Priceless

  One of my many flaws is that I am a risk-taker at heart.

  I’ll try anything once.

  So, when Ivan suggested we take a night flight in his Cessna floatplane, takeoff from the water, and look at the city lights of England under a summer full moon, I said, “why not” and let him put me in his plane. Again, the mojitos helped me come to my decision to go with him.

  “You were totally right, the city lights are so incredibly pretty from up here.” I peered out the window thoroughly enjoying the view from the air.

  “Your lack of fear impresses the hell out of me, Miss Hargreave.”

  “Why do you call me that all the time? It’s so formal.” The alcohol had loosened my inhibitions and all kinds of questions started pouring out of me, but he didn’t seem to mind answering. So, I kept asking.

  “I like formalities…sometimes…as you’ll learn,” he said deliberately.

  “Because you’re a lord?”

  He gave me a snort. “No, that’s not why.”

  “Who taught you to fly a plane?”

  “My uncle arranged for me to go to flight school when I was at university. He thought it was appropriate for his heir to know such things. It was something I really took to heart. I loved flying from my first lesson.”

  “Why did you love it?”

  He shrugged. “The freedom I suppose. Troubles seem less important from up here. At least it’s always felt that way to me.”

  “Are we flying over the ocean right now?” I couldn’t see any more city lights and it made sense.

  “That is the Irish Sea below us.”

  “Do you ever land this in the ocean?”

  “No. That’s the thing with floats; they only work in very calm waters. The ocean is far too rough and landing in it would not be safe, trust me.”

  “You keep telling me to trust you.”

  “I know I do.” He reached his hand over to mine and brought it forward to rest on his lap. “Is it working?” he asked hopefully, pulling it up the rest of the way to his lips. Ahhh, so he could do romantic, too. Deadly combination Mr. Everley had going on.

  “Well, I’m trying really hard to trust you. I let you take me for a ride in your plane when I could be putting my life at risk. I mean, how should I know if you’re a licensed pilot and have the proper skills to land on a lake?”

  He flashed me another of those teeth-baring smiles. They were very white and even, but he had the gap between the front two. Sometimes imperfections were more beautiful than the absence of them.

  “You’re about to find out. Here we go.”

  He had to release my hand to work the controls and do his checks. His hands moved in precise motions, focused and confident.

  I was mesmerized as I watched him work to prepare the plane for landing.

  He banked toward the left before leveling it out to descend rapidly and drop us just a few feet over the dark water of the lake. We skimmed along for a bit until the swoosh of water grabbed the bottom of the floats and immediately slowed our momentum. In a matter of seconds we were no longer propelled through the air, but floating in water and gliding along smoothly like a sailboat.

  Amazing.

  “Wow, that was so—so awesome.” And I really meant it.

  “So, you enjoyed that, did you?”

  “Yes. It was beautiful.”

  He looked at me and said, “You’re beautiful.”

  That he thought so made me feel good inside, but still I had to look away. Whatever we were doing was still too new for me to process completely, and made me feel shy. Plus all of those drinks…

  I focused on what was outside my window instead. The landscape looked different to me from when we’d taken off from Hallborough. The lake looked bigger and there were far fewer lights than I remembered. Only the moon lit up the night sky.

  “Did you land us on the other side of the lake from where we took off, or something?” I asked.

  “You could say that.”

  “Oh…”

  I was confused but he seemed to know what he was doing as he steered the plane along through the water. After a few minutes he slowed and carefully navigated toward what looked like a concrete ramp. The sound of wheels turning as tires met a hard surface surprised me. He drove the plane right out of the water and onto a dry dock that seemed to be specially built for the purpose. It had a roof and everything. Like a parking spot for a plane.

  This wasn’t Hallborough at all.

  “We’re not at Hallborough anymore.” My words sounded as if I was trying to convince myself.

  Trying to convince myself that I hadn’t just been kidnapped.

  “No, not Hallborough,” he said clearly.

  “Where have you brought me, Ivan?” I could hear the panic in my own voice.

  “Remember what I told you at dinner last night? That you would come back after the wedding? Well, the wedding is over.”

  “Ivan, where have you brought me?” I repeated the question even though I had a pretty good idea. And my voice had moved past panic and off into HystericalLand.

  “Donadea,” he whispered.

  “You fucking bastard!”

  He grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to look at him.

  “I want you to listen to me before you have another freak out, okay?”

  “You have to take me back to Hallborough, Ivan.”

  “I will. I promise you I will take you back, but just not tonight. Gabrielle, please—please give me this night. With you…here.”

  I tried to understand what he was asking.

  “You said you were ashamed of what we did before and I gather you have your reasons. I’m not ashamed of anything we did together that night. I want to do more. Much more, Gabrielle.”

  I struggled to get out of his grip on me but my senses were dulled from the alcohol.

  “Just listen for a moment.”

  “No, you tricked me—”

  He slammed his lips against mine to shut me up. It worked. And once he started in with the nibbling and sucking on my bottom lip I no longer wanted to get away. His kisses drugged me into compliance and took me to a place where I didn’t have to think about anything, or make difficult decisions. I could just feel good.

