“I don’t have to know you to know I want you.”

  My pulse quickened and I could feel the fluttering thrum against my throat.

  My face must have given me away because an amused smirk tugged at his mouth. “Does that make you uncomfortable? Me saying how badly I want to fuck you? How just the thought of this mouth whimpering my name has my cock hard?” He dragged his thumb across my lower lip, pinching it quickly before releasing me from the delicious, sharp sensation.

  I cleared my throat. “No.” I was a freaking liar. Because for the first time in my life, being in the mere presence of someone was turning my blood to liquid fire.

  And he knew it.

  I swallowed and tried again, rolling my shoulders back. “It doesn’t make me uncomfortable. But I think it’s pretty damn arrogant of you to think that all I need is a good fuck to get me to come. I’ve been fucked Mr. Whitley. I’ve been fucked, I’ve been made love to, I’ve had sex, I’ve been devoured for thirty minutes… and nothing. So, no. It doesn’t make me uncomfortable. But it makes me think you’re full of shit.”

  His mouth tightened and I grinned triumphantly. I finally got to him. I got to him in the same way he’s been getting to me for hours. Inwardly, I gave a triumphant fist pump.

  We pulled up to the curb of the hotel and I jumped out of that limo faster than he could call my name and chase me.

  I yanked at the trunk of the limo to get my bags, only … it was locked. Dammit. My bravery would and could only last so long and it was waning. Fast.

  Pierce was beside me in seconds, towering over me. “Tell you what Ms. Cochran… Meet me tonight for dinner in my room, and you don’t have to worry about replacing my Armani luggage. One dinner and we’ll call it even.”

  I gulped. I wanted to meet him for dinner. My panties were soaked and my sex was throbbing with unfulfilled desire. “That sounds like blackmail.”

  He shook his head. “Not blackmail. I just want your company for dinner.”

  “And in your bed.”

  He shrugged nonchalantly, but the intent behind was anything but. “One thing at a time. I want that. I think you want that, too. But if you come for dinner, I won’t force anything on you. That’s a promise. I can even request hotel security to be positioned outside for your safety and an escort back to your room if you so choose.”

  He held out his hand for me to shake and I hesitantly took it. “I’ll think about it,” I said.

  With a sharp tug, he pulled me flush against his body. My nipples were pebbled and hard and felt delicious pressed against his muscled chest. “Do that,” he said. “I always stay in the Penthouse when I’m here in Korcula. You can access with a key which I will have delivered to your room.”

  “But you don’t know where I’m staying—”

  He cut me off with a brutal kiss, but even with the firm movements of his mouth, his lips were surprising soft. His tongue dove into my mouth, parting the seam of my lips and I moaned, opening up to him. The rough stubble around his mouth scraped my skin and my body went rubbery beneath his hold. Like a riptide, he was taking me under, drowning me. When he pulled away, the driver had our bags out and in the lobby already.

  “I assume you’re in the honeymoon suite,” he said, then released me, entering the lobby.

  My knees were already weak from a simple kiss. Pierce Whitley was the best kind of bad.

  Chapter 4

  What was I doing? What was I doing, what was I doing, what was I doing? I thought as I pressed the hotel keycard against the elevator and hit the button that said PH.

  I didn’t do things like this. I could walk the walk—I acted tough and sexy, but the truth was? I was a big wuss. Yet, here I was. Dressed in my favorite little black dress, sexy patent leather pumps and a thong that was so far up my buttcrack, I was sure I’d have to excavate paleontologist style in order to remove it.

  The elevator door slid open and I was met with sleek white marble floors and a circular marble table with an exquisite vase filled with roses. I stepped out, my heels clacking against the floors, echoing through the foyer. His hotel room had a foyer. For God’s sake.

  Immediately, I was hit with the decadent smell of dinner and when I looked down the hallway, Pierce stood backlit by Croatian sunset, his back to me. I paused, taking the moment to admire his breathtaking silhouette. When in the hell would I ever get this sight again? And I didn’t mean the Mediterranean sunset.

