Irresistible Forces (9 page)

He suddenly turned and met her gaze. The atmosphere seemed even more stimulated. Her breath caught when she felt it. It was like fire seeping through her veins. It prickled her skin, sharpened her senses and created a relentless throb between her legs.

“I tried,” he finally spoke and said grimly. But at the same time she heard an edge in his voice.

“And what have you tried?” she asked, thinking maybe it was better if she didn’t know but desperately wanting to.

“I tried not to want you as much today.”

She nodded then gave him a curious look. “And why not today?” she queried softly.

He gave her a tense look. “Because I had you too much yesterday.”

He said it as if that should explain things. It didn’t. “Considering the reason we’re here, Dominic, there are no limitations. It’s all you can get.”

He smiled. “If that were true then I’d keep you on your back with only bathroom breaks.”

The image of that flowed through her mind, made the throb between her legs intensify. “But it is true. We came to make a baby. Don’t worry about wearing me out. I can handle it. This is one case where the means will justify the results.”

She didn’t say anything for a second and then she couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you fighting it?

Taylor’s words hung in the air, refusing to float away, Dominic thought. She had just asked him a loaded question. How could he explain that the reason he was fighting it was because he felt himself getting too emotionally attached? And that when he was making love to her, he felt things he hadn’t felt with any woman. She was right. He was furiously trying to fight it and the sad part was that he couldn’t. She had the ability to stir up things inside him. It was beginning to irritate the hell out of him that she was becoming his weakness, something he didn’t have time for. Weak men became vulnerable men. They became men who couldn’t think straight. Men who let their guard down.

“Dominic?”

She was waiting on his response but there was no answer he could truthfully give her. Instead he said, “I’m not fighting it. I thought I was being a gentleman and trying not to give the impression that I’m a greedy ass who enjoys being inside you 24-7.”

“But I love having you inside me. Because I know the reason why you’re there.”

To make a baby,
he contemplated roughly, wondering why he was getting upset at the thought that, as she said, he was just a means to an end. “Do you know what you’re asking for?”

“Yes. I knew it the moment I arrived on the island. Even before that. I also knew that because I hadn’t been sexually active in quite some time that the first couple of days wouldn’t be easy for me, they would probably be uncomfortable. But my body is adjusting. I’m fine.”

Dominic heard her words. He also saw how the sun was playing across the beauty of her features. His glance then moved slowly over her entire body and suddenly, he didn’t want to talk anymore. He wanted to do what he’d been fighting all day.

There were no other boats around. It was as if they were in their own private world. There was no shoreline in sight. It was just the two of them and the wide-open span of the Atlantic Ocean. More than anything he wanted to make love to her here, on the deck, under the sun. Right this minute. But then he thought of her comfort.

“Will you go down below with me?” he asked silkily, more than sure she knew the reason he was asking.

She didn’t hesitate when she responded. “Yes.”

Taylor’s breath quickened at the way Dominic was looking at her. She knew why he wanted to take her below and the thought of making love with him on the open seas made hot blood rush through her veins.

Determined not to give him a chance or a reason to change his mind, she walked over to him. When she came to stand in front of him, she said, “I’ve never made love on a boat before.”

The look he was giving her made her skin tingle. “Then your first time will be special. I’ll make sure of that.” He swung her up into his arms.

Somehow he managed to get the both of them below and placed her on the bed. Once her body touched the mattress, she didn’t want them to waste any more time and began removing her clothes, beginning with her top.

“No, please let me.”

She glanced up when Dominic moved closer to the bed and reached out his hand to pull her to him. Then his arms folded around her and he simply stood there for a second holding her in his warm embrace. His manly aroma teased her nostrils and her stomach began to quiver. Moments later, he leaned back and met her gaze and the look she saw in his eyes let her know there wouldn’t be time for any small talk. The idea of that made her pulse leap, her heart beat fast and furious in her chest. Then he began removing the rest of her clothes, taking his time as a cooling breeze came through the screened porthole and touched her naked skin.

When she was completely naked, his gaze moved over her, taking its time and lingering on those marks of passion that were still there. “I’ve branded you,” he whispered as a satisfied smile curved his lips.

Taylor swallowed, thinking he had done a lot more than that. There was no way she would tell him how she felt at this very moment. What was between them was an agreement, one as personal as it could get; however, things were to have remained unemotional. But it seemed whenever they came together like this, things were as emotional as they could get.

