STORY EXCERPT

Forcing a smile, Alexandria pressed her thighs together in an attempt to ease the ache that had settled there. Part of her felt relief that he seemed to understand her, while another part feared that he saw too much. Averting her gaze so he didn’t see more, she found herself breathless.  “My needs are none of your business.”

Beau glanced at the waiter as he brought a bread basket, the scent of it tickling her taste buds and making her mouth water. Waiting until the waiter left, Beau took her hand in his again and brought it to his lips, his action surprising her into meeting his gaze again. “On that, we disagree. Did I mention that you look beautiful tonight? But then, I’ve never seen you look anything but.”

“I think the word you used was stunning.” Running a fingertip up and down the stem of her glass, she raised a brow. “You don’t really believe you’re going to charm me into capitulating with compliments, do you?”

“Not at all. You’re not naïve, and you’re certainly not gullible.” He buttered a small slice of bread and handed it to her. “Do you have a lot of trouble with theft in your company?”

Breaking off an edge of her still steaming portion of bread, Alexandria shrugged. “It’s always a threat. I have to have employees I trust completely, and I don’t trust that easily. Still, someone has to do the work, but I have to keep a sharp eye on everyone.”

Beau picked up a piece of bread. “Steve takes care of your security?”

“He does. I wouldn’t trust anyone else. He watches over the head of security—”

“Paul Simpson?”

Surprised that he remembered that, Alexandria nodded and popped a bite of bread into her mouth. “Yes. He’s very upset that someone was able to copy something.”

Beau frowned, glancing up when the waiter came through the curtain again with a platter of hot appetizers. “I’m surprised that was allowed to happen. I could tell when I spoke to him earlier that he was coding something.” He smiled and gestured toward the platter. “Your brother speaks in one-word grunts when he’s coding. What would you like?”

“Hmm. The clams, shrimp, and stuffed mushrooms look good. Everything looks good, but I didn’t hear you order it.”

“Arthur just wants to know what you want as a main dish. He chooses a variety of appetizers and desserts. We should get a small salad next.”

“Hmm.” Alexandria took another sip of wine. “I didn’t know you knew my brother so well.”

Beau slid the items she’d mentioned, along with a bacon-wrapped asparagus and a small, filled puff pastry onto her small plate before buttering another piece of bread for her. “He wanted to meet me when Les Willard sold the firm to me and retired. We hit it off, and have lunch together when we get the chance.”

He smiled and slid the bread onto her plate, his attention to her more than she was used to. “He mentioned his beautiful sister more than once and his frustration with her that she seemed so alone.”

Chewing the bite of breaded clam, Alexandria shook her head and smiled. “I have all the social life that I want. My brother thinks I should let him do background checks on every man I date. Because of that, I keep my social life to myself.”

Beau slid several appetizers onto his own plate. “Steve knows we’re out tonight.”

Amused, she cut her asparagus. “Can’t keep a secret?”

“I didn’t intend to keep it a secret. I have no problem with people knowing of my interest in you.” He cut into the puff pastry. “If you don’t go out much, what do you do with yourself after work?”

“Who says I don’t go out much?”

Beau popped the bite of his appetizer into his mouth. “Your brother, for one.”

“I told you that I don’t tell him about my social life.”

Picking up his wine glass again, Beau narrowed his gaze on hers. “It’s interesting that you mention a social life but you never call it a love life.”

Alexandria cut her shrimp in half and decided it was time to change the subject. “Why did you decide to become a lawyer?”

Beau smiled. “I like the rules. Right and wrong. I like the challenge of outwitting a prosecutor. I like making sure my clients have a proper defense and aren’t pushed through the system.”

She finished chewing her bite of shrimp and stabbed the other half. “But most people wouldn’t be able to pay your fees.”

“Those fees enable me to pay the best private detective agency in Georgia.” His lips curved. “They also allow me to take more cases pro bono. As a matter of fact, the murder case I’m trying next week is pro bono.”

“That’s nice of you. It’s important to give back.”

“Is that why you send free makeup and skin care products to cancer patients at the hospital?”

Alexandria shrugged. “A little makeup can sometimes make a woman feel beautiful. A woman needs to feel beautiful. My entire career is based on that concept.”

Beau refilled his wine glass and topped off hers. “Women also feel beautiful when they know they’re desired.”

Looking down at her plate, she sighed. “Feeling desired isn’t enough.”

Because he was watching her, Beau couldn’t miss the brief flash of a deep sadness, one that appeared to have been cultivated for quite a long time.

The waiter appeared again with their salads and, after he’d cleared away the appetizers, disappeared again.

