The Satin Sash

  His jaw was all square bone; his eyes glimmered under the somber slashes of his eyebrows.The arrogant slant of his nose was barely softened by the plump sensuality of his lips. And those lips were curling slowly, almost sarcastically.

  The cruel sexiness of that smile blasted her with a shot of pure, unadulterated lust. A lust Toni had felt for no one but Grey. Until this moment, this man. He was awesome. Bad and primal and animal.

  There were whispers. People noticed him as one would notice a storm, a hit man, danger.Yet she could not take her eyes off him for long enough to turn and appease the gossipers around her.

  His scent reached her before his hand did. He smelled of earth and rain and tree bark, and the aroma made her head spin. Without a word, he engulfed her hand in his hot one and dragged her through the throng of people with single-minded purpose.

  Almost stumbling on her dress as she tried to keep up, she was shocked that he didn’t release her when she tried to pull free. “What—what are you doing?”

  He paused once they were safely in the middle of the dance floor, flanked by dancers.

  “You wanted me to ask you to dance.” His hands slid to the small of her back, drawing her to the incredibly hard wall of his body. “So I’m asking.”

  Toni had heard his voice over the phone. Sometimes milky and soothing like Baileys, other times rumbling like thunder.The thunder now skimmed over her skin like the very satin of her evening gown. He could’ve been Grey for the effect he had on her—and no one made her feel like Grey did.

  She felt a moment of panic when his thigh slipped between hers.Their bodies touched from knees to chest; his rock-hard, hers malleable. Flames licked her on the inside, her pussy watering between her legs, naked under her dress.

  The moment the top of his bulging thigh brushed her clit through the material, she thought she’d burst. “I- I don’t think you understand. I’m—”

  “I know who you are.” With a dangerous smile, he slid his hands to the small of her back, the tip of his long fingers resting on the top of her butt. “You’re Grey’s girl.” And in her ear, “His record.”

  The obvious bait brought a smile to her lips as she raised her eyes to his. “And am I supposed to know who you are?”

  “You should.” He cupped her rear intimately and an odd little sound escaped her, more like a whimper than a gasp. He grunted, as though pleased, and raised one hand to tug at the satin sash around her throat. The sinuous glide of fabric teased the back of her neck as he bent to whisper in her ear, “I’m your worst nightmare.”

  And maybe he was . . .

  When a large, possessive hand curled around her elbow, jolting her back to the present, she knew it.

  Even before she heard Grey’s voice. “We need to talk.”

  We need to talk.

  He said nothing else after he dragged her aside at the benefit to utter those hushed, spine-tingling words.They’d been accompanied by the most glacial stare Toni had ever seen, and Grey wasn’t known for his warmth.

  The ride to her place was rife with tension, and the piercing looks Grey sent her way made her all too aware of her missing sash.

  Her throat had never felt so bare.

  And Toni had never felt so miserable.

  Staring out at the sea of headlights dotting the street, she fiddled with her hands above her lap and wished she could find it in herself to entertain him the way she usually did after these events.

  She could tell him how the senator had asked her name five times tonight, her age another seven. How the pepper steak had caused the old woman at their table to turn a particular beet red. But her throat felt too tight and her stomach knotted.

  Tonight . . .

  Nothing about tonight was funny. Least of all the thought, the mere possibility, of losing Grey.

  She’d never been in love before. She’d been dedicated to her studies and career for what felt like forever, with a few sparse dates to spruce up her weekends. And then came Grey. And falling in love with Grey had proved as mystifying and overpowering as the man himself.

  The last two years had been lush with passion, her happiness so great that sometimes she thought she’d burst from the sensations in her chest.That amazing high she felt, the adrenaline, the dizziness of loving Grey. She was so addicted to it . . . to him. For the first time in two years, the fear of having a future without it—without Grey Richards—began to gnaw her raw.

  He drove his fine black Porsche toward her apartment in silence, but every once in a while, his eyes would rake her breasts, her waist, the place between her legs that felt so wet.

