“Go show her what she’s missing, brother.” Chloe kissed his cheek and he watched as she disappeared into the crowd. He was bracing himself as he slowly turned in search of Monica, his every cell and particle vibrating with need, and suddenly he jolted when he felt five soft, slender little fingers slip into his hand, and he heard that achingly familiar whisper at his ear.
“Hey, you…”
His heart trembled in his chest as the words spilled inside his body, soft and warm like her cashmere. Slowly, not even breathing, he shifted toward her, and their gazes collided, caught, held.
His lungs burned, and he devoured the sight of her, in a shimmering blue dress, her eyes wide and blue and almost imploring. The instinct to hold her was so acute, it took every effort in his body to keep from pulling her into his arms, lean over and scent her, touch her, feel her. No.
He had no right to do this.
She’d refused him. She didn’t want to want him. Chose not to be with him.
Not just once, but twice, and he feared a third time would kill him.
Even then, he would have to fight this stubborn woman until his last breath for now he knew, without a doubt, that he would never die in peace until this woman told him that she loved him.
“Where’s Grandpa?” he asked her, his timbre alien. Angry, and loaded with a thousand one frustrations.
Her voice was as low as his, and the open hunger in her gaze somehow made his gut wind into an even deeper set of knots. “I don’t know, nor do I care. It’s over. There was hardly anything to finish.”
“You seemed to be hanging pretty damn tight for hardly anything,” he angrily countered.
Suddenly he realized she’d worn her hair loose tonight. Like Daniel had once told her he liked. And she looked as soft and inviting as she had in her bedroom. In his arms. God, help me.
“Did you know all these years, Daniel? That he’d been with my mother?” she asked, her face upturned to his as she searched his eyes.
“No.” God, this was torture. His fists trembled at his sides to keep from reaching out to her. The music, the gala patrons, everything had faded in the background. Everything but her. “If I’d known, I’d have told you sooner. It never occurred to me to check him out before.”
“But you wanted to find something wrong with him, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he said gruffly. And he’d search every bastard she so much as looked at, until she realized there would be no one, ever, to know her like Daniel.
Then he noticed her eyes glistened with … hope? Tears? Whatever it was, it was clawing into him like talons. Deeply. Profoundly.
And suddenly he couldn’t take it anymore.
“You’re no longer with Gustafson, good for you. But what does your new situation mean for me?”
Holding his gaze as though startled, Monica bit her lip and then glanced at the hands he kept motionless at his sides.
“Does this mean anything for me?” he demanded.
When she only held her breath, still looking at his hands as though she wanted them on her, Daniel took a step forward, his heart screaming at the risk he was taking. If she kept saying no … if she kept shooting him down …
“Am I going to live my entire life wanting you and not having you?” he asked in quiet fury. “Would you have stayed with a man you don’t love if it weren’t for the out I found for you?”
She shook her head. “There were a lot of things wrong with Roland, actually.” She met his gaze squarely. “Starting with the fact that he’s not you.”
He stiffened in unexpected surprise when she leaned forward, altering his body chemistry with the touch of her frame fitting like a missing puzzle piece into his larger one. He instantly responded. He grew hot and hard under his tuxedo, too big to fit inside his skin.
He was throbbing to be inside her as she started sliding both her hands up the length of his chest. His pulse skidded when she grabbed his bow tie and boosted herself up, and her soft, parted lips came locking perfectly with his.
A frisson of heat bolted straight from her kiss to his heart, his toes, his cock, her lips immediately parting at the contact of their mouths.
It was the softest, most shyly hesitant kiss anyone had ever given him, and the significance of her sweet, open public display of affection wasn’t lost on Daniel.
He could shatter her right here. He could turn her away. Hurt her like he hurt. But the fact that Monica was exposing herself, vulnerable and open and at his mercy, hell, the trust her actions implied, as if she knew even when he was aching down to the marrow of his bones, he would protect her with his life, undid him.
Monica Davenport was claiming him. Claiming him and accepting him.
The realization fired him up like an explosive.
Groaning fully, Daniel pulled her to him, not minding that the people around them seemed to have fallen still, not minding the press, the entire crowd, anything but opening Monica’s sweet soft mouth and tasting her and taking what she gave him. Tears, love, he could taste it. He shuddered with it, felt the tremor that went through her slender body, and he brought her closer, close and tight, but not close enough.
She heatedly whispered, “I adore you,” into his mouth, making small fists in his hair, locking herself against him as a string of words rushed out of her lips, warm and fast. “I’m sorry. Please tell me I haven’t lost you. Tell me you love me. I’m yours, Daniel, you’ve always had me. You had me when I was ten years old. I’ve been so afraid.”
Daniel was so dazed, he just framed her face and nuzzled her nose for a minute, panting. “It’s just me, Monica, it’s me, princess. Your friend, your protector, your lover.”
