Chapter 29
On their way back to Caleb’s apartment, they stopped at one of the riverside restaurants and ordered dessert to go. Armed with two hefty servings of tiramisu, they headed up the street to the Towers at the Majestic.
Caleb escorted Daniela into the marbled lobby where a uniformed security guard was buried behind the sports section of the Express-News.
“How’s it going, Mr. Hammond?” Caleb greeted him.
The man looked up from his newspaper and beamed when he saw Caleb. “Hey there, counselor! You’re home a little early tonight.”
“I know,” Caleb drawled, making Daniela wonder if he regularly stayed out late, and with whom. She quickly shoved aside the ugly suspicion, determined not to let anything spoil the perfection of the evening.
“Mr. Hammond, I’d like you to meet Daniela Moreau. Daniela, this is Eugene Hammond.”
Daniela smiled at the older black man. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Lowering his newspaper, the security guard leaned forward with an engaging smile. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Moreau.” He winked at Caleb. “No wonder you’re home early, son.”
Caleb chuckled. “Have a good evening, Mr. Hammond,” he said before leading Daniela toward the gleaming bank of elevators.
She was sorely tempted to ask him about his nocturnal activities, but did she really want to know if he spent his nights meeting women at bars and hitting up strip clubs?
Definitely not.
They rode the elevator to the top floor and exited into a wide, tiled corridor. Caleb’s penthouse unit was located at the very end of the hallway. Unlocking the front door, he gestured Daniela inside ahead of him.
With the flick of a switch, cool white lights washed over miles of glossy hardwood flooring.
Dark, contemporary furnishings were arranged around a large living room that boasted twenty-foot coffered ceilings, a marble fireplace and a pair of tall French doors that opened onto enclosed side porches.
Huge windows with wrought-iron bars commanded a panoramic view of the glittering downtown skyline, the lights of the Pearl Brewery not too far off in the distance.
Daniela heard a soft gasp escape her lips as she crossed the length of the room, lured by the stunning vista.
“Oh, Caleb,” she breathed. “You mean you wake up to this view every morning?”
“Something like that.” He disappeared into the kitchen, and moments later the mellow, sexy strains of a song came floating out from a surround sound system. “Die For You” by The Weeknd.
Caleb emerged carrying a bottle of merlot and a pair of wineglasses in one hand, and balancing two square dessert plates in the other. By the time Daniela hurried over to help him, he’d already set everything down on the modern stone table occupying the cozy dining space.
“Bienvenue à la maison de Thorne,” he announced with an elegant flourish. “Dessert is now served, mademoiselle.”
Daniela grinned as he gallantly pulled out a chair for her before seating himself. “Merci, monsieur. Your enunciation is flawless, Caleb. Parlez-vous francais?”
He chuckled, uncorking the merlot and filling their wineglasses. “Oui. But only when I’m trying to impress a pretty girl.”
“Ahh,” Daniela said with an understanding nod. “Well, then, I suppose I should consider myself privileged.”
“You could,” Caleb agreed, straight-faced.
Daniela laughed, picking up her spoon. “Don’t get carried away.” She sampled her tiramisu, then closed her eyes with a dreamy moan as several exquisite flavors exploded on her tongue—mocha-flavored whipped cream, espresso and a tantalizing hint of liqueur. “Oh my God. This is soo good.”
She opened her eyes to find Caleb gazing at her in a way that made her feel slightly self-conscious. “What?”
“I love to watch you eat,” he said simply. “I’ve never known another woman who enjoys the simple pleasures of food the way you do.”
She grinned. “Which is your polite way of telling me what a pig I am.”
“Not at all.” His dark eyes glittered at her. “In fact, I think it’s incredibly arousing.”
Her belly flip-flopped. “Arousing?”
“Mmm-hmm,” he murmured. “But as I’ve already told you, everything you do turns me on.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.” He chuckled low in his throat. “Now stop repeating after me and eat your tiramisu.”
“With pleasure,” she said, spooning up more of the delectable dessert. “So, when did you learn French?”
Caleb took a sip of merlot. “In college. I already knew Spanish fairly well, so French seemed like the next obvious choice.”
“Naturally. What better language to impress pretty girls with than the language of love?”
“Of course.” He smiled lazily at her. “What about you? When did you take French?”
“In high school. Guess that means I got the jump on you, huh?”
“Not quite,” he drawled, picking up his spoon. “By the time you entered high school, I was already on my way out of college.”
