“Where do you live, Alice?”
“I have a one-bedroom in Morningside Heights.” I squint out the picture window overlooking the city, trying to get my bearings and finally point north. “Way up that way.”
“Mmm. Do you like it there?”
“It’s nothing special, but it’s mine.” I lick a crumb off my finger and watch his blue eyes darken. Oh man, look at him sitting there. Shirtless and ruthlessly fit and sprinkled in black and gray hair. I could snap a picture of him just like this and it could pass for the cover of People magazine’s sexiest man alive edition. “My parents are civil servants. They worked really hard for what I had growing up and I like to do the same.” I lift my chin with mock pride. “I’m kind of cheap, actually. I love a bargain.”
His expression is intense. “You deserve spoiling.”
“I’m being spoiled right now.” I accept another forkful of cake from Sebastian and just like the last bite, it’s the most delectable thing I’ve ever tasted. “How did I have anything to do with this wonderful cake?”
“You let yourself enjoy making it. That’s how.” He takes his own bite. “You’re someone who likes being good at things. I could tell when I saw you at Landmark. You take pride in running a tight ship.”
“You’re right.” Pleasure flushes me at the proof he’s been paying close attention. “The first time I tried baking, I failed. Hard. It was a birthday cake for my mother and it looked more like a mud pie than anything.”
“And every time you tried after that, you were too afraid of messing up to enjoy the process?”
“Something like that.” I flop sideways on the bed, my body sated and my belly full of cake, folding my hands under my cheek and looking up at the man of my dreams. Literally. “Maybe you’ve cured me.”
He sets down the fork on the plate in favor of stroking my hair. “Maybe.” A thoughtful light enters his eyes. “We’ve established you like being good at things, so explain your choice in men.”
A flush climbs my neck. “You are my choice in men,” I whisper.
“Yes. And I’m grateful as hell for that. But I’m talking about the tosser who nominated you to be ambushed.”
“Oh. I’d forgotten about him,” I say honestly, my forehead in a pucker. “I’ve dated. A lot. I didn’t think I’d ever meet someone who made me feel like…you. Or meet someone who could fulfill those fantasies. But I had to try and capture the feeling of being…precious. Belonging to a man who was in charge.” My laughter is quiet. “It usually only takes me a couple of weeks to realize a guy doesn’t have what you have. And I break up with them. But I’ve never…I didn’t have to be physical with them to find out. It was just a feeling. I knew.” I drop my voice to a murmur. “I wasn’t lying when I said I was a virgin. I’ve barely even kissed anyone. I think part of me was waiting. Just in case…”
Sebastian eases me onto my back and climbs on top of me in nothing but his boxer briefs—and I almost pass out from the heat that swamps me. “Just in case the man you’ve been having fantasies about since you were a young girl…ends up as a judge on a reality show and you a contestant?”
I giggle. “Kind of a long shot, huh?”
“Yes.” A frown mars his brow. “But thank God it happened.”
“Yes,” I whisper. “Thank God.” Feeling absolutely decadent, I wrap my legs around his hips. “What about you, Mr. Cove? What have you been doing all your life, besides taking the world by storm with your desserts and making people cry on television?”
He chuckles and a hot tingle passes through me, head to toe. Wow. I thought he was beautiful when he glared, but when he’s amused, he’s a five alarm fire.
“I’ve been…” He stops short, his stare turning a little distant. “Going through the motions. Only I don’t think I realized it until now. I’ve always thought, I have fame and money and respect, so if I’m still unhappy, that’s my own bloody fault.” His gaze is drawn back to mine, his hand coming up to cup my cheek. “I thought there was something missing inside of me. Something I needed to be happy. But I don’t think that’s true anymore. I was missing you.”
Sebastian’s lips graze over mine and neither one of us can seem to break eye contact. This part of me I’ve always guarded so tightly from other men? I give it to him freely. Letting him see past the woman to the girl beneath. She needs a firm hand, to be cherished, to be used for wicked purposes. All of it. Only from him.
He leans back a little, his right hand moving between us to toy with the tie of my robe. Through the thickness of the terrycloth, I can feel the heat of his touch and it makes my thighs jerk around his hips. I can feel the shift in the energy between us, this man turning from Sebastian to Daddy right in front of my eyes.
Slowly, he loosens the belt of my robe. “Have you been taking those pills I bought you?”
Breathless, I nod dutifully. Obviously he didn’t buy me any pills. He’s setting up part of our fantasy scenario and it sends a thrill of anticipation through me. “Yes, I’ve been taking them.”
“That’s my good girl.”
He parts my robe all the way, exposing my body, which is naked except for my sodden, stretched out panties. “But why do I have to take them?”
Sebastian traces a fingertip down the center of my body, starting at the hollow of my throat and ending at the rosebud that’s sewn into the waistband of my underwear. He hooks that finger beneath the elastic and begins drawing the white panties down my legs. “Remember when we were in the living room and you took my cock in your mouth?”
A flush floods my cheeks. “Yes.”
“Remember my come going down your pretty little throat?”
I bite my lip and nod again, the muscles in my abdomen spasming over the terribly delicious way he’s speaking to me.
Sebastian tosses away my panties and cups his hand around my womanhood. “This time, I’m going to put my seed in here. Deep, deep inside here, darling.”
“Isn’t that how babies are made?”
“That’s what the pills are for. Alice and Daddy need to fuck without having to answer any difficult questions nine months down the road.” Sebastian removes the robe from around my shoulders and I almost gasp at the sensation of being exposed, in the center of this huge, heavenly bed, knowing he plans to be inside me soon. Next, he stands, making me watch as he strokes his erection through the light material of his boxer briefs, gritting his teeth when a spot of wet appears near the tip. “Someday I’ll take you far away from here and make your belly nice and round, over and over again. Someday.” He shakes his head while looking me over. “When you look old enough to pass for my young wife.”
His briefs come off, leaving us both naked, and he prowls over me on the bed, his tongue licking a path from my belly all the way up to my throat.
“You make me so crazy, little girl,” he breathes, his mouth descending down again, going lower than my belly this time. His teeth scrape over the bare flesh of my mound, before he kisses it gently. Once, twice, a third time. His hands are on my knees, moving them apart and I whimper, fisting the bedcovers when he parts my folds with his tongue, seeking out my already sensitive clit. “Still so swollen from riding my face, aren’t you?”