The car rocked through a few ruts until Darius stopped beside a chain-link fence. Nathalie tried to smooth her hair down after the wild ride, even though it had to be a lost cause by now.
“Where are we?” She heard the breathlessness in her voice, a sensual sound no one had ever brought out in her before.
“An old fountain I found while I was out exploring the area after I first moved to California.”
Despite the fact that he was a businessman at the very top of his game, she could easily imagine
him screaming through the countryside in one of his fancy cars, taking roads no one else would dare
try, finding places no one else would go. “How long have you lived here?”
“A little over a decade.” Once they’d climbed from the car, he extended his hand to her. “It’s
locked, but I know a way in.”
Of course he did. Something told her Darius Spencer knew exactly how to get into anything he
wanted, whether it was off limits or not.
Even, possibly, a heart like hers that had been shut down for far too long.
She put her hand in his, the contact doing nothing to calm the racing of her heart. He’d touched her
way too much already. And she’d not only let him, she’d wanted him to touch even more of her, if
she were being completely honest with herself.
She’d been worried about Jeremy getting too attached—but wasn’t she in just as much danger?
They prowled along the fence for several yards, then Darius kicked at a bottom piece until it pushed
loose. He let go of her hand to slide through the opening. On the other side, he tangled his fingers in
the chain link and pulled it higher, widening the gap for her. “You’ll have to bend down a bit.”
She was wearing heels. This was crazy. But the whole night was already crazy—a crazy blip away
from her usual reality—so she gathered her skirt, crouched down, and shimmied through, sneaking
under the chain link like a naughty teenager.
The fence fell back with a metallic clang, and Darius took her hand again. This time his grip was
tighter, warmer. More possessive, as if he thought he’d already made her his. And at this very
moment, she wasn’t sure he was wrong, not when she was so aware of him that she could feel her
own pulse at her throat, beating faster, rushing like the wind over the car.
“Over here.” His deep voice was laced with a hint of excitement. The same excitement she couldn’t
help but feel herself.
He seemed to have vision like a cat, picking his way through the grass. She could hear water ahead,
the crash and babble over rocks. Something dark loomed ahead of them, then formed walls and
columns, like a small Greek temple.
Darius pulled her up to the edge, a parapet overlooking a dark hole through which the water rushed.
“It’s part of an old aqueduct. Pearl Autumn Reservoir is just down the road.”
Water crashed beneath them, and no grate covered the hole. If she leaned too far, she’d fall right in.
But Darius hand kept her steady. Steady and safe, even though she knew that what she was
beginning to feel for him was the most dangerous thing imaginable.
The scent of the water was clean and fresh, as though the river below had come straight from the
mountains. Cool air blew up, pushing through her hair, caressing her like fingers. Like Darius
touch.
The noise all around, the darkness, her hand in his, the closeness of his body, his thigh pressed to
hers, his heat—it was too much. Too good. Too mesmerizing.
Something was burning inside her, a secret need that she’d worked so hard to push down for so
many years. It had begun with dinner, when they’d taken the caviar from each other’s fingers, then
sizzled in the car as they’d sped through the night. And now, as they explored a secret, off-limits
place together, she was simply burning up inside.
He turned to her then, and if he’d said something, anything, she might have found some control.
But when he simply looked, with something sparkling in his eyes that felt like longing and desire
entwined, Nathalie was lost.
She had to taste him, had to see if his kiss would be as good as the fast ride he’d just given her in
his car.
Her fingers fisted in his shirt, and she yanked him close, chest to chest. Then she was up on her
tippy toes, wrapping her arms around his neck, bringing his mouth down to hers. Angling her head,
she licked along his lips, savoring him just as she had the roe.
But it was the moan she couldn’t keep inside that truly set everything in motion. An instant later,
Darius was holding her tighter and lifting her off the ground. His mouth came down hard against
hers and she had to cling to his arms to steady herself. Seating her on the edge of the parapet, he
cupped her face in his big hands and devoured her.
Just the same way she was devouring him.
She couldn’t get enough—the hard, strong length of him as he stood between her legs, the
headiness of his kiss. In a matter of moments, he had taken control of the kiss she’d initiated, and
she was stunned to realize that she loved the way he played with her, sweeping in, stealing her
breath, then backing off to take her lips at another angle, before going deep again.
He wooed her passion out and out and out, until it was inextricably tangled up with his. The stone
was cold beneath her, a delicious contrast to the burning heat inside and the warmth of his mouth on
hers.
No one had ever kissed her like this—taking, demanding absolutely everything she had to give.
