‘Name me’ she’d said in her warm whiskey voice. What he wanted to do was kiss her. More than kiss her. The plunging V-neck of her dress bared the soft inner curves of her breasts. He had no idea how the silky material stayed on, but he wanted desperately to test its tenacity. Beneath his palm, he could feel the heat from her satiny bare skin, since the dress left her entire back bare down to the dip at the base of her spine. This was one of Josh’s favorite spots on a woman, and this sultry exclamation point of a dress framed it perfectly for him.
Not to mention her legs. Josh spared a brief glance downward as they waltzed, watching the asymmetrical hem swirl to reveal her left leg almost all the way to her hip. The long, smooth, golden expanse of flesh was enough to send every drop of his blood rushing south.
“I think I prefer Madame Butterfly. Isn’t that what you told Max Hightower to call you?”
She chuckled, the sound a velvet purr. “Have you been watching me, Mr. Owens?” Her left hand slid further up his shoulder, fingertips brushing lightly against the nape of his neck. The hair there stood on end at her delicate touch.
“Most of the men here are,” he replied, his own voice bearing a touch of smoke. She curled her soft fingers around his neck, fingernails scratching gently. Josh inhaled a sharp breath as a needle of heat zinged down his spine.
She batted her long lashes, leaning up to brush her lips against his earlobe. “I’m not interested in most of the men here.”
His hand slid to the small of her back, pressing her closer as his blood surged. “Why not? There are plenty of rich men here who I’m sure would buy you whatever you wanted if you’d only dance with them like this.” Was she one of the numerous trophy wives and girlfriends the older men paraded around like acquisitions? Sheila McNamara had thought so. Josh wanted to know. He found he didn’t like the idea of sharing this woman with someone else.
He reached up and touched her hair, running his fingers over a silky curl. He traced her hairline with a finger, wondering who this strange, compelling woman was. She gazed up into his eyes, lashes lowing slowly over her lambent irises. But when his fingertip touched the edge of her mask, she turned her head away.
“Ah-ah-ah,” she chastised, looking at him out of the corner of her eye, nails digging into the back of his neck again. “No fair peeking, Joshua.”
He slid his hand back around her, stroking his thumb over her back, pressing into the slight dip at the base of her spine. She shivered. Josh smiled. “You didn’t answer my question.”
She threw back her head and laughed, loud and long. Other dancers turned to look. Josh wasn’t surprised. The sound was rich and carnal and joyous. His body tightened in response to it. She pressed against him, lips curling up in a sinful smile. “Don’t be coy, Joshua. No matter how much money the other men here have, they can’t buy what you’ve gotten for free.” She lifted her hand to trace the edge of his jaw with one finger.
He cocked a brow. “So you want me for my body?” He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun flirting with a woman. Madame Butterfly gave as good as she got, bantering confidently. She was verbally jousting with him, playful and sexy at once. It was so tempting.
She arched a dark brow at him. “Well, I can hardly lick champagne off your dazzling personality, now can I?”
It was Josh’s turn to laugh, though the sound came out low and husky. He twirled her into a turn, flaring the dramatic skirt of her dress. “Is that a proposition, Madame Butterfly?” He’d been enjoying his ball well enough before he’d seen her. The games were a hit. He’d played a round of Hide-and-Seek himself, and jacks, as well. But neither was half as fun as dancing and sparring with this mystery woman. There was something to be said for adult entertainments, too, after all.
“What would you say if it was?” she asked, her fingers twining in his hair. He inclined his head just a little, bringing his mouth closer to hers.
“I’d say the other men here were out of luck. Because no matter what they might offer to steal you away, I’d top it.”
The music faded to a close, and she stepped suddenly out of his arms. The sensual smile had faded from her full lips and her eyes snapped with fire. “Now you’re just being insulting, Joshua. For one thing, I can’t be bought. And for another, I wouldn’t want you
or
these other cretins to waste your money on me. Though lord knows you’ll all find a way to squander it on something as equally pointless as trying to buy a woman’s affections, regardless.”
For a moment she pressed her mouth together in a disapproving moue. Josh felt a small niggle of familiarity at the expression. He watched her smooth her expression to careful haughtiness and lost the thought almost as soon as he’d found it.
He held up his hands as the first faint strains of another waltz began. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to insinuate you were for sale, only that you were worth a wealth of riches.”
She started pushing through the crowd away from him, but he caught her elbow. “Please, believe me. It was a poorly worded joke, that’s all.”
Her bare shoulders were still tense, but she allowed him to draw her back into his arms. Her mouth softened from its firm line. “Just. . . . This isn’t about money. Please, don’t ever think that.” She raised her eyes to his. He was struck again by that odd feeling of acquaintance at her quiet tone and the somewhat prickly look in her eyes. He frowned, trying to catch it, but she lowered her lashes over her eyes, and it faded too quickly for him to grasp.
“I believe you,” he said. His instincts told him there was something more to her fierce reaction, but she hadn’t even told him her name. He was unlikely to get a personal confession from her. “I didn’t mean to ruin our dance. Please, let me make it up to you.”
He had meant with another dance, but she curled her fingers around his lapels, biting her lower lip. “Not here.”
“What?” Despite their heretofore passionate flirtation, he was startled by her words. Especially after her volatile response to his last comment. He glanced around, momentarily unsure how to reply. She decided for him by spinning away and disappearing into the crowd. Josh found he couldn’t resist following her.
