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  Mike could not believe his good fortune. Looking around the room, which was filled with some of the most beautiful accomplished women in California, including business leaders, celebrities, and (let's be honest) trophy wives—he realized that he was escorting the most beautiful, sparkling, and intelligent woman in the room, by far.

  He was a lucky, lucky man.

  In fact, Nikki’s magical powers even seemed to have extended to making him forget about the debacle with Phil and his mother. He would not have thought that there was anything in the world that could take his mind off of the anger that he felt at their manipulative attempts to control him, which they had apparently been exercising for years.

  It was not something that he was going to easily process, and he still did need to devote some serious thought as to how he was going to handle it now that he knew, but none of that needed to be done tonight. Nikki’s presence was certainly helping him to put it on the back burner.

  She was simply magic. There was no other word for it.

  He glanced across the room and saw Lizzie standing with Nikki.

  Oh shit.

  What the hell was that about?

  Why was Lizzie even here, for God's sake?

  Mike felt anger flaring through him. This was a perfect example of why he could no longer stand for Phil's and his mother's meddling. He had been exceedingly clear, multiple times, when he had insisted that he would not be bringing her to the event. And yet, here she was. It was a perfect allegory for the way that they had been running roughshod over him for years.

  Well, no more. He was done being people’s puppet.

  Mike quickly made his way across the room to Nikki's side.

  "Baby," he assured her comfortingly as he wrapped his arm around her waist, "I did not know she was going to be here. I swear. In fact, I very specifically said—several times—that she was not welcome here. Are you okay? What did she say to you?"

  Nikki laughed, and it seemed shockingly genuine. He didn't think that she was just putting on a brave face.

  "Oh, nothing you need to concern yourself with," Nikki said, her eyes twinkling, "just some territorial posturing. It's kind of like Cesar Milan, you know, the Dog Whisperer? From Television?”

  Mike nodded, although he had no idea where she was going with the analogy.

  "Well," she continued, "when he is trying to train a dog in a new behavior, and the dog runs around and yaps and generally behaves like a pain in the ass, he says that they are just 'protesting' and that, as the pack leader, you have to ignore their antics and hold the bottom line. Well, it's the same with Lizzie, there. She's just 'protesting' being dumped, so for a while, she'll probably run around and yap and behave like a real jackass. But it'll pass,” she concluded with a large grin.

  Mike laughed heartily. God, he loved the way her mind worked. “I think that might be the best explanation of the way she behaves that I've ever heard. You're gonna make one hell of a psychologist.”

  He could tell that he had definitely said the right thing. Nikki glowed with validation, which, in turn, made him glow with pride.

  "Come on," he said, taking her hand, "insight like that deserves a dance and a drink, and not necessarily in that order.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  "Good evening, Mr. Gowan," Sanders the doorman greeted Mike as he opened the door for Mike to enter.

  "Good evening, Sanders," Mike replied congenially. Pausing for a moment, he introduced Nikki to Sanders before they continued into the foyer.

  As they entered the building, Mike marveled yet again at Nikki’s beauty. She was stunning. All night he had been admiring her dress, the way that the color seemed to make her skin glow from within, and the way that the fabric seemed to hug her curves like a second skin. Now though, all he could think about was getting it off of her.

  Mike quickly guided her through the foyer and to his apartment. His breath quickened as he unlocked the door. He had been waiting for this moment all night. The moment when they would finally be alone, and now it was here. At the benefit, he could think of little else. In fact, it was amazing to him that things like mingling and politicking actually used to hold any interest for him at all, let alone his primary interest. Now they were a far distant second to the place that Nikki held in his heart and mind.

  Wasting no time, he quickly closed and locked the front door behind him and then stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and burying his face in her lustrous hair. God, she smelled amazing. The citrusy brightness of her shampoo mingled with the musky scent of her perfume, and the whole aroma was tied together with the singularly fresh scent that her skin just seemed to naturally emanate. The combination blended into an aroma that made him heady with desire.

  Flattening his hands over her belly, he began to urgently kiss the back of her neck. She groaned and leaned into his lips, bringing her own hands up and resting them lightly atop his. Oh, yes, this was definitely his favorite part of any erotic encounter with Nikki—enjoying all of her reactions to the things that he did, big and small. He just loved the feeling of satisfaction and power that came with knowing that he was affecting her body, arousing her, giving her pleasure.

  He deepened the kisses that he was trailing down the back of her neck and raised his hands to cup her breasts. Her hands stayed resting over his as they traveled upward, and when they came to rest on her eager mounds, he felt her hands press into his encouragingly. Even more satisfyingly to Mike, she groaned and tilted her head back, her nipples springing to life under his palms.

  That was all the encouragement he needed.

  Mike stepped around in front of Nikki and wrapped his arms tightly around her, lowering his mouth to hers. He engulfed her in a kiss so passionate that he felt in danger of losing himself entirely in it. Despite his normally iron sense of control, he somehow felt that maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to lose himself in Nikki. After all, he reflected wryly, that process seemed to be well underway whether he surrendered to it or not. Maybe it would be best to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

  "Baby," he murmured as he slipped the silken red straps from her shoulders, "I've been dreaming of slipping this dress off of you all night long."

