by Lacy Danes
She refused to turn out like her mother—her beautiful, youthful, completely insane mother. Living with one man while chasing after another, changing marriages like underwear—until her life was nothing but one long nervous breakdown. No thank you. Been there, seen that.
Yet her feelings for Gabe remained more powerful than she liked. Obsession. Need. The words whispered through her until all she could think about, all she could feel, was Gabe.
The distance between their tables was negligible in the sleepy little restaurant. He sat halfway across the room, immersed in a business discussion of stocks and commodities and so many other things she couldn’t care less about, but Annalise felt each of his glances like a caress.
Though she refused to look up from the menu she was oh so carelessly perusing, his pull battered her defenses. Enveloped her until she was wet and aching and ready to let him fuck her right there in the middle of Emilio’s exclusive dining room. Yet, when she’d risked a glance at him earlier, he’d looked completely unruffled. How could he turn her into a raving, sex-crazed lunatic and still manage to stay so untouched?
Fuck it. She reached for her wine, took a healthy sip. Two could play his game. After all, she’d been doing it for more years and with more men than she could count. She had to remember that Gabe was just one more.
Deliberately she uncrossed her silk-clad legs, one slow inch at a time. Leaning back in her chair slightly, she let her knees fall open—nothing too graphic in dear Emilio’s little restaurant—just enough to reveal a smooth expanse of leg and a hint of the shadow near the apex of her thighs.
She used one slender finger to toy with her water glass—a careless slide around the rim, a little dip into the cool water, an absentminded skim across red lips. She studied her menu—though she knew it by heart and he knew she did.
But it gave her an excuse to ignore him as his eyes forged a blazing path up the long legs he loved to kiss. Legs made even longer by the Jimmy Choos with the five-inch heels she had just spent way too much of her last paycheck on. But the second she’d seen them it had been love at first sight.
Annalise couldn’t help grinning. What did it say about her that she had a more emotional and lasting relationship with her shoes than she did with any man? Even Gabe.
Smart, she decided as she glanced down at the sparkly crimson miracles, admiring the sheer beauty and craftsmanship that had gone into her most recent purchase. Investing in her shoes instead of a man definitely made her smarter than so many of the women she competed with on the dating scene.
She glanced up as her waiter approached. “Can I get you another chardonnay, Annalise?” Angelo asked, laying a familiar hand on her shoulder and leaning down to speak quietly in her ear.
Taking the last sip, she handed him her glass with a flourish. “You bet, sugar. But just one more—I’m driving.”
He glanced across the restaurant. “Gabe’s busy tonight, huh?”
“Oh yeah. You know Gabe and his one-track mind.” Though she was doing her best to distract him. Leaning into Angelo, she gave a breathy laugh and laid a well-manicured hand on his forearm.
He nodded, his blue eyes darkening as she stroked him through the thin fabric of his suit. “If he’s busy for the rest of the night, I get off at ten-thirty.” His hand slid from her shoulder to the small of her back.
Annalise grinned up at him—she couldn’t help it, he was just so irrepressible. And one of her favorite fuck buddies for just that reason. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” she murmured, turning in to him so that her breasts brushed against his arm.
“Too long,” he answered, his voice deepening as her nipple hardened against his muscular bicep. Gabe and his hot stare had her in such a state of arousal that just that one quick brush against Angelo had her nipples standing at attention.
But she had bigger plans and, with a sigh of regret, she eased back from him. “I’ve got something going tonight, sugar. But if you’re free on Monday…”
His grin was frankly sensual. “I’ll call you.”
“You do that.” She gave him a slow smile and a wink before letting her hand drop, oh so leisurely, from his arm. “And I’ll take the pasta primavera whenever you get a chance.”
“You got it.” After an intimate shoulder squeeze, he headed toward the kitchen, a noticeable spring in his step.
Annalise grinned before she could help herself. Men were just too easy. Or at least, most men were. She spent a minute watching Angelo walk away, giving both Gabe and herself a chance to process the interaction.
Not that Gabe really needed much time to process, she mused. His fury was a living entity, crossing the space between them and skewering her without a word. She was playing with fire and she knew it—but the pleasurable pain that came with the burn made the game impossible to resist.
Besides, Gabe’s possessive nature was beginning to grate. She’d made it abundantly clear before they’d gotten together—and in the months since—that they weren’t exclusive. They weren’t serious. And they certainly weren’t emotionally involved. She didn’t do emotions and hadn’t for eight long years. And Gabe had agreed when she’d laid out the rules.
Agreed, hell, he’d been right there with her—looking for a good time with no strings attached. It’s what had made them so perfect for each other. He knew she had guys on the side—she let things slip every once in a while, sometimes refused to see him because she already had a date, occasionally answered calls from other men when she was out with him. Just little clues, enough to make sure he knew that she wasn’t harboring any happily-ever-after fantasies like so many of the other women in his life. And he definitely had other women—she wasn’t naive enough to think that he didn’t. Nor did it bother her—why should it when he always had more than enough left to give her what she wanted?