It was his ball. He really should be mingling and schmoozing, pressing the flesh and encouraging people to open their checkbooks. But his mystery woman was far too intriguing to let escape. So he strode after her, nodding and shaking hands with the people who greeted him, but not stopping. He murmured a few words about a catering emergency and slipped out of the ballroom.
She was waiting for him by the door, just off to the side, with her back to him. Josh momentarily fought the urge to drop to his knees and press his mouth to the groove of her spine. She turned her head, looking back over her shoulder at him. Her earrings swung back and forth with the motion, brushing the bare skin of her shoulders. Josh suddenly wished he were a painter or photographer, maybe a sculptor, so he could in some way capture the vision of beauty and desire she embodied it in just that moment.
Madame Butterfly completed her turn toward him, extending her hand. He took it, and she drew him into the hall leading toward the billiard room. And his bedroom. Did she know?
“No one’s come this way since I came out of the ballroom. We can have some privacy.” Her mouth ticked up at one corner. Josh’s heart pounded. He wanted to grab her, throw her over his shoulder and carry her to his bedroom. She conjured something very primal in him.
As soon as she had him in the dimmer shadow of the hallway, she pulled him against her and slid her arms back up around his neck. Her fingers twisted in his hair as she tugged his mouth toward hers. “Kiss me, Joshua.”
He knew the hallway wasn’t completely deserted. They were only a few feet from the ballroom. They could be discovered at any moment. But he wasn’t about to argue with the lady. Josh wrapped his arms around her back, pressing her slight body into his, and angled his head. He brushed his mouth back and forth over her lips once, twice, three times, teasing her, before he covered her mouth with his own. She gasped, lips parting. Josh groaned, unable to keep his tongue from tracing the entrance to the moist cavern of her mouth.
Her own tongue emerged to tease his, coaxing him into her mouth, where they rubbed sensuously together. She tasted of white wine and thyme honey, sweet and heady. Her teeth nipped at his lower lip, sucking it into her mouth briefly. Josh growled, walking her backward until he felt the cool wood of his bedroom door. He pinned her against it, returning to her mouth to plunder it further. The kiss was explosive, hotter than anything he’d ever experienced. Nuclear levels of desire detonated inside him.
She clung to him, her breath soft on his cheek, her mask rasping slightly against his jaw. He’d have that off her soon enough, he vowed. The dress too, if he was lucky. He tried to picture the long, lithe body beneath the ruby silk and was instantly and almost painfully hard. His left hand dropped to her thigh, curling around her leg, sliding down. He stroked the silky skin behind her knee before hitching it up, pulling her leg around his hip. The action parted her thighs and Josh wasted no time stepping between them, pressing himself into the warm V of her body.
“Oh God,” she whispered brokenly against his mouth, voice slightly higher than it had been. Josh paused; another tiny flare of recognition sparked in his brain. Then it was lost amid the fog of lust as she arched her hips into him, fingernails scratching through his hair. Josh kissed her hard, their tongues dancing as he ground himself against her. She answered his frantic movements with her own, hooking her heel over his ass and pulling him harder into her.
He dug frantically in his pants pocket with his right hand, cursing the thought process that had led to him locking all the doors. He yanked the key free the minute his fingers curled around it and fumbled it into the lock without lifting his head. He slid his left hand over her hip and up to palm her breast, rolling the taut bud of her nipple between his fingers. At the same time, he twisted the key in the lock and heard the click when it opened.
He twisted the knob, shoved the door open and caught her as she stumbled backward. He felt her mask shift against his cheek, and he pulled back, anxious to see her face. But his mystery woman, Madame Butterfly, spun away. Her shoulders rose and fell with her panting breaths as her hands flew to her face. She pressed the mask firmly back into place before turning to him once more.
He tugged his own mask off, tossing it aside. “Are you going to keep that on the whole time?” he asked, his voice gruff. She grinned broadly, lifting one hand to the knot that held the dress tied behind her neck. Her slender fingers tugged at the bow.
“Uh huh.” She smirked. “Only the mask.”
Josh’s hands clenched and unclenched as she slowly pulled the bow apart. She extended that long, golden skinned leg toward him, cherry red toenails peeping out from her strappy black heels.
“And the heels too, I think.”
Josh groaned. “You’re killing me.”
She’d undone the tie, but clapped her hand to her collarbone, holding the sliding straps up. “Do you want me to stop?”
“God, no.”
She chuckled that deep velvet chuckle and turned her back to him again, dropping the straps and lifting her arms to pluck at the elaborate coils of her hair. The dress caught on her hips and sagged there, barely a breath away from falling to her feet. She glanced back over her shoulder at him. “Well, are you just going to stand there?”
He crossed the room in two strides, before she’d even completed the sentence. She laughed again. With her arms up like they were, Josh couldn’t reach her lush mouth. He settled for pressing his lips to her naked shoulders, stroking his hands over the satin expanse of her back. It was hardly any barer than it had been in the dress, but knowing she was half-undressed made it hotter.
Josh kissed his way down her spine, lowering himself to his knees the way he’d wanted to earlier. He slid his hands around to her front, stroking up over the soft plane of her belly. As his mouth continued its journey down to the small of her back and the upper swells of her buttocks, he stretched his arms upward, fingers tracing the delicate undersides of his mystery woman’s breasts.
Her hands came down, catching his as they covered her. She pressed his palms hard against her, pinning his hands. When she spoke, her voice wavered high and low.