as far as this will ever go. I’ve experienced his endowments to die for as much as I’m going to.
It’s too much.
I am broken. And I can’t stand to feel any more of him, physically or emotionally. Because he’s right. I will fall in love with him. And he’ll leave, like he did to all the others.
Even as he unlocks the door and grasps my hand in his, I know I absolutely can’t allow that to happen. I can’t get past the truth: it would devastate me to love him. He’d condemn me to a life of jealousy and the constant fear of betrayal. And I refuse to walk the same road my mother did.
The bar has cleared out. The band is long gone. Gage leads me towards the back door that leads out to the alley but I slip my hand from his. “I don’t want to ride in the limo.”
Watching my face, he takes my hand again. I think he can tell that I mean it, so he starts leading me towards the front door, which is now propped open with several police officers standing outside.
I don’t want to be alone with him in a sealed-in space. I don’t trust myself. And I don’t trust him, with his big hard-on and his magnetic, magical power.
Because the thing is—and I’d never in a million years admit this to another person, not even Josie—I’ve never had an orgasm before the one Gage just gave me.
I’ve sometimes wondered if, on the occasional lonely night when the urge became hot and unbearable, I’d … given myself one. It’s not something I do often because I don’t actually know how—also something I’d never admit to anyone. Sure, I’ve read Cosmo and Fifty Shades of Grey, but those didn’t really answer my questions.
Most days and nights I’ve been too busy to worry about it. I work long hours and collapse into bed every night, exhausted. Then I sleep for eight hours, get up and sweat and meditate my angst out through yoga, and get on with my job.
So it’s not something I’ve agonized about all that much.
But I have wondered.
And now I know for sure.
Nothing has even been in the same galaxy as what just happened to me.
And now that I do know for sure, I’m sure as hell not going to let him do it again. Because it’s the kind of thing a girl could get addicted to very, very easily.
The feel of that crazy-big, hot hardness. Imagine if he had unzipped.
No.
Imagine coming that hard with his giant cock deep inside you.
Stop, Luna.
The look in his eyes. His face. The current of tenderness swirling through that masculine, savage lust.
Stop it right now, Luna.
It’s not happening.
You will remain cool and aloof. You will put up with him for exactly one month, safeguarding a professional distance. Your business will be transformed—and do not dwell on that insane bet, which I’m sure he’d never deliver on anyway—and you will get on with your life. You will not be destroyed by a man without scruples who’s only after one thing and once he gets it, disappears without so much as a backwards glance. He’s a genius at what he does, you can admit that much. And recognize it for what it is. You will not crave or obsess about what just happened or how ludicrously good it felt. At all.
There. Decision made.
We walk out onto the street. It’s buzzing with the excitement of the secret concert, the breach, the police raid. I overhear enough passing conversations to figure out that people drove in from as far away as Virginia to try to get in to the show tonight. The streets are swarming with hopefuls who were turned away or who spent three packed-in minutes with superstars. There’s an air of excitement.
Gage’s phone rings and he pulls it out of his pocket. He puts in on speaker. It’s Travis. “You guys make it out okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Gage tells him. “Everyone still in one piece?”
“Vaughn got his shirt ripped off and Roxie’s a little shaken but we’re okay. That got way out of control.”
“Sure did. You guys might need to stick to stadiums for a while.”
Travis’s low laugh is almost regretful. “Yeah. It’s too bad. I like the small shows best.”
“I’ve got one in mind for you if you’re interested. At the end of next month. It’s a little venue right here in Key West. I could help with security. We could beef it way up. And we