12. Gabriel
GAbrIEL
IF ALEJANDRO WAS trying to make me jealous by dancing with every man and woman in Solterra, it wasn’t working.
It was a nice try, though. But he gave himself away every time his eyes found mine across the crowded room.
Every time he scowled behind his ornate mask.
Every time me and a partner got a little too close to him and his during a tango and I’d accidentally bump into him, causing him to flinch like I’d burned him, and spin away.
It was almost comical the way he went out of his way to avoid not only me, but the obvious sexual tension between us.
Would Alejandro have been my choice if my head was in charge?
Probably not. He was my brother’s ex-fiancé, even though it hadn’t exactly been a romantic pairing.
Still, it complicated things. Unfortunately, my body was thinking with its other head, the one that was still half hard from dancing with the defiant Solterran prince.
I bowed at the Duchess of Strata as our waltz came to an end, and when she moved along to her next partner, I decided to grab a drink.
As I wound my way through the dancers, my eyes sought out the one avoiding me, and he wasn’t hard to find.
Even though I had an inch or two on him, Alejandro stood out in a crowd, masked or not.
There was a brazen nature about him, one that commanded attention, and usually I’d find that annoying, having to compete, but for some reason I found myself watching him too.
Maybe it was because Alejandro felt like a challenge.
Our scorecard was pretty evenly matched at the moment, but I wouldn’t mind tipping the scales in my favor by taking the kiss I knew he wanted to give.
He could deny it all he wanted, but I’d felt the proof of his arousal that night in his fencing salle, and again when we were dancing tonight.
There he was. On the edge of the ballroom dancing the rumba with a blond-haired man, holding him close with his fingers splayed against his lower back.
His jet-black hair gleamed under the low light of the chandeliers, and so did the intricate gold of his face mask.
But it was his full lips that caught my attention, the way his tongue slicked along the lower one.
Until I looked down at the way his hips moved to the sensual music, and oh fuck. I really, really didn’t need to see how hot it was when he rolled his hips like that, especially against a man who wasn’t me.
I stopped moving, refusing to take my eyes away as I swiped a glass off the nearest waiter’s tray, not even bothering to see what it was before swallowing down half the glass.
A bold, tart red, one that reminded me of stomping grapes with him. Of the red sash he preferred to wear tied at his waist, the one I currently wanted to rip free so it could be put to better use. Like tied around a certain Solterran’s wrists as I attached them to my bedpost…
Dammit, there went my dick, hardening like I wasn’t in a room full of people.
For a man I shouldn’t want.
And truly, I only wanted to play with him a little. To make that spicy kitten purr under my touch.
I stood there imagining it all too well as Alejandro’s body moved in an indecent way, and it wasn’t until the song was over that I realized I’d been staring, my wine forgotten.
“A fresh glass, Your Highness?” one of the waiters asked, blocking my view.
“Uh, no, thank you.” I leaned to the side to look past him, but Alejandro wasn’t where he had been.
Frustration rolled through me, which was ridiculous, but then I spotted him.
He was walking toward the exit, and I didn’t think, just moved.
Surely he wasn’t leaving the gala yet? Maybe that dance had gotten him all worked up and he was heading somewhere to relieve himself from all that sexy tension.
If that was the case, I was happy to be the willing body, which was how I found myself following him down the hall and out onto the rooftop terrace.
I kept quiet as I watched him take a deep breath and stretch his neck from side to side. There was a nice breeze out tonight, and it blew the ends of his hair that curled a little around his collar like they were damp with sweat.
I licked my lips as Alejandro unbuttoned his jacket and shrugged out of it. He set it on the back of one of the chairs and started toward the railing, but when I took a step, something crunched beneath my foot and he spun around.
Whoops. Busted.
“Why are you following me?”
“Maybe I wanted some fresh air.”
“I doubt that.”
“Then why don’t you tell me why I followed you?”
He took a step toward me. “So you admit it?”
“I’ll admit it when you admit you’re glad I’m out here right now.”
“That’s not happening.”
“Then I guess we’ll call this a happy coincidence.” He looked half pissed, half interested, even though he didn’t want to be, and I knew the feeling.
Time to see which side he’d give in to…
I took a step toward him, bringing us closer, and unbuttoned my jacket. Alejandro didn’t tell me to stop or back away.
“What are you doing?”
“Seeing just how many items of clothing I can remove before you decide enough is enough.” I shrugged out of the jacket and tossed it on the table he’d tried to poison me at not so long ago.
“What makes you think I’ll stop you?”
“Because you don’t want to admit your dick’s hard for me.”
Alejandro scoffed and went to turn away, but I wasn’t having any of that. No, sir. If we were going to play this game, then I wasn’t about to let him cheat.
“Uh uh.” I waggled a finger at him. “You want to prove you’re so immune to me”—I reached for the gold buttons of my ivory vest and flicked them open—“watch me.”
“Oh, so you’re an exhibitionist as well as an arrogant ass.”
“Don’t act like you’re not the exact same.” With my vest undone, it hung from my shoulders, showing the way my cream shirt was tucked neatly into my trim waist. Alejandro clearly liked what he was seeing. “You were having a great time showing off for me tonight.”
“Showing off for you?”
