Essence of Desire (35 page)

Dominique didn’t say anything for a moment and then, “Maybe it’s a good thing the two of you are going on that cruise together.”

Michelle lifted a brow. “Why? What can happen in five days?”

“Umm, you might be surprised. Spending time together with someone, real quality time, always helps. And in your case the two of you will be a captive audience for each other since you’ll be on the high seas. You can’t go too far if you want to escape each other.”

Dominique paused for a moment and then asked. “In the meantime, until the cruise, will the two of you continue to see each other?”

After taking a sip of her tea, Michelle said. “There were no spoken plans that we would, although I have a feeling he’ll be coming over some time this week. I don’t plan on calling him.”

Dominique sipped her own tea and then asked. “And if he does show up, what will you do?”

“Let him in,” Michelle said with a sigh. “So what does that make me?”

Dominique met her sister’s gaze, saw how troubled it looked and knew the reason why. She reached out and touched her hand, smiled and said, “It makes you a woman who appears to be falling in love.”

***

Falling in love.

Michelle tossed aside a travel catalog she’d been flipping through when her sister’s words came back to haunt her. How on earth could Dominique think such a thing? She of all people knew she didn’t do the love thing. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in it, she just knew it wasn’t for her. But she would admit, although rather grudgingly, that there was something about Royce that had taken hold of her. She couldn’t ever remember a time when a man had occupied her thoughts so much. For most of the day she had played back memories of their time together. Memories that just would not go away.

“I’m leaving now. Do you want me to lock up?” Jill asked, sticking her head in the door and intruding in on Michelle’s thoughts.

“Yes, please. I plan on being here for another hour or so and then I’ll be heading home.”

“Do you need me to order you something to be delivered here?”

“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll probably stop at that Chinese restaurant on the corner.”

“All right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, Jill. Goodnight.

Michelle eased back in her chair and closed her eyes. She still felt shudders through her body whenever she thought about Royce’s mouth on her, in her. Then there were his hands that could make her purr whether she wanted to do so or not.

“I hope I’m not interrupting a quiet moment.”

Her eyes flew open to connect with the man who’d been the object of her thoughts practically all day. As if he’d read the question in her eyes, he said. “Your secretary was leaving when I walked in.”

Michelle swallowed as she straightened up in her chair. “Oh, what are you doing here?”

He smiled as he pushed away from the doorjamb and stepped over the threshold to come to stand in front of her desk. “I dropped by to see if you wanted to grab something to eat with me.”

Michelle couldn’t help but study him. He was wearing his signature suit, the one that displayed, and boldly so, just what a fine specimen of a man he was, perfectly groomed and sexy as hell. Her heart began beating rapidly and the palms of her hands suddenly felt sweaty.

“I still have an hour or so more of work to do. There’re a few things I want to finalize before our cruise,” she said.

He nodded. “I’ll wait.”

She fixed her mouth to say that, no, he couldn’t wait; that he hadn’t asked permission to wait like Marcus or most other guys would have done. Instead, he had told her point blank what he would do. But then she knew that’s what drew her to him. His take charge attitude. He was a man who led instead of following.

Sighing deeply she decided not to say anything. Not waiting for her response—she figured he wasn’t expecting one—he crossed the room to sit on her loveseat, placing his briefcase on the coffee table and removing his jacket to display all those rippling, hard muscles on his chest.

She went back to the documents on her desk, trying to ignore his presence. On occasion she would glance over at him and saw that he had loosened his tie, slouched down in a comfortable position with his head thrown back against the loveseat’s cushion.

Michelle figured the next couple of weeks would be busy ones for him like they would be for her while trying to clear his calendar before they left to cruise on the high seas. She hated admitting it but she was looking forward to getting out of the office for a few days and felt comfortable that Jill would be able to handle things in her absence.

After she’d finished reading the last document and had inputted what she needed into her computer, she glanced across the room. Royce had dozed off to sleep. He was tired, probably from all those weekend activities with her. She needed to wake him but decided she really didn’t. At least not now. She would let him nap a little longer. There was plenty more stuff she could do for a while, including order dinner in.

***

Royce blinked a few times not sure what had roused him awake, the scent of a woman or the smell of food. Both tantalized his nostrils and he glanced around the room. His gaze traveled across the delivery bags from a Chinese restaurant that was sitting on Michelle’s desk, to move around the room to find her. She was standing at the window with her back to him looking out. She seemed in deep concentration and he couldn’t help wondering what she was thinking.

He glanced up at the clock on her wall. Damn. He’d slept for almost two hours. Why hadn’t she awakened him? But more importantly, why had he drifted off to sleep? He knew the reason why. This weekend with her had been simply fantastic and since then, he’d barely gotten any sleep at night for remembering all the ways she had pleased him.

He must have made a sound, probably a groan of remembered pleasure, because she turned and met his gaze. And then it happened. Desire curled up in his stomach, and made his erection come to life. What was there about her that could garner such an immediate adrenaline response from him? What was there that made him want to make love to her every chance he got? She had booked two cabins on the cruise. Did she honestly assume he would be spending the night in his and she in hers?

Deciding she probably did, he shifted positions and eased his hips to the edge of his seat. “Come here, Michelle.” His goal was to break down her defenses every chance he got.

She lifted her chin. “What do you want?”

“You.” There. He couldn’t be more honest than that. Besides his erection, he figured, was a dead give-away. She knew what he wanted. He was almost bursting behind his zipper.