  He was gorgeous. His back was broad and through the button-down shirt he wore, I could see the sinews of muscles pushing against the high thread count cotton. His hands were casually resting in the pockets of his dress pants, but his rigid shoulders told me he was anything but relaxed. He was aware. He knew I was here. He was just waiting for his moment.

  To his left was a small table, set with covered plates, a burning candle and another small vase of roses.

  “You came,” he said and the sound of his voice startled me, making me jump.

  Slowly, he turned, redirecting that gaze of his from the window onto me.

  “Well, I don’t exactly have six-thousand dollars laying around, so this felt like a good blackmail… I mean, alternative,” I joked.

  His mouth twitched, but he didn’t quite smile. “Come here,” he said. “Take a look at this view.”

  I hesitated for only a moment before I crossed the room to him. His hands encased my waist and he pressed me against the open window frame. The cool evening breeze caught my wavy blond hair, sending the strands whipping across my face. Outside, the sky had warmed into a sherbet shade of orange with slight streaks of blue. The orange sun was low in the sky, half-disappeared by the horizon and it reflected off the water creating a sight that Monet would have been jealous of.

  Below us, people walked by on the cobblestone streets of the historic downtown area. If I closed my eyes, I could hear their laughter and chatter and the sound of forks hitting plates and wine bottles opening.

  And behind me, I could feel Pierce. I could feel his hands gripping my hips, his fingertips digging into my waist. I could feel his broad, muscled chest pressed against my back. His hot breath skimming the back of my neck. And his hard cock pushing into my ass.

  My sex squeezed. I wanted him. I wanted him to make good on his promise. I wanted to know what it would feel like to come at the same time a man released inside of me. I wanted to feel myself pulse around his length and bite down on his shoulder to keep from screaming.

  I wanted the magic. The connection. The intensity of an incredible orgasm that you share with someone else. And right now, I wanted that someone else to be Pierce.

  I sighed and arched my back against his hard length, feeling the tremor in my pussy. His fingers circled higher up my torso until he was tracing the swell of my cleavage.

  “I want to touch you, Emma. May I touch you?”

  God yes. But words didn’t form in my mouth and instead when I parted my lips, merely a gasp escaped.

  He nipped my ear. “I need to hear it, babe,” he whispered.

  “Yes. Touch me. Please.”

  He tugged my dress and bra down, then quickly covered my exposed breasts with his hands, kneading them and rolling my nipples between deft fingers. “Right here?” I asked. Anyone could look up and see us.

  “Are you shy, Emma Cochran?”

  “When it comes to strangers seeing my body? Yes.”

  He made a thoughtful hm sound before tugging my dress back into place and instead, hiked the hem up to my waist. Curling his fingers around the thin strip of lace at my hips, he slid them down my thighs until they hit the floor. The window ended at my belly button, so to the world, I looked like I was just staring out a window. But inside the room, Pierce had my panties down around my ankles, my bare ass exposed.

  “How about this?”

  I glanced back at him from over my shoulder and his hot gaze raked the length of my body. I’m so aroused I could hardly find words to answer him. I was lost in a haze of desire and excitement. “That’s fine,” I said.

  “Fine? We can do better than fine.”

  He lowered to his knees behind me, his fingers grazing gently over my ass cheeks at first, then growing increasingly rougher. Sliding his fingers between my legs, he explored my wet core, teasing my slick opening and circling my swollen clit. With two fingers, he entered me, pumping in and out of me in slow, controlled movements that left me panting, moaning, and churning my hips against the rhythm he had set.

  “You’re so responsive,” he said, quietly. I could feel him… could feel his breath against my heated, wet flesh. And then, his fingers were gone. My knees almost gave out on me and I gripped the window ledge harder and trying to keep myself upright. “It’s hard to believe you’ve never come before.”

  “With a man,” I corrected, unsure of why that little detail was so important to me. But it was. I was clinging to it like a shipwreck survivor clinging to driftwood.

  He paused below me and I could feel the way he froze up. “Does that mean you’ve come with a woman?”

  I almost snorted, but kept it together. Instead, I shook my head no and leaned back to look at him, still on his knees behind me. “Hardly. I can make myself come… with that battery operated toy you got an up close and personal look at today.”

