“How are you planning to alert the cops?” he asked conversationally as he pulled off his hat. “Send up a distress flare?”
He glanced in the mirror and saw the fierce burn in her amber eyes. If she lifted her chin any higher, that damned veil would slip off completely.
She opened her mouth to say something, probably uncomplimentary, then glared at him before slumping back in her seat and turning to look out the side window.
Her blond hair was drawn sharply back from her face in an elegant updo, making him remember how he’d enjoyed taking the tie from her hair whenever she’d worn it in the ponytail she favoured. It had become a kind of battle of wills for them. He loved the feel of the silky strands between his fingers, loved curling the satin locks around his fists and drawing her head back to kiss the delicate skin of her throat.
Despite her savvy wit, her steely strength, her sharp intellect, there was a vulnerability about her. It made him want to protect her. To act like a fucking knight in shining armour. Which was why he was here now. He had been powerless to resist.
She might have considered it sarcasm when he declared that he intended to save her, but that was exactly what he was doing. Hearing she was to marry had pushed his buttons like nothing else ever had, but then he’d discovered who the groom was and fury had sent him into a tailspin.
What the fuck was she thinking? A woman as vital and passionate as Maddie tying herself up with a conniving fucktard like Oscar Kingston? No freaking way. Not while Gabe drew breath.
He pulled into the hangar and parked up. One of his engineers came forward while others sprang into action near his jet.
“All ready,” the engineer said when Gabe opened the driver’s door. “We’ve got a slot in fifty-five minutes.”
The engineer slid a look toward Maddie sitting in the back seat, her arms still folded and a look of stoic determination on her face. “Everything all right, boss?”
“All good,” Gabe said. “We’ll go straight on board. Weather okay?”
“Yeah. Smooth sailing all the way.”
Not bloody likely, Gabe thought as his engineer went off whistling a happy tune. Maddie looked fit to spit nails.
He opened the car door and leaned in. Resting one hand on the soft leather at her back and the other on the edge of her seat, he brought his face close to hers. His gaze dropped to her mouth, those plump, kissable lips he loved to torture. The same lips that could so easily return the favour, wrapping around his cock and propelling him straight to the promised land.
She shifted away, looking him up and down as if he were the devil incarnate.
“Behave yourself, princess. You’ll hurt my feelings.”
Defiance shining bright in her beautiful eyes, she held his gaze. “I don’t give a flying fig about your feelings, you bastard. And there’s no way I’m getting out of this car.”
She turned her head away, the movement wafting her fragrance until it settled in his nostrils. He’d read somewhere that smell could transport a person back through the past and toss him slap-bang into a memory. That happened now, launching him back two years to when Maddie had pressed up tight against him, her naked body warm and languid following a bout of especially athletic lovemaking. The musky scent of her arousal remained thick in the air, and her damp heat pressed against him as she gyrated softly against his hip making those little purring sounds of contentment.
Fuck. He wanted that again. Wanted Maddie wrapped around him, over him, under him. He wanted to be inside her, pushing her to the limits, until neither of them could think straight.
“I could make you get out of the car,” he said, battening down his inappropriate arousal. “Maybe even put you over my shoulder if I need to.”
She whipped her gaze back to his. “Huh. You can try, but I’ll bring the whole airport running with the noise I’ll be making.”
“Not if I gag you first.” Her eyes went wide, but he didn’t see fear—he saw excitement. “You’re not completely averse to that, as I recall.”
Her cheeks flushed, her breasts rising and falling as her breathing picked up. He was having trouble with his own damn breathing, and his cock went rock-hard now, pressing painfully against his fly.
“Hard to forget, isn’t it?” He didn’t know why he was baiting her, tormenting himself. The answer throbbed in his trousers. “You weren’t able to scream. And boy, did you love to scream. Especially when I went down on you. Couldn’t get enough of that, could you, princess?”
Pink slashed high across her cheekbones. “I don’t recall you being especially silent on occasions,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “Especially when I had your cock in my mouth. Couldn’t get enough of that, could you, lover?”
His breathing lodged in his throat, his trousers growing unbearably tight. He curled his fingers deep into the soft leather upholstery, when really he wanted them curling around her. He wanted his hands, his tongue and his cock on her. In her. Every damn thing. Every damn where.
“Maddie...”
“I hope you’ve got a good lawyer, because you’re going to need one when I’m done pressing charges for kidnapping and molestation.”
“I haven’t touched you.” He let that hang in the air. “And I’m not going to touch you...unless that’s what you want.”
She turned her head away, but he held her chin between his fingers, bringing her back to face him. “You’re getting on that plane.”