My eyes lift and I’m pinned by Kace’s blue-eyed stare, lost in a sea of passion and the forbidden, drowning in a man I barely know but cannot help but want to know. The bid on the violin starts at one hundred thousand dollars. Bids are placed rapid-fire, and at five hundred thousand dollars, I can’t see who is bidding, not at all. Kace arches a brow, a silent question: do I want to bid? I shake my head, a no to any idea I might do so, to the idea that he should do so.
His response is to lean in close, his lips at my ear, his breath warm on my neck, his hand on my jaw as he murmurs, “Let’s get out of here.”
My initial thought is no. I can’t. But that doesn’t last long. My brother isn’t here and suddenly I’m suffocating in that reality. That violin is not the answer to any question he or I would ask. I don’t believe Sofia is here, either. I have no reason to be here now but him, and when he eases back to study me, I don’t make him wait, I don’t make him push. My hand settles on his hand where it still touches my face, and I whisper, “Yes.”
His eyes heat with approval, and he eases forward around me, speaking to Chris, I believe, though I can’t hear what is said. A moment later, he stands and takes me with him. Adrenaline surges through me as I’m being led toward the side of the stage by Kace August and there is no way that goes unnoticed. Meanwhile, the bids for the violin continue to charge to a higher price tag, now at three million. Kace opens the exit door and we step into the hallway. The instant the door shuts behind us, Kace drags me close, the hard wall of his body absorbing mine.
“What are you doing to me, woman?” he demands, and then his fingers have spiked into my hair, his mouth slanting over my mouth, his tongue stroking deep. And then I’m drowning in this man, bright lights exploding in a sea of what has been so much darkness, so much loneliness. And I have been lonely. I’ve hidden from it. I’ve denied it. I’ve convinced myself that I didn’t need certain things, but right here, right now, I need him. I need this.
And when he tears his mouth from mine, and says, “Come home with me,” it’s all I can to do find solid ground, to remember who I am, who he is, to remember how dangerous that connection might become.
“Kace, I—”
“Don’t say no.” He presses his lips to my ear and whispers. “I never take women home with me. Ever. But I’m asking you to come home with me now.”
“Never?”
He pulls back, his warm breath leaving a trail of goosebumps on my neck as he meets my stare. “Never,” he confirms.
I’m not sure what to feel, what to think. “Why me?”
“Because I can’t help myself with you, Aria. And that doesn’t happen. Not to me. Come home with me.”
My hand lands on the solid wall of his chest, his heart thundering beneath my palm, his body telling me that his words aren’t just words—he means his words. I should say no. I know I should say no but it’s just one night. It’s always one night with a man like Kace August. And before I can stop myself, I say exactly what he wants me to say, what I want to say, “Yes.”
His mouth closes over mine again, the taste of him hungry, wicked, addictive, and gone too soon. “Let’s get out of here before someone slows us down,” he murmurs, and when I mouth “yes,” he waits for nothing more. He catches my hand and leads me down a hallway to yet another hallway and then an exit where a tall, bald, muscular man in a tuxedo, awaits.
“Mr. August,” he greets and then inclines his chin at me, a hint of a tattoo peeking from beneath his collar. “Ma’am.”
“Hey, Leo,” Kace replies. “We’re out of here for the night.”
“Understood,” Leo confirms before he knocks on the door and someone opens it from the other side. Cold air gusts through the door and I shiver and turn to Kace. “My coat.” Kace instantly shrugs out of his, wrapping the soft leather that was just next to his body around mine, using the lapels to step me into him. “Better?”
“Yes,” I say, no longer cold despite the still open door, but decidedly warm and swoony “But I should go upfront and grab my own coat.”
“Not without walking through the auction room and the front doors are locked for VIP events. Do you have a ticket?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.” I reach in my purse and hand it to him.