Thief of My Heart Read online

  “You’ve lost an earring,” Veronica said, noticing. “Have you any idea where it might be?”

  “No,” Petra said regrettably. “I don’t know when it went missing. It could be anywhere.”

  “You should retrace your steps,” Veronica suggested.

  Petra rose and picked up her clutch. “I think I will. Excuse me, Veronica.”

  “Sure, dear,” said Veronica. “Good luck!”

  Petra made for the exit, figuring she would start at the beginning, which meant she had to go downstairs to the lobby, keeping an eye out for the gold hoop along the way.

  By the time she entered the lobby, she hadn’t had any luck locating the earring. The beautiful high-ceilinged lobby with its marble floor and gleaming front desk was relatively empty this time of night, ten-thirty. Petra went to the alcove where she’d been sitting prior to being called to the ballroom by Desiree. She looked between the cushions of the overstuffed chair she’d sat in, and lo and behold, she found the earring wedged between the cushion and the back of the chair.

  Flush with victory, she was about to return to the ballroom when a deep voice said from behind her, “There you are.”

  She spun around and there, not six feet away from her, stood Chance Youngblood. A look of consternation marred his handsome dark brown face. He was wearing jeans, a light blue short-sleeve pullover shirt and black leather motorcycle boots. She remembered he’d said he was an avid motorcyclist. She found herself stunned into silence. Plus, there was the oomph effect that had rendered her momentarily unable to do anything except admire the sheer male beauty of him. She supposed the look of shock on her face was a source of amusement for him, because he laughed.

  “We have unfinished business, Dr. Gaines.”

  “What, how...” she sputtered, backing up and nearly tripping over a big, square coffee table.

  Chance reached out and steadied her. “I was in Raleigh when I phoned you,” he explained. “But I didn’t know where you were staying. In New York, you only told me you were going to see relatives in Raleigh.”

  “I can’t believe you’re here!”

  He smiled and removed his hand from her arm. Walking around the coffee table and taking a seat on the off-white designer leather couch, he looked up at her, his gaze confident. “I’m not a man to be trifled with. You owe me an explanation.”

  His getting comfortable on the couch had given Petra the chance to regain her equilibrium. She sat down across from him and regarded him with narrowed eyes. “I don’t owe you anything. We didn’t make any promises to each other. It was just sex.”

  “Oh, I see, you make it a habit of having sex with any convenient male you run into?”

  “No, of course not,” Petra hissed. “I’ve never done anything like that in my entire life!”

  His eyebrows rose. “Then I guess that makes me special,” he said sarcastically.

  “You know,” Petra said with equal sarcasm, “most guys would be happy to be let off the hook. You travel halfway around the country to get into an argument with me in the lobby of a Raleigh hotel.”

  “I’m not most men,” Chance said. He sighed and got to his feet. “Look, can we go somewhere and talk about this? I have a car waiting.”

  “I can’t go anywhere right now,” Petra said irritably.

  She got up, too. Sitting while he towered over her made her feel like a little girl getting reprimanded by an angry parent. “I’m here attending a family gathering. I’d have to go back to the ballroom and let one of my sisters know I’m leaving.”

  “No problem,” said Chance. “I’ll wait here until you return.” He stood with his arms crossed, an immovable force.

  Petra was indecisive, a state she wasn’t often in. But Chance Youngblood had been able to unnerve her from the beginning. She was both attracted to him and appalled by him. He came from a family that had been wealthy for generations which, in her opinion, was the cause of his huge ego.

  He was not used to anyone telling him no. His presence here was evidence of that.

  She blew an exasperated breath between full lips and looked up at him. “You might just as well come with me. My sisters would never forgive me if they found out you were here and they didn’t get the chance to meet you.”

  He gave her a smug smile. “You told them about me, huh?”

  “Don’t look so pleased,” Petra said as they began walking in the direction of the ballroom. “I told them you were a one-night stand.”

  “But a memorable one-night stand,” he wagered.

  “Don’t make me change my mind,” Petra warned.

  * * *

  Meghan was returning from a visit to the ladies’ room when she ran into Leo in the corridor adjacent to the ballroom. Her face grew hot with embarrassment when she saw him, and she diverted her gaze momentarily so that she could school her facial expressions. The last thing she wanted him to realize was that she still had feelings for him.

  She recalled how hopeful she had been at Lauren and Colton’s wedding when Leo seemed smitten with her. Then he’d backed off, saying he believed his being ten years her senior put her at a disadvantage, and she should see younger men. He’d made it sound as if he were doing the chivalrous thing. But she had suspected he simply wasn’t attracted to her, which further confused her because every time they were in the same room she would catch him looking at her as if he wanted to drag her off to the nearest bed and make love to her. Was she reading him wrong?

  “How’s your evening going?” she asked conversationally.

  Leo paused a moment. He looked at the retreating back of a man who was entering the ballroom. Then, apparently satisfied that they were alone, he focused his attention on her.

  There was a lovesick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wished she could stop physically reacting to his nearness, but it was a losing battle.