“Now I want to undress you,” she said softly, reaching out and lifting up Dominic’s shirt over his head. When she had removed it, she tossed it aside and went to the snaps of his shorts. He was aroused, she noted when she eased down his zipper. His manhood was huge, she saw when he stepped away from the bed to remove his shoes. And when he eased his shorts and briefs together down his thighs, she saw that he was also extremely ready. The size of him no longer bothered her as it had that first night. Her body had been able to take him right in.

He came back to the bed. “I want to try something different,” he stated huskily.

She tilted her head back and met his gaze. “What?”

“I want you to ride me.”

He had thumbed through that book as many times as she had, and he knew that the “woman on top” position was the least effective to use to get her pregnant, due to the law of gravity. But it was a position that she knew gave the woman the most pleasure because it placed her in a dominating role. She understood what Dominic was doing. He wanted them to make love for the sheer enjoyment of doing so, not for the sole purpose of making a baby.

A part of her wasn’t sure she was ready for what he was asking. It would add a piece to the equation that she hadn’t counted on. Even doing what he asked only one time would still throw a monkey wrench into their week here. She had a tendency to let herself go when they made love and had convinced herself she was only doing so because each time they came together, there was a chance they were creating a life—a life they both wanted. What if she let herself go anyway? What if he still had the ability to rock her world although he was placing her in control?

She had to fight hard to retain her composure. Just being here with him, sitting naked in the middle of the bed, staring into the deep green of his eyes was rocking her world, slinging her into an arena of emotions and feelings she hadn’t counted on, nor was prepared for. He was unshaven and the mass of hair on his head was tousled around his shoulders. Her gaze raked over his face and her breathing quickened when her eyes lowered to move across his manly chest and then down past his waist to his huge manhood that was fully erect in a bed of dark curly hair.

And she knew at that moment that yes, she would ride him. The need to do so had become an ache in her belly. There was no other position that could remove it and an abundance of rising excitement filled her entire being.

“Taylor?”

She moved her gaze back up to his face. She saw the intensity in the dark pupils staring straight at her. She felt the heat and the potent force of his sexuality. It was dominant, overbearing and lethal, and it was reaching out to her, touching her in some of the most private places. Instead of giving him an answer, she eased toward him and reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. She studied his lips and thought his mouth was temptation at its finest, and with a gentle pull he was tumbling down on the bed with her.

Their mouths connected immediately and she began drowning in his heat the moment their tongues connected. And knowing just where their kiss would lead kicked a response in her that went beyond anything she’d ever encountered before.

And then he was shifting their bodies to place her on top and she pulled back and stared down at him.

She wanted him.

Her arms grabbed hold of his shoulders and she felt his muscles tighten beneath her fingertips. She felt his manhood in the center of her legs and it was a struggle not to lower her body onto it. However, temptation made her lean down and take a swipe of his lips with her tongue. His sharp intake of breath made her smile.

“I think I’d better warn you that I took horseback riding as a child,” she informed him softly.

He continued to look at her and lifted a brow. “And?”

She chuckled. “And I’m no novice. I like riding.”

She saw the way his eyes darkened. She felt the way his hard length seemed to thicken beneath her. Then suddenly he gripped her hips and lifted them enough to position his shaft at the opening of her womanly core. She felt the tip of its head right there. “I like riding, too,” he said in a strained voice, lowering her hips downward to inch inside her.

She felt the heat of him, big and thick, as it entered her, stretching her body again to accommodate its presence. He continued to lower her onto him and she could barely breathe at the feeling of him filling her so completely.

She felt the exact moment he lifted the lower part of his body off the bed to drive into her to the hilt. “Let’s ride,” he growled from deep in his throat.

He had told her to ride him, not to kill him,
Dominic thought as Taylor’s body slammed down on his once more, pressing her knees into his sides, holding firm to his shoulders. Her head was thrown back and she was giving the bed one hell of a workout while at the same time driving his body over the edge, time and time again.

