Dare to Surrender

I heard the whooshing sound of the elevator doors, and relief poured through me. “Lucy?” I asked, spinning around. Finally, everything would begin to make sense.

“Not Lucy.” The familiar masculine voice wound its way through my veins, easing my fears, answering every unasked question.

Excitement flooded through me. It had been so long, and I’d missed him so much. To this day, it didn’t matter that the time we’d shared together had been brief. To me, it meant everything.

He was just as I remembered, with his stern expression, features carved into what I considered perfection, full lips, strong jaw, and those intense eyes focused on me. A white dress shirt, sleeves rolled immaculately, and black slacks, with more casual shoes than his norm, completed the outfit.

He stared at me, his expression unreadable, maybe even vulnerable, and my heart thudded inside my chest. I studied him in return. His handsome face had occupied every dream I’d had, but he was here now. A reality. My reality, I thought, those sinfully sexy eyes eating me alive.

“Iz.”

He held out his arms.

And my world suddenly righted itself once more.

I ran to him and jumped into his waiting embrace, wanting to be as close as possible. I clung to him, running my hands up his strong back, threading up through his silky hair. Hair that had grown longer since I’d seen him last.

There’d been many times in the last months when I had tried to convince myself the connection between us could not have been as strong as I remembered. The desire not as potent. That distance and might-have-beens were clouding my judgment and memory.

I’d been wrong.

Everything between us was solid, not a figment of my imagination, and right now, he was very real. Not just the thick erection snug against my core but the invisible thread that bound us together. Just then, his big hand cupped the back of my head, and he sealed his warm mouth over mine, and I knew at that moment, I’d come home.

He kissed me like I mattered, and the time melted away, and the kiss turned ravenous. Hungry. He devoured me, and him being Gabe, I expected nothing less. I merely wrapped my legs around his waist and held on, losing myself in the way he slicked his tongue inside my mouth, mimicking the physical act of making love. The thing we hadn’t yet done.

He continued his assault, his fingers tight in my hair, tugging at my scalp, and my brain short-circuited from the pleasure. Real damned fireworks went off behind my eyes. No doubt about it, I was done for. Nobody else could ever live up to him.

He nipped at my lower lip, and I moaned, my pelvis grinding against him, seeking pressure to relieve the growing ache.

“Slow down,” he said in a rough, harsh voice.

Of course he’d had to end the kiss to speak, and I whimpered at the loss of contact.

His glittering gaze met mine. “Just because I missed you doesn’t mean I’m going to let you control things.”

I’d missed the bossiness in his tone, not that I’d let him know that. Instead of arguing, I set about getting what I wanted, gliding my lips over his strong jaw, nuzzling my nose into the crook of his neck, where I could inhale his musky aftershave and lose myself in the masculine scent.

When he didn’t take the bait, throw me on the couch, or slam me against the wall, I went for the kill, nibbling on his earlobe with my teeth. “I need you inside me,” I said, my pu**y throbbing with heat and damp with desire.

“And you’ll have me when I say so.”

“I hate your control,” I muttered.

He grinned, his white teeth and handsome smile making me melt all over again. “You’ll love it in a few minutes.” He set me on my feet, but not before gliding me down the length of his body, allowing me to feel what I did to him.

My br**sts might be heavy, my ni**les tight as they rasped against my shirt, but his bulging erection told me that I wasn’t alone in this hazy cloud of desire. His gaze never leaving mine, he gripped my pearls in one hand, pulling me forward with them, rubbing his nose against mine. “Behave and we’ll both get what we want.”

I managed a nod. My legs barely held me up, and the pull of the pearls at the back of my neck reminded me Gabe wouldn’t let me fall. But apparently he would lead me to the bedroom by the necklace, and knowing what awaited me, I went along like a good girl. I briefly wondered if I’d lost my mind, but when he turned to me, those dark eyes glittering with need, I no longer cared.

“Too many clothes,” he said, more to himself than to me.

He skimmed his hands along my bare arms, shoulder to wrist, and I shivered. He guided his palms up from my waist to beneath my armpit, taking my tank top along with him. Baring my br**sts to his gaze.

He paused, deliberately grazing his thumbs over the underside of the soft mounds, over the lace of my bra, just allowing himself the luxury of touch and time. The pads of his thumbs reached inward, tracing the lines of my areolas but never touching the distended peaks just begging for the pressure of his fingertip. My clit throbbed, the dampness pooling between my legs overwhelming and embarrassing, but I wasn’t going to mention it. I didn’t want him to stop, even if his maddeningly slow pace might kill me, and I shifted restlessly on my feet.

He reached up and tweaked one nipple hard, and I squeaked aloud, then sucked in a shallow breath. “What was that for?”

“You left me, you made me wait months, and now it’s going to be at my speed, not yours.”

“Whatever happened to wham, bam, thank you, ma’am?” I asked grumpily, thinking of Lance. He might not have satisfied me all that much, but at least I didn’t have to suffer through such intense arousal and near pain of wanting and being denied.

Gabe’s indigo eyes narrowed. “Is that what you expect from me? From us? You have to know I’d put your pleasure first.”

And I had to admit the pain had morphed into something different. A warm pleasure suffused my body, and as if there was an invisible connection between my ni**les and my sex, there was a direct correlation to the need he’d inspired with that hard pinch.

I relaxed at his words. This wasn’t about torturing me, this was about pleasure. Mine. And hopefully his. I felt my shoulders dropping, my breathing slowing.

“That’s better,” he said in a husky voice. He slid my top up and over my head, then paused to fold it and place it on the dresser.

I waited obediently, allowing my mind to empty. He returned to me, those dark eyes intense, and he unhooked my bra, slowly easing the lace material down the slope of my breast, revealing my lush curves and the darkened ni**les, aroused and erect. For him.