Dare to Surrender Read online

  I laughed. “This is as far from Disney as you can get,” I murmured. “Unless you’re in the Haunted Mansion.”

  Connie merely treated me to her smile. “This will allow you into the spa, the gym, and any other areas of the resort you might wish to visit while you are here.”

  I would be working, not lounging, but I decided not to question her again. Surely I’d find Lucy soon, and all would be explained.

  “Ready to see your accommodations?”

  I nodded, and Connie gestured across the lobby. I followed her, surprised when we stopped near a stone wall. “Where is the elevat—”

  Before I could finish my sentence, the wall opened, revealing the hidden lift. “Oh my.”

  We stepped on, and the doors closed behind us. “How thoroughly modern.”

  “Sensors,” the other woman explained.

  “Lift your hand and align the bracelet with the penthouse.” I did as she asked, and soon we were in motion.

  In complete awe, I wondered what awaited me next. I didn’t have to wonder for long. The doors glided open.

  “Your penthouse awaits,” Connie said, sweeping her arm, gesturing for me to go first.

  Unlike the darkened lobby, white floors and a wall of windows letting bright sunshine into the room beckoned, and I stepped directly into the luxurious suite. The enormity of the space hit me at once, and I shook my head, overwhelmed. Marbled floors, mirrored walls, plush carpeting in a living room with a cream couch and dark wood furniture. And a baby grand piano sitting in the center.

  “No, this is wrong,” I said, turning back to Connie, but the elevator doors finished closing on my words, and she’d disappeared.

  Hesitantly and feeling like Alice in Wonderland, I made my way into the suite. Surely the other woman would return and tell me there had been an error and I was in one of the regular rooms on a lower floor. In the meantime, I decided to explore.

  I glanced around, making my way to the bedroom, surprised to see that my suitcase had been brought up and placed on a luggage stand near the closet.

  “That was fast.” And odd, like everything else on the island so far.

  Unsure of what to do with myself, especially since butterflies had once again had taken up residence in the pit of my stomach, I walked back to the foyer area. My hands went to the faux pearls at my neck, fingering them nervously. I’d bought them with the island-appropriate clothing for this trip.

  I looked out the window, the view of the tranquil blue ocean and beautiful island below a panorama of indescribable beauty. Something I’d enjoy more if I understood what I was doing here.

  I heard the whooshing sound of the elevator doors, and relief poured through me. “Lucy?” I asked, spinning around. Finally, everything would begin to make sense.

  “Not Lucy.” The familiar masculine voice wound its way through my veins, easing my fears, answering every unasked question.

  Excitement flooded through me. It had been so long, and I’d missed him so much. To this day, it didn’t matter that the time we’d shared together had been brief. To me, it meant everything.

  He was just as I remembered, with his stern expression, features carved into what I considered perfection, full lips, strong jaw, and those intense eyes focused on me. A white dress shirt, sleeves rolled immaculately, and black slacks, with more casual shoes than his norm, completed the outfit.

  He stared at me, his expression unreadable, maybe even vulnerable, and my heart thudded inside my chest. I studied him in return. His handsome face had occupied every dream I’d had, but he was here now. A reality. My reality, I thought, those sinfully sexy eyes eating me alive.

  “Iz.”

  He held out his arms.

  And my world suddenly righted itself once more.

  I ran to him and jumped into his waiting embrace, wanting to be as close as possible. I clung to him, running my hands up his strong back, threading up through his silky hair. Hair that had grown longer since I’d seen him last.

  There’d been many times in the last months when I had tried to convince myself the connection between us could not have been as strong as I remembered. The desire not as potent. That distance and might-have-beens were clouding my judgment and memory.

  I’d been wrong.

  Everything between us was solid, not a figment of my imagination, and right now, he was very real. Not just the thick erection snug against my core but the invisible thread that bound us together. Just then, his big hand cupped the back of my head, and he sealed his warm mouth over mine, and I knew at that moment, I’d come home.