  He’d been sleeping at her place for months, and Toni wondered if that would change tonight. She couldn’t bear it if it did.

  A drop of rain fell on the windshield, and she gathered her courage and turned in the leather. “The senator called me Tori all night,” she said lightly.

  Grey didn’t seem interested.

  “By the fifth time, I didn’t even bother to correct him.” Her smile quivered on her lips, but Grey wasn’t interested in it, either. “He was nice though,” she added, wiping her sweaty palms on her lap. “He certainly knows how to dance.”

  Grey said nothing. Nothing.

  His incredible strength of character made it difficult to imagine he could be susceptible to human emotions like fear or rage, but Toni knew a Grey no one else knew; one who laughed with her, who tucked her against his body at night, whose gaze was warm and affectionate and not the cool amber he turned on others. Her Grey. And she sensed the tempest in him—simmering under his skin.

  We need to talk.

  Oh, god.

  When they finally reached her apartment, the air between them was charged and carried in it the unmistakable sizzle of lust and the dense fires of anger.

  Toni’s heart gave a tight clench of dread as she followed him inside.

  By the reckless way he threw the keys on the console by the entrance, she knew exactly what he wanted to discuss.

  Tonight in a room full of people, she had been captured by one thing alone: another man. He’d made her shiver, her heart race, her pussy wet even when it had already been drenched.

  I’m your worst nightmare....

  Now, hours later, witnessing the granite set of Grey’s features and the steely proprietary look in his eyes as they walked into her bedroom,Toni couldn’t help but agree.

  She didn’t know why she’d experienced such a powerful attraction to his partner, but she knew with all her heart that she loved Grey.

  She couldn’t stand the mere thought of being apart from him.

  And she hated having felt this.

  Wildly, she wondered what she could say, what excuse she could give him for having wantonly draped her body against Heath’s as they danced. Had Grey seen them? Had he noticed she no longer wore her sash? Was he disgusted with her? Repulsed by her? Would he not be able to forgive her?

  Close to splintering under the pressure, she leaned back against the wall, weak- kneed as he shut the door and shrugged out of his jacket.

  The soft drum of raindrops hit against the windowpane.Through the lulling sound, she could hear Grey’s deep, even breathing and her own quickened breaths.

  The very air seemed to crackle with the suppressed energy of his presence.

  His motions were painfully slow as he set his jacket aside and started for her. Her heart raced. Her stomach twisted in need and desire and dread.

  Without the benefit of light, his eyes glowed eerily. She got the distinct impression she was about to be devoured.

  “Have fun tonight,Toni?”

  He pinned her between the wall and his hard body. Emotions lit up his gaze like flashes of thunder, and she could see one in particular taking her breath away. A new breed of desire. Raw. Carnal. Taking her breath away.

  “Yes, I did, Grey.”

  She rubbed against his slab of a body, and god! His cock felt huge against her stomach, the familiar form perfectly delineated through his pants. Hi
s balls were high and tight, the width of his shaft broad, the turgid head stretching the material tight. She pressed her body into his, undulating suggestively, but he didn’t move. Didn’t do anything but stand there.

  Moaning softly, she clawed at his shoulders, buzzed her lips up his neck, filled her lungs with the citrusy scent of him.

  Cream coated her pussy, and her nipples pinged as she pressed them to his chest. She wanted to show him she wanted him inside her, filling her pussy with his hardness, but he remained impassive.

  When he finally moved and lifted one hand to cradle her cheek, she went utterly still. His touch was so very gentle. That simple, tender cup of his hand sparked a wildfire in her.

  As she had danced with the thrillingly frightening Heath Solis, she had pictured falling to her knees and opening his fly, filling her mouth with that part of him she’d sinfully craved. Her tongue had tingled with desire to taste him, to discover what kinds of sounds he made when he was sucked.

  At this moment all she craved was the salty, delicious taste of her Grey.Whom she adored, whom she could never get enough of.

  As the silence stretched, she stared deep into his eyes and tried a smile that couldn’t quite make it. “Grey, say something.”

