thousand dollars a day, or Mimi Weissman with her weird obsession with skiing every slope in Gstaad. I’m also not—”
“You know what you are? You’re the woman who’s gonna shut up now.” With that, he pulled her against him and lowered his mouth to hers.
Joelle's faint gasp echoed in her head as his lips fused—fused!—to hers. For one irrational moment she even wondered how they would ever be able to separate again, that fusing was so complete. Then the sensation of having her mouth thoroughly conquered pulled her under, and all she could do was sink into a growing, perfect bliss.
The most overwhelming sensation was his sheer intensity, like his life depended on creating the world's most perfect kiss with her. And it was just about the most perfect kiss she’d ever experienced; the silk-covered steel of his lips opened on hers to tempt her tongue into an exploratory, erotic dance that was like sex itself, while the back of her head was cradled in the bowl-sized palm of his hand. He held her to the pressure of his kiss like he feared she wanted to escape it, but that was beyond laughable. The last thing she ever wanted to do was have this kiss end. She’d just about sell her soul to freeze this moment in time, so she could live within it forever.
Just as that delightful thought passed through her consciousness, Gus lifted his head. His gaze burned down into hers until her heart skipped and stumbled, but there was no help for it. No one had ever looked at her like he would kill to have her naked under his hands. No one.
Until now.
“I can't fucking wait for you to start babbling some more,” he said, his voice such a sexy velvet purr it sparked an achy need deep inside her. “I absolutely love how I shut you up.”
“Stifling my First Amendment rights isn't a good excuse to kiss me,” she managed, belatedly realizing she held on to his shoulders like she was afraid the floor would give out from under her. The floor wouldn't, but she wasn't so sure about her knees. “You should probably just go ahead and kiss me anytime you feel like it. I wouldn't want to be the excuse you use to indulge in any latent tyrannical tendencies.”
A corner of his mouth curled, and she had the strangest sense of a predator smiling at his prey. “Thing is, I am a tyrant about some things. For instance, I like keeping what I see as mine all to myself. You're not seeing anyone besides me from now on.”
Joelle waited a beat for him to pose that as a question. When he didn't, she tilted her head, more out of curiosity than anything. “Are you telling me or asking me? To be honest, I'm much too busy with work to do much dating, so I currently don't have anyone in my life—”
“You do now, and you're not going to be too busy for me. We are seeing each other exclusively, and that's all there is to it. Say yes.”
“What I'll say is that I'm learning you're quite the overwhelming steamroller.” A fluttery breath escaped her, and she couldn't stop herself from pressing a hand against her wildly thrumming heart. “That, and your penchant for princesses is pretty much the only thing I know about you, so I'm not about to commit to any exclusivity yet.”
“You want to know about me? The real me? Fine. Only you won't find it here in a fancy glass house full of delicate fucking flowers.”
That piqued her interest. “Where will I find the real you?”
“Come with me and see.”
She stared up into those deep russet-tinged brown eyes and felt herself falling. “Okay.”
Chapter Four
Taking Joelle Fielding of the Chicago Fieldings to Gillooly’s Bar and Billiards Hall was something Gus hadn’t seen coming. But there they were.
This definitely wasn’t his usual kind of date.
Then again, Joelle didn’t seem to be the usual kind of socialite.
Not that she was officially a socialite anymore. Thanks to the digging he’d done—which went far beyond scrolling through hundreds of YouTube videos—he’d discovered she’d been painfully truthful about her social standing. The Fieldings had once been one of Chicago’s most influential families, but they’d ultimately gone bust about half a decade ago. Just as clearly, Joelle had taken advantage of her top-shelf education and was doing more than all right in keeping her head above water.
He hadn’t been kidding when he’d called her an online personality.