“Oh, yeah, I’d almost forgotten what an old man you are,” Daniela teased.
He laughed. “Who’re you calling an old man?”
“Poor baby. Your hearing’s already failing you? I’ve heard that’s one of the first things to— Hey!” she protested as, without warning, Caleb flicked a spoonful of tiramisu at her, hitting her squarely in the chest.
She gaped at him as if he’d lost his mind. “What the hell’d you do that for? You’re wasting a perfectly good dessert!”
Caleb’s expression was one of exaggerated innocence. “What’s that you said?” he asked, cupping a hand to his ear and leaning toward her. “I’m having trouble hearing you.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe this will help.” Before he could react, Daniela spooned up a chunk of tiramisu, reached over and smashed it against his ear.
With a startled exclamation, Caleb jumped up from the table, staring at her in incredulous disbelief as he dug cake out of his ear. “Yo, I can’t believe you just did that.”
Daniela howled with laughter. “You started it!”
“You’re right,” he said calmly—too calmly. Grinning, he scooped up a handful of tiramisu from his plate. “And I always finish what I start.”
Sobering at once, Daniela leaped up out of her chair. He advanced on her, slowly and purposefully, dark eyes twinkling with mischief.
She eyed him warily, backing away step by step. “Don’t even think about it. I’m warning you—”
He lunged, and with a startled squeal Daniela took off in the opposite direction. She didn’t get very far before he tackled her around the waist with one arm, whirling her around and pinning her to the wall with his much larger body.
She could do nothing but laugh at how easily he’d captured her. “Caleb—”
“Too late for begging now,” he said with the fiendish glee of a predator that’s successfully cornered its prey.
Grinning as she squirmed in his arms, Caleb pinned her wrists above her head with one hand.
With the other, he brought the handful of smashed tiramisu toward her face, a downright devilish gleam in his eyes.
Daniela shook her head wildly from side to side. “Don’t do it! I’ll do anything you ask! Just don’t—”
Her pleas fell on deaf ears; the next thing she knew, Caleb was smearing cake down her neck. Choking with laughter and indignation, Daniela bucked against him, struggling vainly to escape.
He grinned down at her. “I’ve just invented a new dessert,” he declared. “It’s called Daniela à la mode. Think I can sell it to one of the restaurants down at the River Walk?”
Daniela tried, unsuccessfully, to glare at him, but she was enjoying herself too much to summon any real antagonism. “If you do sell the recipe, I get the lion’s share of the profit, seeing that I’m the main ingredient.”
Caleb chuckled softly. “We’ll negotiate the terms,” he drawled, his amused gaze running across her face. “I wonder, though, if my new concoction is as temptingly sweet as it looks.”
As if he’d lit a fuse, the air between them changed, crackling with the raw sexual tension that always ticked between them like a time bomb. Daniela licked her lips, and his darkened gaze followed the gesture, stirring the flames inside her that were never far from igniting whenever he was near.
“I guess I’ll just have to take a taste test,” he softly proposed, lowering his head.
Daniela’s insides clenched as his warm mouth landed on the curve of her throat. She trembled hard, her head falling back as his tongue flicked out to lick the sweet confection from her neck with slow, hot, lazy strokes.
“Mmm.” The vibration of his deep, hypnotic voice had need uncurling in her belly. “Just as I thought. Delicious.”
She shivered as his lips and tongue trailed a simmering path over her throat and collarbone, sending her pulse into overdrive. She was intoxicated by the feel of his hard, muscled body pressed against hers, the thrilling torture of his mouth on her hypersensitive skin.
“Who says taste tests are mutually exclusive?” she purred, licking cake from his earlobe and delighting in the shudder that convulsed him.
He lifted his head, his dark, smoldering gaze boring into hers.
Keeping her wrists imprisoned above her head, he bent and took her lips in a kiss of such fierce, scalding hunger that she moaned into his mouth.
Their tongues tangled in a feast of wet and heat as she rocked her hips into his cock, hard and heavy against her stomach.
The feel of him made her breasts ache, so she rubbed them against his chest and let her lips roam from his mouth to his bearded chin, then down to the hot skin of his neck.
His breathing grew ragged in her ear as her mouth found the beating pulse of his Adam’s apple and gently sucked, making him groan.
Still gripping her wrists in one hand, he used his free fingers to slide beneath her stretchy shirt and cover the aching swell of one breast. When his thumb grazed her nipple through her satin bra, she cried out and arched into him, demanding more. Desperate for it.