With her heart thundering in her chest, Kassandra opened her eyes as she heard the thud of a door closing.He had brought them to his office. The moment her bottom touched the oak desk, his hands reached for the hem of her blouse.Kassandra looked down. Her breathing was coming so hard that it should have been a loud rattle in the room. His hands disappeared under the yellow silk of her blouse. Those roughened wrists against her midriff, the bulge in his trousers...it was the most decadent sight she had ever seen."Darian, you’re gorgeous," he groaned just as his fingers tugged her bra down with frenzied movements. And then his abrasive palm covered her breast."Oh..." Kassandra slid a little on the desk as he rubbed her aching nipples. Every time he pulled it between his fingers, her sex pulsed.Pushing into his hand, she forgot what she had been about to say. Just his touch was sending her over the edge. Both his hands covered her breasts now. She pulled and kneaded while he murmure
His hot mouth, trailing wet heat over her skin, reached her breast. With a groan that aroused her as much as his touch, he licked the aching nipple. She stroked it and played with it and did everything except what she wanted."Stop torturing me," she said in a voice that sounded alien to her own ears.She felt his smile against her mouth. "Say ‘please, Darian,’" he whispered against her skin. He sounded drunk, guttural.Joining in his game, she let go of the last layer of inhibition. She refused to beg, however. She refused to bend to his will when she could demand what was hers... "Put your mouth where I want and I will put my mouth where you want it," she dared.His curse reverberated in the dead silence, seconds before his mouth closed on her nipple.Sensation upon sensation beat over her. She held him at her breast, her fingers sinking into his hair.Every time he closed his mouth over her nipple and sucked, a thousand little tremors began in her lower belly.He raked the highly se
No, his body, he corrected himself, as the feathered strokes of her fingers wreaked hell on his better intentions.She had and would only ever know his body, came the completely pointless and distracting thought.Her soft fingers reached his buttocks and she dug her nails in. sharp and hard. She pushed closer with her bottom until her breasts rasped against his chest. Pleasure burst forth in his belly and the back of his thighs, and he pushed into her wet heat, despite himself.He pulled at her hair roughly, trying to grab her attention. "Stop it," he whispered, fighting the heat building inside, the need clamoring at him to just let go. I don’t want to hurt you. Kassandra, I just... He felt something in him clench tight against her, as if she could wreak infinite hurt on him. "I could not bear it if I hurt you anymore.""Darian, won’t you look at me, please?"The pleading, persuasive tone would have pulled him into hell.He opened his eyes and was lost instantly.Her eyes glittered w
His climax knocked his breath out, and his mind blanked out as he broke apart into a thousand pieces and got back together again.He had waited because it had been the right thing to do, because his honor wouldn’t let him cheat on his wife even if he didn’t live with her. But he had never expected it to be this life-changing, mind-numbing experience with her.Kassandra was in his blood now, a craving in his gut. He would never have enough of her. of her lithe body, of her glorious smile, of her sometimes infuriating words.He had never known this exhilaration as he did with Kassandra. He had never felt so alive. He had never felt so needy as he did with her. He had never wanted to change, never wanted to risk his emotions as he did with her.He had never wondered what else he had been missing out on as much as he did with her.He ran his hands over her shaking form, and he hugged her to him. She was so fragile. And yet he felt like he was the one who was risking everything. "Kassandra
Of course, she had never been able to resist a dare, especially when it came to riling, or in this case, arousing Darian.He had even held out for a few minutes.Her skin on fire, her body craving him, she had refused to back down. She had touched herself, her breasts first, rolling her aching nipples between her fingers, imagining it was those rough fingers of his. like he had begged her to do that first night.A dark color streaked his cheeks, and the pen he had been holding to make notes had clattered to the ground. But still, he hadn’t given in.Her throat had felt like parched paper, her grasp on her emotions tenuous at best. She had become a slave to his will. Even worse, she had become a slave to her own need for him.She threw her hair back, as she had seen one of the models wearing her own creation, and strutted farther into the room. He had lasted another two seconds before he had minimized the screen, marched to her, picked her up, called her his doom, and thrown her agains
"I wouldn’t have had to disturb your connubial bliss," Kal drawled, completely unaffected by Darian’s rising temper, "if you had not done the disappearing act on me. I had to half seduce your location out of your poor secretary. Very uncharacteristic of you, Darian. Your staff is petrified that you might be dying.Darian turned to her. "Do you want to get dressed, Kassandra?""She should hear this. I wouldn’t have barged in just for anything, Darian. ""What is it, Kal?""Tobias Ralston showed up on my yacht today. My security tried to grab him but they weren’t successful. "Suddenly cold, Kassandra shivered. Throwing his arm around her, Darian pulled her into his warm body.Tobias had been Rhode’s on-and-off boyfriend. "Tobias, you sent him to jail after Rhode...""We found that he was the one selling drugs that day. "He had a long record of possession and substance abuse," Kal replied, while Darian remained stubbornly silent."I thought you did that because..." The words trailed off
"But all my stuff is..." She stopped, his words slowly registering with her.His cell phone rang, and he finally looked at her. "I will ensure that Rosa packs up your stuff with the utmost care."Rosa was going to pack her stuff; she was going to leave for New York...Kassandra stared at the empty space he left behind for a few seconds. The shock gradually faded, leaving nothing but panic in its wake.Throat dangerously close to tears, she found him in the study that offered a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower.He was on the phone, listening, but his gaze stayed on her face. And that’s when Kassandra noticed the white pallor on his skin.She would have welcomed his blistering contempt, or even his lacerating fury. But the resignation in his gaze... as if he had lost something precious. as if he had finally given up.The minute he disconnected the call, she stepped inside."If he comes for me, he has to get through you, doesn’t he?" She demanded, anger coming to her rescue. She wou
Rhode had been so wrong in not trusting him, in doubting his love, so painfully unknowing of her own brother... But Kassandra understood him finally. She knew what a complex and honorable man her husband was.And knowing Darian meant loving Darian, loving his generous heart, his sense of duty, even his rigidly autocratic dictates.Why else had she risked everything she had always been scared of this past month? How else would she have thrown herself into this madness with such relish? "After all these years, I didn’t think the reasons for Rhode’s death mattered anymore. Not when I was finally able..."When you were finally getting what you wanted," he finished, and utter fury filled her.She gasped as it unfurled inside her, this new feeling, sinuously breathing courage into her very veins, filling her with tremendous energy.Reaching him, she refused to let him dismiss her so easily. "When, finally, you saw me for what I was, and let me see what kind of a man you were. I thought I sh