She glanced over at him and shook her head. "No, I don"t mind."
"Thanks. I appreciate it."
The clock on the car"s console indicated it was a little after ten. She figured once she got back to the cafe she would get her car and go on to Farrah"s where she would be spending the weekend. Tonight they planned to do facials and watch romantic movies until dawn if they could last that long. Usually, they would both fall asleep by midnight.
Moments later Donovan pulled into the garage attached to his condo. He closed the garage door behind them and then turned off the car"s engine. He glanced over at her. "Would you like to come inside?"
She shook her head. "No, thanks. I"ll just sit here until you come back."
"That might be a problem."
She stared at him a moment before lifting a brow. "And why might that be a problem?"
"I told you I needed to drop by the house to get something."
She nodded, confused. "Yes, you did say that, and what of it?"
"What I needed to drop by the house to get is you. you. So will you come inside with me, please? I want you so bad I can barely stand it." So will you come inside with me, please? I want you so bad I can barely stand it."
She frowned, started to tell him that sounded like a personal problem, but when she glance down at his lap, she saw that it was was a personal problem for him. A rather huge one. a personal problem for him. A rather huge one.
She stared back at his face. She"d never known a man to want her this much. "Bringing me here was rather presumptuous of you," she said, her frown deepening.
"I did ask."
"No, you led me to believe you needed to get something."
"I do need to get something."
She opened her mouth to argue at his logic but then closed it, knowing it wouldn"t do any good. The man gave arrogance a whole new meaning. "I"m staying put right here," she said stubbornly.
He smiled and leaned over the console, very close to her mouth and said, "Then I guess this place will have to do. At least for this."
Before she could draw her next breath, he had mingled it with his in a kiss that was so potent she felt it all the way to her toes. His tongue was dueling with hers, stroking varying degrees of desire within her. She knew the exact moment he slipped his hand underneath her skirt, expertly moving under her panties to insert his finger into the warmth of her. And then his fingers began moving to the same rhythm his tongue was using on her mouth.
Nothing about the kiss was civilized. It was as untamed and wild as it could get, and when an o.r.g.a.s.m threatened, his mouth on hers and his fingers inside of her boldly pushed her over the edge.
"Now are you ready to go inside?" he asked a short while later, pulling his fingers out of her while greedily licking the corners of her lips.
His words, a hoa.r.s.e whisper, inflamed her body even more, and at that moment she couldn"t deny him anything, especially after what he"d just given her.
"Yes," she all but whispered back. "I"m ready to go inside."
Getting out of the car, he quickly came around in front to open her door. The moment she alighted he swept her into his arms and proceeded to carry her into his home.
Not wasting any time, as soon as they pa.s.sed through the back door he began stripping her naked right there in his kitchen. He then placed her on her back on his kitchen table, and then after practically tearing off his own clothes and putting on a condom, he crawled on top of her.
He gazed down at her. "This is what I wanted to come here to get. Thank you for letting me have it."
He drew in a huge breath, and in one smooth thrust he entered her, then he pulled out slightly, only to thrust into her again.
Over and over. Nonstop. Even when he felt her inner muscles clenching him and heard her soft sounds of s.e.xual pleasure, he kept going and going. He couldn"t stop. Even the pain of her fingernails digging deep into his back couldn"t slow him down. And when an o.r.g.a.s.m struck the both of them, he began giving and giving until he had nothing left to give.
At least so he thought. He began getting hard again while buried deep inside the warmth of her body. "Natalie." He"d lifted himself up slightly to say her name and then it was on again. The only thing he could think of was that he might never get enough of her.
Natalie eased from the bed, careful not to awaken Donovan. After he had talked her into staying overnight she had called Farrah. Without going into a lot of details she cancelled their sleep-over with a promise they would do lunch next week.
She glanced over at the clock on his nightstand. It was close to five in the morning.
They had finally given the kitchen table a rest only to come upstairs to wear down his bed. Then a few hours later he had carried her back downstairs and after collecting their clothes off the floor and tidying up the kitchen, they had shared cooking duties and made omelets and coffee.
After they had eaten and were headed back up the stairs, Donovan had gotten an unexpected visitor, a man he introduced as his best friend, Bronson Scott. Just like Xavier and Uriel, Bronson was handsome as sin, and although she wasn"t into auto racing, she recalled seeing his face a number of times in the newspapers as well as on the cover of Sports Ill.u.s.trated Sports Ill.u.s.trated magazine as part of a NASCAR spread. When Donovan had mentioned her car being left at the cafe, Bronson had offered to bring it to her and leave the keys under the mat. magazine as part of a NASCAR spread. When Donovan had mentioned her car being left at the cafe, Bronson had offered to bring it to her and leave the keys under the mat.
