Chase was rising to his feet before Khalid was finished talking. He ignored the other man’s laughter and moved across the room. She would join them, or he would take her home. Any other option was out of the question. She was tempting him to the point that his back teeth ached at the thought of touching her, and he wasn’t thinking about the erection pounding beneath his slacks.
She watched him as he approached. He felt her eyes on him, raking over him, nervous little looks that made him tense in arousal. She’d been doing this to him even before her ex-husband had tried to force her into a ménage. And he’d been furious that Drew had chosen to try to draw her into that lifestyle without her knowledge beforehand.
“You look a snow fairy,” he said, leaning against the heavy post that supported the ceiling, only a few feet from her table.
Her gaze lifted, her slender neck rippling as she swallowed tightly.
“Well, it is snowing tonight.” She cleared her throat.
It was there between them, he could feel it. He could see it in her eyes, almost taste it in the air around them. If she left that table to join him, it was going to be for much more than a drink.
He glanced away from her for a moment, acknowledging that every attempt he had made to stay away from her had just flown the hell out the window.
When he turned back, his jaw clenched.
“I’m not playing games with you, Kia. I have too damned much respect for you for that.” He held his hand out to her. “Would you like to join us?”
She looked over to where Khalid had turned in his chair enough to watch them. His dark eyes gleamed with sensual, sexual knowledge. Just as Chase’s did.
She stared at his hand.
She had wondered for two years what being with him would be like. What the pleasure could be. The knowledge in his eyes when he told her it was only for the pleasure.
“What if I can’t?” she whispered, knowing what he meant. “What then?”
“Then you can’t.” He continued to hold his hand out. “It’s your choice.”
It was her choice. She hadn’t been offered a choice before—she had nearly been raped by her husband instead.
But this wasn’t Drew. This was the man who had been honest with her from the start. He had, in small ways, perhaps, but in ways impossible for her to miss, protected her.
She looked at his hand again, remembering the dreams, the fantasies, and all the lonely nights when she had assured herself, if this night ever came, she would have the courage to take his hand.
She stood slowly, holding her wrap around her shoulders with one hand as she saw Khalid rise from his chair at the back of the room.
“The limo’s outside.” Chase took her hand in his, broad, warm fingers wrapping around her smaller, paler ones. “Are you going home?”
Where she was alone? Where she could dream about him rather than taking her courage in both hands and becoming the woman she had been wishing she could be?
Bold. Courageous.
She was breathing harshly. She could feel her breasts rising and falling, felt his gaze flick over them as he began to pull her to the door.
“I don’t want to go home yet,” she finally whispered.
His arm went around her back, his hand cupping her hip as her velvet dress swished about his legs.
“I won’t take you home then.” They reached the door to the bar and stepped out as the limo, a Hummer no less, pulled up to the sidewalk.
Snow covered the sidewalk now, a good inch, and she barely noticed it.
She didn’t worry about the hem of her dress, because suddenly she was being lifted in his arms, her eyes widening, her wrap slipping as she clutched at his shoulders.
“I don’t want you to slip and fall,” he stated as the chauffeur opened the door smoothly. Chase ducked inside the warm interior, holding her against him as he moved into the sumptuous limo and sat down by a narrow bar counter, in one of the thickly padded, wide leather seats.
Khalid followed and the door closed behind them, the tinted windows hiding them, securing them against curious eyes.
The interior of the Hummer was incredible. The seats were wide, the dark leather was probably comfortable, but as Chase held her, she was betting he was more comfortable. Even with the thick wedge of his erection pressing into her hip.
She wasn’t certain what she was getting herself into now. She leaned back against Chase’s shoulder and drew in a hard breath. She was only seconds away from requesting that they take her home after all.
She couldn’t do this. She thought she was brave. Thought she was courageous.
“Khalid, this limo is insane, you know.” Chase glanced around the interior, his hand stroking comfortingly down Kia’s back as the vehicle moved smoothly through the streets.
“So I told my father when he had it delivered.” Khalid shrugged. “But it came with free petrol from his stations, so who am I to complain?” Khalid winked at Kia playfully. “I’m, of course, a bit more conservative with my own wealth.”
“Yeah, Khalid buys horses instead.” Chase chuckled.
“Fine beasts.” Khalid grinned. “But one thing this is good for is the viewing pleasure of all the beautiful lights through our fair city as it snows. All the comforts of home.” He waved to the windows that surrounded the seats. “And we don’t have to worry about getting stuck for quite a while.”
“Khalid likes to run his security detail ragged in the snow,” Chase told her with a hint of laughter.
“It’s not the security detail I have such fun with,” Khalid drawled, the faint Middle Eastern flavor of his voice tinged with his own amusement. “It’s those damned special agents they keep on my ass. You’d think I wasn’t a U.S. citizen.”
“One tied to a very rich, fairly powerful sheik,” Chase pointed out.
Khalid winked at her again, and Chase felt her relax, not a lot, but enough that perhaps she wasn’t gearing up to demand to be taken home.
“I assure you, Ms. Rutherford,” Khalid announced. “It is Rutherford now, yes?”
“Yes,” she breathed out faintly.
Chase had been unaware she had returned to her maiden name.
“As I was saying, I assure you, I’m related to the sheik by only the thinnest of bloodlines and a father that has more money than any true connections. Though he does enjoy spending the money on his youngest bastard son.” Khalid’s lips quirked mockingly.
Kia inhaled slowly as Chase continued to rub her back. Damn her and her bare back. Her wrap was barely hanging to one shoulder now, the velvet dress held to her shoulders by thin straps, the velvet covering her breasts doing very little to cover the firm mounds.
She was incredible. Beautiful. Several strands of hair had slipped from the diamond pins that held it in place, the blond strands framing her face and neck.
A light flush mounted her cheeks and her sapphire blue eyes, were filled with vulnerable curiosity and courage. He’d known, somehow, over the past two years, it would come to this. And he had pushed it, pushed her, made her more curious each time he’d pursued her for a dance at a party or a moment to chat at an event.
“The lights are pretty tonight.” She swallowed tightly again and found her fingers curled over Chase’s forearm, where it lay across her thighs.
She stared out the window across from her as the limo wove through traffic, stopping smoothly at traffic lights, moving more slowly past the elaborately lit areas.
“The lights are gorgeous this time of the year, especially during a snowfall.” But Khalid wasn’t staring at the lights, he was staring at her.
His voice was low, smooth, and charming. It was sexy, but it lacked the true warmth she heard in Chase’s voice.
“Jaci and Cam are putting up the Christmas tree tonight.” Chase grunted. “One of the reasons I ended up in a bar rather than reading comfortably in my apartment. They threatened earlier to make me help.”
“You don’t like Christmas trees?” She risked looking up at him now, and the light green orbs held her, mesmerized her as they always did.