“Aren’t you hungry? I ordered some food,” she said, indicating the bags on her desk.

“Later. I want you now.”

“And what if I don’t want you, Royce?”

He couldn’t help but smile at that. “Convince me that you don’t want me, Michelle.”

Michelle wished she could since the man was so sure of himself, too sure of her. No man had ever been sure of her. Not even Marcus.

“Come over here, baby. Please,” he said in a commanding, yet low and sexy voice. And he had thrown in the please for good measure.

Okay, she would give in to him this time, especially since he would soon discover that she was one step ahead of him, having anticipated what he’d want. She moved away from the windows to stand in front of him. She met his gaze. “I’m here. Now what?”

“Sit in my lap and ride me.”

Michelle held his gaze. There was no need pretending she wasn’t interested since riding him was something she wanted to do, and was something she was ready to do. Evidently he figured as much since he stood up to unzip his pants and then she watched as he completely removed them.

Not to be outdone, she pulled her blouse over her head and then dropped her skirt. She didn’t miss the appreciative glance he gave her upon seeing that she hadn’t been wearing a bra and had removed her panties earlier while he slept.

When he sat back down after putting on a condom, she eased into his lap, straddling him easily. He wasted no time penetrating her fully. She inhaled deeply, knowing he had practically stretched her to the limit. And holding his gaze she began moving, giving him a lap dance that surpassed all others, and watching how dark his eyes got with each downward thrust.

“Oh, baby”… And then he leaned in close and like a magnet her lips were drawn to his. He sank his mouth into hers while they mated over and over again, not breaking the rhythm of her dance.

Royce thought every inner muscle that Michelle possessed was clenching him, demanding everything out of him, making him groan. His hands gripped her thighs, thinking for such a petite woman she packed a lot of willpower. And as they continued to kiss passionately, all he could dwell on was the fact that he loved her. There was no way he could or would deny that.

She broke off the kiss and threw her head back as she continued to ride him like her life depended on it. With her mouth out of reach he went for her breasts, needing the taste of them in his mouth. And a short while later when the explosion hit, it rammed through the both of them to the point where he nearly shot off the sofa. The guttural groan that erupted from his throat was so deep he felt as if his lungs were caving in. But that was nothing compared to her passion-curling scream. His sex throbbed even more inside of her from the sound of it.

And he knew then, at that very moment, no matter what it took he would use the five days on that cruise to bind her to him, make her believe they could be a couple for life. He was a determined man and he wouldn’t fail in what he considered would be the most important accomplishment of his life.

Royce couldn’t help but whistle happily as he unpacked his suitcase. True to her word, Michelle had booked two cabins but they were right across the hall from each other. He didn’t have a problem with that since his goal was to seduce her every night into sharing his cabin with him.

He couldn’t help but think about the past two weeks and how much time they had shared together. They often shared lunch and more than once they had met for dinner.

They had arrived in New York on Saturday morning and he had agreed to accompany her on her shopping trip, something that was a first for him with a woman. Then that night they had even gone to a night club together in Harlem, one that the hotel had recommended. Although her outfit had raised his brow, it hadn’t been anything as scandalous as that fishnet dress.

Men had looked at her, practically drooled. But he was the man she had been with, the one who had taken her back to the hotel when the club had closed. The one who had made love to her all night long. On Sunday they had slept late and then he’d talked her into attending a Broadway play with him later that evening.

Things were going good; however, on the other hand, he felt she was still holding back, like she was reluctant to take a chance on him. On them. She should know by now what type of man he was and adjusted to it, since he was definitely not the type she was used to being with. But then, she wasn’t the type of woman he was used to either. No other woman had ever made him want to make love to her at any place or at any time. In other words, no woman could get a rise out of him as quickly and easily as she could. Hell, even now he was hard with an erection just thinking about her.

They had agreed to rest up a while before dinner. He’d had a chance to check out the ship. It was a beauty and already they were headed up the Atlantic toward New Brunswick. Tomorrow would be a fun day at sea and they’d been given a list of activities to choose from. During dinner he and Michelle would decide which of those activities they would participate in.

His cell phone rang and he quickly pulled it out of his pocket to see it was Jordan. “Must be important to call me when I’m headed out toward international waters. Don’t tell me the office can’t do without me already,” he said jokingly.

“We can handle it for five days, just as long as you don’t decide to stay longer,” Jordan said with a smile evident in his voice. “How are things going?”

“Fine. We’ll reach New Brunswick Wednesday morning. So, what’s up? I’m sure you had a reason for calling?”

“Yes, we just got in Ron’s report on the Bare All Resort. It’s a good thing you decided to check them out before going there.”

“Why?”

“They’re currently under federal investigation. It seems that one of the administrators is accused of taking photographs without permission and then threatening to post them on the Internet unless he got paid.”

“Extortion?”

“You got it. Those posted photographs would have resulted in a number of embarrassed individuals. Arrests are being made and the owners claim they had no knowledge of what was going on.”

Royce shook his head. Greed was the downfall of many men. “Thanks for letting me know. I’m glad I had them checked out.”

“Will you mention it to Michelle?” Jordan asked.

“Yes, but I’ll do it at the end of the cruise. I want her to enjoy herself and not worry about anything right now,” Royce said. “When we get back we’ll find another reputable resort we can go to since she has her heart set on visiting one. In fact you can do me a favor and go ahead and check out a few for us.”