Arousal instantly flooded her panties. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought he was trying to get back inside her panties! That was utter craziness. He was the one who'd kicked her to the curb, not the other way around.
They ate in silence for several moments, and then Dominic said, "I bought you a gift to seal the deal."
"There is no deal," she reiterated, but he'd already pulled out a small velvet bag and put it beside her wineglass.
The delicious food turned to cement in her mouth, and she took a big swallow of wine to force it down. "I can't, Dominic."
"Open it," he coaxed in a soft voice.
She'd been brought up to be polite, no matter what, and she just didn't have it in her to be surly in the face of an unexpected gift.
Plus, she was dying to see what he'd bought her. Being around Dominic was like sticking to a diet all day long, then stuffing her face with an entire chocolate cake at midnight.
She picked up the small black velvet bag and untied the silk bow around the top, and into her hand fell a string of diamonds alternating with purple sapphires on an intricately woven platinum chain. She sucked in a breath as Dominic rose from his chair.
"Let me."
He gently brushed her hair to one side, then picked up the necklace. Laying the string of jewels between her br**sts, he slid his fingers up the chain, along the sensitive skin of her collarbone and neck. She shivered in response.
The necklace perfectly matched the purple cashmere sweater she'd worn earlier today.
Chapter Ten
Melissa touched the stones lightly. "Dominic, this is too much. I can't keep it; it's too expensive. Too . . . beautiful," she finished softly. As she turned to look up at him, her mouth lush and pink and her eyes sparkling, Dominic's hard-on edged against his zipper.
"You're beautiful," he said, needing desperately to kiss her, to feel her mouth beneath his, to taste her.
He knelt between her legs to cup her face, tangling his hands in her hair as his mouth found hers. He hadn't intended to seduce her at his friend's restaurant. Just as he hadn't meant to kiss her earlier in the boardroom. Or make love to her repeatedly at his house the night before.
He'd never felt so drawn to anyone before, never needed a woman this badly, never craved her touch beyond reason. But the past eight hours had been a goddamned eternity, waiting to taste her again, and he was rougher than he intended as he forced her lips open with his tongue.
She groaned and instinctively opened her legs so that he could move in closer.
"I want you, Melissa. Right here. Right now."
He'd meant to get her permission to make love to her here, but being with her made him crazy, made everything he intended to say gently sound like a ruthless sexual demand, instead.
She sucked his lower lip between her teeth. "What if someone comes in?"
"We're safe here. If we don't answer when they knock, they'll go away."
"Promise?"
With a groan, he slipped his hands beneath her ass and said, "I promise," before covering her mouth again in a hot kiss. As she wriggled in his palms, his brain shut down as his c**k surged.
"All I've been able to think about for hours and hours," he admitted as he pushed back her black silk dress to bare her br**sts, "are your perfect br**sts."
A sheer black bra barely covered her tight ni**les, a sexy showcase for the most gorgeous tits he'd ever seen.
"I kept thinking about doing this," he said, pushing the mounds together with his palms and cover ing her lace-covered ni**les with his mouth. She arched her back as he slid his tongue and thumbs over the stiff peaks.
"And this." He gently nipped at her rosy flesh with his teeth.
"Oh, God," she whispered, "yes."
The final vestiges of his self-control vanished. With Melissa, he couldn't even wait sixty seconds to dip into her honey pot. Being with her made him crazy, made him act like a sex-starved maniac.
Even though it hadn't even been a full day since he'd f**ked her.