private elevator. The doors close behind us and we’re finally alone.
“Are you trying to drive me insane?” he seethes.
“What do you mean?”
“That dress.”
I look down at my dress. “What, this? What’s wrong with it?”
“Every man in that room was watching you.”
“It’s none of your business how I dress, Vaughn. I wasn’t even going to wear this but Rose insisted on giving me a makeover.”
“You’re just as beautiful without any makeup at all. Even more beautiful, just as you are.”
It’s a nice thing to say but the delivery is just as grumpy as the rest of his mood. “I don’t know why you’re angry.”
“I’m not angry.”
The elevator pings and opens into a hallway with four doors leading off of it. Vaughn opens one and leads me into a huge hotel suite with views over Seattle at night. The sky is dark with gray storm clouds lit theatrically by a bright sliver of moon. “This is a nice room.” It’s like a fancy, modern apartment. I go over to the wall of windows to look out at the view of the city and the rippled, expanse of water beyond it. “Oh my God. Look. Vaughn. It’s the ocean. It’s so … vast. Like it goes on forever.”
Vaughn comes up behind me. Very lightly, his rough fingers ease the strap of my dress over my shoulder. The warm scratch of his skin sends a warm current of simmering heat to the tightening peaks of my nipples and the damp softness between my thighs. “We can go look at it tomorrow. But I’ve got plans for you tonight, tiger-eyed girl.”
“You’re not mad at me? That I came here?”
“I’m mad you made me wait so long to see you again. I’ve almost jumped on a plane a hundred times over the past two weeks.” He lowers the other strap of my dress, weaving my hair around his hand. Leaning closer, he kisses the curve of my neck. His tongue touches my sensitive skin, flicking in wet laves, and the soft pressure funnels directly to my pussy, pulsing there like a promise. Instinctively, I arch against the hard wall of his body. The oversized bulge rests against my backside and I can feel the throbbing heat of him through the layers of our clothing. He finds the zipper at the back of my dress, which he slowly unzips.
My dress drops to the floor.
All I’m wearing is a tiny thong (Rose’s idea) and my heeled sandals.
Even though we haven’t spent all that much time together, the time we have spent together has been searingly intimate. The ride home from Nashville in the limo and our erotic, late-night phone calls have stripped away any normal boundaries. We’re too hot for each other for normal boundaries.
He turns me to face him and his aggression has an awed, tender edge. “And I’m mad at you for being so fucking gorgeous you’ve ruined me for anyone else. Are you ready for me, Gigi Hayes?”
“Are you ready for me, Vaughn Tucker,” I say softly, because I can feel that sparking wild side taking hold again, the one directly linked to him and all his unruly, crazy appeal. I’m as hooked and desperate as he is. I want to do everything with him. My lust feels like fire in my blood.
He leans down and takes my nipple into his mouth. There’s a savagery behind the tender pulls as he sucks on me that promises as much as I can handle. In the darkness, his shadowed face, his thick, dark hair and his taut, corded muscles make the danger of him so arousing it’s almost uncomfortable. Now I get why the bad boys and the villains are what every woman secretly wants. The alphas who will kill you with pleasure because there’s nothing they wouldn’t do.
He stands, looming over me. Vaughn takes my mouth in a lewd, hungry kiss as his fingers swirl the moisture he left with his mouth, teasing and pinching. I’m hypnotized by his touch and his alpha rock star scent, of adrenaline and smoke and decadent virility. Carefully, he takes the rosary from around my neck and places it around his. “I want you completely naked. There’s nothing about you I’m not going to take tonight, darlin’.”
Oh my God.
Vaughn lifts me like I weigh no more than a child. He carries me into the bedroom and lays me onto the king-sized bed. He kisses my lips. I open to him, drawing his tongue into my mouth, and his answering scorched-earth