  He kissed me like I mattered, and the time melted away, and the kiss turned ravenous. Hungry. He devoured me, and him being Gabe, I expected nothing less. I merely wrapped my legs around his waist and held on, losing myself in the way he slicked his tongue inside my mouth, mimicking the physical act of making love. The thing we hadn’t yet done.

  He continued his assault, his fingers tight in my hair, tugging at my scalp, and my brain short-circuited from the pleasure. Real damned fireworks went off behind my eyes. No doubt about it, I was done for. Nobody else could ever live up to him.

  He nipped at my lower lip, and I moaned, my pelvis grinding against him, seeking pressure to relieve the growing ache.

  “Slow down,” he said in a rough, harsh voice.

  Of course he’d had to end the kiss to speak, and I whimpered at the loss of contact.

  His glittering gaze met mine. “Just because I missed you doesn’t mean I’m going to let you control things.”

  I’d missed the bossiness in his tone, not that I’d let him know that. Instead of arguing, I set about getting what I wanted, gliding my lips over his strong jaw, nuzzling my nose into the crook of his neck, where I could inhale his musky aftershave and lose myself in the masculine scent.

  When he didn’t take the bait, throw me on the couch, or slam me against the wall, I went for the kill, nibbling on his earlobe with my teeth. “I need you inside me,” I said, my pussy throbbing with heat and damp with desire.

  “And you’ll have me when I say so.”

  “I hate your control,” I muttered.

  He grinned, his white teeth and handsome smile making me melt all over again. “You’ll love it in a few minutes.” He set me on my feet, but not before gliding me down the length of his body, allowing me to feel what I did to him.

  My breasts might be heavy, my nipples tight as they rasped against my shirt, but his bulging erection told me that I wasn’t alone in this hazy cloud of desire. His gaze never leaving mine, he gripped my pearls in one hand, pulling me forward with them, rubbing his nose against mine. “Behave and we’ll both get what we want.”

  I managed a nod. My legs barely held me up, and the pull of the pearls at the back of my neck reminded me Gabe wouldn’t let me fall. But apparently he would lead me to the bedroom by the necklace, and knowing what awaited me, I went along like a good girl. I briefly wondered if I’d lost my mind, but when he turned to me, those dark eyes glittering with need, I no longer cared.

  “Too many clothes,” he said, more to himself than to me.

  He skimmed his hands along my bare arms, shoulder to wrist, and I shivered. He guided his palms up from my waist to beneath my armpit, taking my tank top along with him. Baring my breasts to his gaze.

  He paused, deliberately grazing his thumbs over the underside of the soft mounds, over the lace of my bra, just allowing himself the luxury of touch and time. The pads of his thumbs reached inward, tracing the lines of my areolas but never touching the distended peaks just begging for the pressure of his fingertip. My clit throbbed, the dampness pooling between my legs overwhelming and embarrassing, but I wasn’t going to mention it. I didn’t want him to stop, even if his maddeningly slow pace might kill me, and I shifted restlessly on my feet.

  He reached up and tweaked one nipple hard, and I squeaked aloud, then sucked in a shallow breath. “What was that for?”

  “You left me, you made me wait months, and
now it’s going to be at my speed, not yours.”

  “Whatever happened to wham, bam, thank you, ma’am?” I asked grumpily, thinking of Lance. He might not have satisfied me all that much, but at least I didn’t have to suffer through such intense arousal and near pain of wanting and being denied.

  Gabe’s indigo eyes narrowed. “Is that what you expect from me? From us? You have to know I’d put your pleasure first.”

  And I had to admit the pain had morphed into something different. A warm pleasure suffused my body, and as if there was an invisible connection between my nipples and my sex, there was a direct correlation to the need he’d inspired with that hard pinch.

  I relaxed at his words. This wasn’t about torturing me, this was about pleasure. Mine. And hopefully his. I felt my shoulders dropping, my breathing slowing.

  “That’s better,” he said in a husky voice. He slid my top up and over my head, then paused to fold it and place it on the dresser.

