Dare to Desire (24 page)

“Eager to escape?” Alex asked, laughing.

“You don’t understand what all those drunk women in one room are like,” he muttered.

“But Riley can’t drink.”

“She insisted on mimosas for her friends. Tipsy females giving gifts like breast pumps, nipple cream, and a wiseass one gave her a voucher for a vasectomy. Said she’d be begging me to get one during delivery.”

“Ouch, man. That’s harsh.”

“You’re telling me. My brothers left after the first high-pitched screaming laugh.” He slapped Alex on the back. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Jesus. Can we stay out here?”

“No way. I’ve stayed out of their way for the most part, but Riley wants me there for cake and a toast. You can damn well earn your brother stripes and back me up.”

“You owe me,” Alex muttered, following Ian into the house.

An hour later, Alex was ready to escape the excited women, the tiny-people clothes—how did you hold something that small and not drop it, anyway?—and all those diapers, creams, and instruction books. He was glad he was engaged to be married and had time before he had to face all this … stuff.

He cornered a tipsy Madison in the hall near the kitchen. “Ready to go?” he asked hopefully.

“Another mimosa first.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the full bar with a professional mixer Ian had hired.

“Oh, no. I think you’ve had enough.”

She turned toward him. “I haven’t. Really. I just think we should stay till the end. For Riley.”

He nodded. “Can I get something in exchange for the sacrifice?”

“Such as?” she asked, leaning in close and looping her arms around his neck.

He pulled her into the nearest room and shut the door behind them. “This.” He slid his lips over hers and took her mouth, kissing her as if he hadn’t seen her and made love to her earlier this morning.

“Mmm. What was that for?”

“Do I need a reason to kiss my soon-to-be wife?” he asked.

“Nope.” She threaded her fingers through his hair and refastened her lips over his.

Her tongue glided over his mouth, pushed inside, and she moaned, pulling tighter on his hair and not letting him get away. Not that he wanted to.

With a moan, she finally separated from him. “I’ve been thinking.”

“About?”

“What kind of wedding I want.” Before today, Madison had been putting off making a decision on anything to do with the actual ceremony.

Not because she had any doubts but because she didn’t know how to have something traditional when her life was anything but. Still, spending the day with a lot of married women talking about babies and families had her ready to make a decision.

Alex grasped her waist in his hands. “Anything you want, it’s yours.”

She swallowed hard. “I want to be your wife, but I don’t want a big wedding with a lot of people. I don’t have parents and—”

“No explanations necessary,” he assured her.

“I don’t want to walk down the aisle alone or with someone who isn’t really my father. I just want to marry you. I’d say Las Vegas, but I want your family to be there.”

He squeezed her tighter. “And I love you for that. So why not do Vegas? My family can fly out there as easily as we can. Gabe owns a club there. I’m sure he knows all the best places for us to go. It’ll be simple.”

She stared in surprise. “Really?”

He grinned. “Really.”

She blew out a long breath. “Thank you,” she said, so relieved he’d agreed. “If Riley can fly, I’d love for her and Ian to be there. If not, I know she’ll understand.”

He nodded. “I agree.”

He was so easy. So special. She stared into those dark chocolate eyes so full of love. For her. She was lucky, she thought not for the first time. Not for the hundredth. He’d turned into the perfect man for her. And throughout the last few months, she’d grown a lot too.

She’d learned to talk to herself during his travels, reassuring herself that his on-air chemistry with the co-host of his show didn’t mean he was interested in her. That the other proverbial shoe didn’t have to fall. That he didn’t have to leave her like others in her life. And thanks to his patience, it was all starting to stick. She was more self-aware, more trusting. And she hoped she could be half the partner for him that he was for her.

“If my family can be there, great. If not … you’re all I need, Angel.”

“Good thing,” she said, smiling. “Because you’re all I need too.”

EPILOGUE

G
abriel Dare stared at the email he’d received from his cousin Alex. Another Dare male soon to be married. Gabe stared out the window over one of the four terraces in his apartment that overlooked the East River. He had varied business interests, owned the most exclusive nightclubs in the world’s most sought-after locations, and he was bored. Not with the business end of things but with his personal life.

The endless available supply of beautiful women did nothing for him. Easy catches didn’t stimulate his interest. No, there was only one woman who’d done that lately, and she was living with a pompous ass who didn’t deserve her. He ran a hand through his hair, understanding that her lack of availability was for the best.

Gabe had married young and miscalculated badly. He felt responsible for his wife’s death, leaving him certain that being alone was his best—his only—option. One look at
her
had him wanting to do what he always did when hit with a business challenge. Reassess. But matters of the heart had little in common with business, which was more calculated and controlling. He had to put her out of his mind.