  Nikki moaned in response, and that alone would have been enough to fire all of his erotic sensors. However, he was truly shot into the stratosphere when she rasped back in reply, "All night all I could think about was being alone with you, having you take my clothes off, being naked with you, making love to you. As amazing as the benefit was, it's nothing compared to this. This is the most amazing thing I've ever felt in my life."

  At that comment every fiber of Mike’s being sprang to a heightened sense of passion for her. He moved closer, pulling her to him as he ran his hands hungrily up and down her body as his lips and tongue tasted every inch of the flesh on her neck and mouth.

  When both of their bodies reached such a state of frenzy that he thought he might actually explode, he knelt down before her and slipped the filmy dress the rest of the way down her body. Despite the sky high heels she was wearing, she stepped out of it delicately and expertly, standing before him in nothing but a small wisp of a bra and panty set, looking more beautiful than he had ever seen her look before – which, it went without saying, meant that she was far more beautiful than any other woman he had ever seen before in his life. In short, she was the epitome of beauty and grace, and he could not believe that he had been granted the good fortune of being the object of this goddess' affections.

  There would be time enough later, though, to thank his lucky stars for that. Right now he could think of nothing else but making love to her, and doing so with every ounce of his attention, his heart, his soul, and his mind. In a flash, he came to a split-second decision. He was not going to force himself to hold back his desire at all this time with her. He wasn't going to pace himself, or modulate, or try to draw out the encounter in any way.

  Tonight, Mike Gowan was not goin
g to give a second thought to what he should do, or what the 'right' thing to do was. He was going to completely surrender himself to the need that was rushing through his body right now. He was going to follow every impulse, surrender to every raging sensation, and do so without guilt or second-guessing. He was going to give himself over completely.

  He stood and began to undress as quickly as possible. The task was made more difficult by the fact that his fingers were trembling with all the adrenaline that was rushing through his system. However, that was only a momentary problem, because as soon as Nikki saw what he was doing, she stepped over and began to assist him. Her nimble fingers were much more adept than his were at the moment at unbuttoning and unfastening, and before he knew it he was standing before her completely naked.

  As he rolled on a condom, he saw that she was slipping off her panties and bra. By the time he turned toward her, she was every bit as naked as he was. Her face wore a sly, knowing smile.

  "You really have been thinking about this all night, haven't you?" she asked, her voice husky with need.

  "It's all I've been able to think about," he gasped raggedly, the need in his voice matching hers, "and now it's finally happening. I'm going to make you feel so good, baby. I need you so much. I want you so…”

  He was grateful that she put a stop to the torrent of words that were spilling out of him by covering his mouth with hers, kissing him passionately. Honestly, he was so lost in the moment, lost in passion, lost in sensation, he had no idea what he might have said if he had continued.

  As the kiss deepened, Mike could feel heat rushing through his body as the intense erotic pressure that was a trademark of all of his encounters with Nikki began to build to a fever pitch. He knew that she must be experiencing the same thing, because he could feel her skin under his hands heating up the same way his must be. When he touched her, she felt as if she were on fire – the same fire that he felt burning within him at this moment.

  If Mike were making love to her the way that he normally would – holding back in order to draw out the experience, following the 'proper' procedure, whatever that might be – this would have been the point when he would have brought her into the bedroom. But that wasn't what was going on here tonight. He wasn't holding back, and he certainly wasn't worrying about what was proper. Tonight, he was surrendering to his savage instincts – and if the way that Nikki's body was responding to him was any indication, she liked that just fine.

  Mike swept Nikki across the room, pressing her fiercely up against the wall. His eyes were locked on hers the entire time, and he saw them widen at the unbridled fire with which he was acting. A slow grin spread across her face then, and he could see that—far from being put off by his actions—she was enjoying it quite a bit.

  That impression was only heightened when he slipped his fingers in between her legs and felt the slick heat present there.

  "I love the way that every time I touch you, you're already wet for me, baby," he whispered roughly in her ear.

  He felt her hot breath on his own ear as she whispered back, "You don't even need to touch me. Every time we're in the room together, I'm that wet for you. Only for you.”

  Mike groaned and dropped his head, momentarily lightheaded and lost in the head rush that her words caused in him. That lasted only a second, however, before the lust that was crashing through him overtook his lightheadedness and pushed him onward.

  He slid his hands behind her and down her back, cupping her delicious ass and lifting her up off the ground. This caused her to gasp in delight, which was a reaction that he loved.

  "I need you. Right now. Right here." He barely recognized the sound of his own commanding voice. This was a new side to him, but he was definitely enjoying it, and judging by the way that Nikki was furiously bobbing her head up and down – clearly too turned on by his words or his demeanor to even speak – she liked it just as much as he did.

  Positioning himself carefully at her opening, Mike lowered her body down onto his shaft. He shuddered with each additional millimeter that he sank inside of her, reveling in the desperate tightness with which her inner walls grasped him.

