Burned Deep (46 page)

“So I'm not behind?”

“Not that I'm aware of, though no one in your department works as hard as you. And they've missed you.”

“So, it's okay that I come back?”

“More than okay. I couldn't pull off this launch without you.”

“It means a lot to me, Dane. Because it's your dream.”

His fingers grazed my cheek, the one that had healed. He stared deep into my eyes and said, “I hadn't realized, until you started working there and embraced everything about the Lux the way I do, that a dream is infinitely more important—more personal—when you share it with someone.”

“I fell in love with it. As much as I fell in love with you.”

He crooked a brow.

I laughed. “Of course that's not possible. I am ridiculously, insanely, hopelessly in love with you.”

He brushed more tears from my face and said, “Then no more crying. No more worrying. No more fear. Because I'm going to make sure everything is perfect for you.”

“Dane, that's a promise you can't make. All I'm asking is that … we're safe.”

His lips swept over mine and the electric current returned. “Amano is working with me. Ethan and the others, too. It'll be different this time, Ari.”

“I know. That's why I'm here. Kyle said…” I shook my head, not wanting to get my friend in hot water. But needing to clear the air. “He said you weren't yourself. Without me. Amano said you were in bad shape, too.”

He glowered. “So happy to hear everyone's been keeping tabs on my mood.”

“You're sort of hard to miss, brooding or not. But when you're in a mood, yeah, people tend to no—”

“Your point is?” he asked, spearing me with a look.

“I'm just saying that … I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe you could accept how I feel. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe in you.”

His head dipped and he kissed me. A slow, sexy one that drew me in and nearly made me forget my own name. I gripped his biceps, having missed his rock-hard muscles beneath my fingertips.

When he turned the heated kiss into a teasing tangling of our lips, I whispered, “Dane. I need you.”

“You don't know how much I've missed you every single night. It's been hell. Like nothing I've ever known. You didn't return my calls, my texts. Amano told me not to go to your townhome. He warned me. That, Ari—that was damn-near impossible. To stay away. But he said you didn't want me there, didn't want the help I sent, either.”

“I had to get through it on my own. But, Dane, that's all over. Now … Please, I can't stand another second without you kissing me, without you inside me.”

His next kiss was an intense, searing one. His tongue delved deep and his arms crushed me to him.

No doubt I left scratches as my hands slid to his back and I held on tight. But it wasn't enough.

Tearing my mouth from his, I said, “Right here, Dane. Right now.”

My chest rose and fell harshly. Desire ran rampant. I wanted him more fiercely than ever before.

I shoved his shirt off his shoulders and down his arms, letting it drop to the floor. He discarded mine as well, then lifted the tank top over my head, tossing it aside. He deftly worked the button fly of my jeans and yanked the denim down my legs, pausing to slip off my shoes and socks.

His hands skimmed up to my thighs as he knelt in front of me. He stared up into my eyes for several erratic heartbeats. Then he palmed my ass cheeks and his head dipped to the apex of my legs. He inhaled deeply.

I moaned.

His mouth pressed to my sex, his tongue sliding over my lace-covered lips. Excitement shot through me.

But a dark, incessant need claimed me. In a quiet, demanding voice, I said, “You have to be inside me. Now.”

He took my hand and pulled me down to the thick area rug with him. He unfastened my bra and then guided me down, reaching above my head toward a chair where he snagged a pillow. As I lay back, he whisked off my panties and his clothes. I got lost in the beauty of him. His edgy perfection. His magnificence.

My hands roved his body, over his smooth skin. My pulse raced as his muscles tensed beneath my touch and his eyes blazed.

“I can't live without this,” I said.

He swallowed hard. “You don't have to. I swear it.”

My hand swept up to his neck and I tugged him forward. His lips grazed mine and fire ignited low in my belly.

“I want to feel you,” I said, our gazes locked.

His emerald irises glowed seductively. “Are you saying—”

“I started the Pill after that first night here. It's hasn't been three months, but I think it's an okay time. If I count correctly.”

