A WILDer Kind of Love (34 page)

Items one and two? No problem.

But three and four?

He didn’t delude himself. Running a fucking marathon wasn’t going to lift those weights from him. Nor would burying himself in work—been there and bought the T-shirt for the last seventy-two hours—or even jumping on the jet down to the Shadowlands.

He had to accept that only two things would.

Tess.

Or time.

And since even his grand, flowery,
stupid
gesture at the press conference had failed to generate even a phone call from Ms. Lesange, he was going to have to make Time his new best friend.

This was going to suck.

Time wasn’t a fun date. Time complained about everything. He never got it right with Time. He was either indulging it or cheating on it. And Time didn’t laugh at his dumb jokes…or moan for him in the sweet little tone that drilled right to the center of his cock…or fall asleep in his arms, looking like an angel sent from heaven just for him…

He turned back around and growled at the empty room.

Okay, sure; he knew the platitudes about all of this. Had even tried a few on to see how they felt. He should’ve been proud of himself for stepping from the shadows, even without Tess waiting in the sun. The light was a good place to be, all by itself. The light was its own reward. He was living without shame or disguises, with a much easier haircut as a bonus. The light was right, even if he was in it alone…

Hell.

He glanced between his legs to make sure his balls were still there.

Just before his newly hired assistant, Mara, ducked her head in the doorway.

“Ah,” he called out. “Mara, Mara, Mara. My
second
new best friend.”

The woman struck him as a person born into the wrong century. With her classic, dark features and hair, he wouldn’t be surprised if a past life regression turned up someone like Catherine of Aragon or Queen Isabella. She carried herself with equal regality, even when crumpling a confused frown at his greeting.

“Forget it.” He waved a hand, bidding her to come closer. “Not important. What
is
still left that’s important?”

“Just these three new shipping contracts to sign, with the revisions per your meetings this morning.” Mara arranged the documents in front of him.

“Outstanding.” He began scrawling his name near the fifty plastic flags she’d attached to each page. “Annnnd, I’m clear on the day pass after this, right?” When she didn’t confirm that right away, he looked up and instantly scolded, “Maaarrraaa.”

She twisted a little frown. “I’m sorry. She insisted.”

“She?” For a second, hope fire-crackered through his chest. “She who?”

“Your sister.”

He smiled anyway. The next-best thing to a visit from Tess was a visit from Devyn. “Did you let her wait in my office?”

“Of course.” Mara’s smile grew a little, too. “I like her, Dan. Her hair is so…fiery.”

“
Fiery
?” Well, this was going to be interesting. Dev was always too preoccupied with being a bad-ass to ever think much about her hair. On the other hand, she’d developed a real accessory obsession lately. She’d also been with Tess nonstop for ten days. Lucky wench.

He entered his corner office, still decorated in Dad’s old-school style of Tara-meets-Hogwarts, and frowned. “Yo, little shit?” he called. “You hiding out somewhere?”

A hand shot up from the big leather chair behind the desk, which was faced toward the window, letting in the lazy afternoon sun. The thing was a little less ostentatious than the Captain Kirk model back in the boardroom, but only a little.

The hand curled one finger at him, beckoning.

“Christ,” he grumbled. “Really? Just because you colored your—”

His breath caught in his throat.

His
tongue
caught in his throat.

Devyn wasn’t the one waiting for him.

Tess was.

A glorious, luminous, sun-drenched, sexy…

very naked
…

“Therese.”

He said it with reverence and gratitude, with awe and amazement, as a prayer of thanks and a plea for confirmation—

Then again. Because he could. Because he needed to hear it for himself, if only to help drive in the certainty—the miracle—of her.

“Therese Odette Lesange.”

It snarled out of him as he plummeted to his knees, hardly daring to touch her for fear she would vanish in a puff of his imagination. Instead, she snuck teeth out over her bottom lip, hardening him at once with her sweet little pout, before she twisted a hand around his tie and yanked his mouth to her sweet strawberry lips.

At once, he was inside out. Upside down. Ripped apart then put back together again. He drove his tongue inside her, unable to get enough of her taste, her scent, her softness, her passion.

