The dark promise excited me. Sweat misted my skin. I became so wet and hot that I slid smoothly down the length of his cock until I’d nearly sheathed him. A breathless cry escaped me before I’d taken him to the root. He was so deep I could hardly stand it, forcing me to shift from side to side, trying to ease the unexpected bite of discomfort. But my body didn’t seem to care that he was too big. It was rippling around him, squeezing, trembling on the verge of orgasm.
Gideon cursed and gripped my hip with his free hand, urging me to lean backward as his chest heaved with frantic breaths. The position altered my descent and I opened, accepting al of him. Immediately his body temperature rose, his torso radiating sultry heat through his clothes. Sweat dotted his upper lip.
Leaning forward, I slid my tongue along the sculpted curve, col ecting the saltiness with a low murmur of delight. His hips churned impatiently. I lifted careful y, sliding up a few inches before he stopped me with that ferocious grasp on my hip.
“Slow,” he warned again, with an authoritative bite that sent lust pulsing through me.
I lowered, taking him into me again, feeling an oddly luscious soreness as he pushed just past my limits.
Our eyes locked on each other as the pleasure spread from the place where we connected. It struck me then that we were both ful y clothed except for the most private and intimate parts of our bodies. I found that excruciatingly carnal, as were the sounds he made, as if the pleasure was as extreme for him as it was for me.
Wild for him, I pressed my mouth to his, my fingers gripping the sweat-damp roots of his hair. I kissed him as I rocked my hips, riding the maddening circling of his thumb, feeling the orgasm building with every slide of his long, thick penis into my melting core.
I lost my mind somewhere along the way, primitive instinct taking over until my body was completely in charge. I could focus on nothing but the driving urge to fuck, the ferocious need to ride his cock until the tension burst and set me free of this grinding hunger.
“It’s so good,” I sobbed, lost to him. “You feel…Ah, God, it’s too good.”
Using both hands, Gideon commanded my rhythm, tilting me into an angle that had the big crown of his cock rubbing a tender, aching spot inside me. As I tightened and shook, I realized I was going to come from that, just from the expert thrust of him inside me.
“Gideon.”
He captured me by the nape as the orgasm exploded through me, starting with the ecstatic spasms of my core and radiating outward until I was trembling al over. He watched me fal apart, holding my gaze when I would’ve closed my eyes. Possessed by his stare, I moaned and came harder than I ever had, my body jerking with every pulse of pleasure.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he growled, pounding his hips up at me, yanking my hips down to meet his punishing lunges. He hit the end of me with every deep thrust, battering into me. I could feel him growing harder and thicker.
I watched him avidly, needing to see it when he went over the edge for me. His eyes were wild with his need, losing their focus as his control frayed, his gorgeous face ravaged by the brutal race to climax.
“Eva!” He came with an animal sound of feral ecstasy, a snarling release that riveted me with its ferocity. He shook as the orgasm tore into him, his features softening for an instant with an unexpected vulnerability.
Cupping his face, I brushed my lips across his, comforting him as the forceful bursts of his gasping breaths struck my cheeks.
“Eva.” He wrapped his arms around me and crushed me to him, pressing his damp face into the curve of my neck.
I knew just how he felt. Stripped. Laid bare.
We stayed like that for a long time, holding each other, absorbing the aftershocks. He turned his head and kissed me softly, the strokes of his tongue into my mouth soothing my ragged emotions.
“Wow,” I breathed, shaken.
His mouth twitched. “Yeah.”
I smiled, feeling dazed and high.
Gideon brushed the damp tendrils of hair off my temples, his fingertips gliding almost reverently across my face. The way he studied me made my chest hurt.
He looked stunned and…grateful, his eyes warm and tender. “I don’t want to break this moment.” Because I could hear it hanging in the air, I fil ed it in.
“But…?”
“But I can’t blow off this dinner. I have a speech to give.”
“Oh.” The moment was effectively broken.
I lifted gingerly off of him, biting my lip at the feel of him slipping wetly out of me. The friction was enough to make me want more. He’d barely softened.
“Damn it,” he said roughly. “I want you again.” He caught me before I moved away, pul ing a handkerchief out from somewhere and running it gently between my legs. It was a deeply intimate act, on par with the sex we’d just had.
When I was dry, I settled on the seat beside him and dug my lip gloss out of my clutch. I watched Gideon over the edge of my mirrored compact as he removed the condom and tied it off. He wrapped it in a cocktail napkin; then tossed it in a cleverly hidden trash receptacle. After restoring his appearance, he told the driver to head to our destination. Then he settled into the seat and stared out the window.
With every second that passed, I felt him withdrawing, the connection between us slipping further and further away. I found myself shrinking into the corner of the seat, away from him, mimicking the distance I felt building between us. Al the warmth I’d felt receded into a marked chil , cooling me enough that I pul ed my shawl around me again. He didn’t move a muscle as I shifted beside him and put my compact away, as if he wasn’t even aware I was there.
Abruptly, Gideon opened the bar and pul ed out a bottle. Without looking at me, he asked, “Brandy?”
“No, thank you.” My voice was smal , but he didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he didn’t care. He poured a drink and tossed it back.
Confused and stung, I pul ed on my gloves and tried to figure out what went wrong.
I don’t remember much of what happened after we arrived. Camera flashes burst around us like fireworks as we walked the length of the press gauntlet, but I scarcely paid them any mind, smiling by rote. I was drawn into myself and desperate to get away from the tension radiating in waves from Gideon.
The moment we crossed over into the building, someone cal ed his name and he turned. I slipped away, darting around the rest of the guests clogging the carpeted entrance.
When I reached the reception hal , I snatched two glasses of champagne from a passing server and searched for Cary as I tossed one back. I spotted him on the far side of the room with my mom and Stanton, and I crossed to them, discarding my empty glass on a table as I passed it.
“Eva!” My mother’s face lit up when she saw me.
“That dress is stunning on you!”
She air-kissed each of my cheeks. She was gorgeous in a shimmering, fitted column of icy blue.
Sapphires dripped from her ears, throat, and wrist, highlighting her eyes and her pale skin.
“Thank you.” I took a gulp of champagne from my second glass, remembering that I’d planned on expressing gratitude for the dress. While I stil appreciated the gift, I was no longer so happy about the convenient thigh slit.