As her tongue delves out to wet her lips, Isabelle drags her hooded gaze over my hairless pecs and the bumps in my midsection before she drops them to the gap in my towel that’s on the verge of parting. Her heated gawk is doing more than drying the droplets of water on my body. It has my cock acting as if it didn’t achieve release only minutes ago.
I took matters into my own hands. I came while imagining the exact look she’s giving me now, yet my cock thickens as if it didn’t reach the pinnacle of satisfaction.
That’s unheard of.
Usually, this apartment’s sole purpose is about my pleasure. Today, the needs of my cock aren’t at the forefront of my mind. They haven’teven securedsecond place. Nothing but fulfilling Isabelle’s every desire is on my mind.
I just need her to get on board with my plans. Not only do her enthralling eyes expose her every want, desire, and need, they also reflect her unease. They reveal her emotions are precariously teetering, unsure if she should listen to her head or her heart.
She appears to side with her logical-thinking brain when she tugs up the bedding, denying me the chance to continue perusing the puckered pink nipples braced against the thin material of the shirt I dressed her in last night.
“Don’t you think it’s a little late to be shy, Isabelle?” It’s conceited of me to test her when she’s hungover, but I refuse to enter a fight where the only contender in the ring is me. The firmness of her nipples reveals she wants me, yet she continues denying what her body has wanted since she crashed into me at the airport.
When nothing but silence projects from Isabelle’s side of the room for several heart-thrashing seconds, I enter the walk-in closet on my left. I usually dress in here. It’s the size of most people’s living rooms, meaning there’s plenty of space for me to stretch out, but if an undeniable attraction can’t get Isabelle over the line, perhaps something she can’t deny will give her the final push she needs to answer the whims of her body.
With a suit bag in one hand and a pair of shoes in the other, I re-enter the master suite. A gasp I’d hand over millions of dollars to hear time and time again whistles across the room when I drop my towel to commence getting dressed. To say I’m pleased about Isabelle’s reaction is an understatement. I was beginning to wonder if she was immune to the appeal that makes most women weak in the knees.
As a heady scent fills my nostrils, Isabelle openly gawks at my flaccid cock. Her hungry stare presents the perfect opportunity for me to make a move, but since I had to forceher to admit her interest in me, that isn’t something I’m willing to do. I hate being strongarmed, and although I’m desperate for Isabelle to stop denying her body’s every want, I won’t take it further than I have. My motives today are already sinister, however, the ones in my head are far worse. They have me wishing to be a man without morals. That’s staggering and incomprehensible. I’ve never acted so reckless.
When Isabelle’s eyes eventually return to my face, I hit her with a frisky wink, not only announcing I noticed her watch but that I also appreciate it.
As a pink hue creeps from her neck to her cheeks, she covers her eyes with her hand before she slants her head so she’s facing the wall. Her endeavor to act unaffected is a ploy. Even with her head angled away from me, I can feel her eyes drinking in the benefits that come from a man who can’t clear his mind without a ten-mile run and an hour with a boxing bag. Then there’s the fact she thinks my penis is handsome. She didn’t quote that directly to my face, but she did mumble it under her breath.
“Can you call a penis handsome?”
“No, you can’t.” My voice is both amused and content. My amusement isn’t because she finds my penis handsome—today isn’t the first time I’ve been told that—I’m humored about her constant rambling under her breath. She did it a handful of times last night. I assumed she was talking in her sleep. Only now am I wondering if it’s just my astuteness that goes askew when we’re in the same room.
Under Isabelle’s watchful yet somewhat mortified gaze, I finish getting dressed. Once I’m donning a pair of designer slacks and a light blue dress shirt, I move to Isabelle’s side of the room. Her eyes track me. They’re still full of unquenched thirst, but regretfully, that isn’t the sole emotion they’re manifesting. She’s cautious, and although she is no longer drunk, the sheen in her eyes exposes she could still be under the influence of alcohol.
The knowledge has me altering the direction of my course. That isn’t something I often do. When I want something, I go for it. I want Isabelle, but my past alone ensures I must also tread carefully.
“I have a meeting I must attend this morning.” I take a moment to drink in the disappointment darting through her eyes before continuing, “Your dress was sent to the dry cleaners, but there are spare clothes your size in the wardrobe.” The dash of amusement in my voice earlier is seen on my face when Isabelle screws her nose up. Even with her focus nowhere near the drawer of panties she opened last night, I know what she’s thinking. “They’ve never been worn. Catherine purchased them specificallyfor youthis morning.”
When the glossy gleam in her eyes is cleared away for gratitude, I tilt closer to her. Her eyes bounce between mine, but she doesn’t pull back. She’s too busy seeking answers to the many questions in her head to worry about how well-aligned our lips are.
“Stop looking so worried, Isabelle.” Her nostrils flare when my minty fresh breath sneaks through the crack of her parted lips. “You wouldn’t have any doubts if I’d fucked you, no matter how many drinks you had.”
Her brows join, assuring me I hit the bullseye with my assumption her mind is a little hazy on the events of last night. “We didn’t have…”
I smirk, humored a woman with looks as sultry as hers is too shy to say the word ‘sex’ out loud before I reply, “No, we didn’t.”
“Why?” As her chest expands with worry, her eyes dart up to the mirror above my bed. As she takes in her messy bed hair, mascara-stained face, and barely covered body, I curse Hunter and Hugo to a life without sex. Isabelle isn’t sickened by the ghastly monstrosity peering back at her, and the knowledge makes my struggles not to claim her ten times worse. Thinking rationally during problematic times is all I know. That same levelheadedness isn’t being showcased today.
“I like my women not comatose.” My response comes out gravelly, the strain solely Isabelle’s fault. After licking the tip of my thumb, I commence removing the smears of mascara under her well-rested eyes. “You passed out within ten minutes of sitting in the back of my car.” Memory of the reckless situation she placed herself in last night makes quick work of the twitching of my cock. She’s been far from safe the past twelve-plus hours, so I’d hate to consider what she could have faced if I hadn’t thrown caution to the wind.
My already tight jaw doubles when Isabelle gabbles out, “I generally handle my liquor a lot better than I did last night, but I was drinking on an empty stomach.”
“And what would have happened if I didn’t arrive at that club when I did, Isabelle? What if it were another man who carried you into his apartment and undressed you?” It’s almost impossible to articulate my next set of words. That’s how tight my jaw is. “Do you think he would have slept next to you all night long, smelling your sexually enticing scent without touching an inch of your seductive curves and skin?” My nostrils naturally flare to suck in the scent I’m mentioning.“I could smell you all night long, but I couldn’t do a darn thing about it. A lesser man wouldn’t have resisted.”
The last morsel of my sanity snaps when Isabelle responds to my aggression with a moan. Every fine hair on her body is bristled, we’re breathing as one, and her eyes are begging for me to kiss her. The temptation is immense. I’m moments away from making her mine, then three little words stop me.
“Ruthless. Cunning. Lawless.”
They trickle out of Isabelle’s mouth on repeat, making the minute gap between us appear as if it is as wide as a treacherous river.
I thought she was hesitant because her wealth and reputation weren’t on par with mine. I had no inkling her reluctance centered around the numerous false accusations about my empire and me.
Needing to leave before I’m once again forced to defend myself, I stand from the bed and snatch up my jacket. “Hugo will return after dropping me off. He will take you home.”
