Page 20 of Audacity

I turn to him. ‘Did you ask them to do this?’

He hesitates. ‘I popped up here and lit them before dinner. I wanted the right atmosphere.’ There’s a self-consciousness to his tone that stops me from telling him he doesn’t need to bother with details like this for an escort. The only motivations I need are money and this man’s looks, but his having pulled out all the stops speaks volumes as to his character. I hate to admit it, but I’m touched.

So, instead of dismissing his efforts, I give him a smile. ‘Thank you. It’s perfect.’

‘I’m well aware you’re auditioning me far more than I’m auditioning you at this point,’ he says gruffly.

I begin to demur. ‘No, not at all.’ But he shakes his head.

‘It’s true. And if you do agree to take this position, then we’ll be building a relationship. It may be one that’s transactional in nature and a little… unorthodox, from my end, anyway, but it’s a type of relationship, nonetheless. And I want to make sureyou understand from the outset how much I’ll respect and value you.’

In my audition with Anton Wolff, he made me roll a condom on him as soon as the door clicked shut behind us before shoving me up against the wall and fucking me so hard and fast we both saw stars, but this works, too. Every word out of this man’s mouth tells me what I already know: his integrity is irrefutable. That box is well and truly checked in my head. I’ll be safe with Gabriel.

WhichmeansI can have all the fun in the world teasing him, tormenting him, until every chivalrous instinct is buried under raw, primal need and he’s driven purely by his dick.

‘I appreciate that,’ I tell him softly. ‘I can tell you’re a good man. But I want to see what you’re like when you’re bad, so tell me about this idea you had.’

‘It can wait a moment,’ he says, tugging me towards him with one arm banded around my waist and the other hand in my hair. Then his mouth is on mine, his lips soft and firm all at once, and I open for him right away. He slides his hand down to my bottom and grips hard, grinding against me as his tongue, taut and insistent, finds mine.

He asked me towards the end of dinner if I allowed my employers to kiss me.

‘This isn’tPretty Woman,’ I told him. ‘For what they pay me, they can do whatever they like.’

I get the intimacy thing. It’s undoubtedly intimate having someone’s tongue inside your mouth, but like everything else I let these men do to me, I can handle it. Besides, I adore kissing, and Gabriel, it seems, is an excellent kisser. The way he uses that hot, hungry mouth of his on me is ardent and accomplished and sensual, and for the hundredth time since he told me yesterday how much he likes totake it slow, I can’t wait to have it betweenmy legs. If he eats pussy as skilfully, as carnally, as he kisses, I won’t be faking anything.

I yield to the kiss, slipping one hand into his hair (short, soft) and allowing the other to roam up his back and across one shoulder. As I suspected, he has the leanly muscled physique of the naturally athletic. I bet he was captain of every team at prep school. This guy has Golden Boy written all over him. As it is, his delts flex under my touch in the most gratifying way before I squeeze his tricep (hard as fuck, if you must know).

It seems he likes my touch, because he angles his head, deepening our kiss, grinding me against his now fully hard dick in a manner that’s thorough enough to obliterate any concerns I may have had about him packing anything sub-scale down there. The little noise I make in the back of my throat isn’t remotely strategic—it’s a natural reaction to a beautiful man tongue-fucking your mouth and dry-humping your pelvic bone as your needy nipples rub against his chest.

And I need more.

He breaks the kiss, pulling his face away with a jagged exhale while his hand lingers on my bottom. ‘Fuck, you’re beautiful. And you taste just as delicious as you look.’

I place my palms flat on his—excellent—pecs. ‘You going to let me take care of that now?’ I ask with a nod at his erection.

‘Nope. There’s something else I need you to do for me first.’

‘Anything.’

He licks his lips, surveying me. Is there anything more arousing than seeing yourself through the eyes of a man who wants you so badly he can scarcely breathe?

I don’t think so.

‘I need you to take off all your clothes,’ he begins. ‘Every last scrap. Shoes, stockings, the lot.’

‘Mmm-hmm.’ I’m enjoying this already.

‘Go get one of those stools’—he nods at the bar area behind me, where I vaguely noticed that a couple of bar stools stand—‘and put it in the centre of the room, facing me. Then I want you to sit in it and arrange yourselfexactlyas you were in that photo in your portfolio. You understand me?’

CHAPTER 9

Athena

Ican’t be sure how fully Gabriel understands this about me yet, but orders make my knees tremor and my pussy drip.

Give me a command, and I positively ache to obey.

Say it inthatvoice, the voice that smacks of need and thinly-held vestiges of self-control, and I’m practically coming before you’ve even touched me.

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