“I used to think it was cute the way you would try to push me aside every time you got scared, Macy, but it’s really beginning to piss me off.” He ranted a few words in Spanish. She was sure he was cursing as he paced back and forth in front of her, raking his hands over his head. “You know what I think?” he finally asked, in English.
“What?”
“I think you’re just afraid to lose.”
Macy tried not to laugh at that. “Get out of here, Duke. We can talk some other time.”
“I’m not leaving until you hear me out,” Duke said. “Kristina is not a part of my life, and that baby she’s carrying is not mine.”
“Why would she say it’s yours? Why come down here and make the announcement like that?”
“Because Kristina lives for the drama,” he explained. “But I did not get her pregnant.”
“But you guys were involved.”
“We were. And if she had it her way, we’d be engaged by now with a wedding sponsored by every corporation. If can recall, I left the news desk when all the rumors started about a possible engagement.”
She did recall the tabloids speculating about his untimely leave from the news desk and counting all the sightings of Kristina out alone at public events. Macy nodded.
“Don’t nod, tell me you believe me,” Duke ordered. “You need to hear me when I say that I, in no way, shape or form, am involved with any of Kristina’s scheming. The only person I care about is you. Do I make myself clear?”
A flash of excitement coursed through her veins. Was he choosing her? “Yes.”
“Yes, what?” he asked.
Macy rolled her eyes. “Yes, I understand there is nothing between you and Kristina.”
“And?”
“Duke, it’s late.”
“That’s fine with me.” Duke stopped pacing and glared at her. Her breath got caught in the back of her throat as she noticed the look in his eyes.
She shook her head in disbelief at the audacity of his intentions. “You can’t be serious,” she said as his mouth paused a millimeter before her lips.
“Very.”
Without having a chance to react, Macy fell into Duke’s embrace. He had one hand at the back of her neck while the other snaked around her waist, his thumb massaging the tie of her robe open. She’d been ready for this. She’d been waiting for this. The apex of her thighs began to melt with fire. Duke bent her backward. Inches from the ground, she gazed at the ceiling as his mouth began to open her robe. She could feel his grin when he discovered her naked underneath.
As one of his large hands still held her back in his arms, his other pulled open the robe completely, which pooled around his hand where he supported her back. There she was, bare, vulnerable for him to see. Duke took a caressing finger from her bottom lip down, over her chin, down her chest and between her breasts. She felt her body quiver as his fingers reached the curls down below.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered into her ear just before nibbling on her earlobe.
Macy struggled to stand up.
He shook his head. “Let me just feast on you right now.”
She thought she’d said yes. The words couldn’t form, but at least a sound of approval escaped her throat. She sucked in a breath of cold air when he took a nipple into his mouth; first one, then the other, then both at the same time, balancing her breasts in his large hands. Aimlessly, she reached for the sweater encasing him. She tugged at the material. Duke grinned and maneuvered her to the steps. He pulled the sweater over his head. The gold cross hanging from his chest blended in with his golden-brown skin and twinkled against the last of the candles Macy hadn’t blown out yet.
Duke moved his bare torso between her naked legs and brought his mouth down on hers. He revived her with his kisses. He was so warm against her. So full of life against her. Her hands wrapped around his shoulders. Her fingertips splayed across the muscles of his back, down toward the waistline of his jeans. Moving her fingers around, she fumbled with the buckle. She couldn’t quite pull the button from the hole and had to lean back to get a view of what she was doing. She cast a glance up at Duke, who was looming over her with his arms on either side of her. He inhaled deeply.
“I’m not going to let our first time together be right here on the steps.”
Disappointment ripped through her. She was sure, as she slid his pants over his tailbone, that she could change his mind. “Really?”
“Really,” he said, lifting her by her bottom and placed her up two steps. “You’re going to lead me to your bedroom.”
“I am?” She mocked him with as much bravado as she could. “How do you expect me to...” Her words once again were lost in her throat as he dipped his head between her legs, his tongue like a heat-seeker, and found her center.