  But Ivan knew all of this about me already.

  “Here we can be totally private and nobody will ever have to know. If that’s what you want, we can do this in secret and not tell anyone. This is Northern Ireland—a virtual wilderness.”

  “Ivan…”

  “Just me and you doing what we’ve wanted to do from that first night. I’m right, aren’t I?”

  I took a deep breath and drew up a finger to move his hair behind his ear. It felt so good to touch him, and he was right.

  “Give me the rest of the weekend alone with you,” he told me as he pulled the palm of my hand to his cheek and held it there.

  “I don’t have any clothes.”

  He smirked and tilted his head. “You won’t need them.”

  “You just want to fuck me, Ivan.” I waited for his response to my statement, watching his eyes for the truth.

  He shook his head sharply. “No, that’s not completely true. I want to get to know you and…explore…what I think we have going on already.” He held one side of my face with his other hand and said the rest. “In addition to the fucking. I want to do that, too. Over and over again, I’ll admit.”

  His eyes seared me while my brain conjured all sorts of pornographic images of him and me doing that very thing. What would it be like with him?

  And I truly did want to know how it would be.

  I shivered at his blunt speech. At least he was being honest with me about his desires. Did I dare give him back the same honesty?

  “If there’s anything you don’t want to do just tell me. I’ll respect it. I follow the rules,” he said carefully, his hand still holding my face, his thumb rubbing my jaw.

  Rules. I’d pledged to rules before and it involved not going into another
entanglement like Ivan was offering. And this was what he was suggesting to me. I understood him crystal clear. He was a dominant in the bedroom, and he was very aware of what I was, too. Could I do sex just for the pleasure of it with no emotional attachments? I didn’t even know if I could.

  “Trust me, Gabrielle. That’s all you have to do right now. We have to begin somewhere and I’m asking you to start by trusting me for just this one night.”

  “I’m afraid of trusting a man again,” I whispered.

  “I can tell, and it bothers me. Very much,” he said softly as he pulled me under his lips with a hand at the back of my neck. His kiss was sweet at first, but then he opened his mouth wide and covered mine completely, plunging his tongue inside in an act of dominance that stole away my hesitation in the same moment as he took control.

  When he was finished with the kiss he held my face firmly with both of his hands. “I know you want this. I know you’re curious. I know I can’t stop thinking about you. I don’t want to stop,” he said harshly, “I want to go all the way with you until we both know what that feels like.” He whispered, “I know it will feel so good.”

  His deep green eyes searched mine, his thumbs brushed along my cheekbones, his body throbbed along with my heart—and I knew I was going to agree.

  “So, can we do this, my lovely Miss Hargreave?”

  I closed my eyes in a pathetic attempt to find some strength but there was none to be had. I wanted to be with him, too. Was he really handing this decision over to me though? He was such an attraction to me and had been from the first moment I ever laid eyes on him. I wanted to know what it felt like to have him over me at least once. I wanted to find that place in my head my body craved, and I tried to deny. I wanted to go there with this beautiful man who kept telling me I was beautiful to him. I wanted to be with Ivan Everley more than I’d ever wanted to be with any man. And nobody would have to know. We were all alone here at Donadea, and that did take away a lot of my hesitation.

  “Don’t shut your eyes,” he said, his head dipping down ready to make eye contact the second I followed his command and opened them. “I need to see those green beauties on me when you say yes.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath and got lost in his dark green ones.

  “You can have carte blanche with my paintings if you like. No pressure, but maybe you’ll find something that interests you and you’ll want to stay longer.”

  God, he really had the art of persuasion down to a tee. He could pull out all the stops when he wanted. He also knew what made me tick, and lucky for him, had the goods in his pocket to offer up. It had been such a long time since I’d felt beautiful in the eyes of a man, and Ivan kept telling me so often it was hard to push him away. Even if only for one night, he would make me feel alive and beautiful. One night was all I deserved. I’d have to be content with that.

  “No, just for tonight,” I told him. “Tomorrow you take me back to Hallborough and nobody knows we ever did this.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  I nodded. “But, Ivan, you need to know…I’m scared,” I blurted honestly. It was the truth and he should know it coming from me.

  “Of me?” He frowned, looking bothered by my declaration.

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’m scared of me.”

  ELEVEN

  SHE felt scared. Afraid of letting her inhibitions run free. I could understand that bit. I’d felt the same way before. Many times. But the prospect of being with Gabrielle didn’t scare me. That wasn’t my issue at all. I was very determined not to fuck up with her again.

  Fuck? Definitely yes.

  Fuck up? Not happening this time.

  Go slow. Tell her what you want. Find out what she needs. Give it to her.

  “Shhh, don’t be scared.” I brought her to my lips and kissed her gently, thrilling at the soft trace of her tongue responding to my lead. She was going to be perfect. “Not of yourself, and not of me, okay?” I asked, dipping down to find her eyes.

  “All right,” she breathed. I could feel her trembling underneath my hands. What she didn’t know was her trembling was just the beginning of what I was going to pull out of her tonight.