  I waited obediently, allowing my mind to empty. He returned to me, those dark eyes intense, and he unhooked my bra, slowly easing the lace material down the slope of my breast, revealing my lush curves and the darkened nipples, aroused and erect. For him.

  He sucked in an approving breath. “You’re so fucking gorgeous, Iz.”

  My lashes fluttered down. I couldn’t meet his gaze any more than I could believe him. Yes, he wanted me. I still hadn’t figured out exactly why or what he saw in me that my long-term, live-in lover hadn’t.

  A strong hand tilted my chin up. “Eyes open. You can’t believe what I’m telling you if you don’t watch my face when I say it.”

  I swallowed hard. Looked into his gorgeous face, his expression taut.

  “You can’t think this is easy for me, denying myself the pleasure of my cock sliding into your soaking-wet pussy now.”

  Another thing I wasn’t used to. The blunt words. The honest sex talk. I felt myself blush.

  “I want you so badly I ache with it.” He pulled me flush to him, his erection so hard and thick against my belly.

  I lost the ability to breathe.

  “I just want you to know what you mean to me,” he continued, his honest words lulling me into submission. “This isn’t some one-night stand. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am.” He growled the words in disgust. “You deserve much more than that.”

  I sighed. So gruff sometimes, yet so sweet at others. All part of this enigmatic man.

  He placed my bra with my top, returned and unbuttoned my slacks. My belly quivered at his deft touch. Pants slid down my thighs, my panties along with them, both pooling at my feet.

  My heart pounded hard in my chest. I fought the embarrassment of being naked while he was so elegantly dressed. I stepped out, and he patiently bent down, folding the pants and adding them to the pile.

  “Shoes?” I asked, gesturing to the sandals I’d chosen, thong-style with glittering rhinestones.

  To my surprise, he knelt and slid them off my feet. Those, he placed on the floor near the dresser. My meticulous man. I bit the inside of my cheek. Not mine … I wasn’t sure what this was. Nor did I know what I wanted it to be.

  But when his hand came down on my shoulder, nothing mattered beyond now.

  I reached for the pearls, intending to pull them off too.

  “Leave them. I want to fuck you with nothing but those pearls between us.”

  He was so sure of himself, so sexy, and I was … a lot inexperienced and even more naïve. I couldn’t imagine what he wanted from me and was even less certain I could satisfy him. My history with Lance had proven that.

  “Okay, enough thinking.”

  He lifted me into his arms as if I weighed nothing, dropping me onto the bed in one smooth move. Without warning, he had both my wrists over my head, and somehow, he secured me to the headboard using the bracelet on one hand and cuffs I hadn’t noticed before.

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Not one bit.”

  “Don’t you want me to touch you too?” I asked, confused.

  “Next time. After I’ve had my fill and know it won’t be the rushed affair you seem to desire.” He began unbuttoning his shirt, revealing tanned skin, a sexy, liberal sprinkling of dark chest hair, and a six-pack that spoke of hours in the gym.

  Watching him as he hung the shirt over the chair, the muscles in his back and forearms flexing as he moved, I let out a moan.

  He turned. Grinned. Eyes on mine, he undid his pants, slipping them off, no underwear to be concerned about hindering him in any way. And then he stood before me nude, his thighs as strong as the rest of him, his cock larger than I’d imagined, thick and long and completely erect.

  “Oh God.”

  “I thought we’d clarified that last time. Just me.”

  “There is no just about you,” I muttered under my breath, my nipples erect and clearly as impressed with his body as my mind.

  He chuckled before striding over, completely confident in his nudity—and why wouldn’t he be? He was strong and well defined, while I was bound, my breasts thrusting upward for his viewing, my soft and slightly rounded stomach there for him to see.

  Could this be any more mortifying?

  I felt the dip of the bed as he joined me, the grip of his hands as he pulled my legs apart and stared down, a slow smile spreading across his face.

  Just what did he see? I wondered.

