Dare to Love (9 page)

A grin passed his lips. Next thing she knew, he’d rolled her to her side while he flipped positions. He lay propped on one elbow, his face level with her needy sex while his erection protruded from his thighs, inches from her mouth.

“Oh God.” This position was so…intimate.

Without giving her time to think, he leaned in and licked her clit. She shuddered and arched her lower body toward him. As if reading her mind, he grasped her waist and buried his face between her thighs. His breath was warm, his tongue wicked and so talented as he began to tease her, tempt her, and make her feel like she was losing her mind.

It would be so easy to shut her eyes and just take, but that wasn’t what she wanted. She’d started this needing to dominate him in some way, and she intended to hang on to her sanity long enough to wrest some of his precious control away from him.

She held him, opened her mouth, and took his erection again, wrapping her lips tighter around him and pulling him deep, using as much suction as she could to work him into as much of a frenzy as he was doing to her.

He’d gone from lapping at her like she was the tastiest treat to teasing her clit, pressing hard, suckling the hard nub with tongue and teeth. She bucked against his mouth, and he clutched her hips in an almost brutal grip, holding her in place as his tongue slid inside her and mimicked actual sex.

He thrust his shaft into her mouth, over and over, and she moaned around his thickening erection. The sound had unintended results. He jerked, and he pumped himself into her willing mouth while she played him as best she could with her tongue and one free hand. He let out a long groan, and suddenly she understood just what she’d done to him, as she felt the vibrations straight through her core.

The tremors triggered her sudden release, and her entire body caught fire as she came, shaking and moaning around his thickening shaft, her release imminent. He nipped at her clit, and she shattered completely at the same moment he came in her mouth, hot spurts seeping down her throat as she struggled to swallow and keep up with him—and with herself.

*     *     *

Holy shit. Ian had just had his mind—and body—blown by a sexy woman who knew her own mind and refused to roll over and let him have his way. She demanded her due. And he’d loved it. Just as he’d loved sleeping with her in his arms and waking up with her lips wrapped around his cock. He was falling for her in a way he’d never let himself before, and it scared the living daylights out of him. He didn’t like giving anyone power over him in any way. Most especially when it came to his emotions.

Do not overthink this
, he warned himself. It was one night with a gorgeous woman.

He pulled himself up to the head of the bed and found her facedown sprawled across the bed. He brushed her hair from her face.

“I think I died and went to heaven,” she muttered without opening her eyes.

He burst out laughing, enjoying her immensely. “Happy to have taken you there.”

He took her in, gorgeous curls spilling over her back, her hips wide and generous, her ass perfectly round, and grinned at the sight.

“Come on, sweetness. Time to shower.”

“Can’t move.”

He headed for his bathroom and pulled out two towels then turned on the shower so it would get hot before returning to the bed.

“Shower,” he said, more forcefully this time.

When she didn’t move, he debated only briefly then reached out and swatted her ass with his palm.

“Hey!” She raised her head and glared at him, but there wasn’t anger in her blue eyes, only heat and sudden awareness and arousal.

He filed the knowledge away for another time.

“Come on.” He scooped her into his arms and headed for the steam-filled bathroom.

Needless to say, the shower took longer than it would have if they’d just washed up and was one of the more memorable mornings he’d spent in a good, long while.

*     *     *

Riley normally avoided the
walk of shame
. It was easy when her boyfriends were few and far between, and one-night stands didn’t happen in her life. Now she had to put on last night’s clothes and ask Ian to take her to the stadium to get her car. All she wanted to do was escape the rest of the morning without undue embarrassment.

In the light of day, everything they’d done came back to her in vivid detail, and she didn’t know how she’d face him. Where was the bravery she’d woken up with? Gone, now that his arms were no longer wrapped securely around her and she didn’t know where they stood.

She stepped out of the bathroom to an empty bedroom. Ian had excused himself to take a business call, and apparently he still hadn’t returned. She’d check her own cell, but she’d left it, along with her purse, in Ian’s car.