Kissing had been a prelude with other men, but Darius made it seem like kissing her was exactly
what he’d been dying for, precisely what he’d dreamed of.
And Nathalie realized she’d been dreaming about it all along, too. From the moment he’d stepped
out of his car beside the hangar, she’d been hurtling toward this moment without even knowing it.
He skimmed his fingers down her arms. “Hold on to me,” he murmured against her lips, bringing
her hands up around his shoulders.
His mouth consumed her all over again, his hands on the move, leaving trails of heat. His thumbs
grazed the sides of her breasts, setting fire to all her nerve endings. Nathalie couldn’t breathe. She
could only want. Could only need as his mouth owned her and his hands promised pleasures
beyond her wildest dreams.
Teetering on the edge, she knew she was going to fall. Not into the water, but into something far
deeper. Right into Darius. Into anything he wanted, right here, right now, with the water raging
below them and the midnight sky burning above.
And then nothing would ever be the same again.
She suddenly pushed at him, slamming the brakes on with a squeal of her heart. “Wait, wait, wait.”
She needed to stop, needed to breathe, needed to try and think straight. This was going too fast.
Way too fast.
All she’d wanted was a test drive. All she’d wanted was to see if he kissed the way he drove.
But it turned out that kissing Darius Spencer was a million times better than any fast ride could ever
be.
She never, ever took her eye off the ball. Never for one second forgot that her focus needed to be on
taking care of her brother, with everything else coming a distant second. But tonight, for a few
heady moments in Darius arms, she’d forgotten.
Forgotten so easily that it terrified her.
“You okay?” he asked. His breathing wasn’t so steady, either, but that was no consolation.
“I need a minute, just a minute.”
But the truth was that she needed way more than that, needed to find a way to clear her head, her
body, of everything Darius had just done to her with only one hot kiss.
“I got carried away.” There was a raw huskiness in his voice, and the moonlight was bright enough
that she could see the pulse beating hard and fast at his throat. “Forgive me, Nathalie.”
But Darius didn’t need to be forgiven for anything. She was the one who had just lost her mind over
his kiss, while making the extremely troubling discovery that nothing had ever given her as much
pleasure as going fast with him just had.
Which was especially crazy given that caution was her watchword where men were concerned.
Sure, she knew it was a world where people jumped into bed on first dates, but that wasn’t what she
did. And not with someone like Darius Spencer. Not with a fast man who owned a whole bunch of
fast cars. If she were stupid enough to jump into his bed, she couldn’t also be stupid enough not to
expect him to drive right on past her as soon as they were through.
“I’m the one who should be apologizing,” she told him. “I shouldn’t have kissed—”
He put a palm to her cheek and his thumb on her lips to halt the rest of her words. “Yes, you
definitely should have.” Then he added, his mouth only a kiss away, “Your kiss was better than the
richest roe I’ve ever tasted. You taste better than anything I’ve ever tasted, Nathalie.”
She was stunned at how he simply seemed to accept that they’d gone too fast and pushed past her
comfort zone, rather than being angry with her for slamming the brakes on a super hot kiss. A kiss
that she had been the one to initiate.
Nathalie needed to make it clear to him that there wasn’t going to be another kiss between them, but
the words wouldn’t come. “I should go,” was all she could manage. Although the truth was that it
was probably all she needed to say, since she couldn’t imagine he’d want to see her again. Why
would a gorgeous billionaire who could have anyone want a woman with whom he always had to
try so hard? Even just to set up a date? “I don’t want to keep Tanya out late.”
Darius slowly backed off, his hands trailing down her arms, leaving thrill bumps in their wake.
Holding her at the waist, he helped her down from the parapet, then took her hand in his and led her
back across the grass to the hole in the fence. She walked on the balls of her feet so her heels
wouldn’t sink into the grass.
Back in the car, she asked him to put the top up. “It’s getting cold.” She touched her hair. “And my
hair is already enough of a mess.”
“Your hair is gorgeous.”
Of course he’d say that. He always had the perfect words. And it wasn’t truly her hair that worried
her. She was afraid the speed would turn her into a wild thing again, and she might actually throw
herself at him while he was driving.
Slow, steady, rational—that was what had worked for Nathalie and Zion for the past several years,
and she couldn’t risk messing up anything for the two of them. Especially not with a man like
Darius, whom she sincerely doubted had the long haul on his mind.
It all made perfect sense in her head. Unfortunately, however, neither perfect sense nor the much
slower ride back down the peninsula to her house did a darned thing to help quench her thirst for more of Darius.