Priceless (20 page)

I did.

I looked up at Ivan in all his glory: long hair wet from the pool and scraped back by his fingers combing through it; golden bare chest dotted with a few lingering drops of water; tattoo of what looked like the zodiac symbol for Sagittarius on his left shoulder, only revealed as he sat relaxed on a towel across the table from me.

He hadn’t let go of
my hand either.

Devastatingly attractive
, and deadly to my will to remain aloof and unaffected by him.  I don’t think it was possible for me to be unaffected.

There was f
ar too much gorgeousness blessed upon Ivan Everley for one human man to own, but very blessed he had been.

And
if he didn’t watch out he would make me fall for him, with his soulful words and seductively commanding ways.  If it wasn’t too late for me already.

“I’ve never brought a woman here before
in the way you’re here with me right now.”  His eyes held onto me.  “You are the first, Gabrielle Hargreave.  And furthermore, I think you should stay and do the job of cataloging my ridiculously large collection of paintings.”  He picked up my hand and brought it up to his lips still entangled in his own.  “I want you here.  Very much.”

Damn, he
is
good.

His expression was one of adoration, respect, desire.  I wanted to stay with him.  I wanted to be the object of his desire.

Perhaps it was already too late for me.

Perhaps I was already falling.

I
could see the struggle going on in her mind as clearly as if she’d just told me her inner thoughts.  It reminded me a little of a competition.  The moment when you know you’ve gotten into your opponent’s head.  It was like that with Gabrielle right now.  All I had to do was stay in her head, and convince her she wanted the same thing as me.

“No worries.  I still have plenty of time to work on you.  The day is young.”

Her face fell, and then changed to panic.

“Ivan, what time is it?”

“It’s early.  Probably not more than half past ten.” 

“Oh
shit.  The morning-after wedding brunch is today at noon.  We are supposed to be there, Ivan, both of us.  And we’re—we are in Ireland right now!” she hissed, throwing down her napkin and jumping up from the table.  “I have to get showered and dressed—and—and then you have to fly me back to Hallborough.”

She
turned away from me and ran toward the shower grotto.

Well, f
uck.  It looked like there was still some convincing to do with my beautiful obsession.  And I remembered what I already knew about her.  She was a runner whenever something frightened her.

The only thing to do with a runner is to run even faster so you can catch them.

SHE was already washing her hair when I came up behind her in the pool house showers.  I watched her for a moment as she hurried to do everything in a rush.  I needed to slow her down.

“Gabrielle.”

She turned and dunked her head under the spray and let the shampoo rinse out of her long dark hair, her eyes closed tightly, not acknowledging me.

I pulled her against my chest, my hands linked behind her back so she couldn’t push away.  Her breasts pressed
into my chest, soft and wet as I put my lips to hers.

Her hands came up to my chin and fal
tered.  Maybe in defense—or possibly just protecting herself from me—but it was still an acceptance, and she didn’t do more than just hold her trembling hands suspended between us while I kissed her under the shower spray.

I could work with that.

A kiss was intimate, and helped me to dig my way further under her skin.

I know how to win, using
every small thing to my advantage in order to get there.  I had the medals to prove it.

She was my win.  My gold medal.

Winning Gabrielle would be my toughest competition yet.

But so worth it.  So fucking worth it in the end.

I kept her against me under the shower for another moment, slowing everything down with her, taking the panic out of the moment.

I
brought my hands up to cup her cheeks, holding and directing the angle of her head until all of the shampoo was rinsed away.  I turned off the water and kept her face in my hands.  The shower head drained out its last drops, falling onto the tile floor in a steady rhythm at our feet.

She cast her eyes
up at me, so unsure and fearful.  I could see the fear in every flicker of their lovely hue. Her eyes were a unique shade of green, flecked with other variants of colours from brown to yellow to blue.

“The rest of the weekend, Gabrielle.  Give that to me.
”

She shook her head
still held in my two hands.  “No.  I have to go back.  You said you’d take me—.”

“
—even if we took off this very minute we can’t make it back to Hallborough by noon.  It’s impossible.”

“But we won’t be there for the brunch then,” she whispered, defeated.

I rubbed my thumbs over the sides of her jaw.  “Think about it.  People won’t be looking for us.  They’ll be waiting on the bride and groom, and while Ethan and Brynne might notice we’re absent, I’m sure they’ll be more anxious to get away on their honeymoon.  They won’t care.”

“
Maybe…,” she said biting on one side of her luscious bottom lip.  “But Ben will wonder where I am, and Elaina will, too.  They will ask around for me.”

