She glanced around and saw a number of Alton Malone paintings on his wall as well as paintings from other artists. All beautiful. All expensive. But then his condo, being in Tribeca, had to be up there in the high price range. The wine oak furniture was tasteful and blended well with the modern contemporary decor.
Besides the framed Malone paintings, the living room was decorated with several Asian figurines. Tag had indicated they had been gifts from the Watari Museum in Tokyo after he had done an article about it in Pulse a few years ago.
Tag had given her a brief tour of the downstairs but hadn’t bothered showing her where his bedroom was. She was rather anxious to see it but when the time was right tonight, there was no doubt in her mind that she would.
Given the heat that had generated off them, between them and with them all evening, a visit to his bedroom was inevitable. After what they had shared last night, she was looking forward to it.
When he had whisked her away from the docks and into his car he had asked if she would like to spend a little time over at his place. She had come close to refusing, remembering the cold, disapproving look the couple had given them on board the ship, but then had decided that tonight she wanted to spend as much time with Tag as possible, and when he took her home later she would explain to him why they couldn’t see each other again.
“Would you like something to drink?”
He reclaimed her attention and she met his gaze. Her breath caught. The lamp’s light seemed to enhance the vividness of his eyes and the blue was so deep that for a moment it seemed like she was drowning in the ocean. “No, I don’t want anything to drink.”
“And what do you want?”
Renee was silent. There wasn’t an answer she felt comfortable in saying out loud. The silence that drifted between them was tangible, as potent and hot as the very air they were breathing. It didn’t take much to recall last night and the way his body had taken hers, had gone deep inside of her, thrusting in and out. Then there was his mouth that had acquainted her with a warm, succulent sweetness that would have her licking her lips for days, nights. And last but not least was the memory of his hands and the way they had glided over her skin, touching places that made ripples of sensation start deep in her abdomen and spread to other parts of her body.
“Renee?”
She continued to hold his gaze, hearing the sound of his voice, strained, husky and filled with something else. Urgency. Need. “Why don’t you find out what I want,” she said softly, invitingly. She then deliberately took the tip of her tongue and traced her lips, knowing what watching her was doing to him.
She licked steadily as she stared into his tense face. Blatant need shone in the depths of his eyes. Her gaze moved lower, past his tightly muscled stomach to the crotch of his pants, and she saw the erection that strained against the zipper. She suddenly felt hot, and the ventilation from the air conditioning was doing nothing to cool off her heated flesh.
“I think I will.”
She shifted her gaze back up to his face as he slowly moved toward her with a smile that sent her pulse racing. “You will what? Find out what I want?”
“No, seduce you into telling me.”
Instead of joining her on the sofa he pulled her up and settled her body against his, to feel his hardness. Eyes locked to hers, he whispered huskily, “I want you, Renee.”
“And I want you, too, Tag.”
As if her words were the go-ahead he had been waiting for, he leaned down and his mouth covered hers in a hungry, desperate, ravenous kiss that had Renee moaning in need when he abruptly ended it.
Questioning eyes met his and he smiled and reached out and tenderly caressed her cheek. “I want you to tell me what you want, sweetheart. Your wish will be my command.”
Renee drew in a ragged breath, not being able to imagine such a thing. She’d never had anyone cater exclusively to her needs while they made love. She’d never met anyone like Tag before. Telling him what she wanted and him actually carrying out each and every fantasy she had was an incredibly erotic thought.
“Tell me,” he repeated.
She met his gaze and said, “For starters, take me to your bedroom and undress me.”
Renee saw his blue eyes go hot just seconds before he bent and gathered her into his arms to carry her up the stairs. Her stomach quivered with the excitement of what would happen when they got to his bedroom. Even now, while they were in motion, she caught his scent. Masculine. Robust. Sexy.
When they entered his bedroom she glanced around. His bed, king-sized with a black platinum steel frame, sat in the center of the room with matching nightstands on each side. A dresser and chest were on the other side of the room. The bedroom reminded her of Tag. Neat, manly and with everything in order.
“Now to remove this dress.”
He lowered her down his body and immediately went to work at removing her dress, easing down the zipper as his fingers grazed the warm flesh of her bare back. She wasn’t wearing a bra. He moved the soft fabric down her shoulders to drop in a heap at her feet, his gaze locked on the breasts he had grown quite fond of the night before.
“Taste them again, Tag.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. His tongue flicked out and captured a budding nipple into his mouth. When he heard her moan and felt her knees weaken, he reached out and caught her by the waist. He remembered the orgasm she had the last time he had made love to her breasts, but this time he wanted to prolong her enjoyment, make her want him as much as he wanted her.
He gathered her into his arms and carried her over to the bed and placed her on her back, then lifted her hips to slide the panty hose and thong off of her. Driven by a desire whose depth he couldn’t understand, he felt compelled to touch her and instinctively his fingers went to the damp curls between her legs.
She closed her eyes as he focused his concentration on pleasuring her with fingers that stroked her mercilessly. He watched as her lips parted slightly and she moaned out her gratification, while her heavy breathing pleaded with him to quench her desire.
