Waiting For Me (Beautiful Surrender #2)(3)
Author: Ava Claire

She gulped hard, her cheeks flushing pink. “I-I could eat.”

I knew I was playing with fire, and if I got any harder my c**k would rip through my jeans, but I took a step toward her. She was still as a statue, but her eyes shifted to my groin, stroking the length of my erection. When her eyes returned to mine, they said the words she refused to utter.

Fuck me.

And I would.

But not until she begged for it.

I maneuvered around her and retrieved my money clip from the top of the dresser, tucking it in my pocket. Not touching her, taking her; it wasn’t easy for me either. Just f**k her senseless, get it out if your system. Get her out of your system.

But that rationale was pointless. I had her. I’d sheathed my c**k deep inside her, tasted her, made her scream my name. I didn’t want her out of my system. I wanted more. All of her. Whether my pride wanted to admit if or not, Melissa Foster was under my skin. Why else were we climbing into my Range Rover, pointed toward Capitola Beach?

I’d come to Pleasure Point to get away and focus before the shareholders meeting back in San Francisco. Instead of learning our latest acquisition inside and out, I was paying more attention to my passenger than the road, wondering what made her tick.

The wind gusted through the car, sending her blonde strands flying—and the sweet, citrus aroma of the shampoo she claimed she didn’t use filled my nostrils.

I inhaled deep, unable to resist taunting her a little. “You smell delicious.”

“A familiar scent for you, huh?” she snapped. “Since you make all the women you bring to your bed use it?”

She was baiting me, but I didn’t bite. I winked at her. “Only the important ones.”

I expected an eye roll, but she gave me a look full of derision. “You think it’s funny to use women and throw them away for the next one that comes along?”

I tightened my hold on the steering wheel. “I don’t promise anyone a happily ever after. I just promise an escape. A night of good, hot fun—”

She gestured out the window. “Sun’s out. I guess I’m the lucky girl that gets mind-blowing sex and lunch. I’m supposed to be grateful, right? Happy that I’m not disposable?”

I cocked my head in her direction, expecting to see her glaring back at me defiantly. Instead, she shied from my gaze. Suddenly, she was taken with the scenery. It was understandable—the sun turned everything golden and warm. There was nothing quite as beautiful as Capitola in the spring, but I could tell by her tone that she wasn’t sightseeing. There was an undercurrent of something else in her voice. When I heard a sniffle, I swerved, forgetting I was behind the wheel; forgetting everything except Melissa. When she whipped her head to gawk at me and I saw a tear glistening on her cheek, I swerved to the shoulder of the road and jerked the car into park.

“What the hell, Logan?” she hissed.

What the hell indeed. I white-knuckled the steering wheel, anger pumping through me like acid. She hadn’t said a word to support my theory, but something inside me told me some ass**le had hurt her. I didn’t know the specifics. The specifics were irrelevant. I just wanted to take out whoever had caused the pain that streamed from her eyes. “What happened?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “What?”

“Who hurt you?”

A smile teased her lips as she eyeballed me, the tears a faint memory. “What is this? You coming to my rescue?”

Her words cut through the fog of testosterone and I shrugged a shoulder, readjusting my shades. “Just curious.”

“Uh huh.” Her smile faded. “Why do you care? I’m sure the women you sleep with then discard don’t walk away unscathed.”

Almost on cue, my phone flashed with a text notification. I knew exactly who it was. One such woman that Melissa referenced. It was safer to keep my shades on, to keep some barrier between us, but I pulled them off anyway. I needed Melissa to see I was real, and nothing like the man that brought tears to her eyes.

“Perhaps, but I’m always upfront with the women I sleep with. Sex is just that—sex.” I brought a hand to her cheek, my thumb stroking her gently. “I think the man behind those tears made promises that he broke.”

Her crystal blue eyes were liquid as she tightened her jaw to rock. “And what promises will you break?”

“To you? Not a single one.”

Her chin trembled, but my little fighter didn’t loosen her grip on my eyes, trying to weed out any indication that I was full of it. “And why should I believe you?”

She had a point. I could tell her that I was different with her. That what we had was just as shock inducing to me, but those were just words.

So I showed her.

I took hold of the back of her neck and brought her to me. I wanted to pull her entire body into my lap, but I settled for claiming her lips. I stole the air from her lungs and inhaled her taste. My tongue stroked and plunged into her waiting mouth, running along every surface, dancing around hers and matching the moans she echoed, blow for blow. Words couldn’t do the lust, the aching need, she inspired in me justice.

But it was more than that. I wanted more than just to f**k her. I wanted to possess her. I wanted to protect her. I wanted to lay her bare. Corrupt her…and save her.

I wanted her to possess me.

When I pulled back, her face was flushed with such sheer desire that I nearly ripped her seatbelt off and took her then and there. But just as easily as she became mine and let me in, she yanked the mask back in place.

She flipped her blonde mane nonchalantly and turned back to the front. “So about that lunch…”

My c**k pouted, but two could play that game. I slipped on a mask of my own. One of indifference. A front that couldn’t be further from the truth. “We’re almost there.”

When she grunted an acknowledgment, I couldn’t resist the urge to make something very clear.

“I need you to understand something about me.” My eyes never left the road, for the safety of us both, and the safety of what was left of my racing heart. “I wasn’t just giving you a line or trying to get into your pants when I said that I cared for you—”

“But you want me to submit, right?”

“Yes,” I bit off, frustrated that her hackles were already up before I could even get it all out. “I want you in every way. I want you to be my submissive and explore that part of you. But I won’t do either of us a disservice by forcing it on you. I won’t touch you, or pressure you, until you’re ready.”

She didn’t say anything for a long moment, and when she spoke, her voice was soft and unsure. “And what if I’m never ready?”