Selene fumbled in her purse for the car keys, unsuccessful in her first two attempts to find them. “I’m leaving all options open. In the meantime, is there anything you need me to pick up from the store?”
“Do we need condoms?”
She gripped the keys tightly in her palm as a hot blush raided her cheeks. “As far as birth control is concerned, no, I’m on the Pill. But we do have other things to consider.”
“I’ve made more than a few mistakes in my time, Selene, but carelessness during sex isn’t one of them. Trust me, you don’t have to worry that I have some sort of disease. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“The same holds true for me.” She had spent several months after she’d tossed Richard out making certain her ex-husband hadn’t left her with any reminders of his infidelity, other than bitter memories.
“Good,” he said. “When I make love to you completely, I don’t want anything between us at all.”
“It’s nice to know you still plan to make love to me, hopefully before I’m too old to care.” Where on earth had that come from? Apparently from that recently discovered area of her brain known as “sex central.”
He gave her a smile as he pushed off the desk. “You are an impatient little minx, aren’t you?”
She was now. “I should go so I’ll be home before dark.”
He moved in front of her and drew a line down her jaw with his fingertip. “You want to get home to have more of what you had last night.”
Very true, Selene decided. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that. “I was thinking about dinner.”
He snagged the belt loop on her jeans and tugged her against him. “To hell you were. You’re thinking about sex. About me touching you again. If I said the word, you’d let me take you right here on my desk.”
Selene received a very detailed vision of that, thanks to Adrien. She glanced behind him and frowned. “I believe I’ll wait.”
“Fine, because I have no intention of taking you on a desk the first time.”
So long as he took her, Selene didn’t care where it happened. She formed her palm to his stubbly jaw. “Do me a favor and shave before tonight.”
He moved her hand to his lips and streaked his tongue over her palm before placing it against his chest. “I’ll definitely do that. I wouldn’t want you to suffer from whisker burn.”
“I do have a very sensitive mouth.”
His smile was oh so wicked. “I wasn’t referring to your mouth.”
She backed out of his hold and tugged at the hem of her T-shirt. “I see.”
“Not yet, but you will.”
“I’m leaving now.”
He crooked a finger at her. “Not until you come here.”
Selene knew exactly what he wanted and she wanted it, too. A quick kiss goodbye. A prelude to what he had in store for her that evening. She easily moved back into his arms and tilted her face up in a blatant offering of her mouth. Instead of kissing her, he brought his lips to her ear. “If you think you want it badly now, wait until tonight. I’m going to take you places you’ve never been before.”
Only then did he meld his lips to hers, driving her wild with the sweep of his tongue before he released her.
Selene wanted him to take her to those places, wanted him to take her beyond the limit. And that want had her counting the minutes until she again entered Adrien’s dark, seductive world.
He didn’t show up for dinner. In fact, Selene hadn’t seen him since she’d come back to the house from her errand run. After she did a load of laundry and cleaned up the kitchen, she went to her bedroom in hopes of finding him waiting for her, only to find the place deserted.
She opted to take a quick bath and ready for bed before she decided what to do next. Dressed in a mid-thigh pink satin robe, her wet hair bound in a towel, she stepped into the hallway and encountered her least favorite demon. Even after a few days of enduring Giles, her heart leaped into her throat every time she laid eyes on his murderous guise. Tonight she was jumpy enough without having to deal with him. On that thought, she pulled the towel from her hair and tossed it at him, making a perfect three-point landing on his horns and effectively covering his snarl. Unfortunately, the poor terrified woman was still exposed and, unless Selene retrieved a blanket to use as a drape, she would have to ignore her.
She returned to her still-empty bedroom and ran a brush through her hair. On afterthought, she dabbed on a little lip gloss and applied a touch of mascara, just in case she might actually get lucky with Adrien. Now the time had come to execute plan A—make the short trip to his office in hopes she might find him there. She padded down the corridor on bare feet, trying desperately to ignore the rasps and groans of the floor, the darkness down below and the dim light in the hallway.
She stood outside his office for a time, and when a knock received no response, she listened carefully and heard nothing. She tested the handle only to find it locked. Disappointed over her lack of success, she headed back down the corridor and paused at the staircase’s landing to look down into the dark depths of the rotunda. She wondered if Adrien was prowling around like some restive creature of the night. Even if that was the case, she had no intention of going outside to find him.
When she reached her room, Selene sent a quick glance at the demon only to find the towel was gone. Either he’d managed to remove it himself—a thought she preferred not to entertain—or Adrien had been around at some point in time.
Maybe it was time for plan B—checking out Adrien’s inner sanctum. She stopped outside his bedroom and, after finding the door partially ajar, called his name. When she received no answer, she stepped inside. The room was much bigger than hers, much cooler thanks to an operable window air-conditioning unit, and definitely more opulent. That didn’t exactly surprise her. After all, he was the lord of the manor. A gilded bed, the headboard and footboard upholstered in heavy blue brocade with a matching spread, sat angled in the corner across the room near the doors leading out to the veranda. To the left of those doors, a long Victorian walnut chaise covered in gold damask and two blue-and-gold striped armchairs formed a sitting area lit by a lone brass floor lamp.
Selene noted a door not far from the right of the bed and presumed that was the master bath. It didn’t seem wise to try and find out if he might be in there. Of course, she didn’t actually have to go in. She could stand by a few minutes and listen to see if he was taking a shower. She crossed the room to investigate and discovered no light filtering through the door, no sound coming from inside, indicating he was somewhere else in the house. But where? She supposed he could have taken a drive, but she didn’t recall seeing any car other than Ella’s hatchback.
She started to leave but instead turned back to survey the room. She had two more options—wait for him here in hopes he’d eventually come to her, or wait in her own bedroom with the veranda doors opened wide in invitation as she had last night. Or she could explore a bit more, beginning with the locked chamber across the hall. But did she dare? If he happened to be in there and she knocked, he would either allow her in or tell her to go away. He might also be angry over the intrusion. If so, he would simply have to get over it.
Filled with determination, Selene took one last glance at the room then spun around—only to run into a solid wall of prime male.
With one hand against her pounding heart, Selene stepped back to find Adrien dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, his jaw clean shaven, his hair shower damp, his feet bare … and a towel dangling from one hand. Her discarded towel. “Did you lose something?” he asked.
She suddenly felt very silly. “I was wondering where that went.”
He slid a slow glance down