He’d come twice already and so had she, but she wouldn’t let up and he couldn’t seem to go down. She was doing more than just rocking the bed. She was also rocking his senses, tilting his world, filling him with more pleasure than he could have imagined possible. He’d heard of women who were experts when it came to riding, but until now he’d never encountered one. The sheer impact of how she was making him feel simply overwhelmed him. And the scent of sex along with the fragrance of her perfume wasn’t helping matters when he inhaled it into his nostrils. It only made him that much more aware of what they were doing and how they were doing it. And the knowledge that they were out in the middle of the ocean only added to the allure, the deep throb in his veins and the degree of his arousal that wouldn’t go away.

She kept going and going and going, as if working up to that one big explosion that would be the granddaddy of them all. So each time she came down on him, he was there to thrust up into her, grind his body, going as deep inside her as he could, and the more he did so, the more vigorously she bucked and pumped into him, going at it wild and untamed.

He felt another climax ready to hit him at the same moment he felt her inner body clench his muscles and felt this release would be too good to waste, so he quickly shifted positions and brought her beneath him the moment her body jerked. She let out one hair-raising scream when she exploded. He followed her and flooded her insides with the very essence of him, and held her, refusing to let her move, wanting her to feel what he’d done. Take it all in. Keep it.

Her response didn’t help and when she wrapped her legs around him, locking him in, he continued to kiss her—harder—while slipping his hands into her hair to grip the silkiness of it and to hold her mouth in place. She was being held hostage, under his intense desire.

He knew that he was being held hostage under hers, as well.

Chapter 8

T
aylor felt Dominic’s touch when he slid his hand between her legs, gently stroking her there. He was lying beside her, facing her, and when her lips parted with a soft purr he leaned forward and took advantage, letting his tongue begin an intimate dance inside her mouth that only he had the skill to perform. Feeling like putty in his hands, under his lips, she clung to his mouth in a kiss of possession that she felt all the way to her toes.

Moments later, he released her mouth and whispered softly against her moist lips. “You okay?”

She was also too absorbed in the sensual spell he had placed her in to speak. She felt totally drained in a way that still had parts of her body quivering. Even now there was a heated pulse between her legs in the area where he was stroking.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she whispered back, filled with an emotional need she didn’t want, but was too weak to resist. Each time she made love with him she felt herself being pulled in toward something she wasn’t sure had a name, but was certain didn’t have a place in her life. She didn’t like things getting complicated. The only thing she wanted from Dominic was the one thing she believed he would give her this week—a baby.

“It’s getting late. We need to head back,” he said softly.

She heard his words. “I’m ready when you are,” she said quietly, hoping she sounded more excited that she actually felt. In truth, she could stay here like this with him forever.

Forever.

She suddenly felt a shiver of apprehension slide down her spine. Why in the world would she think something like that? She’d never thought of forever when it came to any man and didn’t intend to start now.

“You have beautiful breasts.”

She watched his hand stroke her nipples as he spoke, using the same fingers he’d used to stroke between her legs earlier. His fingers were moist as he spread her very wetness over the hardened peaks of both breasts. Another shiver, this one of pleasure, ran up her spine. What on earth was he doing to her?

“Dominic…”

“Just close your eyes and feel, Taylor.”

She did what he asked and the moment her eyelids fused shut she felt his tongue snaking out and capturing a bud, flickering over it, tasting her before closing in and taking it fully into his mouth. Desire, the kind she only knew with him, consumed her insides as she felt his mouth on her breasts, tasting, taunting and tampering with her in a way that was simply his. He feasted on one and then the other, almost sapping her of her senses, her sanity and her self-control.

And when his mouth found the indention of her belly and begin placing kisses all around it, she became lost within a maelstrom of sensations that had her surrendering to pleasure of the most erotic kind.

“You also have a beautiful stomach,” he whispered with a warm breath before placing another kiss there. And then he whispered a few more French words and phrases and she wondered if he knew she understood what he was saying. She doubted it. Not that he was expressing his love or anything of the sort, but he was telling her in explicit French terms how much he loved making love to her body and just what being inside her did to him each and every time he was there. His words were making her succumb to emotions she was trying to control and didn’t want to feel. They were also causing another deep hunger to take place inside her.

Then she felt the warmth of his breath move lower, and she held still, knowing what he was about to do. By now she should have grown accustomed to him kissing and caressing her there, but she wasn’t. It couldn’t be helped. He had a skill with his tongue whenever he went down on her that she just couldn’t control, deny or resist. After all the lovemaking they’d shared that day she wondered how she would be able to handle this. She didn’t know if she could take her body shattering in a million pieces again.