“I’m sure Fred has noticed my plane is gone from his lake by now.  I can message Hannah and say I brought you over to Donadea
for a quick visit so you could get a glimpse of my paintings.  It’s mostly the truth.”  I smiled at her.  “I just leave out the part about kidnapping you when you were under the influence of one too many blueberry mojitos, and they’ll be none the wiser.”

“I don’t even have my purse or my phone with me, Ivan.  I’m sure that doesn’t look too smooth if anyone figures it out.”

“If you know his number, you can call your friend and speak to him in person, so he won’t worry about you.  Explain to him how my offer of so many priceless works of art was more than you could resist. That you were impulsive after a few drinks and dancing.”

“But all of my clothes and my phone…we just left there with nothing.”

“Tell him I’m having your things delivered to Donadea from Hallborough and will take you directly to London when we have to go back.”

“You will?”

“Of course.  I left my things there as well, and I’ll speak with Hannah and ask her to pack it up for us.  She’ll do it no question.  She is the absolute best, and she knows how to keep silent.  You’ll have no gossip worries coming from my cousin.”

I could tell her cogs were spinning, puzzling out my sug
gestions and on the verge of agreeing, so I pushed her a little bit more.

“Is there anything back at Hallborough you’d rather have than this?”

I didn’t give her chance to answer my question, though.  I just lowered my head and backed up enough to get my mouth over one of her tits, and started sucking.

She settled exactly into the
pull and push of my lips and tongue, letting me go to work on her, entrusting her pleasure to me.

I loved how she melted in my arms when I touched her, became soft and wanton.  It drove me
to madness, to a point where I didn’t ponder much at all beyond making her come again.

Giving an orgasm to Gabrielle had become my new
favorite fucking job.

I asked her again.  “Is there anything back there you’
d rather be doing, Gabrielle?”

I slid my fingers under the lace of her knickers and impaled two of them up into her soaked pussy.

“Nooooo,” she cried on a shuddering moan, her knees buckling a bit as I starting stroking my fingers in and out of her tight heat.

“Good gorgeous
girl,” I said, winding her tighter and tighter with each slide of my fingers matched against the sucking pulls of my mouth on her tits.  I had her pinned up against the shower wall, quivering and shaking under me as I worked her out, taking from her what I demanded she give up.  I knew I couldn’t stop, nor would I stop, until she was blissfully pleasured and drooping in my arms.

Then, and only then,
I’d carry her back up to my bedroom and fuck us both to sleep.  Wake up after a while and maybe fuck some more if we wanted to.  Lowell had seen to the condoms being delivered as I’d asked.  I had everything I needed to convince Gabrielle to stay with me a bit longer.

And convince her I would
.

SO I went from living
in a sexual desert to a banging rainforest of jungle-love in the matter of about twelve hours.  How in the hell did that happen? 
Ivan happened, that’s how.

After the shower
conversation
with Ivan, I don’t remember much except being carried up the big stairs at some point.  I’d been utterly lost to the sensation of total erotic bliss at his hands, and mouth, and his cock that I didn’t really care about the particulars.  It all felt too damn good.

He was an amazing lover.

Ben was going to be relentless grilling me about what I’d been doing with Ivan.  Ben!  “Shit, I never phoned Benny!”  I leaped out of bed, grabbing the first thing I could put in my hand around.  The vintage smoking jacket.  The elegance of the thing made me feel like a rich man’s mistress from an old black and white movie, which was kind of true, and strange both at the same time.

Ivan cocked open an eye and surveyed me from head to toe, completely at ease with his own lack of coverings, totally nude with his arm stretched out toward me, seemingly unconcerned by my current panic.  He must be used to them by now.  It wasn’t the first since we been spending time together.

“He’s probably left me fifty messages and texts by now—”

“—Gabrielle.”

“—and Filan, my God, she’s likely to be right in the thick of the speculation—”

“—Gabrielle!  I phoned Hannah earlier while you were sleeping.”
  His voice had an edge to it which commanded respect, silencing my panicked rant immediately.

“You did?”

He nodded slowly.  “Talked to her and explained everything about packing up our things and also asked her to let Clarkson know where you are.  All taken care of.  We might even have everything delivered by morning.  My assistant will get it all organized for us right away.”

I sat on the edge of the bed and tried to process all that Ivan had done so we could have this weekend together. 
“You must
really
want me to stay here, if you went to all that trouble,” I said quietly.