“And if your math's not so hot?”

I didn't say anything. Safe Aria Lynne DeMille was not the Russian roulette type. But I had to have him this way. Just as he'd always wanted all of me, I wanted that in turn. Was desperate for it.

So I kissed him and let him decide.

His hand slid around to my back, pressing me against him as my spine arched. My breasts nestled under his pecs. Our legs tangled, as did our tongues. His kiss went on and on, a sizzling, revealing one. He would give me whatever I asked for, whatever I wanted. Of that I had no doubt. Especially when we'd both suffered so much from being apart.

My fingers threaded in his hair and I felt his erection against my hip. I drowned in ecstasy, and that was how I knew I'd made the right choice by coming here tonight. Because nothing else registered in my mind. Nothing else mattered to me. Except the moments when the world melted away and all that existed was the two of us.

Dragging my mouth from his, I murmured, “I want to feel you come inside me.”

He let out a low sigh. So intimate and sexy, it sent a tremor through me and a flicker of heat against my clit.

His gaze captured mine again and he stared deep as he sank into me. My breath caught. Every delicious inch of him filled me. My hips rose to meet his unhurried, provocative thrusts, our eyes still searching, agreeing, accepting.

He made love to me slowly, intensely. Passion sparked in my core and spread out, flowing languidly, enticingly, through my veins.

Dane held me to him. I held him to me. We never broke the eye contact.

I felt the first wave of heat and then the subtle trembling. I wasn't sure if it was me who shook slightly or him. Maybe both of us. Our breaths were steady but labored, a bit harsh—coming in time with each other so that they became one. The way our bodies did. Our hearts. Our souls.

Everything that I would have ever wished for myself, had I been the type, crystallized the deeper he moved inside me, the more seductive his gaze became.

“Dane,” I whispered as the sensations mounted.

“Yes, Ari. Yes.”

I felt the shattering of every inch of me, the evidence that I belonged to him, only him. No one else. Ever.

“Ari,” he said. “You are
everything
to me.”

And then the hot rush of him filled me and he shuddered against me with one of those arousing, primal groans that told me how powerful my sway was over him.

That told me he was mine.

 

epilogue

KYLE

Ari returned to 10,000 Lux the first week of November. I'd been shocked to see her coming through the double doors of the lobby. Shocked to see Dane walking beside her. Not so shocked to see Amano close behind them, eyes alert.

Everyone was happy she'd come back. They'd been concerned about her absence, which they conveniently explained had been due to a car accident. That lie covered the scar on her forehead and the fact that Dane drove her to work, since she'd apparently “totaled” her SUV. I wondered what they'd done with it.

Dane cut me some slack with the intense, intimidating looks and even thanked me for helping her when she'd needed it most. That sentiment had been a reluctant one but I'd told him I'd always be there for her. Warned him, actually.

It was a bitch of a situation to be in. I didn't like her choices, plain and simple. I didn't like that she'd been in danger—could still be—or that she'd gone back on that vehement declaration she'd made in her living room, when her cheek had been bruised and swollen, causing me to want to put my fist through a wall … or Dane's face. She'd sworn they were over. I'd believed it.

So seeing them together now infuriated me, tore at me. I wanted to feel “happy” for her—for getting whatever it was that she wanted. Still … why'd it have to be
him
?

Now I was stuck with having to pretend I didn't know what she was involved in, pretend I didn't know she'd been kidnapped and attacked, that her face had been fucked up and she'd had a vacant, tormented look in her eyes that had damn-near killed me.

But he'd shown his true colors once, and I was convinced it would happen again. And when it did, I'd be there to pick up the pieces for her.

Just as I'd warned Dane …

 

about the author

CALISTA FOX
is a former PR professional, now writing fast-paced, steamy books to set your pulse racing! She is an award-winning author and teaches online writing classes. She has crossed the country many times over by corporate jet with her PR job and travels internationally, always with her laptop in tow to capture intriguing story elements and exotic locales. You can sign up for email updates
here
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