  He didn’t.

  Only stared at her as though he was seeing a stranger.

  His golden eyes trekked across her face; her nose, her cheeks, her lips, her eyes.

  “You.” His voice was a terse rasp. “Have been a naughty girl.”

  Toni melted back against the wall, parting her legs.“Yes. Oh yes, Grey, I’m so bad.”

  He cupped her sex over her dress and pressed the heel of his palm to her clitoris. The heat of his skin seeped through the satin, searing her. “You let another man touch you.”

  Fire streaked through her as he massaged and she rocked to his hand, seeking to assuage her aching pussy. “Yes, but I’m sorry. So sorry.”

  “Are you, now?”

  His hand opened wider on her cheek and his palm nearly swallowed her face.

  The pad of his thumb bit into her lips and with one brusque swipe, he smeared her crimson lipstick all across her cheek.“Who’s this for,Toni?”

  He repeated the move, smudging her face with the glittery substance, arousing her beyond measure with his roughness. “Tell me. Who’s this for?”

  Toni doubted she had any red left on her lips, but Grey continued to scrape, leaving the flesh of her lips puffy. “Who’s this for, Antonia? Tell me.”

  Something thrilled inside her at the need in his voice, the jealousy. The fierce emotion was eating at Grey, and it only intensified her ache for him.

  She slid her hands up his chest, every hard muscle palpable under his shirt. “Who do you think it’s for?” When had she ever dressed for anyone else? When had anyone else’s opinion counted? “I’m yours, Grey. All yours.”

  He nipped at her lower lip, his eyes hooded. “That’s right.”

  Yanking up the skirt of her dress, he burrowed one hand between her legs, cupping her moistness. She whimpered, and a wash of cream flowed into his palm.

  “You promised to make love to me,” she whispered, and twined her hands around his neck. “I’ve been waiting for this all night.”

  With two deft fingers he fondled the pink lips of her sex, watching her as her features melted. “I keep my promises.” He eased two fingers into her creamed cleft and let out an anguished groan. “God, you’re soaked.”

  She moaned and clasped him tighter. Her fingers bit into his shoulders as she gyrated her hips, coaxing him in deeper.“Take me.”

  He pushed in deeper against the needy flutters of her pussy, and his face, such a stoic beauty most of the time, was etched into a landscape of need.

  “I don’t trust myself right now.”

  Toni framed his strong jaw with her hands and pulled him to her mouth. “I trust you. I love you. Fuck me hard.”

  A sound got strangled in his throat as he captured her lips so hard her head slammed back against the wall. His flavor invaded her—wine and need and Grey. His tongue stabbed into her, once, twice, moving up to the roof of her mouth, over her tongue, beneath it.

  He hulked over her, framing her face as he deepened the kiss, ravaged her lips.

  His hands moved down her ribs and curled around her ass, gripping her to the slab of his hot, aroused body. He groaned into her mouth, the sound purely male and gratifying. It exhilarated her to know she pleased him, made her feel feminine and powerful.

  She tugged his shirt out of his waistband with awkward hands. Grey slanted his mouth over hers and jerked the top of her dress down her shoulders so roughly she heard a tear. Her breasts popped free and he instantly covered them with his hands.

  Toni shivered as he caressed. She parted his shirt and examined every dent and ridge of his chest with her fingers. The warm silk of his skin delighted her. Grey had the most amazing body.Athletic, hairless, tan, and hard.

  “Take your pants off, Grey.”

  Something flashed in his eyes; then they were both rushing to yank off what remained of their clothes.

  His body returned to hers, skin to skin. Flush against her, he bent and rubbed his cock against her pelvis, the taut head grazing up to her belly. “Love,” he rasped, rocking against her, “how you feel against me.”

  His body almost made love to hers with those brazen, undulating moves. A carnal dance of bodies, brushing to the echo of their panting breaths.

  Clutching him against her,Toni nipped at his chin, whimpering from the stimulation of his chest brushing her nipples. She curled one leg around him, opening her sex to him.

