She frowned, confused since he in fact was Apollo. “That’s crazy.”
“I know. It makes no sense, but hearing you call that name when I took you from behind about killed me.”
Immediately the image of him sliding inside her, while Trent lay beneath her, filled her mind. Her pussy flooded with liquid heat. “Don’t, Dane,” she whispered, her voice husky with arousal. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
He stepped closer, filling her senses with his powerful presence. “Why? Because it turns you on?”
Lydia didn’t dare tell him the truth. Everything about him and that night turned her on. “No,” she lied.
Dane smiled and cupped her face in his palms. “Sweet Lydia, don’t you know I can tell when you’re lying?” His gaze moved south, stopping on her breasts. “Your nipples are rock hard through that thin little T-shirt and I’ll bet your pussy is wet too, isn’t it, baby?”
“Dane, please…” Her voice trialed off. She wasn’t even sure what she was pleading for, to be released or to be swept into his arms.
He dipped his head and covered her lips with his. Lydia moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck. He was so tender, so warm. She’d been so cold for the past two days and suddenly a raging inferno blazed inside her. As his tongue coasted over her lips, she let out a sigh and parted for him. He took his time, dipping between her lips and tasting her as if he had all the time in the world. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in deeper, edgy all at once for everything. She didn’t care about his deception, she didn’t want to worry about her future. She just wanted to feel his rough hands on her breasts, his cock filling her, driving out the sadness.
He groaned. Suddenly his warm palm lay flat against her bare flesh beneath her shirt, inching upward until the caress of his thumb on her aching nipple had her body vibrating with need. Lydia whimpered and Dane lifted his head, his gaze holding hers captive. “If you don’t want this, say it now, Lydia,” he ordered, his voice a rumble of sound in the room. “Push me away and I’ll go. I’ll leave you alone. It’ll kill me, but for you I’ll do it.”
He was giving her a chance to stop, to hold on to her dignity, but at what cost to her heart? Did she dare give him another chance?
“You won’t regret it, baby,” he murmured as if reading her mind. “I’d rather be skinned alive than cause you pain.”
“I-I want you, Dane,” Lydia admitted, “but we haven’t resolved anything. I’m still angry and hurt over what you did.”
“It hurts because you care about me,” he said softly. “Admit that much at least.”
“I told you already that I was attracted to you, but it doesn’t matter now.”
“It’s more than physical,” he ground out. “Why are you holding back? Why deny your feelings?”
“I can’t do this,” she cried. “Please, Dane.”
He held her firm, refusing to let her retreat. “Can’t do what? Help me understand why I’m not worth a second chance?”
Anger rose up and for the first time Lydia didn’t hold back. “You want the truth? Fine. I’m the one not worthy!” She jerked out of his arms and pointed to the family photo on the wall. “I wasn’t good enough for my own mother, Dane, why the hell would I be good enough for anyone else?”
“You can’t really believe that. You’re the sweetest, most lovable woman I’ve ever met.” His expression softened and Lydia felt the first tear trail down her cheek. He swiped it away with his thumb and murmured, “You’ve had me going in circles for two years, baby. Your mother had something precious, but she was too blind to realize it.”
She turned away from him, too scared to hope, but when her gaze caught on her mother’s image, everything seemed to fall into place. She wasn’t like her mother, maybe she never had been. Dane stepped in front of her and she saw the emotion flickering in his warm brown eyes. “You’re right,” Lydia whispered. “I do deserve to be loved.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “Let me love you, Lydia. I know I haven’t earned a second chance, but so help me, you won’t regret it.”
Lydia buried her face in his white dress shirt, barely able to contain the emotions flowing through her. She wanted him with a desperation that bordered on pain. It couldn’t be natural to want a man the way she wanted Dane.
He pushed his hips forward and Lydia felt the heavy weight of his cock pressing into her belly. “Damn, baby, I can’t think for needing you. The past few days have been pure hell. Put us both out of our miseries, I’m begging you.”
Lydia leaned her head back, surprised when she witnessed a hint of vulnerability in Dane’s expression. Could he be as scared as she? “What is this for you, Dane?”
His thumb feathered back and forth over her nipple and Lydia had to contain a whimper. “You’re the woman I look forward to seeing each morning, Lydia. The same woman who had me practically salivating with her prim little outfits and intelligent wit. The truth? You’ve been in my life for two years and I’m just now getting around to telling you how I really feel. I’ve wanted you, but I was too much the coward to step up and do something about it. You’re different than any woman I?
??ve ever known. Sweeter, more defiant, and such a contradiction you’ve had my head spinning ever since you took me and those other two dumbasses to heaven.”
It was too much. She was slowly drowning and she knew it. She tried to look away, but strong fingers cupped her chin and coaxed her gaze back to his. “The instant you took off those clothes at Kinks you became mine, Lydia. It may have been Apollo, Poseidon and Zeus you gave your body to, but I’m the man you’ll scream for from now on.” With his other hand massaging her breast, Dane whispered, “Do I stay?”
This was it. Her chance to back out. Instinctively Lydia knew he wouldn’t hold it against her if she asked him to leave. Could she live the rest of her life without his touches? Without knowing what it would be like to make love to Dane without the other two men there? No masks, no fake names? It was beyond tempting.
Yes, she did need him. Dane was the only man who had ever managed to entice her inner vixen, that daring woman she’d been at Kinks. It could be the biggest mistake of her life, but letting him leave without having him filling her, chasing away the cold, was a much more depressing scenario.
“Stay, please,” she answered as new determination filled her with strength.