  When he was completely buried inside of her, all the way up to the hilt, he opened his eyes to look into hers but saw that hers were shut tight. He waited a moment to see if she would open them in a quest to discover why he had stopped moving against her, but she did not – her eyes stayed closed, her head thrown back, clearly lost in the sensations that he was engendering within her.

  "Open your eyes," he commanded. His voice was not harsh or rough by any stretch of the imagination, but it was firm. There was certainly no arguing with his clear command. It was obvious from his tone that he meant business.

  Nikki's eyes flew open and locked on his. When she saw the fire burning in his own eyes, hers widened. Her arms and legs locked onto him even more tightly. Before that moment, he would have doubted that it was even possible, but he did indeed feel her get even hotter and wetter around his erection as her arousal increased in a wave.

  "Keep your eyes open," he told her, "I want to look into them while I make love to you. I want to see your eyes when I make you come.”

  She gasped and he saw a flush arise on her cheeks. He could tell that it was all she could do to keep from squeezing her eyes shut tight and throwing her head back – but she resisted. It meant so much to him, and turned him on so completely, that she would muster every ounce of her resources to do what he wanted her to do – to keep her eyes open and locked on his.

  Never breaking the laser-locked eye contact that they now shared, Mike began to move within her, slowly at first, but picking up speed as she started to move her hips in the same rhythm that he was pumping inside of her. As their speed and intensity gathered, it became harder and harder even for him to resist the urge to squeeze his eyes shut, but it was incredibly important to him that they remain connected.

  He had never felt a connection as intense as the one he felt with Nikki, and he had a strong urge to nurture that connection, to deepen it. He couldn't explain it, but it was there, undeniably, and he had to follow it. He had no choice.

  --- ~ ---

  Nikki felt her breathing speed up until she thought that she might hyperventilate. The physical intensity that was grasping every single part of her body, was something that she had never experienced in her life and she didn't know how to handle it, how to control it. In fact, as the moments wore on and the frenzy with which she and Mike moved together increased, she began to realize that there was no way to control it. The only way to handle it was to surrender to it.

  When Mike was inside of her – and, oh God, especially when he was moving inside of her – she knew that this was what she had been put on this earth to do. Not the sex so much, although Holy Moly that was amazing, but the connection. She had been born to become one with Mike, of that she was absolutely and completely certain.

  She felt an entirely new wave of sensation sweep over her when, without disrupting their pattern at all, Mike raised one of the hands that he had previously been using to cup her ass and began to play with her nipples. She felt the electric shocks that emanated from the hard peaks on her breasts, race down her belly and to her core and she felt answering shocks that were coming from Mike's thrusting inside of her again and again race back up her torso to fill her chest. All in all, there was not a single inch of her body that wasn't tingling or burning from some aspect of Mike's touch.

  In a sudden flash of erotic desperation, Nikki snaked her arms around Mike's neck and buried her fingers in his hair, at the same time tightening the grip of her legs around his waist and crying out desperately. She could feel that she was on the edge of coming, but it was a different sensation than she'd ever experienced before – it was more ragged, deeper, and more raw than anything she had ever felt.

  She thought that it might have something to do with the way that she and Mike had been looking into each other's eyes as their bodies moved against one another. S
he grinned wickedly to herself. Or, possibly, it had to do with the forceful way he had ordered her to open her eyes leading up to that. She had never realized that she was the kind of woman who would respond to a classic Alpha Male, but her body was letting her know that she absolutely was that kind of woman, no question. She may be as independent and self-sufficient as anything outside of the bedroom – but in here, with Mike, she definitely thrilled to it when he took control.

  She felt Mike's hand slide down her slick belly, still never breaking eye contact, and he began to move his thumb in steady circles on her pleasure button as he continued to pump inside of her.

  Oh, man, she thought, if this keeps up much longer I'm going to actually, literally, explode! Not just figuratively, and not just an orgasm – I will actually burst into nothingness from the sheer pleasure overload I'm experiencing.

  The truth was that the physical intensity that she was experiencing as she and Mike came together did not just have to do with their insanely well-matched chemistry or their inexplicably strong emotional bond, although those two components were both a huge part of it. But there was another part, and she had to give Mike credit for it – he was, quite simply, an amazing lover. He was sensitive and intuitive, and somehow seemed to almost psychically know what her body craved at any given moment. Not only that, but he had the generosity to act on that knowledge and give her every single thing that she craved. It was an incredible combination, and it seemed to take her to brand new heights of ecstasy every single time they made love.

  Nikki focused within herself and concentrated on fully experiencing all of the individual sensations of pleasure that were rocketing through her body. The little bolts of electricity that burst forth from her nipples every time they brushed against Mike's strong chest. The heat and friction that were being generated by the way that he pumped in and out of her at an ever-increasing speed and intensity. And, finally, the earthquake-like shock waves that accompanied every methodical stroke of his thumb against the small, hard button that gave her so much pleasure.