The Satin Sash (2 page)

Her eyes—the vibrant energy of her entire being simmered inside them. A chameleonic green of shade undeterminable, susceptible to her emotions like mood rings. Grey got dark forest with her passion, emerald with her smiles, mossy green with her silence.

Struggling to remain calm, Grey raised the fluted glass and contemplated his beauty above the rim, engaged in yet another lively dance. Song after song blasted in the room, but Grey heard nothing but his heart pounding.

Toni was a sensual, sexual, highly emotional being. Sweet in nature; deliciously responsive in bed. Her lusty appetite was unsurpassed by that of anyone Grey had ever met before, and her responsiveness to the barest touch was addictive. She wasn’t afraid of anything and would always try something once. She liked it dirty, a little naughty, and seemed to get a thrill when he got rough. But never,
ever
, had Grey considered she might crave more. More sex, more lust.
More.

“If she didn’t say so, then why would you be telling me this?”

“We danced.” Heath bent to whisper. “I touched her.”

“And?”

“And she let me.”

While Grey had been listening to Carlton earlier, specifically to the retired accountant’s monotonous dissertation on the economy, Toni had been in Heath’s arms. Sans panties, because he and Toni had thought to play a little game of anticipation tonight.

Stomach churning with bile, he set the empty glass on a passing tray. “Toni is a sensual woman, but she responds to
no man
like she responds to me.” He fixed his friend with a cold smile—the same he used across the boardroom when the meeting was adjourned. “Whatever it is you’re thinking, you can forget it.”

Heath snorted, a primitive sound Grey recognized as having multiple meanings. His partner jammed his hand into his inner coat pocket and produced a long, shiny red sash.

Grey’s eyes slimmed to slits. “That looks familiar.”

“She wore it around her neck.” Heath grasped the back of Grey’s hand and slapped the sash into his palm. “Tie it to my door if you change your mind. I leave Wednesday.”

Grey fisted the flimsy fabric in his palm and glanced up at Heath’s retreating back. “Wait.”

Probably unused to Grey’s most glacial tone being directed at him, Heath stiffened, hands fisting at his sides before he turned around.

Their gazes met with no antagonism, but with a calm, collected watchfulness.

“You’re saying . . . you want. . . ?” There was little that differentiated Grey from a statue.

“You know what I’m saying.” The broad white smile Heath shot him was the devil’s own. “Think about it, Grey.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the top of Mrs. Jennings’s coiffed white hair, while the elderly woman told one of her numerous dog anecdotes, Toni watched the two men. Grey. And that wicked, bold, dark- headed creature.Talking.Very seriously. About something.

Grey’s hard-boned, chiseled blond face was inscrutable, but Toni had noticed he had not glanced at her in a while. Her tummy contracted with nerves. Whatever his partner was speaking to him about, Grey did not seem pleased.

She wiped her hands on her sides, hating the pebbles of moisture on her skin, hating that she was almost cowering by the curtains. She did not want to see that black- haired man again. She didn’t even want to
think
of what had happened, yet the memory was there, flickering in her mind, mocking her.

He’d stood with Grey throughout most of the evening, and the moment Toni had set eyes on him, she’d known it was him. Grey’s overseas business partner. A man Grey respected, admired, and spoke of so often Toni had sensed the man somehow—i nvisibly—played a part in her and Grey’s burgeoning relationship.

The enigmatic Heath Solis.

They made a riveting picture, side by side. Grey with his sleek blond-streaked hair; Heath his antithesis with a head of tousled black silk. Like day and night, ice and rock, both equally mesmerizing, both oozing masculinity and power. Grey with his imposing presence seemed more intimidating somehow, but Heath was dark and rugged.

Danger had never looked so tempting.

As she made her way to them from across the room, people interrupted to draw Grey away—people always sucked up to Grey—and the dark-eyed menace was left alone. He eyed the crowd with the air of one who didn’t want to be there.Then his gaze collided with hers.

Those eyes assessed her in a single sweep and left each inch they covered tingling. Toni hadn’t realized she’d stopped walking until someone bumped into her as she continued to stare.

An older woman in blue silk paused to speak to him. He ducked his head to listen and nodded, his lips forming a lazy smile.

Her heart hammered while other things inside her moved. Should she introduce herself?

She stole a glance at Grey, surrounded by a group of older men and women. He’d promised to introduce her to his partner tonight, but judging by the avid conversation around him, it didn’t seem like it would happen soon.

Her gaze slid back to the tanned, tall stranger as the woman patted his broad, square shoulder and continued on her way.

Heath lifted his head, his eyes returning to her—as dark and tenebrous as what Grey had said of his past—and for a moment everything faded except that aggressive black stare.

Her heart thundered in her ears, drowning all music, all sound. This had happened before. Across an office desk, when Grey had leveled that cool amber gaze on hers,Toni had been taken.Was
still
taken by Grey. Absolutely. Completely. Damn it. Why couldn’t she breathe?

