Surrender

CHAPTER FOUR

Tess came downstairs the next morning expecting to be greeted by her father. She had dressed in the dove gray sweater dress he had sent her the month before. Tiny pearl buttons closed it from the hem to just above her breasts. On her feet she wore matching pumps and pearls at her neck. Confident and sure of herself, Tess felt able to field her father’s questions, his urgings that she move back home for a while. When she walked into the dimly lit family room, it was Cole she found instead.

She stood still, silent as she faced him across the room. His eyes, a brilliant blue and filled with wicked secrets, watched her narrowly. Thick, black lashes framed the brilliant orbs, just as his thick, black hair framed the savage features of his face. His cheekbones were high, sharp, his nose an arrogant slash down his face. His lips were wide, and could be full and sensual or thin with anger. Now, he seemed merely curious.

His arms were crossed over his wide, muscular chest, his ankles crossed as he stood propped against the back of a sectional couch that faced away from her.

“Where’s Father?” Tess asked him, fighting her excitement, her own unruly desires.

“He was held up. He expects, perhaps, to be home tomorrow,” he told her quietly.

“Perhaps?” She barely stilled the tremble in her voice.

“Perhaps.” He straightened from his lazy stance, watching her with a narrow-eyed intensity that had her breasts and her cunt throbbing. Damn him for the effect he had on her.

“So he couldn’t tell me himself?” she questioned him nervously, watching him advance on her, determined to stand her ground.

“I’m sure he’ll call, eventually.” His voice was a slow, lazy drawl, thick with tension and arousal. It was all she could do to keep her eyes on his face, rather than allowing them to lower to see how thick the bulge in his pants had grown. She knew for certain the throb in her vagina had intensified.

“So you volunteered as the welcome wagon?” She was breathless, and knew he could hear it in her voice. His eyes darkened with the knowledge, causing her heartbeat to intensify.

He moved steadily nearer, until he was only inches from her. She could feel the warmth of his body, and it tingled over her nerve endings. He was tall, so much broader than she. She felt at once threatened and secure. The alternating emotions had her caught, unable to move, unwilling to run.

The blood raced through her veins as she attempted to make sense of the powerful feelings racing through her body and her mind. Two years she had thought about him, fought the temptation he represented and the heat he inspired.

“I’m always here to welcome you, Tess.” He smiled, that slow quirk of his lips that made the muscles in her stomach tighten. “But I have to admit, I was more than eager after talking to you yesterday.”

Her face flamed. Echoes of her whimpers, her fight to breathe through her climax whispered through her mind. Cole’s voice, husky and deep, urging her on, rough from his own arousal, then his own climax.

Tess swallowed hard as she caught her lip between her teeth in nervous indecision.

Did she reach out for him? Should she run from him?

“Hound dog,” she muttered, more angry at herself than she was at him.

He chuckled, his hand reaching out to touch the bare flesh at her neck.

“Prickly as ever I see,” he said with a vein of amusement as his eyes darkened.

“Would you be as hot in bed, Tess?”

“Like I would tell you!” she bit out.

She fought the instinct to lean closer to him, to inhale the spicy scent of aroused, determined male.

“Hmm, maybe you would show me,” he suggested, his voice silky smooth, heated.

Tess trembled at the low, seductive quality of his voice. It traveled through her body, tightening her cunt, making her breasts swell, the nipples bead in anticipation.

Her entire body felt flushed, hot. Then the breath became trapped in her throat. His hand moved, the backs of his fingers caressing a trail of fire to the upper mounds of her heaving breasts.

He looked into her eyes, his own slumberous now, heavy lidded.

“Mine,” he whispered.

Her eyes widened at the possessive note in his voice.

“I don’t think so.” She wanted to wince at the raspy, rough quality of her voice. “I belong to no man, Cole. Least of all you.”

So why was her body screaming out in denial? She could feel the bare lips of her cunt moistening as her body prepared itself for his possession. Her skin tingled, her mouth watered at the thought of his kiss.

“All mine,” he growled as a single button slid free of its fragile mooring over her heaving breasts. “You knew there was no way I would stay away after hearing you climax to the sound of my voice, Tess. You knew I wouldn’t let you go.” She shrugged, fighting for her composure, an independence that seemed more ingrained than needed at the moment.

“You don’t have a choice but to let me go,” she informed him, feeling trepidation dart through her at the sudden intensity in his eyes.

His fingers stroked over the rounded curve of her breast, his expression thoughtful as he stared down at her.

“Why are you fighting me, Tess?” he suddenly asked her softly. “For two years I’ve done everything but tie you down and make you admit to wanting me. And I know you do. So why are you fighting it?”

“Maybe I want to be tied down and forced to admit it,” she said flippantly, ignoring the flare of excitement in her vagina at the thought. She had heard the rumors, knew the accusations her mother had heaped on her father’s brother-in-law for years. “Yeah, Cole, me tied down, just waiting for you and one of your best buds. Hey hon, the possibilities are limitless here.”

