“No, Courtney, I haven’t fucked Ivy,” he answered her coolly, fighting for a show of strength in the face of a possessiveness toward him that did nothing to soften his cock. “Any other questions. ”
A vivid smile shaped her lips. “None. I just wanted to be certain. I would hate to be jealous of a potential friend. ”
Aforementioned cock throbbed.
Damn her, he was aching to his back teeth to fuck her and she dared to sit there teasing him? He had done everything he could to avoid her for the past year, going out of his way to refuse Dane’s invitations, whereas he had accepted them eagerly in the past. He had fantasized about her, dreamed about her. Jacked off to her image. And now, he was going to have to deny himself. Denial wasn’t something he did well.
He watched her gaze flicker to his lap and grimaced at the fact he wasn’t exactly hiding his arousal.
“You’re going to get into more trouble than you can handle, Courtney. ” Ignoring the situation wasn’t going to solve the problem.
“Am I?” Were her nipples harder? Were they pressing tighter against the cloth of her blouse? He knew his mouth was watering, hungering for a taste of them.
He smiled with an edge of mockery, more toward himself than toward her.
He wasn’t exactly used to denying himself anything he wanted sexually. As the owner of The Club, the exclusive men’s club that catered to dominant males whose tastes ran to the extreme, Ian was considered one of the most carnal of the group.
“Courtney,” he sighed her name warningly.
She grimaced at the tone of his voice. “I’m not a child, Ian. Even though you persist in trying to treat me like one. ”
She edged closer. The scent of her, peaches and sweet female flesh, wrapped around him.
“You’re acting like one,” he accused her, attempting to find some distance, some defense against the hunger raging in his loins as she slid across the seat, too close, too warm and willing.
“Am I?” she whispered sensually. “Or perhaps I’m tired of watching you fuck my maids and moan my name as your head falls back and you climax to a vision only you can see. Evidently, a vision of me. ”
She was leaning close to him now, watching him knowingly, leaving him no room to deny the obvious.
And what was the point? It wasn’t that he didn’t want her, that he didn’t crave the taste of her. It was her innocence, her connection to him. How could he destroy the purity he saw in her gaze? The trust her father placed in him. His connection to her was so much more than his connection to anyone else in his life. He cared for Courtney. Cared for her in ways he had never cared for anyone.
He hadn’t anticipated this, he realized. He should have. In hindsight, he knew he should have expected it from her. He had seen the attraction grow within her, just as it had grown within him. His experience hadn’t helped him to ignore it, or destroy it. It was a hunger, a fascination he knew could destroy them all. And he cared too much for her to allow that.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, lifting his hand to touch her face, to marvel at the silken feel of her flesh. “So fresh and so innocent. ” He allowed his voice to harden in warning. “Don’t push me, Courtney, to destroy that innocence. You won’t like me much afterwards, and losing your affection would hurt me more than you know. ”
She stared up at him, her dark eyes filled with myriad emotions as he watched her process not just what he was saying, but what he wasn’t. In the meantime, he seemed unable, unwilling to stop his fingers from drifting down the smooth column of her throat just to feel the warmth and the hard pulse of blood beneath her flesh.
“You want me,” she stated, her voice soft, aching with need. And in that moment, he wanted her even more.
“I want you until I burn with it,” he admitted bitterly. “Until I nearly denied your father’s request to allow you to stay here. But I want more than you could ever give, baby. What I want from you could well destroy you. ”
Something flashed in her eyes then. Some unnamed satisfaction that had his gut clenching in surging hunger.
“Would it? You forget who my parents are, Ian. You forget, I’ve watched you for years, having sex with my maids. And you weren’t alone with them. I’m very well aware of what you are, and what you may want from me. ”
His cock was going to burst straight from his pants. Its engorged width throbbed, ached, demanded that he fuck her here and now and responsibilities be damned. Yes, she was her parent’s child, and he knew well the sexuality that Dane and Marguerita shared. Her father wasn’t one of the leading members of The Club for nothing.
“I’m not a game you can play, Courtney. ” His thumb smoothed over her pouty lips as his body tightened to the point of pain with his need. She was so young, so fucking innocent, like a breath of pure, sweet air in his life. There was a special type of hell that waited for men perverse enough to corrupt such innocence. His soul was already stained once, he wanted nothing more to mar it.
Son of a bitch, arousal had never been this hard to deny in his life though. The hunger pulsed, bewitched, tempted him as nothing else ever had in his life.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not trying to play a game, isn’t it?” she asked him softly. “And what makes you so certain I’m a virgin? That’s something only I and my gynecologist knows for certain. He’s not telling… And there’s only one other way to find out…” Her wicked look sent his pulse soaring.
“And no friends. ” Ian had learned that lesson the hard way. The best way to lose a treasured friend was to take her to bed. The complications became astounding.
No virgins. No friends. No strings. No emotion. It was a recipe for loneliness, yet also the solution to avoiding the mistakes of the past. There were nights that loneliness ate him alive, but that was far better than the alternative.
He pulled his hand back, glancing past the window as they pulled into the long driveway that led to his home.