He turned on the lamp near the sofa. She noticed that he was sitting up and staring straight at her. He’d taken off his shirt and her gaze couldn’t help but dip down and take in all of those wonderful muscles. It was almost a crime for a man to look that good.
“Gwen…”
She snapped her gaze back up to his face. “I couldn’t get to sleep, so I was just going to grab something to drink. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“You didn’t wake me.”
Gwen took a few quick steps toward him.
“I was wide awake,” he continued. “Sitting in here and thinking about how close you were to me.”
She stopped taking those steps.
“I was trying to play the gentleman and leave you alone, but then you opened the door and you came to me.”
She thought about retreating.
“Do you have any idea…” Chance asked her, voice roughening. “How much I want you?”
In that moment, she wished for the darkness. She wanted him to turn off the light because it would be so much easier to bare her soul in the darkness. But the light was on and maybe it was time to stop being afraid. “I offered myself to you before.” Because she’d wanted him for so long. “You told me you weren’t interested.”
His hand clenched around the arm of the couch. “The hell I did. I told you I worked for your father and that I was supposed to keep my hands off you.”
“Because you were worried that you’d get fired if you were caught screwing the boss’s daughter.”
Chance rose, standing to his full, impressive height. As he walked toward her, his body blocked the light from that lamp. He was a tall shadow, coming right at her. “I knew I’d be the one screwed,” Chance said, voice deepening even more, “if I had you. Because once wouldn’t be enough for me. If I had you, I wouldn’t ever be able to let you go.”
Gwen shook her head. She’d misheard. It was late. She was awake, but tired and—
“You weren’t ready for what I’d need from you. You still aren’t.”
Now she bristled. “What about what I need?”
He stopped in front of her. “What do you need?”
Oh, hell. “Back then, I needed you. You were the man I wanted, the man I—” Gwen stopped herself, just in time. Stopped herself before she made a seriously damning confession about how he was the man she’d loved.
But Chance pushed, asking, “The man you…what?”
Careful now, Gwen said, “You were the man I wanted in my bed. You rejected me. You sent me away—”
“I didn’t exactly know you’d go jumping into Ethan’s bed!”
He’d gone too far. Heat stung her cheeks, then ice seemed to coat her skin. Gwen turned on her heel and started marching for the door. Not the bedroom, but his front door because she wanted to get the hell away from him.
“I’m sorry.” Chance wrapped his arms around her and pulled Gwen back up against him. “Shit, baby, I’m sorry. I can be a total asshole.”
“Total,” she agreed.
“You don’t know what it did to me. To find out you were with him…to go into that bedroom and see—”
Her eyes squeezed shut. “I slept with him months after your big rejection. Months. And here’s a big newsflash for you. He wasn’t the first man I ever slept with, and he won’t be the last, either.”
She could feel him stiffen behind her.
“We aren’t together, Chance. So what I do and who I do it with…that’s none of your business.”
“You think I don’t know that?” His breath blew over her ear and a shiver skated down Gwen’s body. “But the problem is…I feel too much when you’re close. I get so fucking jealous of any man near you. And I’m tired of playing by the rules. Tired of keeping my hands off…”
His hands weren’t off, though. They were on her, and they seemed to burn right through her clothes.
“When I want to touch you more than I want anything else.”
Then he… he kissed her neck. She hadn’t realized just how sensitive that spot was, not until that moment. But when she felt the press of his lips against her nape, her knees did a little jiggle. Her nipples tightened. And her sex ached.
I’ve wanted him for so long.
Adrenaline poured through her blood. And maybe it was that adrenaline rush that was making her reckless, but Gwen found herself turning in his arms. She stared up at his face. The face that had haunted her nights.
He wanted her.
She’d longed for him.
“I’m sorry,” he told her. “I’m an asshole. I just…I want you so much. And the thought of you with another drives me insane.”
She didn’t want to imagine him with another woman, so Gwen could understand that part. For too long, she’d only imagined Chance…with me.
And in that moment, he was with her. They were alone. The air thick with tension. Need.
So…why not take what they both needed? Why not give in, just once?
“Kiss me.” The words whispered from her.
And he did. His mouth took hers. Seduced hers. She’d already known that Chance could kiss, but this time, things were different. She could taste the desire in his kiss. His tongue stroked into her mouth. Tempted. Took. She rose onto her toes and kissed him back just as desperately. Seduction gave way to growing passion. To a need that they’d both denied for far too long.
He backed her up and her shoulders hit the wood of the door. Gwen didn’t care. Her nails were digging into his shoulders and she was fighting to get closer to him.
Because just like…that…the desire she felt for him wasn’t controlled any longer. There was no control. There was only passion.
Her hips arched against him. The long, hard length of his cock pressed against her. She wanted him in her. Wanted them both to be racing toward the edge of oblivion as the pleasure took over.
He grabbed the hem of her shirt. Pushed it up. Threw it someplace. Then his fingers were sliding under the edge of her bra. She needed that bra gone so that she could feel him and—
The bra was gone. He bent his head and his mouth closed over her breast. Her eyes squeezed closed and a moan tore from her when he started to suck her nipple. She was pretty sure that her panties were getting drenched.
And they’d just gotten started.
But she’d always known it would be this way. The intensity, the attraction, had been there from the very beginning. Sometimes, she’d just looked at Chance and wanted.