Essence of Desire (32 page)

“Fine, we might not finish this conversation tonight but we will finish it. Unlike some men, strong-willed women don’t scare me off. They turn me on.”

She snatched her head around and met his gaze.

“And they don’t intimidate me. They arouse me,” he added. “And,” he said, moving closer to her. “I find there’s a vast difference between a woman who’s naturally strong and comfortable with that strength, compared to someone who’s just obsessed with displaying an image of strength but is vulnerable just like the rest of us.”

She tore her eyes from his and for the moment, in the depths of her subconscious, she recalled the time she had actually gotten the nerve to run away from home at sixteen. She’d made it as far as Daytona before changing her mind after feeling more alone and scared than at any other point and time in her life. That was the first time she’d felt her strength to do whatever she wanted to do weaken and waver.

“So, how can I help with the dishes?” he asked. “What do you want me to do first?”

She shrugged without looking at him, knowing he was deliberately changing the subject. He had made what he probably considered a closing argument and was ready to move on. “It really doesn’t matter,” she said thinking that in addition to being arrogant, he was also very shrewd.

He nodded slowly. “Okay then. I’ll load everything in the dishwasher after you rinse.”

Michelle had a mind to walk out and let him do everything himself but she refused to do that. She resisted the urge to run, hide or retreat. She would deal with Royce or die trying.

***

Royce let himself inside his condo a few hours later. It didn’t take long for him and Michelle to clean up the kitchen, which had been done in amicable silence. More than once he’d tried drawing her into conversations and her response had been no more than one-or two-word sentences. After a while, he’d just given up and decided if he couldn’t talk to her he would be satisfied with being in her presence and in the midst of her aroma. He had discovered during the time he had known her that she didn’t have a signature perfume. She wore various fragrances, depending on the occasion. But as a man familiar with women and the cologne they wore he was well aware that whatever perfume she wore came with a high price tag.

The one she’d had on tonight was the sweetest scent he’d ever known. It was subtle and combined with the womanly scent of her body had made it hard to think about too much of anything but making love to her. He had sat through most of the dinner meal with a boner that just wouldn’t go away.

He wanted her. He had wanted her a lot over the past two years but had fought the desire the same way she had. The same way she was still doing. But he wanted to do more than just get Michelle back in his bed. More than anything he wanted to know why he always felt these crazy emotions and feelings around her. And he wanted to also know what made her tick. Why she felt she had to be in direct competition with a man? Even while making love that night she had struggled not to lose control and on the occasions that she had, she had fought like the dickens to retain it, hold on to; like it was a precious commodity she couldn’t let go.

That hadn’t stopped her from going over the edge each and every time he took her there, from becoming one with him each and every time they shared an orgasm. Her attitude had been fiery, but so had her passion. While she’d fought for domination, he had fought for command of her senses, the heat they could generate and spread. She hadn’t liked the fact that he had not only met her on all fronts, but had not let her have total power.

More than once tonight he had been tempted to kiss her, to kiss that sultry pout right off her lips. But he’d done what he knew she wanted by giving her space, as much space as the small kitchen allowed. By the time the kitchen had been restored to a spotless state his senses had to be as stretched as hers. No wonder afterwards, she had been quick to leave and he had been just as eager to leave when she had.

And he had made her angry all over again by his insistence to see her home safely by following behind her. It had nothing to do with her independence but everything to do with him being concerned for her safety. Of course she hadn’t seen it that way. He wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t call him tomorrow to cancel their date.

He headed straight to the refrigerator for a beer, a beer he desperately needed to calm his nerves, cool his libido. Michelle was a challenge but in the end getting her back in his bed, beneath him, with his body inside hers would be worth the struggle. He still wanted her to go on that cruise with him and starting tomorrow he would begin working on her to get what he wanted.

***

“So what happened in the kitchen?”

Michelle would have laughed out loud if Dominique’s question hadn’t sounded so serious. Her sister knew she would try just about anything at any place and at any time, but honestly, did Dominique really think she and Royce would attempt even a quickie in a house filled with people? She smiled, because yes, in essence if the mood had hit her bad enough, she would have.

“Michelle?”

“What?”

“You’re stalling, which means something happened.”

Michelle rolled her eyes. Chances were both Jordan and Sawyer were asleep and Dominique was still awake pondering over some court case and needed sordid details of a sexual encounter to help pass the time. So she would oblige her.

“Yes, something did happen,” she heard herself say.

“What?”

He got me against the dishwasher.”

“Wow.”

“Then on the table, all over the counter and stove.”

“I hope you did a good job of cleaning that stuff up,” Dominique said.

“We did but I think I might have left my panties behind. I hope not. You think I should call Grampa and ask him to check the dishwasher in case I loaded them with the dishes by mistake?”

“Michelle!”

“Okay, just kidding,” she said, not able to hold her laughter any longer.

“You and Royce didn’t really do anything,” Dominique concluded.

“Of course we didn’t. I told you we made out that one time and I don’t intend to ever have a repeat performance,” she said once her laughing had been contained.

“Yes, but I noticed the two of you last night at the dinner table. Jordan did, too. We could actually feel the electrical charge flowing between the two of you.”

So had she but she wouldn’t admit to it. “You imagined it,” she said easily.

“No, I don’t think so, and now I’m not sure which of you I should be worried about.”

Michelle rolled her eyes. “I can handle Royce.”

“And from the look of things, he can handle you.”

For some reason she didn’t like the sound of that. “Okay, Dom, it’s my bedtime and it should be yours. Goodnight.”

