“My goal is not to scare you, but to prepare you, because your life is about to change.”
What? “Take me back to the hotel. Never mind about lunch.”
“Your things are no longer at the hotel.”
Rachelle turned more toward him. “You knew that wasn’t what I wanted, and you did it anyway?”
“Yes,” he said without a hint of regret.
“I’m done. Take me back right now.”
“I will not. I will, however, offer you a choice. If you wish to be deposited where your grandmother is staying, I will drive you there and inform her why you require the royal guards I have assigned to you.”
“I’m not limited by whatever choices you come up with. I’m an adult woman. Drive me back to the hotel now.” See, that’s why I don’t think I’d like the sex dungeon. In theory, giving a man control sounds sexy—until you see how he reacts to having a little power.
“Your second option is my own preference. I have a business meeting in eastern Vandorra. You see some of my country, then stay at my family’s riverfront home in Domovia. It is a historic, rural town. You could sleep in or go shopping and meet me in the afternoon.”
“No.”
He smiled. “Do not worry. There are plenty of bedrooms at my family’s home. You will be allowed to choose one of your own—unless you decide to share mine.”
Rachelle folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t think you’re reading my mood correctly. I’m imagining strangling you, not having sex.”
He roared in laughter. “You are a delight.”
“And you’re delusional.”
He pulled the car over to the side of the road and unclipped his seat belt. “Am I?”
Her breath caught in her throat. The desire in his eyes seared through whatever resistance she had. He wasn’t an overbearing prince who had just offended her by brushing off her demands. She wasn’t an independent woman driven to correct him.
As they sat there, their breathing becoming more and more shallow, each fighting the same battle. Reason and resolve crumbled in the face of their desire.
“Come here,” he commanded.
She clutched her seat belt and glanced around. There was an SUV pulled over a hundred feet before them, and another about the same distance behind them. “No.”
He traced her cheek with the back of his fingers. “They are trained to look away.”
She slapped his hand away. “That’s disgusting.”
He chuckled. “Honestly, I forgot they were there. I can tell them to pull back farther.”
“That’s not necessary, because nothing is going to happen.”
He leaned closer. “So none of this?”
She sat frozen, wanting his touch more than she wanted to refuse him. When his mouth descended upon hers, it did so with gentle expertise. His hands dug into her hair, but his kiss remained an almost tender invitation that was impossible to resist. She closed her eyes and parted her lips for his. He groaned with pleasure.
Rachelle had been kissed many times before. She’d even been kissed deeply by him, but not like this. He was barely touching her, but they were connecting so intensely that her body burned for his. Every flick of his tongue against hers, every leisurely, artful tease, challenged what was left of her resolve. Her hands sought his muscular chest, and she no longer cared who might be watching. He ended the kiss with another groan but remained close enough so that their breath mingled.
The slow smile that spread across his face was a lusty one, like a pirate looking over the bounty of his raid. His eyes went to her still-parted lips. “What keeps you saying no to me when it is clear that you want to say yes?”
She fought to regain her composure. Manipulation even when it felt as good as this did was still wrong. “Your ego, for one.”
His smile widened, and his voice was a hot caress on her cheek. “Then rein me in.” His hands tightened in her hair. “Make me yours as completely as I will make you mine.”
Barely able to breathe, Rachelle released her seat belt and turned toward him. The bulge in the front of his trousers confirmed his statement. This was no insecure, still-living-with-his-parents boy. This was a powerful man who was used to getting what he wanted—and what he wanted was her.
And his challenge rocked through her.
Make me yours as completely as I will make you mine. What did that even mean? People didn’t own each other. They met, fell in love, had a few kids, and divorced, then learned to be civil for the sake of the children. That’s how the modern world worked.
Magnus didn’t live by those rules.
Had he sought to simply control her, she would have found him easier to resist. What did he want? Even as she tried to figure it out, part of her knew. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth back down to hers. There was nothing gentle about the kiss this time, and that was her choice. She arched against him and slid a hand down to his cock, loving how he shuddered from pleasure beneath her touch.
She kissed him until she sensed he was as close to losing control as she was. When she broke off the kiss, she felt shattered, but in a wonderful way. She wanted to be his. It was too late for her already. Even if she ended it now, even if they never took this further, he had already ruined her for other men. She would never again endure a bland kiss and wonder if the problem was hers. She’d never sit across from another nice man and hope she became more attracted to him. How could she, now that she knew what it should feel like?
Even if this doesn’t last, even if this is a huge mistake—I’d rather live with the regret than spend the rest of my life asking what it would have been like to say yes to him. Yes to being his and yes to trying to rein him in. “We should go,” she whispered.
“Where? Have you made your choice, little Rachelle?”
“Yes,” she said huskily while sitting back and reclipping her seat belt. “I want to see your riverfront home.” His answering smile was a little too smug, so she added, “But don’t call me little. I don’t like it.”
He swooped in with one last deep kiss that left her far too turned on to care what he called her. “You will learn to.”
It was painfully difficult not to end the day early and take Rachelle somewhere private where they could finish what they’d started, but Magnus had a second agenda for the day. His men were looking into who might have been following Rachelle as well as securing his home. Her safety took precedence over his passion.
He pulled his car back onto the road and stole a glance at her. She still looked flustered by his last comment, and he was tempted tell her it had been a joke, but it was too much fun to see how she would respond.
He didn’t want to spend his life with a woman who was afraid of him, nor was he looking for someone who would agree with everything he said. How boring would a life with such a woman be?
He glanced at her again. Rachelle Westerly was certainly not boring. Was she the woman for him? That was still to be determined, but the journey toward that decision promised to be quite enjoyable.
“Just because I said yes to your family home doesn’t mean I said yes to anything else.”
He arched an eyebrow and tried not to smile. “I believe your agreement to everything else was clearly stated by your hand on my cock a moment ago, but we can circle back to that later. If you’d like to deliver your answer in the form of deep throating, I’m open to that as well.”
She huffed and folded her arms across her chest. “You’re such an asshole.”
He laughed. “Give me your hand.”
“No.”
Intrigued, he tried again. “Then let me offer you mine.”