Unfortunately, there was something about Isabelle …

If you missed book 1 in the Dare to Love series, Riley & Ian’s story,
Dare to Love is available NOW!

Dare to Surrender – Isabelle & Gabe’s story – available July 15, 2014

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Read on for an excerpt from my upcoming book, DARE TO SURRENDER.

I was arrested a mile outside of Manhattan. Grand theft auto, the cop said. Bullshit, I replied. The baby Benz belonged to me.

Still, he cuffed me and hauled me to the nearest police station. He said his name was Officer Dare and he was a dark haired man, tall, taller than Lance, who prided himself on his height, and broader from what I could tell beneath his uniform. His intense expression never wavered. All seriousness, all the time, but I sensed he’d be handsome if he smiled. So far, he hadn’t.

Once inside the typical looking police station – not that I’d seen the inside of one before – but what I’d thought one would look like from Law and Order – he sat me beside his wooden desk, and
cuffed
me to the desk!

I ought to be scared but some stupid part of me had already decided this new part of my life was some grand adventure. At least it was until Officer Dare asked me to empty my pockets and divested me of my last $500 dollars, cash I’d taken from the
extra
stash I kept in my nightstand.

He thumbed through the bulging stack of twenties in never ending silence.

The money represented my lifeline. “I’ll need to eat when I get out of here,” I told my jailer.

He didn’t look up. “You’ll get it back.”

“All of it?” I asked, as if I seriously believed a member of the police force would take a
down on their luck
woman’s chance at food.

He set his jaw in annoyance. “We log it and count it. In front of you. I was just about to do that … Ma’am.”

For some inane reason, I burst out laughing. I’d gone from living in denial to homeless and arrested in a ridiculously short time. This whole turn in my life really was absurd.

I rubbed my free hand up and down over one arm. “Don’t I get one phone call?”

He nodded and reached for the telephone on the desk.

I frowned, suddenly realizing I had no one to call. Lance was out of the question and
our
friends were really
his
friends. As for my parents, they didn’t remember my birthday, so something told me a late night call to pick up their daughter from jail would not be their number one priority.

“Never mind,” I said softly.

The officer stared at me, confused. “Now you don’t want to use the phone?”

“No thank you.” Because I was totally, utterly alone.

Nausea rose like bile in my throat and I dug my nails into my palms. When I forced myself to breath deeply, the familiar burning in my chest returned and I realized I’d walked away without the one thing I never left home without and it wasn’t my license.

“Any chance you’ve got some Tums?” I asked.

He ground his teeth together and I swear I heard his molars scraping. “Okay, yeah. I’ll get right on that,” he muttered and strode off.

“I’ll just wait here,” I called back. I lifted my arm the short distance the cuffs would allow and groaned.

What felt like an endless stretch of time passed during which I reviewed my options, of which, once again, I had none.

Now what, I wondered, utter and complete despair threatening for the first time. Eventually I swallowed back the lump in my throat and forced myself to make the best of the situation.

I kicked my feet against the linoleum floor. Leaned back in the chair and studied the cracked ceiling. Hummed along to the tune crackling on the radio in the background. And yeah, I tried not to cry.

“You know, I thought it would take me longer to get you in cuffs.” A familiar masculine voice that oozed pure sin sounded beside me.

It couldn’t be, I thought, but from the tingling in my body, I already knew it was. “Gabriel Dare, what brings you into this part of Mayberry?”

He chuckled, a deeply erotic sound that matched his mention of the handcuffs, but he didn’t answer my question.

Left with no choice, I tipped my head and looked into his self-possessed, dark blue, eyes. Eyes too similar to my cop and suddenly the last name registered. In an unfamiliar place and time, my mind on my arrest and nothing more, I hadn’t made the connection before.

I knew Gabriel Dare from the country club Lance belonged to but despite the upper crust connection, there was nothing similar about the two men. Where Lance was sandy haired and a touch Waspish in looks, Gabe, as his friends called him, possessed thick, dark sable hair and roguish good looks.

Gabe’s very posture and demeanor set him apart from any other man I’d met. His white teeth, tanned skin, and chiseled features were put together in a way that made him extraordinarily handsome. That he owned the space and air around him merely added to his appeal. An appeal that had never been lost on me, not even now, shackled as I was to a desk in a police station.

His stare never wavered, those navy eyes locked on me and if I hadn’t been sitting, I’d be in a puddle at his feet.

“You look good cuffed,” he said in a deliciously low voice.

Immediate thoughts of me bound and at his mercy assaulted me. My body, which hadn’t been worshiped well in far too long, if ever, had been taken over by the notion of Gabe, his strong touch playing me with an expert hand.