“No. Not again,” he said, his lips brushing against hers as he spoke quietly, but firmly. “I’ll have you next in my bed. I’m going to learn you tonight. I’m going to find all the sweet spots on your beautiful body,” he promised darkly, biting gently at her lower lip. “I want to see your face so I know when I’ve found them. I want to watch you coming.”
He grabbed her wrists gently and drew her hands off his shoulders. His little speech had left Alice mute. He’d made his decision. It would be foolish to argue. He turned around, one hand behind him touching her lower back, urging her behind him. Alice blinked, willing the wild surge of lust that had gone through her at his words to fade so that she could attend to the task.
“Stay close,” he said.
She put her hands against his back and followed him blindly into the thick brush, holding her breath because she was trusting him so completely in the darkness.
She’d made her decision, too, and it was firm … although she couldn’t comprehend precisely why.
THEY left the woods on a side lawn that sloped to the castle. He led her around the back to the terrace, where they entered using the same French doors Dylan had led her out of to join the party. Had that just been last night? she wondered in amazement as she watched Dylan key in a password to an electronic security system once they were inside. He took her hand and led her through the sophisticated media room.
It seemed impossible that a little over twenty-four hours ago, her heart had been pounding at the unfamiliar, unexpected touch of his fingertips on her bare skin, and now she was hastening after him as he led her to bed. The house was hushed and sparsely lit as she followed him into the great hall, hurrying to keep up with his long stride.
“Is there anyone else here in the house?” she asked.
“No. Louise, Marie, and Carlos—the groundskeeper—are day staff.”
In the great hall, the stunning crystal chandelier had been set to a very dim setting. She stared up at it, the exquisitely cut shards of glass blurring slightly in her vision.
“Dylan,” she said in a strangled voice.
He glanced back at her face and came to a halt. He turned to her, stepping closer, and brushed his knuckles against her cheek softly.
“What?” he asked tensely.
She struggled to find words for what she was experiencing. He lowered his head.
“Do you want to change your mind?”
“No. It’s not that.”
“Then what is it, little girl?” he murmured. She shivered when he called her that. Alice was tall for a woman, and strong, even if she didn’t feel large next to Dylan. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
“It’s just …” She swallowed thickly, because she’d just inhaled his scent, and his nearness was making her unformed thoughts even less substantial. “It’s all so strange,” she whispered, reaching up to touch him beneath the sleeve of his T-shirt. His skin was smooth and thick, his biceps hard as a stone.
“You think it’s strange? That I want you?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. But it was more than that, and she thought Dylan suspected that, too. Her attraction to him was just as unprecedented and … charged.
He leaned over slightly and met her stare. “I wish I could help clear things up for you. It’s not normal operating procedure for me, either. I’ve never slept with an employee of Durand. I could get in trouble for doing this. I could be censured. Maybe I ought to be fired.”
“You’re the boss,” she whispered.
She searched his face. He looked very grim. Why was he doing this? Why was he taking a risk like this, for her?
And yet, she had the strangest feeling he did understand her disoriented bewilderment, even shared in it to some degree. She recalled vividly that startled look on his usually controlled expression when that powerful charge of lust had sparked between them at her interview. He, too, was swept away by something he hadn’t expected and didn’t fully comprehend. There was something bigger than her going on, something bigger than him.
He looked so beautiful to her in that moment, his rugged face cast in shadow and the golden glow from the chandelier, his dark eyes gleaming as he stared at her with a strange mixture of watchfulness and unguarded heat. She placed her hands on his chest and pressed, the solidity of him, the sheer male strength, grounding her.
“You can help me,” she said, her voice firmer. “Take me to bed, like you said. Make me forget everything else.”
His face went hard. He ran his knuckles along her jaw. “I don’t want you to forget me, Alice.”
Her eyes widened in slight surprise at his fierceness. “As if I’d ever forget you.” She thought she could lighten his somber mood with a smile and her hands stroking his chest, but it didn’t work.
“I want to ask you something important before we go any further,” he said.
“Okay.”