“Too soon, sweetheart,” he said, pulling back to remove his own clothes.
When she opened her eyes to watch him they were hot, dark and dilated. He didn’t waste time as he tore off his shirt and eased his pants down his legs. With his gaze still locked with hers, he began removing his briefs and once he stood naked in front of the bed, her concentration shifted from his face down to his erection.
“Tell me what you want now,” he said, his control almost shot to hell. Anticipation was killing him but he was determined to give her everything she wanted.
“I want you inside of me,” she whispered before lying back on his thick bedspread.
The darkness of her skin was a stark contrast to the beige coverlet and he thought it was a breathtaking sight. Not wanting to waste any more time, he quickly pulled a condom out of his nightstand drawer. He kept them there although he’d never used them since Renee was the first woman he’d ever brought home with him. Before, it had been his companion’s place or no place. He always considered his condo private and never wanted the memory of a woman’s presence there. But with Renee he felt differently. He wanted her memory. He wanted her presence. Point-blank, he wanted her.
He knelt beside her on the bed, eager to join their bodies. He took her mouth again in a deep, hungry kiss, the only kind he shared with her. He knew he had to make love to her right then and pulled back to position his body over hers, and just like the contrast of her skin with his bedspread, he noted the same distinction with his skin. The only word he could think to describe the difference in their coloring was beautiful.
He broke off the kiss and looked down into her dark brown eyes. “Ready, sweetheart?”
She smiled up at him. “Only for you.”
Her words, whispered seductively, released a surge of heat within him, and clenching his teeth he entered her in one smooth thrust. He breathed in deeply, inhaling her body’s sensuous scent, and she arched h
er back, taking him deeper still, clutching him tightly with her womanly muscles, just as she’d done the last time. And just as before, he could only take so much of her agonizing torture.
Tag felt himself on the brink of tumbling over the edge and knew he had to move. He began setting a rhythm, first by starting a slow rocking motion and then thrusting in and out of her, glorying in the perfect fit they made. With each surge into her body he stoked the fires blazing between them and with each retreat he rekindled them all over again. All he could concentrate on was the woman beneath him, how they seemed made for each other. He called out her name each and every time her muscles clenched pleasure out of him, demanding he give more.
And he did.
An orgasm so intense that it shook his entire body tore through him the exact moment she screamed his name and her body bucked beneath him. He suddenly lost awareness of everything except Renee.
With one last hard thrust, he groaned as he felt her shudder beneath him.
As ecstasy slowly gave way to sweet contentment, he shifted his body, but remained buried deep inside of her, not ready to sever their intimate connection. They faced each other, gazed into each other’s eyes as each of their limbs slowly became warm, heavy, pleasured.
Tag looked at her in amazement, thinking that Renee Williams was definitely what dreams were made of. He leaned closer and gently kissed her, needing to taste her, to absorb her, to appreciate her. And to thank the powers that had brought this beautiful woman into his life.
After Tag finished getting dressed he turned to watch Renee slip back into her dress. He stared at her for a long, thoughtful moment and a feeling he had never experienced before tugged at his heart, kicking his pulse into high gear.
The passion between them was fiery, breathtaking, but he didn’t just want her sexually. He also enjoyed doing things with her, spending time with her, taking her places and sharing his thoughts with her. Tonight over dinner he had told her about his work and the challenges he, his father and brother at Pulse were facing trying to compete against the other three magazines. She had listened, hung on to his every word and then she had made several comments that had made him think.
Renee had pointed out that if his grandfather’s challenge was making them tense, then imagine what it was doing to the people who worked for them. Were they worried about what would happen to their jobs if the magazine they worked for didn’t make a good enough profit? And what changes in the corporate structure would the new CEO make? Changes in corporate dynamics could send workers into a panic and could result in a serious employer-employee relationship problem.
He knew her comments had only been the result of her innate concern for people. She was a person who cared about how people were treated, how a person felt and what a person thought. The latter, he sighed deeply, was the root of their problem, and the very reason she continued to put a roadblock in the way of a developing relationship between them. Tension rippled off him in acknowledging how far apart they still were on the issue of them getting together. They needed to talk.
He leaned against his dresser and watched as she struggled with the zipper on her dress. He liked her outfit. The sexy black dress fit her as if it had been made for her body alone, and the ruffles at the hem showed off a pair of truly gorgeous legs. He felt as though he could stand there and stare at her forever. “Need help?” he finally asked when her attempts at the zipper proved futile.
She shot him a look over her shoulder and smiled. “Only if you’ll help me get it up.”
He chuckled as he crossed the room to her. “Oh, I think that can be arranged.” He easily slid up her zipper then reached around and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back to him, liking the feel of her butt resting against his groin.
“Are you sure I can’t convince you to spend the night?” he leaned down and prodded softly in her ear. “I promise to make it worth your while.”
Renee sighed deeply and leaned back farther against Tag, luxuriating in the feel of his arms around her. More than anything she wanted to spend the night, to wake up beside him in the morning, like they had the previous night. But she knew that doing so would only make it that much harder to walk away and not look back.
