The Billionaire Gets His Way(24)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

“You have to go,” she said again, her voice as shaky as her hand had been. “Now. You have to go now, Gavin.”

He had no idea what made him say the thing he said next. The words simply came out before he could stop them. “You’re not a call girl, are you?”

He hadn’t consciously planned to say that, but once the words were spoken, he knew they were true. Some part of him must have known the truth, and probably had for some time now. What else could explain this apartment, her plain dress and jewelry, her lack of knowledge about art and dancing…the way she had kissed him, as if it were the first time for her, too?

Not that Gavin thought she was that innocent. But he knew she wasn’t that experienced, either.

“You’re not, are you?” he asked again.

Now Violet was the one to shake her head. Her expression changed from one of confusion to something akin to relief. “Of course not,” she said softly. “That’s what I’ve been telling you since the beginning.”

“But how…what…why…” Again, the questions bounced around in his brain, too many for him to articulate even one.

“I am mystified as to why everyone seems to think I wrote High Heels from experience.”

That comment, at least, Gavin knew how to reply to. “It’s that old saying, ‘Write what you know.’ That and the fact that you do write very, very well.”

She braved a small smile at that. “Thanks. But you know, if writers only wrote what they know, the world would be full of boring books. We can’t all be Ernest Hemingway.”

Well, no, Violet certainly wasn’t him. Something for which Gavin was profoundly grateful at the moment. In fact, there were a lot of things he was grateful for at the moment. But he didn’t want to think too much about any of them right now. In fact, all he wanted to do right now was kiss Violet again. So he covered what little distance she’d put between them and did just that.

Violet wasn’t sure when the moment went from one of under standing to one of overwhelming. She only knew that in one instant, Gavin had finally accepted the truth about her and the next…

Oh, the next. The next she was feeling something she’d felt for a few brief moments earlier in the evening, when Gavin was teaching her to dance. Something she’d never felt before, only now she was feeling it a million times more strongly. It was the kind of thing that made a person feel…close…to another person. The kind of thing she had been certain she wasn’t wired to feel. Feeling it again now, like this, it was as if a door had opened up inside her and let loose something that had been held captive for too long. She wanted to keep feeling it, wanted to see how fast and how far it would go.

But as he captured her mouth with his more urgently, as his fingers curled more insistently over her hips, her thoughts evaporated. It had been so long since a man had touched her so intimately. So long since she had felt the rush of need rocketing through her that demanded satisfaction. So long since she had wanted and been wanted like this. So long.

Too long…

Still kissing her, Gavin moved a hand upward, over her rib cage, dragging his fingers lightly over each rib as he passed. Violet sucked in her breath as he pushed his hand higher, holding it when he stopped at the lower curve of her breast. She thought he would close his fingers over her completely but he surprised—and disappointed—her by pushing his hand along the line of her bra to her back. His skin was so warm through the thin fabric of her dress, spreading heat everywhere he touched her—along her spine, over her ribs again, along her shoulder blades. And then he brought his other hand into the exploration, tracing it along her torso until it rested beneath her breast…

Oh. Oh, that felt so good. Too good. So good she didn’t ever want it to stop. Didn’t want him to stop…

Without even realizing what she was doing, she lifted her hands to his hair and threaded her fingers through the silky tresses. It was evidently all the encouragement he needed, because he immediately deepened the kiss, thrusting his tongue into her mouth to taste her. Vaguely, she felt him draw down the zipper of her dress and unhook her bra, then she felt the heat of his bare hands splaying over her na**d back.

She put up no resistance when he skimmed her dress down her torso and her bra down her arms. In response, she jerked his tie free from his collar and went to work on the buttons of his shirt, driving both hands under the soft fabric to explore what was beneath in much the same way he had her. And what was beneath was a collection of finely hewn muscle and sinew, covered by sultry, silky skin and a scattering of dark hair. His shoulders were like molten rock beneath her fingertips, his belly as hard and flat as a steam iron. And his back… Oh, his back. There seemed to be acres and acres of it, and every last inch was hot, satiny steel.

As she curled her fingers over his shoulders, Gavin dipped his head to her neck to drag his damp mouth along the tender column of her throat, then over the sensitive flesh of her shoulder. And if Violet had had any doubts before about what they were doing—and she was surprised to realize she had none—that would have made them evaporate. She wasn’t sure when it had happened, this wanting him the way she did, she only knew she didn’t want to fight it. When his mouth returned to hers, she kissed him with a hunger and passion that equaled, and maybe even surpassed, his own. For a long time, they only stood there half-dressed, vying for control of the embrace. Gavin tasted her deeply again and again and again, then opened to grant her the same access.

She felt his hands everywhere, pressing against her na**d back, curving over her shoulders, curling around her waist, strumming up her rib cage. Then he was cradling the lower swell of her br**sts in both hands, pushing upward, covering the sensitive mounds with sure fingers. When she gasped at the certainty of his possession, he plunged his tongue deeper into her mouth, palming her even more fiercely. As he kissed her and kneaded her soft flesh, it was all she could do not to buckle beneath the onslaught. She felt one hand inching down her torso, to where her dress was bunched at her waist, then felt the fabric sliding as he slowly, slowly—oh, so slowly—pushed it over her h*ps and legs. In response, her fingers found the button of his fly where she deftly unfastened both it and the zipper.

As Gavin guided his hands under her panties to caress her ass, she drove her fingers into his trousers, her breathing going ragged when she found him full and ready for her. He groaned when she cupped her hand over the head of his shaft and gently began to palm him, then again when she dragged her fingers along his length to its base. He stilled as she repeated the action a few more times, then gasped when she returned her attention to the tip.