  “Is this what you offer?” he demanded.

  He slipped a hand up to brush her pussy so lightly she keened in despair when he retrieved it.

  “Yes, please, yes.”

  He crushed her back against the wall, grinding his hard cock against her distended lips. “I want it.”

  He jammed her breasts into his hands and massaged the flesh, and Toni greedily swiveled her hips, trembling with the need to feel his cock against her.

  Through silky, blond-tipped lashes, he watched what he did to her, his face dark with carnal desire. He grasped the tiny points of her nipples between two fingers and plucked them like petals. Pluck, graze, pluck. Currents of electricity ricocheted through her. He rolled the beads expertly between his fingers and pinched, just like she liked it.

  Her nerve endings sizzled. “Ooh!”

  “Like that?” He pushed them in with his thumbs then tugged them out, causing her overheated body to buck in reaction.

  She panted hard, the tightening sensation deep in her core almost unbearable. “You know I do.”

  “More?”

  Toni arched her spine, her breasts surging up to him. “More.”

  He ducked his head. The heat of his mouth enveloped one puckered nipple. He suckled and lightly grazed it with his teeth, nibbling. Hot, delicious pleasure feathered down her thighs.

  Toni cradled the back of his head, keeping him confined against her, praying he’d never stop. “Oh, Grey, yes, yesss.”

  He moved to her other breast, her first nipple left red and raw. He soaked the other tip, swiping it with his tongue. Then his lips surrounded the pearl and suckled in his mouth. He suctioned, nipped, used his teeth to drive her wild. The tension in the center of her body threatened to tear her apart.

  He tortured her. Sweetly. His hands, his mouth, the storm he caused in her; they were the most effective reminder of who owned her, commanded her passions, awakened her deepest longings.

  The sex was always an avalanche of passion, earth- shattering in its intensity. Afterward it would be all love, a little banter, a burst or two of laughter. Then Grey would be cool again. The ruthless businessman the world knew.

  He was ruthless as a lover, too.

  He inched his head down her abdomen so slowly he had her writhing in anticipation against the wall.

  Juice trickled down her thigh as the stron
g, satiny tip of his tongue nudged her clit. Her pussy gave a hot series of spasms when he repeated the caress, going deeper this time.

  She tensed her muscles, screaming in her throat. Desperate, she grabbed a fistful of his hair and wrested him up. “Grey, I need you—”

  He silenced the remainder with his rampant kiss.Toni clumsily wrapped her arms around his neck, her breasts compressed against his chest. She couldn’t think, breathe. Every inch of her burned. She wanted closer. Needed closer.

  He squeezed her thighs with his big hands. “Wrap both legs around me, dirty girl.”

  When she did, his massive erection prodded her sex. She let out a needy noise when he used the head to tease her clit.

  He watched her with burning eyes, his chest heaving with each languorous move of his hips.The strong pulses in his cock vibrated against her pussy, making her quiver.

  “Grey . . .”

  “Want me in?” His voice was barely intelligible, rough as sandpaper.

  “Yes!”

  He drew his hips back, then rocked them forward. “There you go.” Her sheath parted as the head entered. “Nice and slow.” He dipped his thumb into her mouth.

  Toni sucked on his thumb, her pussy easing around his shaft as he pushed deep.

  His head fell back as he groaned. She moaned simultaneously. He started a rhythm, a slow rock of his hips that made her painfully aware of each inch he withdrew and each inch he impaled.

  Gasping, Toni bit down on his thumb and reared up, drawing his cock in as far as it would go. “Faster, Grey.” She swiveled her hips, and a powerful tremble that seemed to affect the entire room rocked across his body. “Christ.” He flattened her completely against the wall and took up a merciless rhythm, one that wasn’t meant to please, but to take.

  Toni grabbed his ass, glorying in each flex of taut muscle, urging him in deeper, meeting his thrusts with frantic swivels of her own. Each long, steely penetration had her writhing, the pressure mounting inside her, sending her toward an earth- shattering explosion.