He started for the door, and she thought that was it, but then he grabbed her hand and pulled her close, twisting her arm behind her back and holding her body flush against his.
“There are shades behind the curtains, so you can sleep during the day tomorrow,” he murmured, still in that seductive voice.
“What about you?” she asked. “Where do you sleep?”
“We have quite comfortable accommodations in the basement. Part of those renovations I mentioned.”
She studied his handsome face, trying to read the expression in those deep blue eyes, and finding she couldn’t. She had no idea what he was thinking. Damn.
“Aren’t you—?” she started to say, then hesitated before drawing a deep breath and taking the plunge. “Are you going to invite me downstairs?”
Christian’s eyes heated briefly, then shuttered with regret. Or maybe that was just her wishful thinking. He twisted a lock of her hair around his fingers, and used it to pull her even closer. “You’re not ready yet.”
Natalie felt a stab of disappointment, and something that felt an awful lot like hurt feelings. And a little bit of anger. “You don’t trust me,” she said flatly.
He smiled. “Non, ma belle Natalie,” he whispered. “You don’t trust me.” He pressed his hand against her lower back, pulling her against his groin where she could feel a very obvious and very hard erection. She gasped, and his mouth came down on hers with a hard, hungry growl, crushing her lips against his, his tongue stabbing between her teeth as she strained upward, wanting more.
Christian broke away, leaving her breathless, her mouth raw, her body thrumming with desire. He kissed her again, lightly this time. “Sleep well. There’s food in the kitchen, and the house is yours for the day. Sunset tomorrow is after eight; we’ll join you by nine, and take you wherever you want to go.”
His arm tightened around her back again, and she could still feel his body’s reaction to her. He was still hard, his cock a thick length against her belly. She wanted to rub herself against it, to drown herself in the sensation. It shocked her how much she wanted that. How much she wanted him.
Christian was wrong. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. She was simply afraid that she’d never be able to walk away from him once she’d surrendered.
“Will you be here when I wake?” he asked, as if sensing her doubts.
Natalie was torn. It had been too long since she’d dated anyone seriously. Hell, it had been even longer since she’d had sex with anyone. And she’d never encountered anyone with Christian’s raw sexuality. It called to her. But it also terrified her. Her brain was urging her to tell him whatever he needed to hear, and then call a cab the minute the sun was up. Go home, maybe have a morning coffee with Janette, get her friend’s take on all of this.
But looking into his eyes, seeing the question there, she knew she couldn’t do that. If she left now, they’d be over before they started. And while he scared her, it was a very different kind of fear. He would never hurt her, but he could very easily break her heart. And still she wanted him like she wanted her next breath. Wanted the heat, the intensity, the sheer presence that was Christian Duvall.
“I’ll be here,” she promised.
“Bon. À demain.”
Natalie would have lingered in the doorway to watch him walk down the hall. Christian in motion was a beautiful sight. But he spared her that humiliation. He gave her a final squeeze, then released her, setting her two feet away, and closing the door behind him when he left.
“Well, harrumph,” she muttered, truly understanding what the word meant for the first time. She walked over to the elegantly appointed bathroom, and noticed that the shower included a handheld nozzle.
Perfect. Christian might have abandoned her to her sexual frustrations, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still star in her fantasies.
IT TOOK EVERY ounce of Christian’s self-control to leave Natalie standing there, all flushed and aroused. He’d been tempted to taste her, to slide his hand up the silky length of her leg and dip his fingers into the wetness he could scent between her thighs.
But he’d meant what he said to her. She wanted him, but she didn’t trust him. Not yet. So, he’d forced himself to focus on what needed to be done, rather than what he’d rather be doing.
He stepped into the unadorned stairwell leading to the basement, pausing long enough to secure the door behind him before continuing downward. The door was triple locked with a thick steel bolt that was doubly anchored into steel girders on both sides, backed up by a biometric lock that was keyed to his and Marc’s thumbprints. And that was just the first line of defense.
Continuing down the stairs, he entered the vault and closed the heavy door for the night. Summer was nearly upon them. The days were growing longer, the sun rising earlier every morning. He and Marc still had some work to do tonight, but the day would be on them soon enough.
“Natalie get settled?” Marc asked, sounding neutral enough, but Christian knew what he was really asking.
“She’s in the guest suite.”
Marc arched a brow in his direction, but didn’t pursue the subject any further. “We received an interesting message from Anthony,” Marc said instead.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago. He wants a meet tomorrow night. He claims an invasion by Hubert out of Mexico is imminent, and he wants to share the intel he has with all of the challengers, so we can—and this is a direct quote—join together to fight this foreign menace.”
Christian snorted his opinion of that. “You think he was talking about me?”