She opened her eyes to tell him but all she saw was his head, down between her legs and she could only close her eyes the moment his tongue flicked over her sensitive flesh.

Instinctively, her body came up off the bed and he grabbed her hips, holding her to his mouth as he devoured her with a sense of hunger that left her gasping for breath. She closed her eyes as sensations tore into her body once again.

She reached out for him, held his head in place, inviting him to go deeper, and he did, as his sinfully skilled and seductive tongue continued nonstop, increasing the pace, redefining the urgency. Her senses were being driven wild and her fingers threaded through his hair as he continued to ply long, deep, drugging kisses into her.

“Don’t stop. Please don’t stop,” she cried out over and over as a powerful throb overtook her. And then she felt it, some part of her that his tongue touched, that sent her over the edge, splintering her in two and making her scream yet again at the top of her lungs.

Slowly, deliberately, he continued to bestow the intimate kiss on her as she felt waves of heated pleasures float all through her, and she continued to writhe beneath his mouth.

She felt herself losing consciousness, and the last thing she remembered after moaning out his name was him pulling up and taking her mouth and she tasted herself on his tongue.

“What did you do to me?” Taylor asked moments after her lids fluttered back open. Dominic was leaning over her and wiping her brow with a warm, damp cloth.

He smiled down at her. “Do I truly need to answer that in full details,
chérie?
”

“No, but you did do something. I passed out for heaven’s sake.”

Yes, she had, he acknowledged silently. And just to think when they had left the resort earlier that day he had fully intended not to touch her. But whether he liked it or not, the woman made dreams a reality. She was the only woman he knew who could do something like that—and with very little effort.

“Tell me what you did, Dominic.”

He heard the urgency in her voice. He’d known her long enough to realize she was someone who thrived on being in the know, especially when it concerned her personally.

“La petite mort,”
he said, using a French accent. “It’s the French translation for
the little death
and a popular reference for a sexual orgasm. When pleasure gets so overwhelming it’s considered a short period of transcendence one encounters.”

“By passing out?”

“Yes.”

He watched as she bit her bottom lip nervously before saying, “Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”

He was tempted to tell her nothing like that had ever happened to him, either. Although he hadn’t passed out, he had felt pleasure so intense, even now parts of his body felt as if they were on fire. “It might happen again. But don’t worry. You will be in good hands if it does,” he assured her. He could tell from her expression that she intended to worry. Anxiety lines were forming around her lips. Her very beautiful, kissable lips. Lips that he was tempted to devour again.

Thinking he couldn’t let that happen, he glanced at his watch. “Come on, it’s time to get back.”

He pushed the covers aside and stood and then reached a hand to help her up. He couldn’t help staring at her naked body. The woman was so sinfully gorgeous, it was a shame.

“We’ll take a shower when we get back,” he said so she wouldn’t be surprised when he pulled her into the shower with him later.

She only nodded as she got dressed. He finished before she did and glanced over at her to see her standing across from the mirror fussing with her hair. As he continued to watch her, he was amazed by the influx of emotions that consumed him, emotions he wasn’t used to dealing with. Desire was something he understood. Lust was something he was used to, something he often craved. But he wasn’t used to what he felt whenever he touched Taylor. And making love to her was another issue altogether.

She must have felt his eyes on her because she shifted her glance and met his gaze in the mirror. She smiled before twirling around for his inspection. “How do I look?”

He had to bite down to keep from saying,
“Like you belong to me.”
Instead he said, “Beautiful as usual.” He meant every word.

And then he crossed the room to her, needing to taste her one long, last time before he went up top to take his place at the wheel. Once they set sail he would have to concentrate on what he was doing and not on her. As if she knew his intent, exactly what was on his mind, she took the steps and met him halfway. And when he came to a stop in front of her, she reached up and placed her arms around his neck. He leaned down and connected his mouth to hers, angling his head for deeper penetration and releasing a satisfied groan when he got it.

Yes, this was the desire he understood, the lust he craved. But yet he couldn’t discount that somewhere in the shadows lurked emotions he didn’t want to cope with.

He didn’t want to think about that now. He would find a way to deal with those unwanted emotions later.

“I had a nice time, Dominic,” Taylor said as they entered their suite. The first thing she intended to do was take a shower and she couldn’t help wondering if he would join her. She had never been a person who constantly had sex on her mind but around Dominic such a thing seemed as natural as breathing.

