Awakened (Steel Brothers Saga 16)

“No one’s stopping you,” I reply breathlessly.

Then I freeze.

He’s going to stop. He’s going to work me up and then just stop. He’s going to realize he made a mistake. An unprofessional mistake.

And in this moment, I know.

I know I’ll do anything to have him this one time.

Even the unthinkable.

I’ll leave. I’ll give up the internship.

“Please,” I say. “Don’t stop. Make love to me, Dale.”

“I want to.”

“Then do it. Please.”

God, I sound ridiculous. I’ve never begged a man to make love to me in my life. Sure, there’ve been a few hot encounters where I said, “Please fuck me,” but they hardly count.

First of all, I don’t want a simple fuck from Dale Steel.

I want to make love. I want to touch every part of him, and not just his body. I want to know what makes him tick. I want to know what he’s hiding, what he’ll never let anyone see.

“I can’t.”

“You can.” I cup his cheeks, scraping my fingers against his blond stubble. “Please.”

“I want to. I want it more than anything.”

“Then take it. Take me.”

“Fuck.” He rises, his green gaze burning down onto me. “You’re so beautiful.”

My skin warms, and a rosy blush creeps onto the tops of my breasts already swollen and plumper than they’ve ever been.

“So are you.”

He smiles. A big smile, and my God, it’s a gorgeous sight. “I’m not sure anyone’s ever said that about me.”

I widen my eyes. “You’re kidding, right?”

He shakes his head. “I never kid.”

“But you are. You’re beautiful. Handsome, spectacular, magnificent. All of it.”

He blushes. Just slightly, but I notice. Have I actually embarrassed him?

“I can’t do this,” he says again, “no matter how much I want to. It’s not…”

“What?”

“It’s unprofessional. It’s not who I am.”

I drop my gaze to the big—oh yeah, big—bulge in his jeans. “Seems your body disagrees.”

“You don’t understand.” He shakes his head.

“Try me.”

“I don’t know how to love.”

“I don’t believe that for a minute. You love your family. I see it in the way you look at them.”

“That’s not the kind of love I mean.”

I know what he means. I open my mouth. I’m not asking for your love.

But the words get stuck in my throat.

Why? I barely know him. I don’t want his love. I want his body. Right here and right now.

I glide one finger over his full lower lip. I want to lick it. Bite it.

“Have you…” I can’t finish the sentence.

“Been with women?” He smiles again. “Yes.”

Whew. For a minute there I was wondering. Not that I have an issue with deflowering a male virgin. I’ve done it a few times before. A sliver of jealousy pierces my heart. Surprising. Does some part of me actually want him to be a virgin? Do I want to be his first?

No, can’t be.

I drop my gaze once more. Still hard as a rock. This dumb conversation hasn’t killed his boner. Good thing. I’m so ripe. If I were a Syrah grape, I’d have fallen from the vine long ago.

He’s obviously attracted to me. His hard dick is proof enough of that.

“Then why do you resist?”

He doesn’t answer. He simply sears me with that gorgeous green gaze.

“I don’t want to just fuck you,” he says. “We’re going to work together. It’s not right.”

Seems very right from where I’m standing.

Again, though, the words don’t come. They lodge in my throat like a pill that’s hard to swallow.

“What if…” I swallow the metaphorical pill stuck in my throat.

“What?” he asks.

“What if…I leave? I give up the internship? Will you make love to me then?”

“You’re willing to give up this internship just to sleep with me?” He shakes his head.

I can’t believe I’m about to say it, but it’s true. I’ll do anything to sleep with him this one time. Fucking anything. That’s how much I want him. How much he moves me with the sound and color of his voice, with his devotion to his vineyards, with his sheer male beauty.

Which means it’s the wrong decision.

Except I don’t care. I don’t give a rat’s ass about anything but having Dale Steel in this moment. It’s frightening, yes, but I’ve always been a go-getter. I had to be, to rise above my childhood.

“I’m not going to let you make that mistake,” he says.

“It’s my mistake to make.”

“No, it’s both of ours. Diana will never forgive me if—”

“For God’s sake, Dale.” I whip my hands to my hips. “Forget what Diana wants. Forget about what your father or your mother or anyone else wants. What do you want?”

He’s still erect. The bulge is huge and apparent. I know what he wants, at least physically.

He doesn’t answer. Not right away. He looks upward, as if he’s considering all the angles. Or maybe he’s just looking at the damned ceiling. I have no clue.

No fucking clue how Dale’s mind works. Not a one, and that’s a big turn-on in itself. I’m used to men, to getting what I want from them, letting them take what they want from me. I’m good at seducing. It’s a transaction, in a sense, though no one’s getting paid. I like sex. Men like sex. The perfect storm.