"Chase." His name slipped from her lips on a sigh, as though of relief.

"You promised me a dance, Kia," he told her, his voice lowered, smooth, like the finest brandy on the coldest night, and that was how it filled her.

"I did, didn't I?" She was mesmerized by his eyes, by his lips.

The world seemed to stop, there and then. The music whispered in the distance, voices became muted, unimportant, as they ignored Daniel and he drew her to the dance floor and pulled her into his arms.

Her head went against his shoulder, her arms around his neck as his arms encircled her, and he began to lead her around the floor.

She was lost. Nothing else mattered but the dance and the man, the arms holding her, and the feel of him against her.

"You look like a jewel in that dress," he whispered, bending his head to her, as though they were the only ones who existed at that moment.

"I almost didn't wear it," she admitted, too lost to sensation to play the flirty game or the cool, bored socialite.

"Why?" His lips brushed her ear.

"I don't like standing out."

"You look beautiful. Like a sapphire in the snow. I saw you the moment I entered the room."

And she had wanted him to see her, she realized. The moment she saw the dress the other day, she had known it would draw attention, and a part of her had wondered if it would draw Chase's attention.

The stroke of his eyes was better than no stroke at all. And how she had missed the stroke of his hands.

One stolen night hadn't been enough. She had lain alone the rest of the week, aching, dreaming, awakening and whimpering when he wasn't there on her lonely couch beside her.

"I've decided blue is my favorite color," he whispered, nipping her ear with a subtle little bite. "But I liked white, too. Tell me, baby, do your pretty panties and bra match that dress?"

She almost lost her breath. Her head lifted as she looked up at him, meeting his eyes, holding his gaze and the heat and hardness of his body.

"Yes." She licked her dry lips, arousal pouring through her now.

"And the stockings?" He pressed her head back to his chest, whispering the words against her hair.

"Lighter."

"Silk?"

"Yes."

"I'm going to unwrap you like a present tonight," he told her, his voice roughening. "Khalid has a new oil he swears was made for you. Would you like us to use it?"

He wanted to use it. She could hear it in his voice.

"Yes." She wasn't capable of more than that. The words came out as a whimper, a sighing little cry of need.

The need was like a fever inside her. It had built over the days, simmering and then flaming, and now it was sweeping through her body like a wildfire.

"Have you been wet for me, Kia?" he asked her then. "Have you touched yourself and imagined me?"

Her eyes were closed, the memory of trying to find release as she thought of him burning through her.

"I always think of you then." She swallowed tightly. "I always have."

"Always?"

"Longer than I should have," she admitted.

He had fascinated her, even before her marriage. Turned her head, made her wonder at the wicked sensuality she had caught in his expression sometimes.

"I think of you." His lips caressed her temple. "Jacking off isn't nearly as pleasurable as fucking you, Kia. Filling you and hearing you scream and beg for more."

She could barely breathe. The erotic words were tearing through her brain, naughty, explicit, making her dampen her panties with the thought of the things he had done to her in Khalid's limo.

"I dream of you," she admitted, wondering where she had gained the strength or the breath to force herself to speak. "Every night I've dreamed of you, Chase."

"What did I do to you?" His hands tightened on her hips.

"You took me in the snow," she whispered. "The cold around us, and you were hot within me. And I ached so desperately, Chase. I needed you to take me hard, and you stayed still. You watched me beg, yet you didn't move."

His hard body tensed further. "I wouldn't do that to you, Kia. When I get inside that hot pussy, staying still isn't an option," he growled.

She couldn't breathe. She was on the verge of melting at his feet, of dying in his arms. She could feel the need intensifying within her. Her clit was a painful engorged knot of nerve endings, the rasp of it against her lacy panties making her insane as he forced her to step, to move, to dance against him.

"This dress is going to come off you," he told her. "Slowly. And before we ever take you. we'll have you screaming for it."

"As long as you take me." Filled her, chased away the cold that had only grown in the past week.

She was tempting her own destruction, and she knew it. If she thought the loneliness had been bad before, it had only grown after. How much worse would it be when he left her again?

"Over and over," he promised her. "Will you leave with me, Kia? Khalid's limo is waiting. We can go to your apartment and spend the night giving you everything you've dreamed of."

Except in her dreams, Khalid hadn't been there. She pushed it away. There was no fear in Khalid being there, no shame. Chase would be there, and the pleasure they would give her would add to the memories she could hold to herself later.

She wasn't fooling herself. She was rather pathetic. Even before she married Drew, Chase Falladay had been her fantasy. Even before she knew he shared his women, she had known she would do anything to spend a night in his arms.

After her marriage she had pushed those fantasies aside until he came to her with a request and a promise.

She lifted her head from his shoulder and stared back at him. He didn't raise his head. Their lips were close, the slightest movement on her part and they would connect, and there, in front of all the brightly clothed guests at this outrageous ball, she knew, they'd attempt to devour each other.

"I'd leave with you in a heartbeat."

So easy. She was being too easy perhaps. Hadn't her mother always warned her that a man didn't want to keep what he didn't have to work for?