“I had a nice time, too,” he said, tossing the room key on the table. “It’s almost dinnertime. Do you have a particular taste for anything?”

She was glad his back was to her and he couldn’t see her lick her lips. If only he knew what cravings had begun controlling her appetite recently. She shook her head, thinking that something was definitely wrong with her. She’d never been this hard up to get laid in her life and suddenly became suspicious of something. The resort had been the one to prepare the lunch they’d taken on board the ship, and she couldn’t help wondering if perhaps some of the foods had contained some sort of the aphrodisiac-laced ingredients that the brochure had bragged about using in a lot of their foods. After making love most of the afternoon, the idea of doing so again should be the furthest thing from her mind, but it wasn’t.

“One of us got a call while we were out,” Dominic said, claiming her attention as she watched him cross the room to the phone and its red blinking light.

She couldn’t help wondering who could be calling. Her secretary knew not to bother her unless it was an extreme emergency and—

“It was for you,” Dominic said, hanging the phone up. “A call from your sister Vanessa.”

“Vanessa?” she said in surprise as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She had turned it off earlier since she knew the reception on the ocean wouldn’t be good. As she punched in Vanessa’s number, she hoped everything was okay. Vanessa knew why she was there and would not have called unless it was important.

“Hello.”

“Vanessa? It’s Taylor. What’s going on?”

“Taylor, I didn’t want to bother you but Roz called.”

Taylor lifted a brow. Roz Henry was Cheyenne’s agent and good friend. “And?”

“And Cheyenne passed out during a photo shoot and was taken to the hospital.”

Taylor frowned. Wanting to make sure she had heard her sister correctly, she asked, “Cheyenne actually fainted?”

“Yes. Roz said she’s okay but they are having a doctor check her out anyway.”

Taylor knew how much her sister disliked doctors. “Where is Cheyenne?” she asked, knowing a photo shoot could take Cheyenne anywhere.

“She happens to be on one of those islands not far from where you are.”

“Which one?”

A few minutes later Taylor was ending the call with her sister. She turned to find Dominic standing in the same spot he’d been standing when she had placed the call.

“Is there a problem?”

She glanced over at him and tried not to notice how sexy he looked standing there with his hands inside the pockets of his shorts. He had nice legs for a man. Muscular and bowed. “I don’t know. Cheyenne passed out while doing a photo shoot. I need to make sure she’s okay.”

Dominic nodded and moved to stand in front of her. “Where is she?”

“On an island not far from here called Bimini Bay.”

He appeared to consider her response for a mere second before saying, “Okay, then, let’s go.”

Taylor was amazed how quickly Dominic had made things happen. A half hour later a private plane had been chartered to take them to Bimini Bay. At twenty-three, Cheyenne was the youngest in the family and after a brief stint as a television reporter she’d tried her hand at modeling, saying it would give her the chance to travel and live in some of the most beautiful and exotic places. A few years ago she had purchased a home in Jamaica, but traveled back home for important family events, and like Taylor, she was on the board of the Steele Corporation.

Taylor couldn’t help but smile when she thought of her sister, the rebel. She had taken being the baby in the Steele family to all-new heights. Her male cousins had thought Vanessa was a handful while growing up, but nothing had prepared them for Cheyenne. Whereas Vanessa and Taylor favored their father, Cheyenne had inherited their mother’s strong Native American features, bestowing upon her an exotic look, which is why she was given the name of her mother’s ancestry. She had beautiful brown skin, high cheekbones and dark eyes. Even as a child Cheyenne had gotten her share of admiring looks. It hadn’t come as a surprise to anyone that while working as a news reporter a few years back, the president of a top modeling agency, who had seen her on television, had made Cheyenne an offer she couldn’t refuse to come work for him.

“Here, drink this. It will calm your nerves.”

She looked up as Dominic placed a cup of warm tea in her hand. From the moment she had told him of her concern for Cheyenne, he had seen to her every need. “Thank you,” she said, taking the tea cup from him. She took a sip and liked the taste.

“We should be landing soon.”

“Okay,” she managed to say, not sure what Dominic was thinking. This was probably not the way he had envisioned their day ending. “Dominic, I know you must think it’s silly that I’d want to see my sister just because she fainted and that—”