5

“I s it getting hot in here, or is it just you?” Gustav remarked, fanning himself theatrically, as Blair pushed through the kitchen doors and headed straight toward the back door.

“Can it, Gus. You got what you wanted.”

 

“Well, technically, no. But it sure looks like you’re going to. Way to go, Blair.

It’s about time. And don’t worry about the restaurant. I’ll lock up.”

 

Blair hesitated, her hand on the back door. “What do you mean, it’s about time?”

 

“Well, you know. Since that whole business with Rhys and Alicia, it’s like all your enthusiasm for the place got sucked out of you.”

 

Had she really been so transparent? Granted, the breakup with Rhys over his betrayal with Alicia and the subsequent legal battle over severing their employment had been draining, but she hadn’t for a minute thought she’d let that impact on her work, or the workplace.

 

Gustav carried on. “Since you came back from Italy, it’s as if you have a new vibrancy about you, and it shows in your food and everything. Everyone here is much happier. It’s good. And quite frankly, if this guy is the one that made you like this, then all kudos to him. He is the one, isn’t he? The one you met while you were away?”

 

“Yeah, he is. You don’t think I’m making a mistake, do you?”

 

“Mistake? You have to be kidding me! Get yourself out of here before I take him off you.”

 

“Thanks, I owe you.” Blair pushed open the back door and shot up the back

staircase to the compact flat she called home when she wasn’t working.

 

She grabbed a backpack from the tiny hall closet and shoved toiletries and a change of clothes inside, then quickly divested herself of her work gear. She wrinkled her nose as she dragged on a long-sleeved T-shirt and a soft cotton skirt with an asymmetrical hemline. Then she shoved her feet into pretty, low-heeled sandals. She would have appreciated time to grab a quick shower, to rid herself of the lingering aromas of the kitchen, but she had the feeling that Draco would be dragging her still wet into the car if she kept him waiting too much longer.

 

A pang of need arrowed through her center. One kiss. That was all it had taken and she’d been lost to him. Lost to the sensual delight he promised with every touch of his skillful fingers, every taste of his practiced tongue.

 

She quickly switched off the lights and locked the door behind her, her sandals clattering on the wooden stairs as she returned to the restaurant. To Draco.

 

He pushed back from the table and stood the second she entered the dining room. Butterflies danced to a crazy beat in her stomach. Was she doing the right thing? Gus seemed to think so. Draco definitely thought so. But wasn’t she just setting herself up for failure? She knew how hot the flame between her and Draco had burned back in Italy. She’d left before there could be any lasting damage. By agreeing to spend this night with him, would she end up scorched and regretful? Worse, would she be able to walk away from him come morning?

 

He didn’t give her time to think. In one instant he had taken her arm to guide her outside, in the next they were seated on the leather backseat of the limousine that had edged forward at the curbside the instant he’d set foot outside Carson’s. Every nerve ending in Blair’s body was on full alert, attuned to the leashed power and strength of the man seated beside her.

 

Draco uttered a clipped command in Italian. The limousine driver closed the smoked glass divider between them and pulled smoothly away, gliding into the late-night traffic on Ponsonby Road.

 

Blair reached across the space between them, and trailed her fingertips across the expensive woven fabric encasing Draco’s legs. The muscles in his thigh tensed beneath her feather-light touch.

“Don’t.” His voice was strangled, tight. The single word forced between rigid lips. “If you touch me now I won’t be able to hold myself back, and I promised myself I would wait until we reached my apartment.”

 

Blair’s breath caught in her chest and a coil of anticipation tightened low in her belly. She lifted her hand and laid it back in her lap, her eyes seeking his in the darkened compartment of the car. The knowledge that she could affect him so deeply was empowering. While it was true that the strength of her feelings for him had terrified her, had driven her from his bed and his home and sent her on the arduous and long plane journey home from Europe, right now she was afraid of nothing.

 

The trip from Carson’s to the Viaduct Basin took only ten minutes, and as they pulled into the parking area of the apartment building Blair acknowledged she couldn’t wait another moment to be alone with Draco.

 

His driver came around to her door and held it open for her. As she alighted she heard the two men hold a brief discussion in Italian before the driver cruised away into the night.

