She almost lost her breath. Her head lifted as she looked up at him, meeting his eyes, holding his gaze and the heat and hardness of his body.
"Yes." She licked her dry lips, arousal pouring through her now.
"And the stockings?" He pressed her head back to his chest, whispering the words against her hair.
"Lighter."
"Silk?"
"Yes."
"I'm going to unwrap you like a present tonight," he told her, his voice roughening. "Khalid has a new oil he swears was made for you. Would you like us to use it?"
He wanted to use it. She could hear it in his voice.
"Yes." She wasn't capable of more than that. The words came out as a whimper, a sighing little cry of need.
The need was like a fever inside her. It had built over the days, simmering and then flaming, and now it was sweeping through her body like a wildfire.
"Have you been wet for me, Kia?" he asked her then. "Have you touched yourself and imagined me?"
Her eyes were closed, the memory of trying to find release as she thought of him burning through her.
"I always think of you then." She swallowed tightly. "I always have."
"Always?"
"Longer than I should have," she admitted.
He had fascinated her, even before her marriage. Turned her head, made her wonder at the wicked sensuality she had caught in his expression sometimes.
"I think of you." His lips caressed her temple. "Jacking off isn't nearly as pleasurable as f**king you, Kia. Filling you and hearing you scream and beg for more."
She could barely breathe. The erotic words were tearing through her brain, naughty, explicit, making her dampen her panties with the thought of the things he had done to her in Khalid's limo.
"I dream of you," she admitted, wondering where she had gained the strength or the breath to force herself to speak. "Every night I've dreamed of you, Chase."
"What did I do to you?" His hands tightened on her hips.
"You took me in the snow," she whispered. "The cold around us, and you were hot within me. And I ached so desperately, Chase. I needed you to take me hard, and you stayed still. You watched me beg, yet you didn't move."
His hard body tensed further. "I wouldn't do that to you, Kia. When I get inside that hot pu**y, staying still isn't an option," he growled.
She couldn't breathe. She was on the verge of melting at his feet, of dying in his arms. She could feel the need intensifying within her. Her cl*t was a painful engorged knot of nerve endings, the rasp of it against her lacy panties making her insane as he forced her to step, to move, to dance against him.
"This dress is going to come off you," he told her. "Slowly. And before we ever take you. we'll have you screaming for it."
"As long as you take me." Filled her, chased away the cold that had only grown in the past week.
She was tempting her own destruction, and she knew it. If she thought the loneliness had been bad before, it had only grown after. How much worse would it be when he left her again?
"Over and over," he promised her. "Will you leave with me, Kia? Khalid's limo is waiting. We can go to your apartment and spend the night giving you everything you've dreamed of."
Except in her dreams, Khalid hadn't been there. She pushed it away. There was no fear in Khalid being there, no shame. Chase would be there, and the pleasure they would give her would add to the memories she could hold to herself later.
She wasn't fooling herself. She was rather pathetic. Even before she married Drew, Chase Falladay had been her fantasy. Even before she knew he shared his women, she had known she would do anything to spend a night in his arms.
After her marriage she had pushed those fantasies aside until he came to her with a request and a promise.
She lifted her head from his shoulder and stared back at him. He didn't raise his head. Their lips were close, the slightest movement on her part and they would connect, and there, in front of all the brightly clothed guests at this outrageous ball, she knew, they'd attempt to devour each other.
"I'd leave with you in a heartbeat."
So easy. She was being too easy perhaps. Hadn't her mother always warned her that a man didn't want to keep what he didn't have to work for?
She didn't care. Keeping him was only the most hidden fantasy anyway. It wasn't even a hope, the idea of it was so far-fetched.
He stopped, pulled back, and took her hand. "Are you ready to go?"
She simply nodded and let him draw her through the crowd. She was aware of others watching. Of course, they would know what was going on, knew she would end up spending the night with Chase. The erotic pleasures he would give her they couldn't imagine, though.
Even she couldn't have imagined the pleasure before she experienced it. The feel of both Chase and Khalid touching her. Of having the courage, the strength, to reach out and take both men, even as she knew she risked the most painful of broken hearts.
Falling in love with Chase would be the height of idiocy. It would be the supreme mistake of her life.
As he led her from the ballroom and accepted his coat and her cloak, Kia knew it was a mistake she was risking with her every breath.
"You look like a princess." He tucked her hair beneath the silken hood of the matching cape and closed the heavy clasp between her br**sts.
He made her feel like a princess. A very naughty, very brave princess, and he was the knight challenging her to step from her throne and be naughtier.
She did so willingly.
Her hand settled in the crook of his arm as he moved through the hotel lobby and into the frigid air outside.
Khalid's limo awaited, a rather tame one compared to the Hummer of the previous week. She slid into the luxurious interior and didn't protest as Khalid lifted her into his arms and stretched her across his lap.
The door closed and Chase was pushing the skirt of her dress above her thighs, spreading them as Khalid's fingers released her cloak and his lips covered hers.
Magic surrounded her. Magic and pleasure, Stardust and star-bursts as the pleasure began.
And she reminded herself, it was just for the pleasure. Not because she ached for one man. Dreamed of one man. And when she came, it would be his name on her lips.
And there were others who saw her surrender. Eyes that watched from a hidden corner of the lobby, filled with malice and rage as the door to the limo closed on the sight of Khalid lifting her to him.