23. I Want to Make You an Offer
23
I WANT TO MAKE YOU AN OFFER
Gunnar
Rafe’s limo swings onto my block as he utters the word “arrangement.” I sit up straighter, eager to hear the deal he has in mind. But I also want to grab some control.
The car stops at the curb, and I gesture to my quiet building. “There’s a sitting room in the lobby. Let’s go inside,” I say.
“Sure.” Rafe nods and we exit the car together.
I open the building’s door, head up the steps and punch in the key code, Rafe right behind me.
The lobby is sleek chrome and white walls, coolly industrial and eerily quiet. A much safer setting than the too-sensual vibe of his limo.
I claim a spot on the black couch that frames the lobby space, and Rafe sits next to me, but not too close. Business deal distance, I suppose. He’s focused and intense, so that fits.
“I’m listening,” I tell him, and he nods.
“Good. Because I want to make it worth your while. Gunnar, you are fascinating and full of the cockiest charm I’ve ever seen. It drives me crazy that you keep trying to walk away from me, especially since I know that’s not what you really want.”
He’s not wrong. “If you say so,” I say, flirting.
He growls. “I know so, Gunnar.”
The man digs the chase, whatever he may say. Likes a little cat and mouse. He’s intrigued I don’t fall to my knees every time I see him. He may think he wants me to serve up my psyche on a silver platter, but he doesn’t want that all the time.
Rafe is like a great game of baseball. The sport is best when you don’t know what’s coming and all you can do is react.
“So then what do I want?” I counter. Let him spell it out.
His eyes glimmer with heat and passion. “You want to feel wicked, mind-blowing pleasure. And I want to give it to you.”
Yesssss.
I like where this is headed.
I peer around him in case anyone’s coming down the elevator. But the lobby remains silent. Only his words and mine fill the quiet.
“Keep going,” I say. He is hitting all the right notes.
“I want to make you writhe, and beg, and pant. I want to see how you look when you’re about to lose your mind. I want you to beg for my mouth, my fingers, my tongue, my cock, and anything else I want to use on you.”
It takes all my willpower not to slide closer and crash into him. “I want that.” Three words are all I can muster.
“I want to test your limits, and I want to take risks in public that thrill you more than you ever imagined.”
Here. Right here. Where someone could come downstairs and see.
“Why?” My voice wobbles with heat, with lust.
He gives a sly, dirty bastard smile. “That’s what gets me off,” he explains, so simply, so elegantly. So like a polished, savvy businessman. That’s what this is—a business deal he’s striking.
I do want him to test all my limits. I want to find them with him.
“But you need to know something,” he says, his tone deadly serious.
“Tell me. Whatever it is, I can handle it,” I say, hoping that’s true.
“I can’t offer you anything else,” Rafe says, resigned but determined. His eyes are sad. “That is all that I have. I can be your lover, but I can’t be anything more.”
I wince privately—which is silly. I’m not looking for someone to date. I’m busier than I’ve ever been in my life. “Yeah, that totally works for me too. Except for that family reunion I planned to invite you to,” I say with a fatalistic shrug. Sure, I’m putting up a wall, but it matches his.
He doesn’t laugh but seems pleased with my answer. “Good. Then we agree. No strings. No falling in love. When this ends, it ends.”
“And when will it end?” I ask.
“Let’s give it a month,” he says.
A thirty-day option.
Well, I did ask.
Tonight was the most relaxed time I’ve spent in ages. Learning about the man and chatting with him as we dined made for a truly enjoyable evening. I’d like to do it again, and his terms are clear. This affair can only be one thing—a tryst with an expiration date.
But even though I want him, I won’t say yes tonight. I need to think about his terms. Make sure I’m not about to lose myself in him.
So, I call up all my bravado and my best blasé shrug. “I’ll think about it when I’m in New York destroying the Comets.”
Then I go to the door and open it, inviting him to leave and, in doing so, to wait for my answer.
Coolly, Rafe strides across the lobby, stopping inches in front of me, studying me like a puzzle.
“Let me convince you,” he says, then he crushes his lips to mine. The kiss is deep, passionate, and dizzying. I hold tight to the open door so I don’t fall over as he takes my return kisses and swallows them down. He breaks the kiss to stare at me fiercely. “I can’t bear the thought of anyone else touching you. I’ll be waiting for your yes.”
With that, he slides his hands off me. He turns, takes the steps down to the street, and gets in his car. The stretch limo pulls away, and I realize Rafe managed to get the last word before he left.