  “Meghan, what are you doing with a guy like that?” Leo said softly as he bent close. His light brown eyes held a look of concern in them. “He’s been checking out other women all night long. You deserve better than that!”

  Meghan sighed, shaking her head. “Andre and I aren’t exclusive. I know he plays the field.”

  “And you’re okay with that?” he asked incredulously.

  “I’m young, remember? I’m not mature enough for a serious relationship,” she taunted him.

  “That’s not what I meant when I said you and I shouldn’t date, and you know it,” Leo said. He ran a hand over his head in an exasperated gesture.

  He’d let his hair grow out. The first time she’d met him, his head was shaved. Now he had a full head of dark brown, wavy natural hair, cut close to his scalp. She wanted to run her hand over it again and again. But then, there were many things she would never do with Leo.

  “It doesn’t matter what you meant, Leo, because the result is the same—I want you, and you don’t want me.” Meghan hadn’t meant to say that, but she was mad, and it had felt good to say it!

  “When I’m forty, you’ll be thirty,” Leo said as he held her gaze. “When I’m eighty and senile, you’ll still be beautiful at seventy.”

  “What about now?” Meghan cried. “Just tell me once and for all that you’re not attracted to me, and that’s the reason you won’t date me. Say the words so I can hear and understand, because you confuse me, Leo. The way you look at me, it’s so hot it makes my skin burn. It drives me crazy! Does that woman mean anything to you?” She’d tacked that last question on out of morbid curiosity. The thought of Leo touching another woman sickened her.

  His eyes were suddenly panicked. “Shari’s just an acquaintance.” He looked away, sighed and returned his gaze to hers. “I have a heart problem, Meghan. It’s serious. I could drop dead any minute. You don’t need a man who may die on you. You deserve someone who’s going to be with you for the
long haul.”

  Meghan felt faint. Her legs went weak, and Leo had to grab her before she hit the floor. But then she was in his arms, and their bodies were touching.

  “Are you all right?” he asked in that deep, rich baritone. She melted. Tears pooled in her eyes as she looked up at him, but in spite of his revelation, she felt her strength returning. She’d come from generations of strong women, and they had never let something like illness keep them from the men they wanted. “It’s too late for dire warnings, Leo Wolfe, because I’m completely in love with you.”

  Then he kissed her.

  * * *

  “What a night!” Desiree said with a laugh as she walked into her house with Decker following close behind. “You could have knocked me over with a feather when Chance Youngblood showed up on Petra’s arm.”

  She watched as Decker closed and locked the front door. He removed his tuxedo jacket and laid it on the back of a chair.

  He walked toward her, his eyes speaking volumes. “Excuse me if I don’t want to talk about Youngblood right now,” he said, “when all I can think about is taking that sexy red dress off you.”

  Desiree ran her hand down her sides, outlining her figure, luxuriating in the silken feel of the dress. “It does make me think of warm summer nights during which we make love in a white canopied bed with the French doors thrown open and a breeze fluttering the curtains.”

  Decker reached for her and pulled her into his arms. The look in his eyes was, frankly, dangerous. She smiled in anticipation. The man meant business tonight.

  His mouth descended on hers, and he kissed her hungrily, as if he’d been thinking of nothing else all night long except this moment. What he did with his tongue was indescribable. He dipped, he tantalized. He withheld pleasure only to whip her into a sexual frenzy.

  “Desi, Desiree, my desire, my goddess...” he said before lowering his head again and redoubling his efforts.

  Desiree kicked off her shoes as they continued to kiss. She felt the urgent need to get naked, quickly. Decker was backing her toward the huge couch in the great room. Her legs touched the couch, and she lay down. Decker gently lowered his body onto hers, and they spent the next twenty minutes just kissing. It was like discovering the art of kissing all over again. She knew the intimate makeup of Decker’s mouth, even the manner in which he breathed, how his lips tasted and felt and their unique shape. How his touch made her open up like a morning glory at the dawn of day, ready to experience everything the day would bring. She felt that way with Decker, that anything was possible as long as they were together.

  As they lay there, she could feel Decker’s manhood growing harder and harder until she knew his slacks must be getting tight in the crotch. The hem of her dress was hitched up to her thighs, and Decker lay between her legs. To prevent his weight from crushing her, he was holding himself up with his powerful arms. She ran her hands over his biceps, enjoying the play of corded muscles against her palms. She turned her head to the side, breaking off the kiss, breathing heavily. “Baby, let’s take this upstairs.”

  His eyes were intoxicated when he looked down at her. They were like a dark storm at sea. “I could kiss you all night.”

  “We’re not teens. We know what third base feels like.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” he said quickly, which made her laugh.

  He rose and pulled her up with him. Then he picked her up and headed for the stairs. “I can walk, you know,” she commented with a smile.

  “When I’m too old and decrepit to carry you, then you can walk,” was his reply. “Until then, I’m going to carry you.”

  She pretended to swoon like Scarlett O’Hara. “Oh, Rhett, you’re so commanding!”

  Decker laughed and ran up the remaining stairs to the landing. “Now you’re showing off,” Desiree said. She held on to his neck tightly. “Don’t drop me.”

