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"Tell me, Serena Do you want me?" he asked softly "Do you ache for ht wanting a h to harness your sexuality, stroke it until the fire rages and then unleash it, set you free?"

"Yes," she whispered, her voice catching in her throat "Yes"

"There is much we should discuss," he said "But not here We’ll iron out the technicalities and lay the groundwork, but for the more inti"

As he said the last, he reached over and trailed a finger down her cheek and then pushed a tendril of her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear

"I very much look forward to that conversation," he ed to her cheeks, and she leaned into his touch before she could think better of it "I don’t knohat to say"

"There’s nothing to say but yes Unless you’ve changed your mind? I can, of course, find another suitable candidate, but I can’t be the only one who has felt the spark between us, Serena, and after reading your e-mail, I don’t take you for a coward"

She was quite simply overwhelmed

He reached across the table once more and captured her hand in his His thumb rubbed absently over the top of her knuckles, sensual and distracting

"Let’s get the nitty-gritty details out of the way," he said "We can set a date to discuss the est it all"

"Nitty-gritty?" she croaked

He picked her hand up and brought it slowly to his lips Her breath caught in her throat and refused to slip from her lips as she anticipated the touch of hisher veins Currents, warm and vibrant, raced up her arm and sent prickles of awareness up the base of her neck until the tiny little hairs at her nape stood on end

His lips ers until they rested over her knuckles

"The nitty-gritty being the unpleasant details, the not-so-roement Sterile perhaps, but necessary"

She raised her eyebrow in silent question, because at the moment she couldn’t have spoken if she wanted to

He reached for a sheet of paper underneath the others and handed it to her Carefully, she pulled her hand froretted the loss of his warmth She picked up the paper and scanned the contents

It was a medical report And then she realized

"Oh," she said softly "You est fool I hadn’tGod, what an idiot I aently "Not an idiot, Serena Just nervous and wanting to forge ahead before you lost your courage You would have thought of it, I have no doubt, and you would have deiven you"

"But I haven’t, I otten tests"

"I can arrange it with my physician at a moment’s notice," he offered "It’s important that you feel safe with ood health is ascertained I want to give you your fantasy, Serena, and I don’t want any ugliness to intrude"

"I’ll phone my doctor to?" Da breath as she stared at the handsoeous He was confident, wore arrogance like a cloak, and God, she loved arrogant, assured men, but he didn’t come across like an asshole Was thisa role?

She wanted to find out so bad she could taste it

She licked her lips and then nodded

"I want to hear you say it," he proree"

His s dark and priined what it would be like to be his, and it filled her with a powerful longing

"Have dinner with me this weekend," he said It wasn’t a request, and he seeetic that it was, in essence, a coive you time to see your doctor and think about me And you Us Then we can ement"

Just the way he said intile And then it hit her that she was going to become quite intiive her reality With him

She would see him naked He’d touch her, have his hands and mouth on her body She quivered froether until she had to put her hand on one of her legs to stop it

Food? Co lunch Not when all she was i flames burnt her cheeks when she remembered just how descriptive her e-ht Faith was the only woman left on earth who blushed so vividly," he said in a tone tinged with aroaned and closed her eyes "I haven’t a prayer of keeping it together You’ve completely and utterly knocked my feet out from under me"

"As did you when I read your e-mail," he said softly "I cannot allow another man to take what I already consider mine"

Her stomach clenched and a flush stole over her body "You sound possessive already," she said faintly

"And that’s precisely the way you want me, is it not?"

She squir to lie or pretend to be bashful, even if she was ready to crawl under the table Nothing about her approach had been shy so far, and there wasn’t a need to start now

"It is," she ad To a man," she added after a deep breath "It sounds so crazy"

"Stop," he said with quiet authority "I won’t allow you to degrade yourself for voicing your desires They’re yours Thatcrazy about them"

"It’s not just about possession" She paused for a o on, to explain what beat so incessantly at her "I want the security of knowing I amowned Oh, but that’s such a terrible word and yet I can’t think of a better one I want to be cherished, protected, pamperedvalued I want the man to know me as well as I know myself I want him to anticipate my needs and fulfill them but at the sa Capable Do an asshole For just a little while, I want to be in his hands To giveand be able to trust in him to shelter me, pleasure me and teach me how to please him"

She suddenly felt so vulnerable, as if she’d exposed herself in the most brutal of ways She felt naked, stripped bare by her oords

"Look at ently

Her chin caaze