So he let go of all the things he knew he should do. He didn’t want to talk to Mia. He wanted to play with her. He wanted to play hard.
“Is that right?” Case heard his voice going deep. Maybe it was simply natural to slip into his Dom role the minute she walked in a room. It would be a fight because she wouldn’t allow him to top her outside the bedroom. She was far too wild for that. He’d snagged a couple of bottles of water from the plane and shoved them in his duffel. Hutch would find a few cases for them before dinner, but this would do for now. He reached in and grabbed one, wanting to play along. He didn’t want a seriously good manipulation to go to waste.
“You mean this one?”
She managed to blush so prettily. She’d let her hair down and the blonde tresses caressed the tops of her breasts. The gown she wore was white and clung to her every curve. “Yes. I’m sorry to bother you. I always take a bottle to bed with me.”
Oh, that bottle of water wasn’t the only thing she was taking to bed with her today. No. He held it out and watched as she moved toward him. She bit her bottom lip as though trying to look like a soft little fawn worried about taking something from the hand of the big bad wolf.
He handed it over. “There you go, princess.”
He winked her way and then picked up his duffel and moved to the one dresser. He placed the duffel on it and grabbed the small bag he kept of adapter plugs. He would need to keep his cell charged.
“Thank you,” she said in a small voice. “I guess I should say good-night.”
He could practically hear her frustration. Maybe it made him a bastard, but it brought a little smile to his face. One he absolutely wouldn’t show to Mia because she was known to hurt a man. “Good-night. I hope you sleep well.”
Besides, his girl didn’t give up.
He felt a hand on his back as Mia moved in. “I can see you’re going to be a hard sell, Taggart.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to think I’m easy.” He glanced up. There was a mirror and he watched as her hand snaked around his waist and rested possessively over his belt buckle. He could barely see the top of her head over his shoulder.
“Those were my best seductive moves,” she admitted. “Again, I was kind of counting on letting the girls work their magic on you, but I can see I’m going to have to up my game with you, Sir. The trouble is I don’t know what you want. We’ve never played together before. I suppose if we were still on the airplane, I would have made up some excuse to sit with you and talk to you and flirt with you. But we’re not there and honestly, I don’t think I want to manipulate you. So how about I tell you that I want to play with you, Case. I want you to top me in the bedroom but don’t ever think that it’s an act of indulgence on my part. Submitting to you isn’t about hoping that you’ll hold me afterward or praying you might come to care for me. I’ll handle that on my own. Playing with you means I want you so badly I haven’t been able to look at another man since I saw you. I want to play with you because my body comes alive the minute you walk in a room and I can’t imagine what it’s going to do when you finally spread my legs and push that big cock of yours inside.”
And she knew exactly when to stop the role-playing and get real with him. He reached for her hand, pulling it off so he could turn.
Mia was staring up at him, paler than she’d been before. She took a step back.
Shit. She thought he was rejecting her. It was so easy to forget that underneath all that gorgeous bluster and bravado she was just a woman who could get her feelings hurt. “I wanted to turn around so I could look you in the eyes when I tell you yes.”
Her lips curved in a gorgeous smile. “Yes?”
He hadn’t said that word to her nearly enough. He reached out and smoothed back her hair. “Yes, I’ll top you. Yes, I’ll be your Dom, and yes, we will absolutely play. Take off my shirt.”
He wanted her hands on him, wanted her to be the one who touched him first. He would still be in control, but he’d had his time to explore her on the plane.
She stepped up and her hands immediately went to the hem of his T-shirt and she dragged it up. Case raised his arms and let her pull it off his body. It was good to start with his chest. Only a couple of nasty scars there. He watched her carefully as she took him in, her eyes roaming across his exposed flesh.