After Bronson left, they had gone back to bed to make love again and had eventually drifted off to sleep. But as was the norm with her, she found herself waking up with chemical equations in her head that she needed to jot down. She didn"t have her laptop, but she always kept a notepad in her purse.
Slipping Donovan"s T-s.h.i.+rt over her head she padded in her bare feet down the stairs to get the notepad out of her purse. Then she headed back upstairs to his office. She sat down behind his huge desk and inhaled deeply, thinking that sleeping with Donovan again had not been in her plans. But the man was a master at seduction.
She glanced around the room. This was only her second time in here. The first time she had been concentrating too deeply on cleaning the room to pay close attention to the plaques on his wall and the trophies in a cabinet.
Getting up from behind the desk, she walked over to study the plaques. All but one had been presented to him for his volunteer work in the Special Olympics. The other had been presented to him for being a mentor with the Charlotte public school system.
Then there were all the basketball trophies he"d gotten while in college. She wished she could have been in the bleachers when he was running up and down the court. With his fine physique, that would definitely have been a sight to see.
Returning to the chair behind the desk, Natalie knew she had to tread very carefully where Donovan was concerned or else those emotions within her which were already teetering close to the edge, would soon lose their balance and topple over. The last man she"d thought she loved had ended up hurting her badly. She knew that, because of her mother, she didn"t take rejection well, so she avoided it at all costs. Karl had taught her a lesson of what could happen if you were to let your guard down, and she could see herself falling for Donovan if she wasn"t careful.
She had been working on various formulas for almost an hour when she heard a sound and glanced up. Donovan stood s.h.i.+rtless in the doorway wearing a pair of jeans, unzipped, and riding low on his hips. His shoulders looked powerful; the wide span of his chest was masculine, s.e.xually compelling. His appearance was doing a number on her senses, and the degree of his s.e.xuality set off a distinct throb in her body.
She could vividly recall everything they had done since entering his home, and the memories made sensuous shudders flow through her. And it wasn"t helping matters that she was pinned by the deep intensity of his gaze.
"I woke up and you were gone. You okay?" he asked in a concerned voice.
She knew why he was asking if she was okay. Their lovemaking had been intense. She smiled. "Yes, I"m fine."
He glanced at her notepad. "What are you doing?"
She closed the notepad and pushed it aside. Now would be a good time to tell him about the chemical equations she was working on for the global warming panel, which would lead into what she did for a living. But for some reason she wasn"t ready to reveal that to him now, especially when she remembered how other men had reacted, calling her a chemistry geek. She couldn"t handle it if he acted the same way. But she would have to tell him soon, especially since she would be flying out on Thursday for Princeton.
"I couldn"t sleep," she said, "and thought I"d come in and kill some time until you woke up."
A smile touched the curve of his lips. "I"m awake now."
He slowly crossed the room, and the closer he got the hotter the desire burned within her. "Are you sure you"re fully awake?" she asked, watching his approach and thinking just how undeniably handsome he was.
"Why don"t you come from behind that desk? I"ll show you just how awake I am."
She couldn"t help but chuckle. "Haven"t you gotten enough of me already?"
"Afraid not. I have the desire to make love to you for the rest of the night. In fact I want you to spend the rest of the weekend with me."
She lifted a brow as she came from behind the desk. He scooped her up in his arms and set her down on the edge of it. "You want me to stay with you all weekend?" she asked, to make sure she"d heard him correctly.
"Yes. But that means you"ll have to go to the Steele brothers basketball game tomorrow morning."
Earlier she had imagined how it would be to see him work a basketball court. "I"d love to go watch."
"It can get brutal," he warned, reaching out and sliding his hand up her legs. "Depending on how much frustration we have to work out."
She leaned in, close to his face. "Do you think you"ll be frustrated?"
His hand went farther up her thigh. "Not as long as I go to bed with you tonight and wake up with you in the morning," he said huskily. "You, Natalie Ford, are the best frustration-reliever there is."
"Glad I can help, Donovan Steele."
Donovan leaned closer and captured Natalie"s lips with his. Kissing her had a way of stripping his senses, making him lose control. He liked the way her tongue mingled with his, the way her taste always made him more aroused than he already was. The way he could rouse her just by touching her in a certain s.e.xy spot, like he was doing now. She groaned deep in his mouth. He pulled back slightly, enough to break off their kiss, but then he used his tongue to trace a trail around her lips, lips he loved kissing.
