to notice the way she stiffened against him. He pressed his lips to her throat. “What’s wrong?”
She placed her hands over his. “Nothing, really. I was just thinking about something you said.”
“What?”
“That I act as if I think I’m stupid.”
He needed a few moments while his mind rolled back to exactly when—if—he’d said that. “I only meant that you’re more capable than you think you are.”
“How do you know?”
“You’ve been running a large fleet of prestigious hotels, when I get the feeling you’d rather be doing anything but.”
“I don’t have an awful lot of choice.”
“That’s not the point.” He drew her closer, kissed her neck again, enjoying the way she trembled beneath him.
“There’s nobody else to do it. Even if there was, my father entrusted it to me. I wonder if he’s hoping it’ll sway me over to the dark side once and for all.”
He knew she was trying to be flippant, but he sensed her frustration. “The dark side? Is that how you see being part of the business?”
“It hasn’t exactly brought me a whole lot of happy-happy. It took up all my parents’ time, probably cost my mother’s health, pushed my father to make bad decisions, and—” she shrugged, raised her hands “—look where it’s gotten me.”
He tightened his hold around her waist, not sure how he felt about her considering him part of the dark side.
“I was planning to hook myself up to a man who is into God knows what. I thought I was being clever hiring lawyers, making them check every detail of the contract, but I missed the essential part of the whole thing. I should have hired an investigator to make sure he was on the level. Had every single thing he was involved in checked and double-checked to clarify that his claims he’d reformed were true.”
“You’re trusting. Okay, maybe too trusting, but that’s just the way you are.”
“Yeah. Stupid.”
“Stubborn. Stupid is reserved for people who don’t know their Picasso from their Modigliani. Who don’t know that you don’t hang pastel prints in black frames.”
She gave a low laugh, as he’d hoped she would, and he turned her in his arms. “You’re a pretty amazing woman, Maddie Mallory.”
Her amber eyes were clouded and flat, and he wanted the light back in them, the fire. He touched his mouth to hers, lingered, then reluctantly drew back.
“Want to take a trip tomorrow? I’ve got my eye on a couple of properties along the coast toward Cannes. At first look, they’re ripe for investment. I’d like your take on them.”
She raised her eyebrows, suspicion burning away some of the cloud in her eyes. “You don’t have to humour me.”
“I’m not. You have an eye. I want to borrow it.”
“What kind of properties are they?”
“Old art deco hotels. One’s been derelict for years. It’s only recently been put on the market for sale, having been at the centre of a family squabble over who owns what.”
She was quiet for long moments, then she shook her head. “I’m not sure I should be gallivanting around checking out investments for you. I should be focussing on my own problems.”
Despite her words, Gabe knew she was intrigued. She bit down gently on her lower lip, making him lose the gist of the conversation for several cock-hardening moments. A hint of an anticipatory smile lit her features.
“I called my investigator this morning,” Gabe said quickly, hoping to appease her with a morsel of information about the progress of his research. He hadn’t realised how much he wanted that trip with her. “Nothing concrete yet, but he’s found a new contact who’s willing to sing.”
Her eyes widened. “About what?”
Gabe hiked a shoulder. “My guy’s the type who keeps things close to his chest until he has verified leads to report. I trust him. He’ll come through.”
“Okay.” She looked at him sideways. “But remember our agreement.”
Gabe did, but he also hoped the investigator didn’t dig up anything that Maddie would be best not knowing. Gabe wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do if he was in possession of facts that would hurt or harm her in any way.
But, fuck. An agreement was an agreement. He wouldn’t go back on it. Especially not with Maddie.
“I remember,” he said, stroking the back of his fingers down her cheek. “Now, what about that coffee?”
She considered him for a few moments more, making him feel like he’d been caught lying through his teeth by the school principal. Which was ridiculous.
As he watched her pour coffee from the pot, Gabe knew that he skirted a very grey area. He’d do what it took to protect Maddie, but he’d never do anything to make her lose her trust in him again.
Shit.
Gabe felt himself tumbling into a dark pit. If he wasn’t careful, he’d never regain his footing and be able to crawl his way back out.