She looked at his shoulder, unable to see anything else since the man was so tall and those shoulders were so shockingly broad. Must be padding, she thought with a nasty taste to her mouth. Or maybe that was just fear. Fear that she would fail at resisting this man. “Because.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only answer I can give you,” she told him honestly.
He twirled her around and she caught her breath when his leg slid between hers. “Not good enough. I guess I’ll just have to make my own assumptions about the reason.”
She waited, wondering what he might be assuming. But when there was just silence, she looked up at him. “What are you guessing?” she asked.
His lips didn’t smile, but it was there in his eyes and she shivered with the promise there. “That you’re afraid of me,” he told her, his hand on her back, sliding sumptuously close to her bottom and she arched into him, painfully aware of his hand. “Hmmm…do that again. I like it,” he told her softly.
Naya shivered, both from his voice as well as the way he was moving against her. Dancing with Luke was like making love standing up. Everything about him was sensuous and dangerous.
“Broccoli!” she whispered to herself, closing her eyes.
She should never have closed them! His teeth nipping at her earlobe startled her, causing her to lose control and a soft moan broke through her control.
“You sound amazing when you let go,” Luke commented and Naya felt his lips smile against the skin of her neck.
“Broccoli,” she whispered with more vehemence, her body stiffening in her effort to keep herself from falling under his spell.
“Are you hungry, love?” he asked, twirling her again.
She took a deep breath, her eyes closed. It didn’t occur to her that she should be watching out. Nor did she realize the strong hold she had on Luke’s hand and shoulder. With all her might, she was gripping his hand and shoulder, trying very hard to keep herself from giving in to the temptation to press her body up against his
The music, the sounds of conversation and laughter, the sporadic tinkling of glasses…everything faded from her mind except for the smell and feel of this man.
“Talk to me, Naya,” Luke groaned. He could see her lips pursing, her eyes closed with her long, dark lashes against her pale skin. He wanted this woman like he’d never wanted another woman in his life. But she kept pulling back.
Was it just the chase that he was craving? Was Naya’s resistance simply the spice he’d been looking for in his life? He’d been bored lately, but never had he suspected that a woman could fill that void.
Naya was definitely beautiful and had a body a man would gladly kneel down and worship. What was it about her that made him ache in ways he hadn’t ever thought possible?
Consciously or unconsciously, he had danced the two of them towards the edge of the dance floor. With a few more steps, they were out of the ballroom in the unoccupied hallway.
When she looked up at him, her eyes were sultry, unconsciously beckoning him closer. “Luke,” she whispered. “You’re not broccoli.”
Luke had absolutely no idea what she meant by that, but he couldn’t pull away from her. Pinning her up against the wall, his body pressing against hers, he kissed her, his hands moving over her tiny waist as he pulled her against him.
His mouth covered hers as he kissed her, his tongue moving against her lips until she opened her mouth and kissed him back. And then it was all over for him. He wanted her. She was in his arms. He was going to enjoy this moment to the fullest.
Naya couldn’t believe it when he started kissing her. She didn’t even stop to look around, trusting that he wouldn’t be doing this in front of others. A part of her mind realized that they were in a darkened hallway, but nothing else registered except his mouth, his body and the way he was moving against her.
She wanted more! And she whimpered when he wouldn’t give her more. Her hands slid higher, her fingers curling into his hair, pulling at the black strands as she struggled to press herself against him, to feel him tighter against her curves. He was pressing against her in all the right ways, but it still wasn’t enough.
She tore her mouth from his, needing oxygen, but he only moved his lips and his teeth lower, nipping at her neck, her ear, her collarbone, and causing the air in her lungs to gush out with wonder and shock at how much she needed from this man.
His hands touched her breasts and she cried out, almost toppling over. The only thing stopping her was his hard body pressing against hers, his hands holding her steady. It was all too much and still not enough!
“We have to get out of here,” Luke groaned.
