Dare to Love (Dare to Love 1)

“By Sunday when they all show up, we will be.”

* * *

After a week of him wining and dining her, keeping a respectful distance while luring her in with his domineering personality and erotic kisses, Riley decided Ian Dare was too much. He epitomized danger wrapped in a too-appealing package.

She eyed him in the quiet that fell during coffee, using the time to compare him to past relationships, none of which were all that recent. Nobody piqued her interest the way he had. Probably because Riley’s usual taste in men ran to the predictable and safe. Being raised by a bully determined to have his own way with no regard to the emotional destruction left in his wake, Riley made no apologies for choosing carefully. She was immune to hardened, take-charge men.

So she ought to be immune to Ian and his charm.

She wasn’t.

She did, however, wonder just how charismatic her father had been toward her stepmother before she married him and, too late, had seen his other side. Riley mentally pursued that possibility and immediately discounted the notion that Douglas Taylor had ever come close to Ian Dare in charm. Though her father had clearly known how to hide his darker self, never in his lifetime had he been endearing. Her stepmother, Melissa, admitted she’d been drawn to his neediness during his hospitalization, a weakness in herself she’d made certain she got over after the divorce. She might have been seduced by his good looks, but his charm? Not so much.

To even think about putting Ian and her father in the same category was insulting, and Ian didn’t deserve it. But that didn’t mean he was safe.

No matter how strong her heart beat when he was near, no matter how wet her panties when

he turned his focus solely her way, no matter…what, she thought, desperately trying to remind herself why she needed to keep her distance. Alex had already pointed out Ian’s penchant for jumping from woman to woman. Wasn’t that warning enough for her to stay away? It should have been, but when it came to this man, she feared she was fighting a losing battle.

“What’s going on in that active mind of yours?” Ian asked over dessert.

“I’m thinking about you,” she admitted, deciding straightforward was the way to go.

He raised a brow, obviously surprised at her honest admission.

“I was just thinking about how bossy you can be.”

“Because I insisted you order the Fried Oreos with French vanilla ice cream instead of the warm chocolate chunk cookies?” he asked with an amused smile.

She couldn’t help but grin. “You know what I mean.”

“I’m not going to apologize for who I am.” He lifted her hand and threaded her fingers through his larger ones. “For you, though, I’m willing to…temper those impulses.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Certain times, certain places, however, I expect you to let go of your inhibitions and enjoy it.” His tone deepened, leaving no doubt to his meaning.

Just to be sure though… “What sort of places?” she asked.

“I expect you to give yourself over to me completely in bed. To do as I say without hesitation or question.” He raised her hand and pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to her palm. “I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

Her breath shot out in one long stream of air, and dizziness assaulted her both at his words and the silken slide of his tongue against her skin. Good God, she wanted to experience Ian just like this, at his most dominant. The thought of submitting to him physically and giving him complete control over her pleasure caused a rush of heated anticipation to fire her blood and crash through every one of her defenses against him.

She swallowed hard. “I—”

“Yes?”

Those mesmerizing eyes bored deeply into hers, filled with the kind of erotic promise she’d only dreamed about. “I want…I mean I need…” She didn’t know what she meant to say. Every available thought was now centered where a throbbing pulse beat between her thighs.

In an instant, he’d focused all her awareness on sleeping with him. On what it would feel like to have him sliding deep inside of her and coaxing multiple orgasms from her sex-deprived body.

God, the man was potent. And completely irresistible.

“What do you say? Come home with me,” he said. Asked.

She wasn’t sure which, nor did she really care.

FIVE