“Yes.” I reached for the cuff of my shirt and unfastened it, before switching to the other. As I rolled it up my arm, I started around the table toward him. “Don’t think I didn’t catch your eyes. Like you said”—I stopped directly in front of him—“I like to be watched.”
Alejandro sucked in a breath, but still didn’t move away. “Your ego is as big as—”
“My cock. Wanna see it?”
Alejandro fought back a smirk. But then he lowered his eyes to the open collar of my shirt. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“I thought I was being pretty obvious about that.”
“Oh, you are.” He played with the top button of my shirt and my dick began to throb. “Which is surprising.”
“Is it?”
“Sí. O eso, o eres estúpido.” Alejandro’s dark eyes found mine from behind that black-and-gold mask. “What would make you think it would be safe in my hands after everything I’ve done to you since you arrived?”
I licked along my lower lip, imagining that exact scenario, his hand around my cock, then told him exactly why I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
“Because you’d enjoy what I do with it too much.”
Alejandro swallowed and shrugged. “Maybe.”
Again, he went to turn away. Something I was coming to realize he did when he got—dare I say—nervous.
I hooked my hand in his elbow and, when he jerked back around, tugged him to me.
“What’s the matter, Your Highness? Afraid I can turn that maybe into a definitely?”
“No. I’m just done with this conversation.”
“I don’t think so.” Alejandro raised a brow, and I did the one thing I knew he couldn’t resist—I issued a challenge. “I think you’re scared.”
“Scared? Of you?” He chuckled deep. “Not a chance.”
“Then prove it.”
His eyes fell to my mouth, and he knew exactly what I was throwing down. The question was, would he tell me to go to hell or—
Before I could catch my balance, Alejandro’s hands were on my chest and he shoved me up against the table. My ass hit the wooden surface first, and when I reached back to brace myself, he gripped the edges of my shirt and ripped it open.
My dick hardened fully as the gold buttons hit the terra cotta tiles and made a pinging sound, right before Alejandro forced his way between my legs and put one of his hands at my throat, holding my head in place.
He leaned in and ghosted his lips over the top of mine. As I craned up, trying to catch him, he pulled back a fraction and grinned. Not the smile of a kitten but that of a rakish pirate.
Fuck he was hot.
“You think I’m scared of you?” he asked, and licked his tongue over the stubble of my cheek until he was at my ear. “I’d have you begging at my feet in seconds if that’s what I wanted.”
“I’d go with one word.”
“I know.” Alejandro rocked forward and rubbed his rock-hard cock over mine. “The question is, do you deserve me?”
I grabbed hold of his sash and wound it around my wrist, keeping him flush against me. “Only one way to find out.”
Alejandro slammed his mouth down on mine, our lips crashing into each other like the waves on the rocks below. The pull we felt toward each other was like that of the tides to shore, as his tongue thrust inside my mouth and swept the inside.
He was everything I’d expected, plus a whole lot more, fierce, passionate, and domineering as he devoured every inch of my mouth like a gift brought before a gluttonous prince—and I was happy to be consumed.
His cock was throbbing against mine as he rutted against me like an animal in heat, taking control of the situation I’d thought I had fully in my grasp.
My hand shook where it was braced on the table, my fingers white-knuckling the wood as I tried to valiantly hold off my climax. But after watching him all night on the floor, and memorizing the way his hips moved, to feel them rolling atop mine was a difficult image to resist.
So I didn’t. I fell into it.
I imagined our clothes gone, him dripping pre-cum all over me and marking me his as he held me captive on that canopied bed I slept in every night—and that was shocking in itself.
That I wanted to be dominated by him. Wanted to be possessed.
I wanted to be fucked and to fuck him as that sultry Solterran breeze blew in off the sea.
Alejandro tightened his grip under my chin, digging his thumbs into my jaw, then smoothed his other hand down to curl around my dick. My hips punched up into his hold and those scheming fingers tightened around my length.
Alejandro raised his head as he roughly stroked me. Then he dragged his hand down to my balls and cupped them hard through my trousers.
I sucked in a sharp breath at the vicious move, and his eyes darkened.
His flushed cheeks and kiss-swollen mouth added a savage edge to him that was at odds with the elegant mask he still wore, and something about the danger lurking just beneath that polished surface made my stupid dick throb even harder.
“Still trust me to handle your precious jewels, Your Highness?”
Not in the slightest, but I was too fucking horny to stop him.
“Hmm…” Alejandro cocked his head. “Well, this was a fun little experiment, but I think I have my answer.”
His answer? Wait—what was the question again?
Then he straightened. His hands released me. And I was left alone…on the table.
“I trust you can find your way back to the gala?” Alejandro asked as he crossed the terrace toward the doors.
The gala? Who cared about the damn gala? I wanted to find somewhere private and finish what we’d just started.
“I can, but where are you going?”
Alejandro gave a smile befitting the devil himself as he gave me one final look and said, “To find someone worthy.”
I didn’t believe that lie for a second, and neither did he. We both knew who’d stroked that hard-on in his pants to life, and no one but me was going to be able to quench the lust raging through him now.
But if this was what he needed to tell me and himself to make it through the night without falling over the cliff and straight into my bed, where he knew full well he’d lose his mind…
I’d let him pretend.
For one more night.