 

A trickle of unease shimmered down her spine as she stood in the portico to the high-rise waterfront apartment complex. What the hell was she thinking? A week ago she’d told Draco he’d been nothing more than comfort sex, a couple of weeks before that she’d walked away from him, determined not to succumb to his seductive spell—and yet, here she was on the point of going to bed with him again. A shiver of something else coursed through her. Something that had nothing to do with nerves and everything to do with the visceral look of intent on the face of the man walking toward her.

 

Still, he didn’t touch her. Instead, he picked up her pack from where the driver had deposited it and headed for the door. Blair followed, slightly cowed by his silence. Was he having second thoughts?

 

All the way up to his penthouse apartment she sensed the heat of his gaze.

Briefly, she lifted her eyes to meet his, only to swallow convulsively when faced with the naked desire reflected in their emerald depths.

 

The doors swooshed open and Blair followed Draco down the heavily carpeted

corridor, to the set of double doors at the end. With the swipe of a key card he opened the doors and stood aside, motioning for her to enter.

 

Her heels clicked on the parquet floor of the entrance, their sound masking Draco’s footsteps as he closed in behind her. The muffled sound of her pack landing on the floor was all the warning she had before she was consumed by a broad band of heat at her back. Strong arms wrapped around her. Draco’s mouth, hot and wet, descended onto the curve of her neck, his tongue tracing a sensual line up to her ear. The hard swell of his erection pressed against her buttocks and she squirmed, her action wringing a harsh groan from his throat.

 

He spun her around to face him, his thigh wedging between her legs with delicious friction, to rub against that part of her that flamed, begging for his touch. Blair’s back flattened against the paneled wall behind her and she lifted her arms to Draco’s shoulders before tangling her fingers in his hair and dragging his mouth down to hers.

 

Suddenly all the hunger she’d held at bay for the past few weeks erupted beneath the onslaught of his lips, the rasp of his tongue against hers. Time and place held no consequence, every molecule in her body focused solely on this moment, this man. One night—it would be their last but it would be the best.

 

Her skirt hitched up under the push of Draco’s hands as he stroked up her legs, his broad palms caressing the backs of her thighs before clasping the roundness of her buttocks and pulling her hard against the demanding line of his arousal. A spiral of pleasure feathered out from her core, a promise of things to come.

 

It was insane, what they were doing, but Blair was incapable of sane thought or behavior any more. Draco invaded her senses, her every thought, her every desire. She shuddered anew as he dragged her panties away and cupped her, his fingers slick on her body, on the evidence of her need for him. He ground the heel of his palm against her and she cried out as the tiny rockets of pleasure sparked through her.

 

“Please,” she begged, “please, Draco. More.”

 

She heard her words—shamelessly wanton—as they hung in the air, and knew she could wait no longer. She fumbled for his belt, sliding the leather loose from

its clasp, and then unsnapped the button before ripping down his fly. She was greedy for him now, reaching past the waistband of his silk briefs, hungry to feel his satin heat against her skin.

 

In the instant she loosed him from the confines of his briefs he hitched her higher against the wall and hooked her legs high over his hips. He pulled a condom from his pocket before his pants slid down his legs and quickly sheathed himself. Blair reached between them to guide his hardness to her entrance and then with one deep thrust they were one. She gripped his shoulders as he surged within her, driving her closer and closer to her peak. And then, in a mad rush of sensation, she was there. Her body clenching and convulsing around him, her hands digging into his shoulders, her thighs tight bands around his waist. With a raw cry of triumph he joined her on the raft of pleasure that soared through them both, his body imprisoning her against the wall, his breath hard and fast, his heartbeat hammering in his chest.

 

Slowly Blair became aware of where they were. God, they hadn’t even made it more than a few feet inside the door. At least he’d had the presence of mind to close it behind them. Her whole body trembled with aftershocks of delight, her breathing came in ragged gasps.

 

“It seems I’m somewhat lacking in finesse tonight,” Draco said close to her ear, his voice uneven but carrying an unmistakable note of humor.

 

“So it would seem,” Blair agreed, grazing her lips along the column of his throat and being rewarded as he flexed against her, sending yet another aftershock of pleasure to ripple through her body.

 

“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

 

“I don’t know if I can take any more. That was so…so…” Words failed her. “So cathartic?”

He was right. It had been cathartic. Despite the late hour, despite the fact she’d already been on her feet all night in a busy kitchen, she felt energized, invigorated. Suddenly, she looked forward to Draco’s idea of making it up to her.