The Dare Collection January 2020. Lauren Hawkeye

      She was greedy for me, not the necklace.

      Fuck, it turned me on. And it shouldn’t, because I didn’t actually want a woman to be greedy for me. But that didn’t change the fact that the way she looked at me just about stole my fucking breath.

      And it told me something else too: she wasn’t here to get the necklace for herself.

      ‘You’re supposed to be looking at the necklace, Sugar,’ I said gently. ‘Not at me.’

      Colour rose in her cheeks. ‘But I—’

      ‘The Red Queen isn’t for you, is it? It’s for someone else.’ I took a step towards her, then another, stalking slowly closer. ‘Is that what you do? Steal to order?’

      She didn’t move, didn’t back away, just watched me advance, her chin lifted. And she didn’t look at the necklace in my hands either; her gaze stayed glued to mine. ‘You seem to know everything already. Do I even need to answer?’

      ‘I do know everything, it’s true.’ I circled round behind her. ‘I even know that last night you were a virgin and you didn’t tell me.’

      She was silent.

      ‘In fact, there are a lot of things you haven’t told me, Thea.’ I could hear her breathing getting faster and, when I leaned forward to brush my mouth over the delicate shell of her ear, the sweet, musky scent of her arousal caught me, making my already hard cock twitch in response. ‘Any particular reason for that?’

      ‘No,’ she whispered.

      ‘Well, you can’t just break into my apartment to steal something of mine then seduce me into bed without telling me vital things about yourself that I might have liked to know in order to enhance your experience.’ I lifted the Red Queen over her head and draped it around her slender neck. ‘Not if you don’t want consequences.’

      She went still as the jewels settled on her skin. ‘What...are you doing?’

      I fastened the catch, letting my fingers graze against her nape. ‘You wanted the Red Queen. So here it is.’

      ‘But I—’

      ‘But you what?’ I brushed my mouth over the sensitive spot just beneath her ear, inhaling her scent. ‘This is what you’re here for, isn’t it?’

      She shivered. ‘You said something about consequences.’

      ‘So I did.’ I reached around to the buttons on the front of her shirt and began to undo them as I kissed my way down the side of her neck, because there was only one way this particular scene was going to play out. ‘You answer every single one of my questions, or...’

      ‘Or...?’ Her breath hitched as I pulled apart the cotton.

      ‘Or you don’t get to come.’

       CHAPTER NINE

      Thea

      THE JEWELS AROUND my neck were heavy and cold compared with the man standing at my back. He felt like the sun blazing away behind me, bathing me in heat.

      His hands deftly got rid of the shirt I’d pulled on when I’d woken up that morning, slipping it from my shoulders so it fell onto the floor, leaving me standing there naked but for the necklace.

      I shivered, and not because I was cold. I could never be cold with Damian Blackwood around.

      His hands settled on my hips, his touch blazing through me like sunlight, his warm mouth nuzzling against my neck.

      I should never have risked coming into his office like this, but when I’d woken up that morning and found him gone, it had seemed like the perfect opportunity. I’d been planning to stay awake, to wait until he’d fallen asleep and then go back for the necklace, but some time after that fourth orgasm he’d put his arms around me, bringing me up against his hot, hard body, and I’d just...fallen asleep. I’d slept like the dead, something I never did, which wasn’t the best when I was here for a reason.

      It was only that he’d been so...dirty, pushing my boundaries, making me want things I’d never thought I would. Try things I’d never thought I’d try. And, more than that, he’d made me feel so good, like a goddess. Beautiful. Special.

      I shuddered against him as his mouth found the sensitive place where my shoulder met my neck, trying to get my stupid brain into gear. Of course he’d figured out I was a virgin—I’d been stupid to forget about that—but it was difficult to think when he kissed me.

      It had been difficult to think from the moment I’d laid eyes on him, lounging in the doorway watching me.

      He hadn’t been in a suit this morning, but a grey T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans that had holes in the knees. Simple clothes that fitted him like a second skin, highlighting a muscular chest and shoulders, lean hips and powerful thighs. His black hair had been spiked up, the ring in his eyebrow shining, his silver eyes burning with an intensity that stole my breath.

      He’d been so damned hot all I could do was stand there and stare at him as he’d sauntered over to where I’d stood, pulling aside the painting and accessing his safe. He’d watched me all the while, electricity crackling in the space between us, twice as intense as it had been last night.

      And then he’d brought out the Red Queen and held it up.

      But it hadn’t been the necklace that had held my attention. It had been him and his gaze and the heat blazing in it.

      I’d expected him to act there and then, put me in a room and lock the door, keep me safely contained until the police arrived. Because of course he would have called the police. I was a thief come to steal his precious jewels, after all.

      Except he hadn’t done any of those things.

      He’d taken the necklace out and draped it around my neck, stripped me bare and pulled me against him, kissing me as if he wanted more.

      And of course asking me questions. I hadn’t forgotten that.

       If you don’t answer my questions, you don’t get to come.

      His large, warm palms burned against my skin, his mouth an ember against my shoulder. I closed my eyes, unable to help leaning back into him. He was so much bigger than I was, so much stronger, and I could feel that strength in the hard muscle I was leaning against.

      He could hurt me if he wanted and there would be nothing I could do about it. I’d learned some rudimentary self-defence moves from Mr Chen but nothing that would help me against this man.

      It should have scared me, but it didn’t. He’d been nothing but gentle with me the night before, and he was nothing but gentle now, and I didn’t feel afraid.

      It was almost as if he was a wall at my back, standing between me and the rest of the world, and instead of feeling afraid I felt almost...protected, somehow.

      A dangerous thing to feel. I could never let my guard down, not now Mr Chen was gone. It was his legacy I was protecting and that was something I took very seriously. I couldn’t let anyone threaten it, most especially not the powerful, sexy man standing behind me.

      ‘The rubies are pretty on you,’ he murmured, one hand sliding up from my bare hip to touch the jewels hanging between my breasts. ‘But I’d love to see you in pearls.’

      My mouth had gone dry. I knew I should be doing something to save myself, but all I could think of was seducing him the way I had last night. And I couldn’t tell if that was something I wanted for myself or so I could get out of the situation.

      ‘P-pearls?’ I stuttered, trying to grab my flailing thoughts.

      ‘Yeah, you’d look perfect in them. I love sparkle; don’t get me wrong. Sometimes I’m in the mood for