“Why?” she asked, pressing her lips against his neck, loving the way he shuddered with her touch. It was nice to know that she could engender the same feelings in him that he was doing to her.
Grabbing her wrists, he pinned them to the wall behind her. “Naya,” he called out, but her breasts distracted him, the creamy tops revealed by the lower cut of her dress. It wasn’t overly revealing, not like some of the women who ventured into these events, but nor could it ever be classified as demure. With Naya’s figure, demure wasn’t possible. She was just too voluptuous.
“Naya!” he repeated, louder this time. When her eyes opened and she looked up at him, he still wasn’t sure she was listening to him. “Naya, we’re walking out of here. My place is only five minutes away, okay?”
She shivered at his voice, loving the command in his tone. “Why would we leave? I just got here about,” she glanced at his watch and gasped. “No! I’ve been here for two hours?”
He would have laughed at her horror if he wasn’t in so much pain to have her naked and in his bed. “Naya, we’re leaving.”
She shook her head. “I can’t,” she told him and pulled her wrists from his grip. “You’re not broccoli.”
He rolled his eyes. “I have no idea what that means, but we’re…”
She knew that she wasn’t making sense, but she couldn’t help it. He was making her crazy! “No, Luke. We’re not leaving here. And you’re not supposed to be touching me.”
“Like hell!” he roared, then gained control of his temper as he looked around to make sure no one had overheard them. Thankfully, they were still alone in the dimly lit hallway. “Naya, we’re definitely going to touch. If you need more time to get used to the idea, that’s okay, but…”
“NO!” she gasped and pulled out of his arms. She took several steps away, her hand moving up to her hair. “Did you mess up my hair?” she demanded.
Luke sighed, resigned to not leaving, but still in pain. It was actually getting worse just watching her. Hell, he’d been touching her but looking at her was doing it for him too?
Mentally shaking his head, he leaned a shoulder against the wall where she’d just been and crossed his arms over his chest. “Messed up is a relative term,” he commented. He thought it looked a hell of a lot better now than it had before. He looked down and chuckled, finding several pins on the floor. He bent down and picked them up, putting them into his pocket.
“I need those,” she pointed out, moving her head around, as if her eyes could see on top of her head.
He didn’t even hesitate as he slid his hands into his pockets, following the pins he’d captured. “No.”
She blinked and looked up at him. “No? What do you mean, no? I have to find a bathroom and fix my hair.”
He shook his head. “No.” He was being an ass, but he didn’t care. He was in pain wanting this woman, and all she wanted was to fix her hair. And broccoli. What was that about?
Naya couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’re not going to give me the pins?”
“No.” He pushed away from the wall and took her hand. “If you’re not going back to my place, then let’s go back inside. That way, I won’t be tempted to pull you into my arms and make love to you against the wall.”
He felt her shiver but didn’t relent. He pulled
her behind him through the throngs of people dancing and talking, right back to where his brothers were still standing.
When all of his brothers turned to face him, he knew that introductions were in order. He didn’t want to introduce her to anyone. He wanted to keep her to himself, to hide her away so that no other man could see the luscious perfection that was Naya. But the look in his brothers’ eyes told him he wasn’t getting away with anything. Especially not Naya.
“Naya, this is my oldest and most annoying brother, Zeke. Apparently you already know his wife, Marcy,” he introduced Naya. “And this is Teague and his lovely wife Gabby, my twin brother Logan and his wife Gaia.” He paused while everyone shook Naya’s hand. “Everyone, this is Naya. She’s a real estate agent working with me to sell the units we’ve just released in the Tombler Square building.”
Naya was more than slightly flustered. She was still trying to get all the pins out of her hair, shake hands with his family, and glare up at the man who was ignoring her glare. How rude!
“I apologize for…” she wasn’t sure what was going on.
“You need help with your hair,” Marcy said, stepping in and offering aide. “Ladies?” she asked Gabby and Gaia.