“No, Tag, I don’t think my spending the night here will be wise,” she said with a shake of her head.
“Why?” he asked, turning her around to face him, although he already knew her argument. But tonight he was ready for it. His gaze locked with hers. “Explain to me why you won’t spend the night.”
She raised her eyes to the ceiling. “What will your neighbors think when they see me?”
“That I’m one hell of a lucky man.”
Renee sighed. Everything about tonight had been beautiful and she didn’t want to shatter the enchanted moments, but she had to make him understand. “Not everyone will think that, Tag. There will be some who will not like the fact we’re dating.”
He frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Then I’d say it’s their problem and not ours.”
Renee shook her head. “What about your family?”
He remembered she had brought up his family before. “I thought I had made things perfectly clear about my family. They don’t and won’t dictate who I see.”
Renee crossed her arms over her own chest and lifted her chin. “No, but they would be concerned. I can’t see the public-conscious Elliotts welcoming an African-American into their fold. You even said tonight how your grandfather has always drilled into all of your heads never to do anything unsavory regarding your family name.”
Tag’s frown deepened. “And you see our dating as unsavory?”
“I don’t but there are others who would.” She could clearly remember what had happened the last time her name was linked to gossip. It hadn’t been a good feeling knowing she was the hot topic of everyone’s conversations.
Frustrated, Tag rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. “Don’t you think you’re blowing this out of proportion, Renee? Almost everywhere you go these days you encounter mixed-race couples. This is New York, for heaven’s sake. How about stepping back into the real world and looking around you? Notice the social trend that’s evolving. The mainstream of American society isn’t concerned about mixed couples anymore. They have a lot more to worry about, like the economy, making sure our country is kept safe, healthy and free. That’s what’s on their minds, Renee, and not who’s crossing racial lines.”
“For your information, Teagan Elliott, there are many people in the real world who do care about who’s crossing racial lines.”
“And you want to give in to them?”
Renee drew her head back and glared up at Tag. “It’s not giving in to them.”
“Then what do you call it? I like you. You like me. Yet you don’t want to date me because of what people might think or say? I call that giving in to a segment of society who can’t move on and accept people as people and not attach a color to them.”
“Maybe one day things will be different but—”
“I don’t want to wait for one day, Renee. The only thing I want is today, this moment. I don’t give a damn that your skin is darker than mine. What’s important is that I care for you. I want to be with you, get to know you better, spend time with you. And I want you to get to know me. And the more you get to know me the more you’ll see that I am my own man. I make my own decisions. I choose my own woman.”
He reached out his hand to her. “Will you give me a chance? Will you give us a chance?” A smile touched the corners of his lips. “You’re a very beautiful woman and personally, I don’t think I’m such a bad catch. What do you think?”
At that moment Renee thought her heart would swell over with the love she felt for this man standing before her. She stared into his blue eyes and saw the sincerity shining in their depths. “I think,” she said in a somewhat shaky voice as she took the hand he offered, “that you’ve presented a very good argument.”
“And?” he asked, d
rawing her closer to him. She came to him willingly, which to Tag was a good sign. She smiled while placing her palms against his chest, which, in his book, was another good sign. His heart rate increased and he felt his blood thicken in his veins.
“And,” she said, taking another step closer to him, molding her body against his and igniting an inferno within him, “I think that we’ll try things your way and see what happens.”
“I can tell you what’s going to happen,” he said in a quiet voice, lowering his head toward hers.
“And just what do you predict?” she asked, rising on tiptoes to meet him.
“I predict that one day we’re going to wonder why we even had this argument.”
Renee opened her mouth to disagree, but his mouth came down on hers, effectively kissing away any words she was about to say. Sensation ripped through her when he parted her lips with his tongue and claimed the depths of what awaited him inside.
Moments later he tore his mouth free of hers just long enough to whisper, “Will you stay the night with me?”
“Yes,” she murmured through kiss-swollen lips. “I’ll stay.”
He smiled and kissed her again as his hands eased around to her back and slowly began unzipping the dress that he had zipped up earlier.
Nine
G annon snapped his fingers in front of Tag’s face. “Hey, Tag, are you with us?”
Tag snapped out of his reverie and blinked. He looked first at Gannon and then at Erika, Liam and Bridget. All four had silly grins on their faces at having caught the ever-alert Teagan Elliott daydreaming.
They were sitting in the living room in The Tides, his grandparents’ primary place of residence, and where his mother was currently convalescing. As a child he’d loved visiting his grandparents here. Situated on five acres on a bluff above the Atlantic Ocean, the Elliotts’ compound had its own private, guarded road. On the estate was the house, a large pool, the pool house, a beautiful English rose garden and a helicopter landing pad. The feature he loved the most was the hand-carved stone staircase that led down the bluff to a private beach with a boat dock. It was from that dock that his father and grandfather had taught him how to sail.
Silhouette - Dynasties - The Elliotts 02 -Taking Care of Businesst Page 9