She shuddered and kissed him softly again, pulling back to capture his gaze. “I’m so afraid what I feel will eat me up, but it’s out of the box, Danny. I want to feel everything you make me.… I want to keep you forever, I want you to keep me, never have anyone other than me.”
“Jesus, come here.” He crushed her tighter to him and reclaimed her lips, and there was no resistance in her, only a shudder that seemed to start in her body and end up in his. Waves of ecstasy throbbed through him, her kiss singing through his veins until his breath tore out of him in gasps. He pulled away and shakily kissed each of her cheekbones, the tip of her nose. “Do you want to get out of here?”
The mere touch of her hand as she set it trustingly in his sent another shiver through him, filling him with relentless excitement as her lips curled in a smile of mischief. “Please, let’s. Do you have a decoy?”
He shook his head but smiled in mischief as he glanced at the front ballroom doors, where a couple of VIP press members seemed to be clamoring for a picture, their long lenses on the cameras, aimed straight in their direction and zooming in. Every eye in the party seemed to be focused on them, and when Monica realized this, her eyes first widened in concern, and then she pressed to his side and laughed softly. Their bodies thrummed against each other, vibrating with new life as they linked their fingers together.
“Maybe we should just give them what they’ve been begging for all these years,” she lightly suggested.
His chest swelled at those words and the confidence in them, and Daniel’s grip tightened on her fingers. “All right, if we’re doing this, let’s go all out and give them a field day.”
He scanned the crowd for a head of light blond hair and noticed Chloe was already leaving through the back door, a big smile on her face as she waved. Seconds later, Daniel and Monica stepped out of the ballroom, the reporters who had lingered there charging feverishly after them. They headed out the lobby, where even more paparazzi stood in wait. One of Daniel’s Bugatti cars was parked at the very entrance driveway of the hotel, and it automatically beeped as Daniel and Monica approached.
Flashes erupted all around them, and for a moment both Daniel and Monica stopped to face them, his arm around her.
“Mr. Lexington, are you together?”
“Is she The One, Daniel?”
&
nbsp; “Ms. Davenport, is there anything going on between you?”
“Daniel, is she The One?”
Neither answered as they allowed a couple of pictures, and Daniel finally opened the door for her, led her in, locked her in, and then he slid in behind the wheel and started the engine.
“Daniel, it’s going to be difficult for me,” Monica said as soon as he pulled them out of the hotel driveway.
He checked the rearview mirror to make sure they weren’t followed, then made a left. “That’s all right, we’ll take it one step at a time. I’ll spend some nights in your place, you spend some in mine. We can leave some clothing. I don’t care where as long as you’re in my arms.” He braked at the stop light and glanced at her with a grin, taking in her amazed expression, her pink cheeks, the special warmth in her eyes, that ear-to-ear smile that matched his. “How does that sound?”
“It sounds like heaven.”
His chest overflowing with emotion, Daniel reached over and squeezed her thigh, then shifted gears. “Where to, princess?”
“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.”
“You regret it?” He baited her with a smirk. But no. He couldn’t miss the excitement in her voice. The excitement whirling inside his car. In his heart.
“I’m excited, Lexington. Very excited.”
“Yours or mine, princess?”
She took a quick breath that shook with emotion, then she laughed and sat up on the seat to quickly grab his head and kiss his temple, his jaw. “Yours. Yours.” She settled down so he didn’t get distracted from the road, he supposed, and quickly put her hand over his on the gear shift. She lightly squeezed, and this time, she never let go. “Yours.”
Epilogue
One month later, an excerpt from the Chicago Gazette social section:
It’s Official!
Well, ladies and gentlemen, for all those of you single out there, it’s official. Monica Davenport and Daniel Lexington are an item. MoDa, as they’re now being called, have been spotted everywhere around town, in events, snuggling, holding hands, and as you can see in the picture below, publicly kissing! If we failed to see a fair amount of PDA from Miss Davenport before, it seems there’s now PDA going aplenty between the good-looking pair. And now there’s speculation on whether or not our beloved MoDa might be soon tying the knot. Miss Davenport has been wearing something that looks like a very elegant Asscher cut diamond engagement ring, and she’s been spotted visiting the most prestigious museums for what we speculate might be the perfect setting for the grand event. Stay tuned!
Red Garnier loves a good book and a great romance. Nothing brings a smile to her face faster than a happily-ever-after, especially one she gets to pen down. Red is living her deepest, most cherished dream today, thanks to a bit of luck, a lot of work, and a lot of support. She is a happy wife, a cherished mother, and a full-time writer. You can visit her website at www.redgarnier.com to find out more about her and her upcoming books.
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
“Kept by Him” copyright © 2013 by Red Garnier.
All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover art © Studio10Artur/Shutterstock.com
Author photo © JCP Portrait Studio
eISBN 9781466833470
First eBook Edition: July 2013
Red Garnier, Kept by Him
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