“I love you, you know.”

Michelle couldn’t help but smile. Leave it to Dominique to get all sappy at the end. “Yes, I know and I know you also worry about me. You always have. I’ve gotten used to it. But I’m fine. I like the way my life is going.” She paused a second and then said, “And I love you, too. Now goodnight.”

She quickly hung up the phone and as she crawled into bed she couldn’t help but wonder if what she’d told Dominique was true. If she could truly handle Royce.

Royce knocked on Michelle’s door with that same funny feeling in his stomach he always got in the courtroom when a member of the prosecuting team had something up their sleeve; something he hadn’t expected that could possibly sway the jurors into thinking differently than he wanted.

In all honestly, he was surprised she hadn’t contacted him to call off tonight, which in itself sent up warning flags. But she hadn’t called and he was here. That meant he would have to be on his Ps and Qs for the rest of the night. He leaned forward about to knock on the door again when it was snatched open.

Holy crap!

For a moment he kept blinking, sure as heck that he was seeing things. There was no way Michelle Kincaid, sister of the Honorable Dominique Kincaid Prescott, sister-in-law to Jordan Prescott who Royce felt had a good political future, and daughter and granddaughters to the Kincaids, outstanding law-abiding citizens of Orlando, would open her door wearing practically nothing. The shock of seeing her dressed so, or in this case, undressed so, had him almost losing his balance.

“Come on in while I grab my purse.”

He blinked. He couldn’t quite believe she’d said that.
Grab her purse?
What about first grabbing some clothes? When she turned he quickly walked inside and closed the door behind him and followed her into the living room. Her perfume was all over the place, a different scent than the one she’d had on last night but just as potent. Even more so. And if he thought whatever she was wearing or lack thereof was scandalous from the front, he had to really pull himself together when seeing her from the back. Now he was being given a great view of her curvy behind and thighs, both practically bare through the thin layer of net covering them.

“Excuse me.”

She turned back around and looked at him. “Yes?”

“Where do you think you’re going dressed like that?” The outfit was no more than a fishnet mini-dress that didn’t even hit her mid-thigh. It seemed even shorter than that. And only a thin mesh of dark material covered the area of her nicely rounded and full breasts and the juncture between her legs and her backside. But it wouldn’t require much thought for any man to imagine what he couldn’t see.

Imagine it and want it.

“I’m going clubbing, which is what I do most Friday nights. You asked to come along. I wasn’t the one who issued you an invitation so if you don’t think you can hang then I-”

“I can hang, I choose not to. Dressed in an outfit like that you’re only asking for trouble,” he said angrily.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“And don’t you be so brazen.”

“Brazen?”

“Yes, audaciously so.”

“In that case, you can leave.”

Royce knew that he had teed her off but at the moment he didn’t care. She was a beautiful, sexy woman and her outfit made that fact doubly so by flaunting all her God-given attributes. Guys would come on to her and he was in no mood to flex his muscles tonight. He wanted them to have a good time not become the object of scandal and violence. And he could see him wanting to smash another man’s head if he appeared too interested in her.

Royce inhaled deeply. It wasn’t a part of his nature to get jealous over any woman. He’d never done so before so why was he doing so now?

“Royce, I said you could leave.”

Her words invaded his thoughts and pulled his focus back to her. She was standing there with her hands on her hips glaring at him, looking so staggeringly beautiful he could feel his body beginning to throb, get hard. He was a smart man who knew women and suddenly he saw through her ploy. This was a setup. She had dressed this way intentionally just to rub him the wrong way. He knew Michelle was an individualist in her own right, a maverick if there ever was one. However, he refused to believe she would really go out in public wearing something that revealing.

He might be wrong but he would take a chance and assume he was right. And if he were, why would she pull such a thing on him. What was she trying so hard to prove? And then he knew. It was always the same thing with her. Control. But why?

Was he being tested for some reason? She should have known from their last encounter two years ago that he was not the submissive type. When it came to women there wasn’t a meek bone in his body. He was an alpha male through and through and was proud of it. But on the same note, he held all women in high regards. He showed every female he came in contact with total respect. And when he took them to his bed he didn’t pull any punches. He was upfront and totally honest about where the relationship would not go. He dated women who knew the score mainly because he had laid it out for them.

“Royce?”

She’d grabbed his focus once again. “I’ll leave if that’s what you really want,” he finally said. “But I think differently. For you to be dressed like that means only one thing.” He then bestowed her with a smile that displayed a confidence he now felt. “What you want is attention, Michelle.”

She lifted a brow. “Attention?”

“Yes, and since I’m here I might as well give it to you,” he said walking toward her.

***

Michelle’s pulse increased with every step Royce took toward her. Her mouth opened and then closed to the point where her lips pressed together tightly. She knew that all she had to do was to tell him—and really mean it—that she wanted him gone and he would adhere to her wishes and leave. But as usual, he had read her like a book and, like always, he refused to let her rule him.

She swallowed hard the closer he got to her. She wished he didn’t look so good. She wished there was some way his jeans didn’t mold with perfection to his masculine body, or that the white shirt he was wearing didn’t intensify the darkness of his skin or the muscular contours of his chest and shoulders.

And more than anything, she wished the way his gaze was holding hers, the way he was zooming in on her within those dark depths, didn’t make her feel sexy and desirable. She felt her nipples harden against the thin knit material; and knew there was no way he wouldn’t see it when he got closer. Then there was the heat she felt between her legs, a clear sign that her body was responding to him in the most primitive way.