  “What do you say to getting out of this flying boat and up to the house?”

  She nodded “yes” but didn’t say anything as I unbuckled her from the seat and stowed her life jacket. She watched my hands, and for some reason it was so fucking sexy coming from her.

  I would be doing a lot of things to her with my hands in a little while, and once I got started I wasn’t going to stop until I was good and ready to stop, and she was exhausted from the many orgasms I’d give her.

  And she would take all of it from me.

  I could hardly believe she was really here at all, and I couldn’t resist another kiss before leaving the plane from my pilot’s seat. She tasted sweet. So soft. It was hard to reconcile her with the feisty creature I’d met on the road the time she’d come here before. And she was so different with me right now. A side of her I’d not seen before, and made me want her so badly, I could’ve gone for a quick grind right here in the back of the plane just to take the edge off.

  “I’ll come around to your side and help you out, okay?”

  “All right,” she said, bringing a finger to her lips, touching where my tongue had just been.

  My dick was brutally stiff to the point it hurt to move, but move I did. I needed her up in my bed like two months ago.

  I opened the door for her. “Just step onto the base of the doorway.” I held my arms up.

  One long leg came into view and then the other as she stood up and balanced on the edge, her heels framing her feet while the dress fluttered against that banging hot body I couldn’t wait to see naked.

  She was a fucking vision. Portrait worthy.

  “I’ve got you,” I said, as I took her behind the knees with one arm while the other wrapped around her back, and just like that she was in my arms smelling sexy and sweet like berries.

  Her hand gripped the back of my shoulder, the pressure of her holding onto me feeling fucking perfect. I didn’t want to set her down straight away. She felt so right in my arms.

  “How do we get to the house?” She rolled one of her ankles and showed off what, if I had to guess, were steely grey Manolo Blahniks with an open toe, and very sexy on her feet. “I don’t think these will make it very far, and I really like them.”

  I laughed. “I really like them, too.”

  “Are you going to carry me?” she asked coyly.

  “I’d rather not.”

  “Chivalry has died so soon, Mr. Everley. So sad.” She mocked a sad shake of her head that made my cock even more twitchy.

  “No, Miss Hargreave, it has not died actually, but I am afraid my arms will die if I have to carry you the two miles distance it will take to get us to my house.”

  She frowned adorably. “But I can’t ruin my shoes.”

  I kissed her, licking along her bottom lip until she opened for my tongue. It was hard not to put her back in the plane and stretch her out in the rear cargo where I could get acquainted with her body sans the pretty dress. She could even keep her shoes on if she liked.

  But that wasn’t how this night was going to go down. No, I had special plans for my Gabrielle.

  My?

  Fuckin’ hell, I surely hoped so. It had taken close to a miracle for me to find her again.

  With some superhuman effort, I pulled away from her luscious lips and carried her to the Jeep parked on the other side of the hangar. I set her down carefully and motioned with my arm. “My lady, your chariot awaits and your precious shoes will be spared.”

  “Ah, but what you really mean is your precious arms will be spared.” She teased me with a soft draw of her finger down the sleeve of my jacket.

  “Of course.” I gave her a wink. “I don’t want to waste all my energy up carrying you two miles over hill and dale when I could be using that same effort for other things.”


  The sexual tension exploded between us as soon as the words left my mouth.

  One second we were teasing each other, and the next second we definitely weren’t.

  She reached for the door handle at the same moment I did, our hands colliding.

  Fuck this, I thought. Fumbling around was time wasted when I could be getting lost in her.

  I put her in the Jeep, and had myself behind the wheel with the ignition on about five seconds after that.

  Yeah, she was going to be mine all right. At least for tonight she would. Gabrielle was on the exact same page as me with the sex.

  As I floored the Jeep up the dirt road to the house, I had to ask myself one really important question.

  Was I ready to do this again? Because once I started down this path with her I wouldn’t be able to shut it off and stop. I knew she wasn’t at all like the women who’d distracted me since Viviana. Deep down in my bones I knew it. Gabrielle would ignite in me emotions I’d buried because I understood precisely what they did to me. She’d begin a change in me. I’d get possessive, and needy, and controlling. My kink would emerge. Those things I couldn’t alter about myself. Is that what drew me to her so strongly? Were we both feeling an innate sense of connection here? But what if I was way off base? She might not want me once she met that Ivan Everley.

  But it would be too late by that point.

  She didn’t know it, but Gabrielle wasn’t the only one who’d been burned for trusting someone.

  I looked over at her sitting beautifully calm beside me. Gabrielle had already made her decision to be with me. Her struggle had come before, and emotionally was behind her now.

  That’s when I knew the reality of my situation.

  It was too late for me already. She’d already unknowingly begun the change. Whether she wanted it or not, I was already hers.

  I led her up the stairs quickly, her left hand clasped firmly in my right, and her Manolos clutched in my other. I was impatient and didn’t want her stumbling or twisting her ankle going up the massive staircase in those high heels. I’d put them back on her later. When she was gloriously naked.