Ignoring her rumbling stomach, she picked up her panties from the floor and turned them inside out, pulling them on. She folded her arms across her bare chest and groaned. Her shirt and bra were on the floor somewhere in the front hall, and no way would she parade through his big apartment naked. She’d have to find a dry towel to wrap around herself, she thought.

She glanced at the bed, surprised to find he’d left a folded tee-shirt for her to wear, and she gratefully pulled the oversized garment on. It fell below her knees. She folded her skirt, tucking it beneath her arm.

She walked through the hallway, passing two closed doors, extra bedrooms, she assumed, and entered the main great-room area. She walked toward the sound of Ian’s muffled voice and found him by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean.

He stood with one hand high on the window. Navy track pants rode low on his waist, and no shirt covered his incredible body, giving her a good look at his muscular back and arms.

She bit back a sigh at the sight.

Or maybe she didn’t suppress it so well, because he turned around, and his steely gaze locked on hers. “Just take care of it,” he bit out to whoever was on the other end and disconnected the call.

When he faced her, his expression softened. “Hungry?” he asked.

She swallowed hard. “You don’t have to feed me. But I do need you to take me back to my car. It’s at the stadium, remember?”

Ian remembered. He also recognized a retreat when he saw one. Normally that was his job. He didn’t like that she was so eager to escape.

Not when reality would give her reasons soon enough. Before that happened, he needed to lure her back from wherever she’d gone to emotionally protect herself.

“That’s not an answer,” he said. “I asked if you were hungry.”

Her stomach answered for her, and a rosy flush stained her cheeks.

He laughed. “I thought so.”

He wrapped an arm around her waist and led her to the kitchen, all the while, aware of her curves beneath his shirt and the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. He knew because he’d placed her clothes in a bag for her to take home later.

“Come. Breakfast is waiting.”

She eyed him warily, as if she suddenly didn’t know what to make of him.

He felt the same way. Most women he slept with clung to him, hoping he’d find something about them that would make him interested longer. He often suspected it was his money that had them so enthralled, because he certainly didn’t treat them to his charming personality the morning after, or feed them breakfast.

With subtle pressure on her back, he led her to the kitchen, where breakfast had been delivered while she finished in the bathroom. “Sit.”

She chose a chair and settled into a seat, studying the spread of food laid out before them.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he said. “I figured since one of the benefits of living here involves full room service, you might as well take your pick.”

“Thank you.” She picked up a bagel and spread cream cheese over it, ignoring the fruit.

He grinned. “A carb girl.”

“I worked up an appetite.” The blush returned. “I can eat it on the way to the stadium if you have things to do.”

He slid his chair closer to her, gratified when her color heightened even more and her breath caught in her throat. He didn’t want to be alone in feeling like he couldn’t get enough of her.

Still, she was suddenly skittish, and he wanted to know why. “In a rush to get away?” he asked her.

“No, it’s just…I don’t know…I don’t do this.” She glanced away and took a large bite of her bagel.

“Define
this
.”

She chewed and swallowed. “I don’t usually have sex with a guy outside of a relationship.”

Now they were getting somewhere. “And?” He needed her to continue with no suggestions from him. He wanted her unvarnished take on what this thing between them was. Because he was still working it out himself.

Without meeting his gaze, she took another bagel bite, chewed, swallowed, and followed it with a long sip of orange juice.

He waited.

“Alex said you go from woman to woman,” she finally admitted.

He clenched his jaw, wanting to kill his half brother for offering any kind of take on his life. The other man didn’t know him. At all.

“That’s been my MO,” he admitted to her.

She placed her unfinished bagel on the plate. “Well, I appreciate your honesty. Can we go now?”

He shook his head and couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across his face. “Riley, Riley, Riley. I said that’s
been
my MO. Has there been anything about my behavior, from last night to this morning, that led you to believe I’m finished with you?”