“Fuck,” he finally rasped, letting her drag his tie all the way off. “You’re here.” He gazed down, betraying his wonderment in no uncertain terms. And his joy. And his bursting, brilliant, amazement. “Yeah…you’re…
here
.”

She bit her lip again, pushing her chest up in open invitation. Damn, how he missed those tits. The areolas were already drawn and puckered, her nipples punching up like perfect raspberries. “You’re a tough man to surprise, Mr. Colton Steel top-of-the-food-chain. I really had to make my opportunity…stand out.”

Unable to resist, he licked one of her nipples. Then the other. He blew across both of them, making them stand harder at attention. Tess mewled, arching higher for him. And goddammit, bit into her lips
again
.

“You’re definitely standing out.”

“Even if I fudged the truth a little to accomplish it?”

He chuckled. “A
little
?”

“Maybe more than a little. But it was Devyn’s idea.”

“I’m sure it was.” He reached in to pull a nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “But she won’t be as much fun to punish.”

“Punish?”

Oh.

Yes.

That
.

The fear in her voice. The lust in her voice. The mix was so intoxicating, Dan almost laughed from the instant buzz to his spirit. Who needed booze when this woman was around?

Fuck it. He gave in to the laugh. But the second his gaze latched back onto hers, he sobered. Damn. Everything he’d dreamed of seeing in her eyes, and despaired of never seeing again, was there. The warmth of her friendship, but the light of her adoration. The silk of her submission, but the intense glimmer of her passion.

“I love you, Daniel Colton,” she whispered.

“Not as much as I love you, my rose.”

They kissed again, tenderly this time, before she smirked against his lips and murmured, “By the way, that was a slick move, Sir Sexy. With the rose, at the press conference.”

He cocked a sideways grin. “Didn’t want to be slick. Just wanted to be clear.”

“How did you know I’d understand?”

“Because I’ve watched you a lot, darling subbie.” He brushed silky, bright red strands from her face. “I’ve observed what makes you hotter, wetter, wilder…and how you enjoy the ideas of things just as much as doing them.” He kissed her again, slowly but sensually wrapping his tongue around hers, until she softly moaned. “It’s what makes commanding you so much fun.”

“Hmmm.” She contemplated him for a long moment, looking utterly sinful with her lipstick smeared and her hair sprawled against his chair. “So, what kinds of ‘ideas’ are making me hot and wet now, Carnac the Magnificent?”

“Carnac the Magnificent
Dom
.”

“Ohhh, right. Sorry. Carnac the Magnificent
Dom,
just what is it that I’m loving the idea of right now?”

Before Dan answered her, he stood and leaned over his desk. Pressed the intercom for Mara’s desk.

“Can I get you anything?” came her queenly voice over the speaker.

“Privacy,” he barked. “Hold everything for the afternoon. My…sister…and I are discussing some things. We’re bonding. Deeply.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yes,
Sir
.” Tess echoed it with a giggle as he closed the line with Mara. As soon as they were “alone” again, he spun the chair around so it faced the desk. With his cock now aligned at the level of her face, his answer to her query was all too easy to declare.

“Carnac the Magnificent says his subbie wants to wrap her sweet strawberry lips around the cock that’s missed her so badly.”

Tess broke into a smile. “Well,
Sir
, That sounds just about right.”

She didn’t waste time scooting forward in the chair, then putting her eager hands to work on his belt and fly. Just the flutters of her fingers over his clothes had to be one of the most erotic things Dan had ever felt. He locked his teeth, grinding down enamel while watching her reach inside his pants, exploring the hot bulge beneath with her uninhibited fingers.

He didn’t want her to stop. He couldn’t wait for her to get the hell on with it.

But the most breathtaking part of her service didn’t come from anything she did to him physically. It was the glance she slid up to him, lips in a Mona Lisa smile, eyes twinkling with the bright green excitement she always got when they were just hanging out as friends. The discovery of a movie they both liked. Her delight in spectacular sunsets. Her bliss at singing along to Fall Out Boy on the radio.

It was all still there. Thank
fuck
…all of it. All the joy and the good times and the friendship—but now better. Stronger.

And oh, yeah…a hell of a lot wilder.

A fact she emphasized by shifting her fingers down to cup his throbbing balls.

