She swallowed back her tears and braked at a stop light, drawing in a deep, fortifying breath. No. She couldn’t cry now. Maybe if she’d thought all hope was lost, she would allow herself to break—especially when her entire life, she had been waiting for him.
But Graves’s words trailed unbidden in her head, and her storming hormone levels shot through the roof every time she replayed them…
That’s right, Chlo. I want you so much you make me shake in my fucking pants. I’m obsessed with you…with where you are…and what to do…and who the fuck you’re with…I want to bury myself inside you so deep I won’t ever want to pull out…
Her hands shook on the steering wheel, and when she made her last turn, Luke’s posh apartment building stood like a beacon of hope only two blocks away. Because Luke was such a party boy, Chloe had been to several of his legendary “pajama parties” a couple of times when Daniel was out of town and mercifully oblivious to it, and thanks to those random escapades she knew Luke’s key-code access. The man had even told her once that if she ever wanted to go into his place, she could wait for him naked like all the rest of his special “friends.” Yeah, right.
He was incorrigible, Luke Preston, making it look so good to be bad.
He had the amazing good looks of a Greek god and lived a life of excess like a true Roman. Super sexy and painfully aware of his magnetism, he was unscrupulous enough to take wicked advantage of every girl’s attention and then some. The fact that he’d been born a billionaire and his companies almost ran themselves left the guy with tons of time to visit every bedroom in the city. In fact, Chloe’s entire group of friends had slept with Luke—and years later, they still didn’t stop gushing about it and couldn’t stop complaining over the fact that Luke didn’t seem to visit any bed twice.
But Chloe didn’t plan to sleep with the guy.
She wanted Graves Buchanan so badly, she feared she would die a virgin if she couldn’t have him.
All she truly needed tonight was to lure Luke’s playful streak—which was easy because the man didn’t have a serious bone in his body—and ask him to please help her torment Graves so he’d believe they were having an affair. Maybe if she managed to push the right button, Graves would react and for the love of God just put her out of her misery already!
Graves.
Chloe had never before reacted to a boy the way she had when she’d first met Graves. He’d been so handsome with his dark, windblown hair and his gold eyes and that deep, grave voice of a man. His endearing somberness had made Chloe anxious to tease out a smile from him.
She’d been merely thirteen, while Graves had been almost seventeen, and he’d recently approached her father’s company with one of his brilliant intelligence plans. Her father had been so impressed with the boy, he’d pulled his only son out of the partying lifestyle he’d been dragged into by the incorrigible Luke Preston, and he’d forced Daniel to work with Graves on the project for months.
Graves and Danny had been best friends ever since.
Years later and barely in his mid-twenties, Graves had gone on to become independent and a billionaire, but his promising start had been with the Lexingtons.
Chloe still remembered how anxiously she’d waited for Graves to come over to the house to work on his projects with Danny. Sometimes, she felt like she dressed just so he’d see her. And God, did Graves see her.
He used to stare at her like she was the most beautiful, precious thing on this earth. Like he’d gladly miss the sight of a comet, a sunset, a rainbow, so long as he could keep staring at Chloe. He’d get so distracted when she passed through or came to say hello, Danny would have to call his name several times to regain his attention.
But then, a couple of years ago, around the time Chloe began seriously trying to flirt with Graves and dramatically improved her outfits in the sexiness department, he’d begun stiffening when he heard her voice, going almost into defense mode when he saw her approach. And that had just made Chloe more and more desperate to make him look at her.
But tonight, those pale tawny eyes that appeared in all of Chloe’s fantasies were now looking with desire at another woman.
A cloud of despair enveloped her, and she bleakly decided the first thing she would attack when she got to Luke’s place was his assorted bar.
Graves could be kissing that woman and sliding his hands all over her this very instant, his beautiful tanned fingers caressing her skin in ways Chloe had dreamed of.
Her pussy wept with longing, while an awful loneliness spread through her until she felt empty and unwanted.
Trying to push him out of her mind, she rode the elevator to the top floor of Luke’s building, pressed Luke’s stupid code into his naked-woman keypad, and then she strolled into his place, greeted instantly by Luke’s female butler who’d been reduced to some sort of harem girl who sounded almost orgasmic. Welcome, master!
“I pity you, woman,” Chloe grumbled, shaking her head. “I really do.”
Luke’s pad was sexy, a version of a playboy mansion that took up three entire floors, with the pools and a mini golf course on the lower level, his “themed” bedrooms on the second level, and a huge terrace plus a bar and the living area with Luke’s trademark red velvet drapery on level three.
Before Chloe settled down in the living room to watch something cheerful like E’s The Soup, she determinedly went to pour herself three shots of tequila. She paused when she heard a noise by the door and Luke’s stupid, Welcome, master! erupted once more. So…
The master had arrived indeed. Excellent. He was just in time.
“All right, Luke, before you start taking your pants off, let me tell you exactly what I want from you—” She stuttered to a halt as she turned.
Her stomach dropped.
Graves Buchanan, the man of her dreams, somehow had pulled a Copperfield on her and now stood at the open door. His chest was broad and muscular in a plain gray T-shirt, the sleeves snug around his bulging biceps. He looked somber and thoughtful, but even then, Chloe loathed that he was still as sexy as he’d been half an hour ago—and he still made her heart ache like a sore.
“I’m afraid Luke’s too busy getting fucked tonight, so I’m going to have to see you home.”
Something warm flitted through her at the quiet jealousy in his voice. “Graves, what are you doing here?”