All three women immediately understood what was going on, having dealt with their own versions from their respective husbands. Quickly, they stepped away from their men and herded Naya away, ignoring Luke’s calls to stop.
She felt enormously better once she was away from his touch. “Thank you, Marcy,” she smiled at her friend. “I guess I’d better…”
“Oh, you can’t leave,” the gorgeous blonde woman called Gaia said with a smile on her beautiful features.
Naya blinked again. “I can’t? You mean, you didn’t just rescue me from Luke?”
The women laughed softly as Marcy moved in behind Naya and started pulling out the remaining pins. “Definitely not. We’ll run interference, but we can’t let you slip away. It doesn’t work like that.”
Gaia shook her head. “No. Not a good idea to leave. If you do that, Luke will never trust us to take you away again.”
Gabby shifted in front of Naya, handing her a lipstick. “Believe me, you’re going to need us to run interference in the near future. We’ve all been through this and the Steele brothers might be tall, gorgeous, and…”
Gaia laughed as she filled in with more adjectives. “Loving and sweet and arrogant…”
Marcy sighed. “Irritating and commanding. Monstrously possessive and sweetly charming.”
The ladies all laughed, nodding their heads. “So trust us. We all run interference for each other. The men are great, but sometimes, we need help.”
A gentle hand landed on her shoulder and Naya looked into the sympathetic eyes of her friend. “You’re one of us now,” Marcy explained.
The women were all beautiful in different ways, but their words were making her flustered and confused. “I don’t think I’m really like you guys. I’m not a long-term girlfriend for Luke. We’re not even…”
The three ladies immediately started laughing. Marcy put a hand on Naya’s shoulder. “You’re one of us. Trust me. And we take care of our own.”
Naya’s brown eyes blinked, then widened with confusion. “Your own?”
“A Steele Brother’s woman,” Gaia explained without hesitation. Was that pity in her eyes?
What did that mean? Somehow, the words sent shivers of…fear…throughout her whole body. “I don’t…” she stammered out, confused and overwhelmed.
Marcy nodded her head. “I know. It’s horrible. And I wish I could say that it gets better, but it doesn’t. Luke will still drive you nuts.”
Gaia agreed. “But there are benefits!” she chirped and even Gabby smiled.
“Oh yeah. Great benefits.”
The three of them laughed, Marcy even blushing. “Yeah. The benefits make up for their obnoxiousness.”
Naya stiffened. “I don’t want his money,” she grumbled.
The three women looked stunned for a long moment, then burst out laughing again. Marcy and Gaia were the first to stifle their laughter. “Oh honey. You won’t have a choice but to accept his money. Those men are generous to a fault! But those aren’t the benefits we’re talking about.”
Naya glanced from one woman to the next, her mind slowly starting to figure it out. “Oh, Luke and I…we aren’t…we don’t…”
Gaia smiled gently. “You will. I saw the way he was looking at you.”
“And we all saw the way you looked when you came back from wherever it was that you’d disappeared.”
Gabby chuckled, her graceful hand covering her mouth. “You will.”
“And you’ll love it,” Marcy assured her.
The three women sighed dreamily, nodding while Naya felt a wave of panic come over her. “I don’t think so.”
Marcy looked at Gaia and Gabby, then back at Naya. “That’s okay. We fought it as well. It is pointless. The men are good.”
“Really good,” Gabby agreed.
“Come on. We don’t have much time.” Marcy finished twisting Naya’s hair while Gaia pushed in a few strategic pins. A moment later, they all backed up and allowed Naya to look in the mirror. Whatever they’d done, it was a miracle. Her red curls were still down around her shoulders, but they were tamed in a sort of wild way.
“Wow!” she gasped, turning her head to the right and left. “I don’t know what you did, but I’m impressed!”
The women all smiled back at her in the mirror. “Like we said, we take care of our own,” Gaia laughed.