“Fuck!” He finished it in a long hiss. When her grin turned a little playful, he snaked a hand into her hair, tugging her head back enough to flare her eyes in new attention. “I like your opportunities, sweet rose,” he told her, “as long as you remember who controls their destiny.”

Her gaze softened. Her body slackened. “Yes, Sir,” she whispered, soft as the angel he’d just compared her to. The angel he was about to defile with the shaft now hammering to escape his pants…

“On your knees, rose.”

He aided her by yanking on her scalp, positioning her between the chair and his body. When she was in place, he slid his hand to her jaw, pushing gently to coax her open. With his other hand, he freed the length of his dick from the boxers she’d just been worshipping with her touch.

He touched the head of his cock to the warmth of her mouth. Groaned hard as her dark red lips moved around him, pulling him deeper in…deeper in…

“
Tess.
Sweet one. Take all of me. Yesssss…”

She matched his groan, especially after pushing his underwear aside to get her fingers on his balls again. As she massaged his aching sack, she worked his shaft with wet, hot strokes, surrounding him with the tight pull of her cheeks and the long licks of her tongue.

“Damn,” he groaned. “This mouth is going to become my new favorite play toy.”

His declaration made her wilder. She fucked him hard with her mouth, abandoning herself to bringing him deep physical bliss. And she did. With every dip into her mouth, his cock was pure fire. With every withdrawal, it trembled in anticipation.

He had to give her the same thing.

No. It was more than that. He had to be inside her, a part of her. To seal himself to her. To mark her, body and mind and soul, as his. To fill her with nothing but his heat. To give himself to her as a lover, not just a Dom.

With another groan, he pulled himself out. She looked up at him, eyes glazed, lifting a woozy smile. Dan kissed her, savoring the taste of himself on her mouth, before lifting her back up into the chair, and spreading her legs wide. With their next kiss, he brought a hand up to explore the soft pink wetness at the core of her body.

“Damn,” he rasped once more. “You’re so ready for me, aren’t you?”

Tess shuddered beneath his touch, her clit trembling, her slit clamping one of his fingers. Then two. Then three…

“Oh!” she cried. “Yes, Sir. Please…”

“No.” Dan prompted her to look at him with a finger on her jaw. “Not Sir. Not ‘Sexy.’ Not even griffin. Let Daniel fuck you right now, babe.” He took her lips again, working his way over her with slow but hungry desire. “Let Daniel love you.”

She smiled, looking a little bashful about it, until he moved his fingers inside her again. Her walls clenched around him as her head fell back, arching her body up into the streaming sunlight.

“Holy fuck, Tess. You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“No,” She whispered back. “
You’re
beautiful, Daniel. Your love makes me this way. Your domination sets me free.” She flashed him another of those lip-bitten smiles as she unbuttoned his shirt, exposing his chest for her eager licks, bites, sucklings, and kisses.

“So good,” he murmured.

So damn good…

Until he couldn’t take the pressure anymore. His erection throbbed like thunder. His heart churned in a downpour of need.

“My little rose,” he grated into the hollow of her throat. “I need to be inside you.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Screwing you.”

“Yes.”

“Satisfying you.”

She sighed, rocking him with another Tess buzz. While giving him another gorgeous smile, she reached into his right desk drawer, pulling out a perfect foil packet.

Dan laughed then kissed her again. Her lips felt so good, all softness and surrender and love. Her mouth tasted so good, cinnamon and sex and woman. But best of all, her laugh sounded so good as he drawled, “My clever, clever little laser beam.”

“Hmmm. You won’t be able to live without me anymore.”

He didn’t miss a note of her saucy tone. Or an inch of her uncertain grin. That was why he kissed her twice as hard.

“That’s the idea, ruby.”

Her insecurity faded. “So asking about a transfer to the Atlanta field office wasn’t hasty?”

He growled while he rolled the condom on. “Not hasty enough.”

Her eyes brimmed, liquid and gorgeous. “I love you so damn much.”

“Ssshhh. No more talking. Spread your legs wider, and let me get lost in you.”

She did.

And
he
did.

At last, he was right where he was supposed to be. One with her. Buried in her. Uniting with her in the light only she’d been able to bring him to, with the perfection of her friendship, the courage of her honesty, the magic of her submission, the wildness of her love.