  Without warning, he slapped my pussy, the same way as he’d done back in New York, and I yelped. “Either you stop thinking and enjoy or I’m going to bind your legs as well. I’ll turn you over, tie you to the bed, and spank your ass until you can’t think of anyone or anything but me. And what I make you feel.”

  My eyes opened wide—both at his words and the warmth gushing between my thighs.

  “You like the idea,” he said, trailing a finger through my sex and the moisture there.

  I moaned at the slick touch that wasn’t enough to satisfy the ache.

  “What’s going on in that head of yours that you can’t be in the moment?”

  I stared up at the ceiling, unable to face him. “It’s just … you’re you, and I’m the woman who couldn’t satisfy—”

  “The asshole who has no place in this bedroom,” he said harshly. “Trust me, you wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want you. You’re beautiful. Perfect.” His admiring tone couldn’t be anything but real. He slid a hand over my stomach and left his palm there. “You’re round where you should be, soft where I need you to be. And I don’t want you worrying about it again.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said jokingly. I’d have saluted if my hands were free.

  His eyes merely darkened, and his lips came down hard on mine.

  I sighed into his mouth and reveled in the possessive kiss, his tongue swirling around, owning every inch of the deep recesses of my mouth. He tasted dark and sexy, like Gabe, the man who’d spoiled me for any other man. He knew how to kiss, and as much as I could do it for hours with him, my body was protesting the lack of touch, arching up off the bed without my permission.

  He gripped my hips, holding me down. He trailed his lips from one side of my mouth to the other, then slid them downward, easing over my jaw, where he paused to inhale, much as I’d done to him.

  “God, you smell good.” He continued down until his gorgeous face was between my breasts, where he pressed a kiss against my sternum, his lips hovering over my skin. My body buzzed with anticipation. Finally, his big hands cupped one breast, raising it so he could lick at my nipple, teasing, suckling, his light touch at odds with the strong way he held my breast, his fingertips digging into my soft flesh. Such a contradiction, the bite of his fingers and light thrash of his tongue. The sensations were almost too much to bear, moisture pooling between my thighs, my clit pulsing with need.

  Yeah, that took care of the thinking problem. All I could do was feel. He worked one breast thoroughly before moving to the other, his warm mouth and talented teeth and tongue arousing me to the point of insanity.
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  I thrashed on the bed, needing him to fill me, needing to come. “Please,” I moaned, pulling at my bindings, my hips rising in a plea of their own.

  “Please what, kitten?”

  My entire body trembled at the endearment. “Please make me come.”

  He covered my pussy with his full hand. Warm heat suffused me at his possessive touch. “How? Tell me what you need.”

  “You.” I arched my hips, and he slid one finger inside. “I need you.” In and out, he teased me, but it wasn’t quite enough. “More.”

  “Like this?” He added a second finger to the first. Hooked his fingers forward, hitting my sweet spot.

  “Oh yes.” He pumped in and out, but it still wasn’t enough. “No. More.” Tears filled my eyes, the begging so out of character for me it was hard to do. It hurt to ask for anything when I usually got so little from people in return.

  He met my gaze, brushing my hair from my eyes. “Shh. I’m going to take care of you.” He slid down my body until I felt his harsh breath over my sex.

  This time, he didn’t make me ask or beg, he simply drew me into his warm, delicious mouth. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to him, the hot glide of his tongue over my sensitive folds, the thorough way he ate at me like he’d never have enough. But most of all, the way he focused on that one spot that needed him most.

  Hands gripped my hips hard, his tongue lashed at my clit, coaxing more of a response from me than I’d believed myself capable of. I shook, I saw stars, I felt myself climbing up, up, reaching for something far bigger than me, something not even a handheld toy could achieve, never mind another man. And then I was there, the climax shaking me to my core.

  I cried out, incoherent words, low guttural moans as he kept me coming beneath his mouth and stayed with me until the large quake became smaller tremors and I lay beneath him, my body spent.

  Except his wasn’t, and as soon as I felt the nudge of his hard cock against me, I opened my eyes, wanting to see him as he finally took me.

  “There’s nothing between us,” his said in a gruff voice.