“We’d better get back out there,” Gabby warned. “I’m pretty sure Teague will be glaring at the bathroom doors until we reappear.”
The other two women agreed, but Naya held back. “I think I’ll just….” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Luke is chocolate mousse and I can’t afford the calories in chocolate mousse.” She ran a hand down her stomach, wishing it were flatter somehow. “I need to stick with broccoli and salads,” she explained. “Does that make any sense?”
Gaia smiled kindly. “Of course it does. You don’t think that Luke is good for you. You think that broccoli and salads are healthy for you long-term.”
Gabby nodded her head. “I wanted broccoli a long time ago. I couldn’t believe that chocolate mousse could be right for me.”
“Yeah,” Marcy sighed. “But what we’ve all come to understand is that our men aren’t really chocolate mousse or salads. They’re more along the lines of…” Marcy struggled to fill in an appropriate analogy.
Gaia helped out. “They’re the whole buffet. A buffet that has every possible nutrient you could need, including the chocolate mousse when you need something decadent.”
Gabby laughed. “Including the bar,” she added in.
All three women sighed with a strange look to their pretty features. “Oh yeah. They’ll make you dizzy too,” Marcy agreed.
Gabby shook her head and laid a comforting hand on Naya’s arm. “We’ll take you out to lunch soon. Once things have settled down a bit, you’ll understand.”
Gaia patted Naya’s back. “Remember, we’ve all fought it.”
“And we’ve all given in,” Gabby said with a cringe and a slight shake of her head, as if she still couldn’t quite believe she was married to the tall, handsome man.
As predicted, four men were standing just on the other side of the ballroom wall, waiting for the ladies to reemerge from the restroom. “Told ya,” Marcy muttered, causing Gaia and Gabby to laugh softly as well. But all three women walked right up to their husbands, putting a hand on their arm, taking their hand, or leaning up to kiss his cheek.
A spurt of jealousy hit Naya as she watched the women, then she turned to look at Luke. The man was looking down at her as if he was starving and she was the main course. “Don’t look at me like that,” she muttered.
“Like what?” he asked but took her hand in his and led her along behind his brothers.
“Like you’re going
to eat me.”
She heard his laughter but wasn’t sure what was so funny. And then she realized what she’d said and gasped. “I meant…I didn’t mean…,” and she pulled back, but he wouldn’t release her hand.
“Ah, but I am going to taste you, my lovely little beauty,” he murmured and bent lower to nip her ear again. “I’m guessing you are going to taste delicious!”
Naya had trouble breathing after those words. She felt her cheeks heat up and bowed her head.
“Never fear,” he whispered with that low, husky voice that was now too close to her ear. “I’m very good at things like that.”
Naya wanted to snap at him about his experience, but she was still too shocked at what she’d just said to him. And what he’d said to her. As well as all the images in her mind of him doing exactly that to her! Oh my!
He’d led her over to the buffet line and handed her a plate, which she used it to fan her heated cheeks.
“Hot flashes?” he suggested.
Naya only glared up at him, earning her another chuckle. “Here. Have some broccoli,” he invited and scooped a broccoli salad onto her plate.
Naya glanced at the other options, thinking that the lovely beef with the roasted potatoes was more along the lines of her appetite right now. But there was no way she was going to say anything like that. Not after her comment about…what she’d said.
Good grief, she couldn’t even say the words in her mind!
For the next three hours, she trembled by Luke’s side, talking with various people and trying very hard to contribute intelligently to the conversation. But every time she started to relax, Luke would touch her in some way. It might be a casual brush of her bare arm or his hand smoothing up her back, a touch of his fingers on the nape of her neck…anything so that she was continuously aware of the man beside her.
By midnight, she was exhausted. All she wanted to do was press her body against his and beg him to make love to her. Or run out of the ballroom, hide in her cottage, and never come out again for fear of begging him to make love to her.
Defying His Charm Page 4