  He nodded and seemed to relax with my admission. “I’d like to watch you make yourself come. It’ll be informative. Helpful even, before we start.”

  My quads clenched, bunching tight at his words. “Haven’t we already started?”

  His deep throaty chuckle made me even wetter as he answered, “Not even close, babe.”

  “You didn’t happen to bring your vibrator up with you, did you?”

  I bit my lip and shook my head no.

  “That’s a shame. Can you come on your own with your fingers?”

  “Sometimes,” I admitted.

  “Good. We’ll try that.” He took one cheek in each hand and spread me wide. “But first, I’ve been dying to know what your sweet cunt tastes like.” He sampled me in a long, slow lick from my clit to my opening and then circled me his tongue before probing inside.

  I gasped and pushed onto my toes. The sensation was too much. Too incredibly achy and sweet. He lapped at my clit in fast fluttering licks of his tongue while his finger went back to penetrating me in long, slow thrusts.

  God, he is good. And he knew it, too. Pleasure built low in my abdomen, swirling and tightening my muscles. It was the fastest that pleasure has ever blossomed—but I knew better. I’d felt this before and it sometimes just faded away. No… not sometimes. Always.

  The buzzing sensation grew as his fingers quickened, matching the pace of his tongue and I curled my toes within my stiletto heels in a movement that was so involuntary, I didn’t realize I was doing it.

  And then… it stopped. His fingers disappeared. His tongue was gone. And I was left, panting, staring out the window, grasping for what was left of that building sensation. My lungs burned, my heart was pounding as I spun around to find Pierce right there. Still behind me, now standing. He caught me at the waist, balancing me as I nearly stumbled again. I wanted to smack that cocky smirk right off his face. Then kiss it. Then smack it again.

  “Why—why’d you stop?”

  “Because you aren’t ready yet.”

  I wasn’t ready yet? Was he freaking kidding me? “I haven’t had an orgasm with a man in the twenty-seven years I’ve been alive… I think I’m ready.”

  “You’ve admitted that you’ve been with other men. I assume those men have gone down on you before. And I also think it’s fair to assume you’ve probably been close to orgasm at least a few times before, yes?”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yes,” I admitted, reluctantly.

  When his eyes met mine, they darkened, filled with heat and pure, undiluted command. “I want you on the bed,” he said. “Let me see how you make yourself come.”

  He stepped back slowly, leading me into the adjoining bedroom. Not once did his eyes leave mine. The king sized bed was made with neatly tucked corners and lush pillows adorning the center. Nerves and heat collided in my belly. Was I seriously going to do this? Have sex with a virtual stranger who was also one of Hollywood’s ‘it’ men? Furthermore, what in the hell did he see in me?

  Stepping forward, he unzipped my dress and it fell to the floor in a billowing black blur. I had already left my panties on the floor out by the window. I stepped to the side, kicking the dress away from my ankles, then felt Pierce’s fingers on my strapless bra. The hooks snapped open and a cool breeze brushed across my already pebbled nipples.

  “Fucking gorgeous,” he growled, stepping back to admire me. I shifted my weight uncomfortably and shook my head.

  “You could literally be with anyone. Any celebrity. For God’s sake, you just starred with Scarlet Mahoney—”

  “Stop,” he snapped, standing tall and crossing the room to me. “Stop comparing yourself to everyone else. You are fucking gorgeous. You are real. From the moment I saw you on that ferry, I wanted you. I wanted to feel your glorious cunt squeeze my dick as you came. You are just as gorgeous as any woman I’ve shared a screen with.”

  He bent and slanted his lips over mine, sucking my tongue hard into his mouth.

  When he pulled away, I was breathless, swaying next to his bed, fully nude while he was still dressed.

  “Now,” he said, backing to the chair in the corner of the room. He lowered into the seat, leaning back and brushing his forefinger over his lips. “Let me see you come.”

