She nodded. “I know.”
“We said this was temporary, but—”
“Shh.” She pressed her mouth to his and drew back. “Not now.”
“But I—”
“Enjoy your truffles.” Leaning forward, she offered herself shamelessly. This she could give him. The other, what she was very afraid he was about to ask, she could not.
As a distraction, Giselle’s chocolate-covered breasts worked like a charm. Luke abandoned his long-term goal of talking about their future for short-term pleasure, insanely good short-term pleasure. He would love sucking on her breasts no matter what, but having chocolate all over them gave him an excuse to be extremely thorough.
He loved knowing that he was making her crazy, too. She began her whimpering routine, which he knew was a prelude to getting serious about a climax. And so was he. Dear God, but he was proud of himself for holding off so long.
“I need to move.” She tried to free herself from his grip on her firm backside. “You need to have me move.” She sucked in a breath. “You must be ready to explode. I am.”
She had that right. With one last tug on her sweet nipple, he leaned back. “Done. You’re all clean.”
She glanced down and then looked at him, eyebrows raised.
“Mostly clean.”
“Good enough.” Her voice was husky. “Going to turn me loose now?”
“Yeah. Be gentle.”
“Gentle? Really?”
“Just kidding. Ride me, lady. It shouldn’t be a very long ride, but make it good.”
“You’ve got it.” She flattened her palms against his chest. “You’re still very sticky.”
“You can work on that later. For now . . .” He loosened his hold on her fanny. “Work that.” He groaned as she eased slowly upward. “Work it hard.”
“Don’t worry. I plan to.” She came down on him much faster than she’d gone up.
Everything after that was a blur of Giselle pumping him for all she was worth. Her breasts shook with every downward slap of her body on his. They both made noise, lots of it, as they surged toward the finish line.
He figured he might cross it first. The pressure felt like a bomb was about to detonate. “Can’t hold on,” he whispered as he felt his control slipping.
“Go for it.” She pumped harder and threw back her head. “I’m right there. Right there.”
“Ah . . . Giselle . . . Giselle . . .” He drove upward once more and came so hard it took his breath away. Blind and deaf to anything but the pounding in his groin, he couldn’t even yell. But inside he was shouting his amazement and wonder. Good, so good, so damn good!
Her spasms rippled over his pulsing cock and seemed to gently squeeze out every last drop, as if she wanted all he could give her. She’d completely spoiled him. Sex without a condom was awesome.
Her breathing slowed, and she eased down onto his sticky chest. “Excellent.” She said it with such a deep sigh.
He smiled and stroked her back. “You were excellent. You were great. You were—”
“An unexpected surprise.” She lifted her head and propped her chin on her fist so she could look him in the eye. “I never planned for this to happen.”
“I know you didn’t, and I’m grateful.” He rubbed circles in the small of her back. He was still fairly hard, and he didn’t want to move and break the connection. Lying here with her was nice. Sticky, but nice.
“It was pretty wonderful.”
“And although I won’t harp on the subject, you gave me a gift by letting me in without one of those little raincoats. I was told from the time I hit puberty that I had to wear one until I had a steady girlfriend.”
“Did you ever?”
“No.” He ran his hand over the delicious curve of her backside. “But I was the heir to the Dalton fortune, and that made me an extremely eligible bachelor, or maybe just a baby-daddy candidate with money to shower on a pregnant girlfriend. So I played it safe and wore condoms rather than risk accidentally fathering a kid.”
“You’re a very responsible man, Luke Dalton.”
“Raised that way.”
“I apologize for carrying on about the sheets. I should have figured it out. My brother was raised to shoulder the responsibility in my family, and so he blew off steam playing practical jokes.”
“And taking off for Vegas.” Knowing that he and Giselle’s brother had much in common made him curious. “You said it was a bunch of things piling up that made him bolt, but usually there’s one straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
“I’m sure that’s true, and I think I know the straw, but he didn’t confide in me before he left.”
“What do you think it was?”
“He’d chosen a mate . . . I mean, a marriage partner.”
“Mate isn’t such a bad word to use.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her cheek. “Sort of old-fashioned, but I like it. It implies more permanence. Like the term soul mate.” And when he said that, the most amazing thing happened. Her green eyes became almost luminescent, as if he’d touched a chord in her. “Do you believe in soul mates?” he asked softly. Until this very moment, he hadn’t given the matter much thought.
“I . . . suppose I do.”
“How do you think it works, this soul mate thing? Do you just meet someone and know right away?”
“Maybe.” Her gaze searched his. “Or maybe it takes time to figure it out.”
“Since you’re single, I have to assume you haven’t met yours.” He was more interested in her answer than he wanted to admit.
“No, I haven’t.”
The certainty in her voice bothered him. Now that the subject had come up, he had to wonder if their instant attraction was a sign that they were meant for each other. He was willing to entertain the possibility. But apparently she wasn’t thinking that way. That was kind of depressing.
Maybe he’d better get back to discussing her brother and stop imagining that she viewed their attraction with the same starstruck wonder that he did. “Has your brother found his? Because if he has, I hope he didn’t run out on her.”
Giselle sighed. “That’s why I’m a little confused on the soul mate issue. I thought he and Miranda were soul mates. He acted as if they were. But then it became all about the ceremony, and the two mothers started pushing for dates and details. I think that’s why Bryce took off. It turned into this whole big thing—the joining of the two families, the expectation of children, what house they would buy—and he just blew.”
The expectation of children. Was that why she couldn’t take over as CEO? Did her family have some traditional idea that the head of the business had to procreate, and she was unable to have kids? If so, that was bullshit. He longed to ask her more about that, but now wasn’t the time.
His dad had expected him to marry and have kids, preferably a son who could be trained to take over from Luke the way Luke had been raised to take over from Angus. Angus Dalton hadn’t been very evolved in that respect. If Giselle thought Luke was a throwback, she should have met his dad.
“So your brother dumped Miranda, who may or may not have been his soul mate.” Luke was relieved that Cynthia hadn’t decided Bryce was her soul mate. He wanted her to have more time to explore all sorts of possibilities before committing herself to one man.
“He dumped her,” Giselle said. “And she’s done with him.”
“Don’t blame her.”
“Me, either.” She grimaced, and he could tell the conversation had broken the mood for her. “We should probably each check our phones and see if they’ve texted us.”
“And what if they have? What if Cynthia’s sent me another riddle? Are we going to get dressed and tear around Vegas in the wee small hours of the morning so that your brother can find another way to douse me with water?”