Refusing to be a coward—she’d done nothing wrong, after all—Annalise slowly lifted her head and let her blue eyes meet his nearly black ones across the dining room. Sparks leapt between them, as they had every day since they’d first laid eyes on each other three months before.
She’d been having dinner with some friends at a trendy La Jolla restaurant and he’d been involved in yet another business meeting. She’d brushed past his table on her way to the ladies’ room and had fallen instantly in lust. Not that any sane woman could blame her. The man was yummy—with a capital Y. Beautiful mocha skin covering incredible muscles. Dark, sexy eyes that promised more pleasure than it should be possible to feel. And those strong, work-roughened hands that had delivered on all the promises his eyes had made and many more to boot.
They’d spent the first two days of their acquaintance in his bed, and she’d come so many times in the first twenty-four hours that she’d lost count some time after number twelve. Much of their subsequent acquaintance had been spent in bed as well—at his place and hers.
Taking a long, cool drink of water, she smiled sassily at him. Tried to appear unaffected by the rage sizzling—hot and dangerous—in his eyes. It was setting fire to the very air around them until she felt like she could barely breathe, the oxygen trembling in her suddenly shaky lungs. Anger, possession, lust—and other emotions she couldn’t begin to name—shot across the room from him to her. Her nipples—already pressed against the thin silk of her dress—tightened to the point of pain. She knew he could see them, but she was too far gone to care. It took all her control not to spread her legs and beg for it.
But she refused to back down—even if the prize was the hot and satisfying sex he was the absolute best at providing. Besides, they’d get there eventually. The attraction between them wouldn’t allow anything less.
Leaning back in her chair, Annalise let her head drop back and ran her hands through her long black hair. The action thrust her full breasts forward, making her erect nipples even more obvious. She stretched, a long, feline movement that inched her dress farther up her thighs and revealed the lace tops of her thigh highs and the smooth, pale skin above them.
Angelo let out a long, low whistle as he dropped off her second glass of wine. “You’ll have him whimpering in a second, babe,” he whispered in her ear. But a searing look from Gabe had him hightailing it back into the kitchen before she could answer.
Need shivered through her—hot, aching, alive—and she pushed away from the table before she lost it completely. Grabbing her skinny purse with one hand, she ran the thumb from her other hand over an aroused nipple. Once, twice, in plain view of anyone who cared to look. She didn’t care who else saw as long as Gabe was watching.
As she turned toward the bathroom, the heat skating up her spine assured her that he was indeed watching her instead of concentrating on whatever his clients were saying. She wasn’t the least bit sorry.
CHAPTER TWO
AS ANNALISE CLOSED THE RESTROOM DOOR BEHIND her—Emilio’s had one of those big private bathrooms—she was thankful it was at the end of a hallway. It saved them from looking too obvious if Gabe chose to follow her. She laughed before she could stop herself. Like he had a choice.
Killing time, she reached into her clutch for her favorite lipstick. Fuck Me Red, she reflected as she slicked the sassy gold tube over her lips. The makers had labeled it Valentine Red, but Annalise liked her name better.
She had no use for valentines. A good fuck, on the other hand, was just about her favorite thing.
After dropping the lipstick into her purse, she stepped back to get a good look in the full-length mirror to the side of the sink. Red dress, red shoes, red lips. Maybe she should make red her signature color, she mused, her mind shooting back to the heroine’s red gown in the drippy movie Kate and Iris had talked her into watching the night before. She sneered, refusing to remember the sympathetic tears that had sprung to her eyes before she could stop them. She’d batted them away before her best friends could see them—she never would have lived down the chink in the harder-than-diamonds aura she’d spent the last eight years of her life cultivating.
But the red dress did look hot, she admitted. It brought out the spark in her blue eyes, showed off the natural shine of her long dark hair. And it looked great against her pale skin. Flashy without being slutty; eye-catching without bringing down the house. Or the beasts, she admitted as she turned left and right, checking out her look from every angle. She’d run into her share of animals on the San Diego dating scene in the last few years and while she was a good-time girl, she drew the line at partying with swine. What smart girl didn’t?
She glanced down and the sequins on her Jimmy Choos winked up at her. God, she loved these shoes. She’d bought them for Gabe—he loved the way she looked naked except for a pair of stilettos. He loved even more the way she wrapped her legs around him and dug the heels into his ass. Just enough to pinch—a little pain to sharpen the pleasure. Her favorite kind.
Plus, he towered over her very respectable five-foot-seven-inch frame—the heels made it just a little easier for him to fuck her in unusual places. Like restaurant bathrooms, she smirked to herself.
Suddenly the door crashed open, hitting the wall with a loud bang she refused to react to. Instead, she let her slightly mocking gaze meet Gabe’s infuriated one in the bathroom mirror.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” Gabe demanded. He was enraged—she glanced downward—and hard enough to pound nails through concrete. Certainly hard enough to pound on her for a while. She grinned despite the menace fairly dripping off him, fighting the urge to lick her lips in anticipation.
“Hey, lover. What happened to your clients?” She kept her voice low and sassy, just the way he liked it best.
“Discussing my proposal.” His eyes narrowed dangerously as he studied her. “I decided to give them a few minutes alone.”