  I closed my eyes, sliding back onto the bed and spreading my legs for him. I was exposed and my sex was pulsing, craving attention. I knew my fingers weren’t going to be enough if I managed to climax. I needed Pierce. I needed his hands on my body, his fingers lightly dancing over my nipples. I closed my eyes and trailed my hands down my flat stomach until I reached my swollen clit. I started slowly, circling it and drawing my slick heat from my opening over my bundle of nerves. I quickened my pace as tension built, tightening in my pelvis and stirring a current of electricity up my spine.

  I imagined that it was Pierce’s fingers, not mine causing the pleasure. Causing the deliciously agonizing tense feeling to curl around my body like silk. From below me, I heard a grunt. My eyes flew open and Pierce had slid his chair close to the bed. He had his cock out, fisting it roughly. With each stroke, the tip grew darker, turning a shade of red and had a single drop of pre-cum glistening at the edge.

  “I want to taste you,” I breathed, not even sure why I said that. I’d never loved blowjobs before. Never desired a dick in my mouth. It was always just a means to an end… tit for tat. Or at least, tat for tat.

  “No,” he said, his voice rough. “Right now is just for you.”

  I whimpered, both hating and loving his answer.

  “But later, you can suck me dry, baby.” My pussy clenched with his erotic promise and my pulse slammed at the base of my throat.

  I was so ridiculously aroused, I took a deep breath in an attempt to try to delay the inevitable; to will my body to calm down. The building pleasure was low in my belly and tight like an elastic that’s being pulled and stretched and coming on rapidly. Too rapidly. Oh, my God. It was going to happen. It was actually going to happen. My temperature spiked and I moaned, thrusting my hips into the air.

  “Tell me when you’re going to come,” he said. “Give me a head’s up.”

  “N-now,” I panted. “I’m going to come now.”

  He barely let me get the words out before he plunged two fingers inside of me. I cried out, my toes curling against the bedspread as my lower back lurched toward the ceiling. Delicious pulsing sensations overcame me and my pussy clenched in wicked succession so intensely that my knees trembled and my limbs turned to liquid as they faded.

  I’d never come this quickly… never with myself. But then again, I’d never had an audience before.

  And holy hell, did I like it.

  Chapter 5

  “Emma,” Pierce said and the sound of my name from that deep baritone voice pulled me out of the blissful state I was receding into. “Don’t you go into a coma yet.” He grinned. “We’re not done.”

  He stripped the rest of his clothes quickly, discarding them on the chair before he wrapped his hands around my hips, tugging me to the edge of the bed. His tongue landed at my clit, lapping in short flicks and I was so sensitive. So utterly and completely overtaken by sensation that I tried to push him away. “I-I can’t. It’s too soon.”

  He ignored me and slid a finger deep inside me, hitting the knot of nerves. “It’s not too soon,” he said, then reaching for the nightstand, he pulled out a condom and placed it beside us on the bed.

  “Wait,” I whispered and reached a hand out, grasping his dick. I dragged my thumb up the heavy vein on the underside and circled it over his thick tip. “You promised I could taste you.”

  He let out a satisfied grunt as I squeezed in him my palm. When he didn’t tell me no, I scrambled to my knees, licking my lips. Then, with a quick look up, I tasted him, licking from root to tip, watching the way his eyes darkened, dilating in the low light of the room. His jaw twitched and I closed my eyes wrapping my mouth around his head, hollowing my cheeks and slowly pushing him all the way to the back of my throat.

  His hands flew to my hair, dragging his fingers through the strands. “Fuck,” he hissed. He reached down, trailing his fingers over my breasts in light, teasing circles before he pinched each nipple hard.

  I jerked my pelvis forward and sucked him harder, faster until he was hitting the back of my throat with each impossibly deep thrust of his hips.

  With a gasp, he tore himself away from my lips and breathed deeply. “I have to fuck you now or we’ll never make it,” he said. He ripped the condom wrapper, and sheathed his dick in the latex before climbing over top of my body.

  He paused, his lips hovering just above mine. “How do you feel, Emma?”

  I swallowed, unsure of how honest to be. But screw it. The man already knew my sad sexual history, the fact that I’d been left at the altar, and he’d seen my vibrator up close and personal. “I feel like… I’m not me right now,” I answered quietly. “This is something the old Emma Cochran would never do.”