Her mouth was the bane of her existence. She mentally rolled her eyes at the sharp, mocking declaration.

“My best bud, huh?” He tilted his head, watching her with a slight smile.

“The more the merrier.” She moved away from him, denying herself the touch she wanted above all others. “You know how it is. A girl has to have some kind of excitement in her life. May as well go all the way.” She was going to cut her own tongue out. Tess felt more possessed than in possession of any common sense at the moment. Tempting Cole, pushing him, was never a good idea. She knew that from experience. Yet it seemed she knew how to do little else.

“Tess, be careful what you wish for.” He was openly laughing at her. “Have you ever had two men at once, baby?”

The endearment, softly spoken in that dark, wicked voice sent her pulse racing harder than before.

“Does it matter?” She turned back to him, some demonic imp urging her to tease, to tempt in return.

She flashed him a look from beneath her lashes, touching at his hips, suppressing her groan at the size of the erection beneath his jeans. Damn, he was going to bust the zipper any minute now.

“Doesn’t matter.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I can give you whatever you want, Sugar. If you really want it. I’m flexible.”

Cole felt his dick throb. Damn her, he knew she had no idea how far she truly was pushing him. He could see the excitement in her eyes, a glimmer of sexual heat, of determination. Did she think she could turn him off by giving him carte blanche to do his worse? She had no idea how sexual he could get. The thought of tying her down, forcing her to admit the needs of her body, or his needs, was nearly more than his self-control could bear. The thought of introducing her to the pleasures of a ménage a trois, hearing her screams of pleasure echo in his ears, had his cock so hard it was a physical ache.

He wanted Tess to have every touch, every sexual experience she could ever imagine wanting to try. He wanted her hot, wet, and begging for his cock. He wanted her to admit to her needs, just as he finally admitted to his own. He wanted Tess, now, tomorrow, forever. However he could get her, every way she would let him have her.

Cole watched the flush that mounted her cheekbones, the flare of interest in her eyes that she quickly doused. She thought it a game, a sexual repartee that she could easily brush aside later. But it didn’t change the fact that Tess had given such ideas more than a passing thought. He could see it in the hard rise and fall of her breasts, the swollen curve of them, the hard points of her nipples. They were nearly as hard as his cock.

She couldn’t know, he thought with a thread of amusement, just how much he would enjoy doing both things with her. The dominance level he possessed was incredibly high. Introducing her to being tied down, teased, tormented, or sandwiching her between his body and Jesse’s—

He had to forcibly tamp down his lust. Not that sharing her would be easy, or would happen often, but there was a particular pleasure in it that could be found in no other sexual act. The thought of total control of her body, her desires and her lusts was an aphrodisiac nearly impossible to resist.

“Tess, you shouldn’t dare me,” he warned her carefully. “You don’t know what you could be asking for, baby.”

He felt honor bound to give her one chance, and one chance only, to still the raging desires building inside him. She didn’t know, couldn’t know the sexuality that was so much a part of him. A sexuality and dark desire he had been willing to dampen for her.

But her bold declaration that she could handle them was more than he could resist.

“Maybe I do know.” He loved the breathless quality in her voice, the edge of fear and lust in her voice was a heady combination.

“I would fuck your ass, Tess,” he growled advancing on her once again. “Is that what you want? My best bud sinking in that tight pussy while I push inside your back hole. You would scream, baby.”

The idea of it was making him so hot he could barely stand the heat himself.

“Hmm…” Her pink lips pouted into a moue of thoughtfulness. “Sounds interesting, Cole. But you know, I couldn’t allow just anyone such privileges.” She sighed regretfully. “Sorry, darling, but it appears you’re out of luck.” Oh, she was in trouble. Cole kept his expression only slightly amused, allowing his sweet Tess to dig her own grave.

“And what qualities must a man have to be so lucky?” he asked her as he deliberately maneuvered her against the wall, his body pressing against hers, not forcing her, but holding her, warming her.

For a moment, an endearing vulnerability flashed in her eyes. His heart softened at what he read there. Mingled hope and need, a flash of uncertainty.

“Something you don’t have.” He wondered if she heard the regret in her voice.

“And what would that be, baby?” He wanted to pull her to his chest, hold her, assure her that anything she needed, anything she wanted, was hers for the asking.

She pushed away from him, her natural defensiveness taking over again, that flash of pain in her eyes overriding her need to play, to tease and tempt.

“Heart, Cole. It takes a heart,” she bit out. “And I really don’t think you have one.”

Tess walked away quickly, anger enveloping her. It did little to tamp the desire or the raging cauldron of emotions that threatened to swamp her. Damn. Double damn.

She couldn’t love him. She couldn’t need his love. Two years of sparring with him, fighting his advances and his heated looks couldn’t have caused this.

She felt her body trembling, her chest tightening with tears. Loving Cole was hopeless. She didn’t stand a chance against the sophisticated, experienced women he often slept with. She had seen them, hated them. Knowing he took them to his bed, made them scream for his touch was more than she could bear. Surely she didn’t love him. But Tess had a very bad feeling she did.