He advanced. So slowly she might have made an escape if she’d had an ounce of inclination. As it was, faced with six feet three inches of testosterone approaching, she could barely drag in air. Her pussy gave a little spasm, and her throat closed as she tried to swallow.

His jaw was all square bone; his eyes glimmered under the somber slashes of his eyebrows.The arrogant slant of his nose was barely softened by the plump sensuality of his lips. And those lips were curling slowly, almost sarcastically.

The cruel sexiness of that smile blasted her with a shot of pure, unadulterated lust. A lust Toni had felt for no one but Grey. Until this moment,
this
man. He was awesome. Bad and primal and
animal.

There were whispers. People noticed him as one would notice a storm, a hit man, danger.Yet she could not take her eyes off him for long enough to turn and appease the gossipers around her.

His scent reached her before his hand did. He smelled of earth and rain and tree bark, and the aroma made her head spin. Without a word, he engulfed her hand in his hot one and dragged her through the throng of people with single-minded purpose.

Almost stumbling on her dress as she tried to keep up, she was shocked that he didn’t release her when she tried to pull free. “What—what are you doing?”

He paused once they were safely in the middle of the dance floor, flanked by dancers.

“You wanted me to ask you to dance.” His hands slid to the small of her back, drawing her to the incredibly hard wall of his body. “So I’m asking.”

Toni had heard his voice over the phone. Sometimes milky and soothing like Baileys, other times rumbling like thunder.The thunder now skimmed over her skin like the very satin of her evening gown. He could’ve been Grey for the effect he had on her—and no one made her feel like Grey did.

She felt a moment of panic when his thigh slipped between hers.Their bodies touched from knees to chest; his rock-hard, hers malleable. Flames licked her on the inside, her pussy watering between her legs, naked under her dress.

The moment the top of his bulging thigh brushed her clit through the material, she thought she’d burst. “I- I don’t think you understand. I’m—”

“I know who you are.” With a dangerous smile, he slid his hands to the small of her back, the tip of his long fingers resting on the top of her butt. “You’re Grey’s girl.” And in her ear, “His record.”

The obvious bait brought a smile to her lips as she raised her eyes to his. “And am I supposed to know who you are?”

“You should.” He cupped her rear intimately and an odd little sound escaped her, more like a whimper than a gasp. He grunted, as though pleased, and raised one hand to tug at the satin sash around her throat. The sinuous glide of fabric teased the back of her neck as he bent to whisper in her ear, “I’m your worst nightmare.”

And maybe he was . . .

When a large, possessive hand curled around her elbow, jolting her back to the present, she knew it.

Even before she heard Grey’s voice. “We need to talk.”

He said nothing else after he dragged her aside at the benefit to utter those hushed, spine-tingling words.They’d been accompanied by the most glacial stare Toni had ever seen, and Grey wasn’t known for his warmth.

The ride to her place was rife with tension, and the piercing looks Grey sent her way made her all too aware of her missing sash.

Her throat had never felt so bare.

And Toni had never felt so miserable.

Staring out at the sea of headlights dotting the street, she fiddled with her hands above her lap and wished she could find it in herself to entertain him the way she usually did after these events.

She could tell him how the senator had asked her name five times tonight, her age another seven. How the pepper steak had caused the old woman at their table to turn a particular beet red. But her throat felt too tight and her stomach knotted.

Tonight . . .

Nothing about tonight was funny. Least of all the thought, the mere possibility, of losing Grey.

She’d never been in love before. She’d been dedicated to her studies and career for what felt like forever, with a few sparse dates to spruce up her weekends. And then came Grey. And falling in love with Grey had proved as mystifying and overpowering as the man himself.

The last two years had been lush with passion, her happiness so great that sometimes she thought she’d burst from the sensations in her chest.That amazing high she felt, the adrenaline, the dizziness of loving Grey. She was so addicted to it . . . to
him
. For the first time in two years, the fear of having a future without it—without Grey Richards—began to gnaw her raw.

He drove his fine black Porsche toward her apartment in silence, but every once in a while, his eyes would rake her breasts, her waist, the place between her legs that felt so wet.

He’d been sleeping at her place for months, and Toni wondered if that would change tonight. She couldn’t bear it if it did.

A drop of rain fell on the windshield, and she gathered her courage and turned in the leather. “The senator called me Tori all night,” she said lightly.

Grey didn’t seem interested.

“By the fifth time, I didn’t even bother to correct him.” Her smile quivered on her lips, but Grey wasn’t interested in it, either. “He was nice though,” she added, wiping her sweaty palms on her lap. “He certainly knows how to dance.”

Grey said nothing.
Nothing
.

His incredible strength of character made it difficult to imagine he could be susceptible to human emotions like fear or rage, but Toni knew a Grey no one else knew; one who laughed with her, who tucked her against his body at night, whose gaze was warm and affectionate and not the cool amber he turned on others.
Her
Grey. And she sensed the tempest in him—simmering under his skin.

Oh, god.

When they finally reached her apartment, the air between them was charged and carried in it the unmistakable sizzle of lust and the dense fires of anger.