He then nibbled a path close to her ear. "I need some more of you," he whispered huskily.
"Greedy," she accused in a deep moan, and he retaliated by inserting his fingers deep inside of her. Her next moan sounded deeper than the last.
"Only with you." And that was so much of the truth that it had him trembling inside. Every cell in his body was attuned to her. He never imagined being this connected to any woman.
"Then if you want me, take me," she invited.
"Gladly."
And then he went back to her mouth, fed on it greedily, while her fingers sank deep into his shoulder.
Pulling back, breaking off the kiss, he yanked his T-s.h.i.+rt over her head and tossed it aside, exposing her beautiful b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He bent his head and took a nipple in his mouth, teasing the hardened tip with his tongue.
But that wasn"t enough. He wanted to be inside of her.
He drew back, looked into her face and saw her pa.s.sion-glazed eyes. He then eased out of his jeans, kicked them aside and put on a condom before sweeping her into his arms and heading for the nearest wall. By the time she felt the hard surface at her back, she parted her thighs. Before she could take her next breath, he had entered her and was moving inside of her, holding her in a way that allowed him to penetrate deep.
The legs that curved around his back were tight, urgent, but not as urgent as the movement of his thrusts that were going in and out of her. When he felt her inner muscles clamp down on him, he threw his head back and actually growled.
As if the sound was what she needed to hear to push her over the edge, he heard Natalie cry out his name. She thoroughly lubricated his s.e.x while at the same time she milked it for all it was worth.
His teeth clenched when another o.r.g.a.s.m hit on the tail of the last, and he knew as he heard her o.r.g.a.s.m follow his that when it came to undiluted pa.s.sion, Natalie was in a cla.s.s by herself.
"Aren"t you the one who said you would never bring a woman to watch us play?" Bas asked his brother as they took a time-out. "What"s going on? Are you and Natalie joined at the hip?"
Donovan didn"t say anything as he took a huge gulp of water. After last night, they might as well be joined at the hip...as well as a number of other places. After making love in his office, he had taken her downstairs and they made love in the other rooms, as well. By the time she left tomorrow, he wanted them to have christened every room.
But to get his brother off his back, he said, "Think whatever you"d like."
He took another swig of water as he glanced up in the bleachers. Natalie sat talking to Kylie, who was there with Alden to support Chance. An uneasy feeling spiked up his spine. She looked good with his family. Like she belonged.
She had agreed to spend another night with him after checking on her aunt. But she wanted to keep their relations.h.i.+p a secret from the woman. Because that"s what she wanted, he had agreed.
When the break was over and it was time to play another round of basketball, he glanced in the stands again. Natalie waved. He smiled and waved back.
"A gift? For me?" Natalie asked, looking at the prettily wrapped gift box Donovan had just handed to her when he joined her on the sofa.
"Yes, it"s for you." A naughty grin touched his lips. "And in a way it"s for me, as well."
She lifted a brow while unwrapping the gift. After the basketball game he had dropped her back off at his house when she"d felt sleepy and wanted to take a nap. That was fine since he had agreed to drop by the mall where Bronson was autographing T-s.h.i.+rts at a sports shop.
For some reason she wasn"t surprised to open the box and find Victoria"s Secret tissue paper. Then she smiled when she uncovered a very pretty s.e.xy blue-and-white lace nightie with spaghetti straps.
"A lingerie shop was right across from where Bronson was signing," he explained. "This particular item was on a mannequin in the window, and I kept staring at it and imagining you wearing it."
He paused a second, looked up at her and then added, "I"ve never bought a woman something this intimate before."
Natalie didn"t say anything at first. Knowing that he had done something for her that he had never done for another woman touched her deeply. And at that moment, she knew she could no longer deny the emotions she was feeling for him. She had fallen in love with Donovan.
She looked back down at the beautiful gift and knew she would cherish it always. She then glanced back at him. "Thank you, Donovan. I"ll wear it tonight just for you," she said softly.
A grin touched his lips. "Just as long as you know it won"t stay on you long."
She couldn"t help but chuckle. "I didn"t think it would."
She placed the box aside and crawled over into his lap to give him a very special kiss. Although she couldn"t tell him how she felt, she wanted to show him.
Chapter 15.
It was Wednesday morning, and for the first time in Donovan"s life, he arrived to work late. His secretary stared as he pa.s.sed her desk. He smiled. "Is anything wrong, Sandra?"