To punctuate his point, he swiped his finger over the corner of her lip, where a drop of cream cheese remained, and licked it off his finger while she watched. Her eyes dilated with undisguised need, and his cock grew harder in his sweats.

“So we’re not finished?” She gripped her napkin in her lap, twisting it unmercifully.

“Not by a long shot.”

She finally met his gaze. Big blue eyes stared at him through thick lashes, as she clearly worked out what she wanted to say next.

“I have some rules.”

He raised an eyebrow, not wanting to be amused, yet he was, despite himself. “Go on.”

She drew a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “If you don’t want to call this a relationship, that’s fine, but if you’re seeing me, you aren’t seeing other women at the same time.”

He hadn’t said he didn’t consider them in a relationship. Hell, Ian wouldn’t know what a relationship entailed, but he had a feeling that admission wouldn’t win him any points.

He rested his hand on her thigh where his shirt had inched up, revealing bare skin. “We both know that since we started going out together, I haven’t had time for anyone else. But you’ll be happy to know I haven’t wanted anyone either. So no other women.” He stroked her soft flesh, inching higher with a broad sweep of his thumb.

“Good.” Her voice came out on a husky rasp.

“Now for a condition of my own.” He lifted her chin with his hand. “No other men for you.”

“Done.” A cheeky grin lifted her lips, and he knew he had her back.

No more distance.

He leaned in and brushed his lips over hers, tasting a mix of Riley and citrus from her juice.

She moaned and kissed him briefly before pulling away. “One more thing.”

“What would that be?” he asked, enjoying her way too much.

“I have to tell Alex, and I have to do it my way. He won’t be happy, and I need him to understand. I need him in my corner. That’s nonnegotiable.”

Ian closed his eyes and groaned, not because he objected to how she handled his half brother and her friend, but for far more serious reasons. “I think that may be a problem,” he told her.

She stiffened and pulled back. “Ian, I said nonnegotiable, and I meant it. Alex isn’t just my friend, he’s my
family
.” Her entire body trembled. “For a long time, he was the only person I had in my life who protected me.” She flinched at her own words. Obviously she hadn’t meant to reveal that much.

But she’d said it, and now he wondered. Protected her? From whom? There was a story there, Ian knew, and if they had time, he’d ask her about it.

“The point is, if you can’t give me that then—”

“I’d give you time to talk to him if I could, but it’s too late. That call I got this morning? It was about this.”

He grabbed his iPhone from the counter, opened the email that had come in earlier, a link to a well-known sports blog that had posted a photo of the two of them taken last night as they exited the restaurant.

Her cheeks were flushed. Her hand in his. There was no doubt they were together. Or intended to be.

She took the phone and stared at the photo filling the screen. “Oh God.” She jumped up from her seat.

“My phone. I need my phone from your car.” She started for the door then turned back to him. “Why didn’t you tell me about the picture before?”

“It’s only been ten minutes since I found out. I was trying to find out how far it spread.”

“And?” she asked.

“It’s gone viral, in the Miami sports blogs anyway.”

She winced. “What are they saying? What’s the caption?”

“Is it important?” he asked, not wanting to get into
that
.

She eyed him warily. “The fact that you asked that tells me it is,” she said in a cool voice.

He met her gaze. “Miami Thunder President, Ian Dare, and his latest fling. What are the odds this one makes it beyond the weekend?”

“Wonderful,” she muttered.

He refused to lose her over something he couldn’t control. “It only matters what goes on between us, and we’ve already had this conversation. You don’t need to worry.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she said, her expression panic-stricken. “I need to call Alex.”

Of course she did. Somehow he managed to stop the words from coming out of his mouth. “Use my phone,” he said.

When she hesitated, he said, “It’s faster than waiting for my car to be brought around.”

She swallowed hard. “Thanks.” She dialed and waited for the other man to answer.

Ian knew he ought to give her privacy, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk out. He didn’t like being in the dark, and when it came to Riley and Alex, he wasn’t just the one being blacked out, he was entirely on the outside looking in. The thought turned his stomach.