Beau’s mind worked as he watched Alexandria, and feeling on the verge of learning something more, he carefully searched for the right words. “No. Feeling desired isn’t enough. You have to desire in return. It has to be a two-way street.”

Averting her gaze, Alexandria cut into her salad. “I imagine so.”

“You also need to play.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Reaching into the nightstand, he retrieved a condom, donning it smoothly before covering her body with his. Staring into her eyes, he pressed the head of his cock against her pussy opening and slowly began to press into her. “Say my name.”

Pressing her heels against the backs of his thighs, Alexandria gripped his powerful biceps, needing him inside her more than she needed her next breath. “Beau.”

He thrust into her, the full, stretched sensation reminding her just how long it had been since she’d had sex. “Look at me, Alexandria.”

She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until he’d spoken and slowly opened them to find him staring down at her. “Beau?”

“It’s been a while for you, hasn’t it?” Interlocking his fingers with hers, he pressed her hands to the mattress on either side of her head. “We’ll take it nice and slow.”

He began to move, slow strokes, each going deeper, until he filled her completely, the friction of his cock against her inner walls and every stroke pure bliss. He bent to take her mouth again, kissing her while his cock continued its slow strokes inside her.

Her mind emptied.

Nothing mattered except Beau, and the feel of him surrounding her, the thick heat of his cock filling her.

“Don’t close your eyes.”

No matter how high she went, she couldn’t seem to go over. The pleasure kept building and building until she thought the next stroke would send her over and then the next.

And the next.

Tears burned her eyes, her arousal almost torture. Closing her eyes, she shook her head from side to side, her pussy clenching on his cock and her clit so swollen she thought she would die of it. “Please, Beau. Faster!”

“No.” Beau’s eyes seemed to glow from within, something darkly erotic gleaming from their depths. “You wanted to come with my cock inside you. You’re going to, but you denied me. Did you think I wouldn’t make you pay for that?”

Beau’s cock jumped when her eyes widened and her pussy clenched hard, each piece of evidence convincing him more and more that his instincts were right about her.

She was a submissive, one who hadn’t explored even the surface of her need to surrender.

He couldn’t tear his gaze from her, the hunger on her flushed features, and the frustration and passion in every sound she made threatened his control like never before.

He had to make her his.

She writhed against him, her need for more evident.

He could have thrust faster and given her the orgasm they both desperately needed, and it took every ounce of control he possessed to deny both of them.

Instead, he decided to do something that would prove to her that he knew what she needed and was the man for it. He partially withdrew and stilled, anticipating her sudden movements. “Be still.”

Normally, the sight of tears of frustration would have prompted a soothing calm from him, but this time, the need to show Alexandria that he could handle her proved stronger.

“Beau! Please! I need to come! I’m begging you!”

When the last ended in a sob, he very nearly gave in but decided to go with his gut. “If you want me to move, you have to stay still.”

Her pussy clenched hard, bathing his cock with more of her juices, and her eyes widened with shock. “I can’t! Please!”

Her breathless plea nearly unraveled him, but Beau was playing for more than a one-night stand.

“If you’re still, I’ll give you what you need.”

Alexandria fisted her hands in his and sucked in several breaths, her entire body trembling. “I can’t! I can’t! Damn it, I never thought you could be so cruel!”

Releasing her hands, Beau slid a hand beneath her head and the other to her ass, holding her firmly against him. “You know better than that, Alexandria, and I won’t allow you to provoke me.”

He tilted her head back, brushing his lips over hers as he sank his cock deep. “I’ll give you what you need, Alexandria. Be still. Waiting is going to make your orgasm far more intense.”

As he’d anticipated, she tried to move against him, but he held firm. “No. I’ve got you. Be a good girl and be still so I can take you the way I want to.”

He withdrew almost all the way before slowly sliding into her again. “That’s it.”

Alexandria could barely breathe, the pleasure intensified by Beau’s words and the way he held her. He’d told her to be a good girl, words that should have sounded condescending, but when spoken with such desire and indulgence, it made her feel ultra-feminine and decidedly special.

With him staring into her eyes, his silky voice still ringing in her ears, Beau sank deep and then again. “Come.”

On his next stroke, he changed the angle of his thrust slightly, setting off an orgasm unlike any she’d ever experienced.

A wave of pleasure crashed through her, the intensity of it as alarming as it was thrilling.

Gripping Beau, she cried out, clinging to him as he surged into her several more times while still holding her against him. “Oh God!”

It lasted longer than any orgasm she’d ever had, but even as the remnants of pleasure still hummed through her, Beau found his own release, his groan adding another layer of pleasure, this one emotional.

His grip remained firm, but gentled.

Smoothing her hair back from her face, he held her gaze and lowered his head, kissing her deeply, but lightly. “I knew it would be that way.”