She nodded sagely, her reflection mocking him. “Smart move.”
“Now answer my question,” he all but snarled, grabbing her arm and spinning her to face him.
Annalise shrugged, giving him a look brimming with mischievous innocence. “No game. Just a simple pasta dinner.” And an overwhelming need to see him, not that she’d ever admit it.
It absolutely killed her that she’d wanted to see him so badly that she’d crashed his business dinner to do it. When had he stopped being just a guy she liked to screw and become a guy she couldn’t get through a week without?
“Bullshit,” he sneered as he slammed her back against the mirror. She could feel his cock—long and thick and hard—pressed against her mons and she fought the urge to spread her legs and ride him. It wasn’t time yet. “You’ve been playing with fire since the moment you walked in.”
She shrugged. “Well, I do like the burn.”
With a sound that was part angry and part turned-on, he leaned into her until every inch of him was touching her from shoulder to thigh. He spread her legs with one careless push of her knee and settled between her thighs. Where she’d wanted him all along.
And then his mouth found hers. Hot, hard, shockingly possessive. Reckless where he was normally careful. Violent where he was normally tender. But tenderness wasn’t what she wanted or needed tonight. Right now, she needed to feel the burn.
Wrapping her arms around Gabe’s neck, she pulled him closer even as she lifted herself toward him. The mirror was cold against her partially-bare back, but Gabe was scorching hot—the combination of two such different sensations excited her to a fever pitch before they’d even started.
Opening her mouth under his onslaught, she let him devour her with his lips, his tongue, his teeth. Let him feed on her as if he would never get enough. She wanted to surrender everything she had to that mouth, everything she was.
He pressed deeper and deeper, demanded more and more. Her head whirled, her knees trembled—and Annalise realized suddenly, as his tongue raided every corner of her mouth, that it would never be enough. This would never be enough. She would die wanting this man inside of her. The realization was as unexpected as it was devastating.
“Don’t do it again,” he growled, his hands cupping her breasts while he squeezed her nipples between his thumbs and index fingers. Hard.
She wanted to whimper but pride wouldn’t allow it. Even so, she had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from crying out when he began to move, his hot cock thrusting between her legs.
“Do what?” Her voice was shakier than she liked.
His fingers tightened on her nipple, bringing her to the very edge of madness. “Play me against another guy like that.”
She arched her back, pressing her nipple more firmly into his hand. “Is that what I was doing?” She sounded breathless but was too far gone to care.
“You knew exactly what you were doing.” His fingers tightened punishingly, giving her the pleasure-pain she so desperately craved. And then she was melting, burning, so wet and creamy she didn’t know how long she’d last.
Letting her head fall back, Annalise took as much of the insidious pleasure as she could handle without coming. Then she pushed him away, using every ounce of strength she possessed to get the job done. Gabe was a brick wall, hard and heavily muscled, but he let her shove him back.
He stood there, chest heaving, cock twitching, eyes blazing with a fury and lust that were intertwined and suddenly she knew. The game wasn’t over. It would never be over.
She took a deep, steadying breath. Maybe she was caught by these riotous emotions, this incredible, overwhelming lust for him that dominated every moment of her every day. But two could play by the rules Gabe was so brutally establishing.
Reaching down, she pressed a hand firmly against Gabe’s beautifully aroused cock. He thrust himself into her fingers over and over again, and she grinned. Oh, yeah—he needed this as much as she did. Maybe more. She continued stroking him through the fine silk of his trousers. She loved how big he was, how long and thick and desperate he was for her. Before she was done, he would be begging to be inside of her.
Turning, he pulled her into his arms as he lowered his mouth to her ear. “Let’s go find
the car,” he murmured.
“The car?” she asked, pretending ignorance as she reached between his legs and cupped his balls in her hands, her fingers slowly massaging him. She knew her eyes were almost as glazed as his, but she couldn’t help it. Having this big, strong man at her mercy was the biggest turn-on she’d ever had.
“I’ve got to be inside you, Annalise. Soon.”
She licked her lips even as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed against him. “Here. Now.”
“Right now?” His cock jumped against her stomach, growing harder and thicker—though she would never have imagined it possible.
She could tell he wanted to protest, to tell her all the reasons why sex in this bathroom with a restaurant full of people outside was a very bad idea. But her words had put a picture in his brain—just as she had intended—and his unruly cock was more than willing to accommodate her. Thank God.
She kept her triumph to herself as she nodded and pulled him back against her. “Right now.” She opened his belt and unbuttoned his pants. She gasped when his cock sprang free of the confining clothes—he was always ready to go, but tonight he seemed larger than usual.
Annalise grinned as she dropped to her knees. Her own personal plaything—huge and hot and dying to be inside any part of her body it could reach. She shivered as her own arousal quickly spiraled out of control. What else could a girl ask for?
Leaning forward, she delivered one long, leisurely lick—from the base of his cock to the very tip. He shuddered and stiffened against her, his hands suddenly fisting in her hair. Curling her tongue in, she used the underside to stroke him on the torturously slow return journey.