She didn't care. Keeping him was only the most hidden fantasy anyway. It wasn't even a hope, the idea of it was so far-fetched.

He stopped, pulled back, and took her hand. "Are you ready to go?"

She simply nodded and let him draw her through the crowd. She was aware of others watching. Of course, they would know what was going on, knew she would end up spending the night with Chase. The erotic pleasures he would give her they couldn't imagine, though.

Even she couldn't have imagined the pleasure before she experienced it. The feel of both Chase and Khalid touching her. Of having the courage, the strength, to reach out and take both men, even as she knew she risked the most painful of broken hearts.

Falling in love with Chase would be the height of idiocy. It would be the supreme mistake of her life.

As he led her from the ballroom and accepted his coat and her cloak, Kia knew it was a mistake she was risking with her every breath.

"You look like a princess." He tucked her hair beneath the silken hood of the matching cape and closed the heavy clasp between her breasts.

He made her feel like a princess. A very naughty, very brave princess, and he was the knight challenging her to step from her throne and be naughtier.

She did so willingly.

Her hand settled in the crook of his arm as he moved through the hotel lobby and into the frigid air outside.

Khalid's limo awaited, a rather tame one compared to the Hummer of the previous week. She slid into the luxurious interior and didn't protest as Khalid lifted her into his arms and stretched her across his lap.

The door closed and Chase was pushing the skirt of her dress above her thighs, spreading them as Khalid's fingers released her cloak and his lips covered hers.

Magic surrounded her. Magic and pleasure, Stardust and star-bursts as the pleasure began.

And she reminded herself, it was just for the pleasure. Not because she ached for one man. Dreamed of one man. And when she came, it would be his name on her lips.

And there were others who saw her surrender. Eyes that watched from a hidden corner of the lobby, filled with malice and rage as the door to the limo closed on the sight of Khalid lifting her to him.

Drew felt the anger pouring through him, clenching his teeth and his fists at the knowledge that Kia was giving to those two bastards what she had denied him.

The fucking whore. Whore. She was tramping herself with that half-breed Middle Eastern whoreson and that son of a bitch who had dared to warn him away from Kia.

Kia was his wife. She had come to his bed a virgin, and he would keep her. One way or the other. And he had plans to make damned certain he got his way.

Chapter 5

Kia arched and cried out against Khalid's lips as Chase's lips found her sex. He tore her panties. She felt the delicate lace rip. The air in the limo seemed to burn bright with heated lust.

Khalid's lips lifted as he stared down her body, but it was Chase's expression that held Kia spellbound.

He had her legs spread wide. One high heel was propped on the opposite seat, the skirt of her gown bunched at her hips as he stared at the slick, bared folds of her pussy. The swollen lips glistened with her juices, the bud of her clit peeked out, throbbing with arousal, with the need for touch.

She lifted to him, uncertain why he had stopped, needing him.

"Chase." She whispered his name, uncertain now. Had she done something wrong?

His eyes lifted to hers. His face was flushed, his eyes glittered, and when he licked his lips she thought she would pass out from the arousal.

"You waxed." His voice was hoarse.

"I thought you wanted…" She broke off, hating the feeling of vulnerability, the fear she had turned him off when she had so wanted to turn him on.

"Wanted?" He reached out, his fingers running through her juices and causing her to jerk, to flinch at the incredible sense of pleasure that tore across her nerve endings. "God, Kia. You're going to make me crazy."

His voice didn't sound disapproving. He sounded hungry. He looked hungry. He looked desperate for the taste of her. He licked his lips again, inhaled audibly.

"Have we seen anything so incredibly beautiful?" Khalid groaned then, his hand smoothing down her torso, heading for the slick flesh Chase's lips hovered over.

Kia's eyes widened as Chase's fingers snapped over the other man's wrist, his eyes glittering with something she told herself she couldn't convince herself was possessiveness.

"As you wish, my friend." Khalid eased his hand back up along her body, hooked his fingers on the rounded edge of her bodice and pulled it over her breast.

Sapphire lace encased it. The half bra revealed the nipple of the exposed mound as Chase watched, hard fingers rasping over it.

"'We'll be at her apartment soon," Khalid warned him.

"Too soon," Chase whispered, his breath blowing over her, causing her hips to jerk in reaction, driving the flesh of her pussy closer to his lips.

"Chase, please." She had waited, she had longed for this. She had needed it like she had never needed anything.

She watched, mesmerized, entranced, falling into a well of sensuality as his tongue distended, tucked into the folds, and licked up.

His eyes stayed on hers, but all she could see was his tongue, parting the slit, gathering her juices, and finally stroking softly, too gently, around the engorged bud of her clit.

"Chase." His name was a wail of pleasure as Khalid's fingers enclosed the bared nipple and tightened.

Twin sensations. Violent upheaval. The twisting flames ripped over her nerve endings, centered in her womb, and drew every muscle tight throughout her body.

She was close. So close. Pleasure was tearing through her as she fought to hold on to her senses. Fought and knew she didn't want to. She wanted to collapse into it, let it expand and explode through her until there was nothing left of her but the sensations building inside her.