  In the bedroom, Decker set her down at the foot of the bed. He looked around. The décor was back to white, and a canopy had been added to the queen-size bed. “I’m beginning to think that scenario you dreamed up downstairs wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thought,” he said.

  Desiree gave him a sultry look. “I’ve been planning this for a couple of days. I want you naked in my white canopied bed right now.”

  Decker grinned and didn’t waste time getting out of the rest of his tuxedo and doffing his highly shined black dress shoes.

  He was naked in about thirty seconds. Desiree had removed her dress and stood before him in a red lace bra and panties.

  She could see their reflection in the bureau mirror and marveled at how well they complemented each other. Her golden-brown skin and his reddish-brown skin were a perfect match, as was their height. She fit so well in his embrace that it made her feel safe and warm and protected. She went into his arms now and sighed happily. Decker kissed the top of her head in a tender moment. Then she naughtily grasped his penis and turned her face up to his. She felt the veins along the sides filling up with blood as it rushed to manifest his lustful thoughts.

  Decker reached down with both hands and cupped her behind. “Sweet cheeks, you’re getting bolder and bolder.”

  “I’ve got a lot of time to make up for,” she said, and pushed him onto the bed. Once she had him on his back, she straddled him and began raining kisses all down his body. She licked his nipples, enjoying it. She worked her way past his abdomen, admiring his abdominals. All the while Decker expressed his pleasure with soft moans. But when she delved farther down, he stopped her. “No, babe, if you kiss me there, I’m a goner. Then there won’t be any pleasure for you until later. And I can’t have that.”

  So he got up and playfully flipped her onto her back, grabbed a condom from the nearby nightstand drawer and rolled it onto his engorged penis. Straddling her again, he bent close to her ear and whispered, “Open up for me.”

  Desiree was more than willing to oblige. She eagerly spread her legs and lifted her hips off the bed as he drove home. The simple act of penetration was enough to stimulate her clitoris to such an extent she was racing toward a climax in a very short while. In the back of her mind, she wondered why she’d become so sexually responsive all of a sudden. She’d always liked having an orgasm, but with Decker the intensity seemed somehow magnified. Was it her love for him that made making love with him so satisfying?

  Decker slowed his thrusts after she’d come the first time. Then he let her get on top once more. “This time,” he said softly, “I want you to guide me inside you, concentrating on your pleasure the whole time. Close your eyes and imagine your whole body, and all of your pleasure points, being stimulated by the act of impaling yourself on me. Go ahead, try it.”

  Desiree got up and straddled him. Then she led him inside her and slowly lowered her body onto his until their pelvises were touching. His huge penis filled her up and rubbed enticingly against her vaginal walls, sending currents of unadulterated pleasure throughout her body. He was right. Sex was of the mind and of the body. Just that little bit of visualization helped her achieve one of the best orgasms of her life. She inwardly chided herself. She was a psychologist. She should have known all along that good sex started in the mind. Doctor or not, she had a lot to learn about making love.

  After her second orgasm, Decker took over, turning her onto her back and entering her with a grateful sigh. He was so hard now that Desiree could feel veins on his penis with each mighty thrust. As the thrusts increased in frequency, she watched his face. He was smiling. Sweat had broken out across his forehead. With eyes closed and head thrust back, he came. He opened his eyes then and looked at her, and in his gray depths she saw something she could only describe as ecstasy.

  He collapsed on top of her but immediately rolled onto his side beside her. They lay facing each other. He smiled at her, and Desiree smiled back. “Sleepy?” he asked.

  “I don’t wa
nt to go to sleep,” she said. “I just want to look at you all night.”

  He kissed her forehead and got up. “Let me go to the bathroom, and then you can fall asleep in my arms.”

  Desiree watched him go with a contented smile on her lips. She felt not the slightest bit wicked enjoying the view as he walked away. That butt, those muscular legs and broad shoulders. Suddenly she got her second wind and followed him into the bathroom.

  “A shower would be refreshing,” she suggested with a grin.

  Decker reached a hand back for her and pulled her into the shower, where for the next few minutes they enjoyed rubbing each other’s bodies and generally exulting in this thing called love.

  Chapter 11

  Freshly showered, they returned to bed and snuggled close, not saying anything for several minutes. The room was silent except for their breathing. The only illumination was the moonlight coming through the white sheers at the windows.

  Decker kissed the top of her head. “Are you sleeping?”

  “No, just pensive,” said Desiree.

  “Want to share your thoughts with me?”

  “Well, you never mentioned what it felt like when you walked into your office that day and found Yolanda sitting behind your desk.”

  “I was irritated,” he said.

  She laughed softly. “Come on, Decker, you were in love with her once. Surely you felt something more than irritation.”

  “I was shocked to see her there, and then her behavior quickly irritated me. She apparently thought she was going to have to seduce me to get me to go see Sawyer, so she turned on the charm, and I discovered she no longer affected me.” He sighed. “It’s kind of strange talking to the present woman that I’m in love with about how I feel about the woman I used to think I was in love with.”