Page 70 of A Kiss at Midnight

Just as his fingers are slipping beneath my shirt, the bell on the elevator chimes, and he steps back and helps me tug my clothes back into place. We exit the elevator as if that didn’t just happen. We go outside and find a waiting car.

“To the marina, sir?” Max asks. Blake nods. After we climb into the backseat, he lifts my hand to his mouth and feathers kisses across my knuckles, making my stomach twist.

Max says nothing; he doesn’t so much as look in the rearview mirror as Blake once again seduces me right here in the car. His hand trails down my thigh, slowly... deliberately... unbearably.

When we arrive at the docks, I’m breathing hard, and it takes several moments to realize the vehicle’s come to a stop... and Blake’s no longer touching me.

“We should’ve stayed home,” he says with a laugh.

“I agree,” I say before I can take the words back. The grin he gives me makes me glad I can’t.

“Let’s go.”

I’m wobbly as we exit the vehicle. I lean on him as we walk down the dock where huge boats bob along the pier. I stop to look at the biggest boat I’ve ever seen in person.

“Wow!”

“What?” he asks. I turn to him in shock.

“Are you so used to this much wealth that you don’t see what’s right in front of you?”

I gaze at the yacht gently bobbing beside the dock in front of us. He’s gazing at it too as if seeing it through new eyes. He then looks at me with a bit of a smile.

“You might be right. I see this so much I hardly notice it anymore. You might be opening my eyes. There never was a time I was exactly poor, but my brothers and I have built our company from the ground up, and I do appreciate what I have, just not as much as I should. Want to step on board?”

“I’m not sure. Honestly, it scares me a little,” I admit, which makes him laugh.

“Come on, let’s look it over.” He grabs my hand and helps me board the nearly two-hundred-foot vessel.

“I honestly had no idea boats could get this big. Is this yours, Blake?”

I don’t notice when he doesn’t exactly answer. “Many people in the world own boats this large... and even bigger ones. Many live on them.”

“Sort of like Tom Hanks inSleepless in Seattle,” I say with a nervous giggle.

“Well, his wasn’tquitethis big."

“Very true.” My voice is hushed.

We’re silent as we pass top-of-the-line furniture and exquisite tables. I look everywhere as I try to take it all in. We step through a door, and we’re inside a gigantic... bedroom. I gasp in delight.

The walls are mahogany with wide open windows and gleaming glass doors leading to a private balcony. The gilded ceiling looks like the boat was taken straight from a classic English country house. In the middle of it all sits a huge four-poster bed that’s far too inviting.

“Jewel,” he whispers, and a shiver rushes through me at the need in his voice. I turn and look at him. He smiles as he walks up to me and places his fingers beneath my chin, then backs me up against a built-in bookcase filled with rare books, books I’d love to explore at another time.

“I’m going to peel your clothes away, piece by piece, slowly and completely, and then take you long and slow, and then hard and fast. And then we’ll start all over again, and do it for days on end. I’m going to please you so much you’ll never be able to tell me no again.”

“But... this... here... now?”

“Right here. Right now.” Blake presses his body up against mine, letting me feel how ready he is to take me.

“This is your boat, isn’t it?” I look around nervously, finally realizing the décor isn’t exactly his style.

“Why do you ask? Are you afraid of being caught?”

“Yes,” I say nervously, looking away from him to the door he firmly shut behind us.

“That’s all a part of the appeal.” I feel his excitement building.

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