Priceless: The Rothvale Legacy, #1
Priceless: Chapter 14

I could see the struggle going on in her mind as clearly as if she’d just told me her inner thoughts. It reminded me a little of a competition. The moment when you know you’ve gotten into your opponent’s head. It was like that with Gabrielle right now. All I had to do was stay in her head, and convince her she wanted the same thing as me.

“No worries. I still have plenty of time to work on you. The day is young.”

Her face fell, and then changed to panic.

“Ivan, what time is it?”

“It’s early. Probably not more than half past ten.”

“Oh shit. The morning-after wedding brunch is today at noon. We are supposed to be there, Ivan, both of us. And we’re—we are in Ireland right now!” she hissed, throwing down her napkin and jumping up from the table. “I have to get showered and dressed—and—and then you have to fly me back to Hallborough.”

She turned away from me and ran toward the shower grotto.

Well, fuck. It looked like there was still some convincing to do with my beautiful obsession. And I remembered what I already knew about her. She was a runner whenever something frightened her.

The only thing to do with a runner is to run even faster so you can catch them.

She was already washing her hair when I came up behind her in the pool house showers. I watched her for a moment as she hurried to do everything in a rush. I needed to slow her down.

“Gabrielle.”

She turned and dunked her head under the spray and let the shampoo rinse out of her long dark hair, her eyes closed tightly, not acknowledging me.

I pulled her against my chest, my hands linked behind her back so she couldn’t push away. Her breasts pressed into my chest, soft and wet as I put my lips to hers.

Her hands came up to my chin and faltered. Maybe in defense—or possibly just protecting herself from me—but it was still an acceptance, and she didn’t do more than just hold her trembling hands suspended between us while I kissed her under the shower spray.

I could work with that.

A kiss was intimate, and helped me to dig my way further under her skin.

I know how to win, using every small thing to my advantage in order to get there. I had the medals to prove it.

She was my win. My gold medal.

Winning Gabrielle would be my toughest competition yet.

But so worth it. So fucking worth it in the end.

I kept her against me under the shower for another moment, slowing everything down with her, taking the panic out of the moment.

I brought my hands up to cup her cheeks, holding and directing the angle of her head until all of the shampoo was rinsed away. I turned off the water and kept her face in my hands. The shower head drained out its last drops, falling onto the tile floor in a steady rhythm at our feet.

She cast her eyes up at me, so unsure and fearful. I could see the fear in every flicker of their lovely hue. Her eyes were a unique shade of green, flecked with other variants of colours from brown to yellow to blue.

“The rest of the weekend, Gabrielle. Give that to me.”

She shook her head still held in my two hands. “No. I have to go back. You said you’d take me—.”

“Even if we took off this very minute we can’t make it back to Hallborough by noon. It’s impossible.”

“But we won’t be there for the brunch then,” she whispered, defeated.

I rubbed my thumbs over the sides of her jaw. “Think about it. People won’t be looking for us. They’ll be waiting on the bride and groom, and while Ethan and Brynne might notice we’re absent, I’m sure they’ll be more anxious to get away on their honeymoon. They won’t care.”

“Maybe…,” she said biting on one side of her luscious bottom lip. “But Ben will wonder where I am, and Elaina will, too. They will ask around for me.”

“I’m sure Fred has noticed my plane is gone from his lake by now. I can message Hannah and say I brought you over to Donadea for a quick visit so you could get a glimpse of my paintings. It’s mostly the truth.” I smiled at her. “I just leave out the part about kidnapping you when you were under the influence of one too many blueberry mojitos, and they’ll be none the wiser.”

“I don’t even have my purse or my phone with me, Ivan. I’m sure that doesn’t look too smooth if anyone figures it out.”

“If you know his number, you can call your friend and speak to him in person, so he won’t worry about you. Explain to him how my offer of so many priceless works of art was more than you could resist. That you were impulsive after a few drinks and dancing.”

“But all of my clothes and my phone…we just left there with nothing.”

“Tell him I’m having your things delivered to Donadea from Hallborough and will take you directly to London when we have to go back.”

“You will?”

“Of course. I left my things there as well, and I’ll speak with Hannah and ask her to pack it up for us. She’ll do it no question. She is the absolute best, and she knows how to keep silent. You’ll have no gossip worries coming from my cousin.”

I could tell her cogs were spinning, puzzling out my suggestions and on the verge of agreeing, so I pushed her a little bit more.

“Is there anything back at Hallborough you’d rather have than this?”

I didn’t give her a chance to answer my question, though. I just lowered my head and backed up enough to get my mouth over one of her tits, and started sucking.

She settled exactly into the pull and push of my lips and tongue, letting me go to work on her, entrusting her pleasure to me.

I loved how she melted in my arms when I touched her, became soft and wanton. It drove me to madness, to a point where I didn’t ponder much at all beyond making her come again.

Giving an orgasm to Gabrielle had become my new favorite fucking job.

I asked her again. “Is there anything back there you’d rather be doing, Gabrielle?”

I slid my fingers under the lace of her knickers and impaled two of them up into her soaked pussy.

“Nooooo,” she cried on a shuddering moan, her knees buckling a bit as I starting stroking my fingers in and out of her tight heat.

“Good, gorgeous girl,” I said, winding her tighter and tighter with each slide of my fingers matched against the sucking pulls of my mouth on her tits. I had her pinned up against the shower wall, quivering and shaking under me as I sorted her out, taking from her what I demanded she give up. I knew I couldn’t stop, nor would I stop, until she was blissfully pleasured and drooping in my arms.

Then, and only then, I’d carry her back up to my bedroom and fuck us both to sleep. Wake up after a while and maybe fuck some more if we wanted to. Lowell had seen to the condoms being delivered as I’d asked. I had everything I needed to convince Gabrielle to stay with me a bit longer.

And convince her I would.

GABRIELLE

So I went from living in a sexual desert to a banging rainforest of jungle-love in the matter of about twelve hours. How in the hell did that happen? Ivan happened, that’s how.

After the shower conversation with Ivan, I don’t remember much except being carried up the big stairs at some point. I’d been utterly lost to the sensation of total erotic bliss at his hands, and mouth, and his cock that I didn’t really care about the particulars. It all felt too damn good.

He was an amazing lover.

Ben was going to be relentless grilling me about what I’d been doing with Ivan—

Ben!

“Shit, I never phoned Benny!” I leaped out of bed, grabbing the first thing I could put my hand around. The vintage smoking jacket. The elegance of the thing made me feel like a rich man’s mistress from an old black and white movie, which was kind of true, and strange both at the same time.

Ivan cocked open an eye and surveyed me from head to toe, completely at ease with his own lack of coverings, totally nude with his arm stretched out toward me, seemingly unconcerned by my current panic. He must be used to them by now. It wasn’t the first since we been spending time together.

“He’s probably left me fifty messages and texts by now—”

“Gabrielle.”

“And Filan, my God, she’s likely to be right in the thick of the speculation—”

“Gabrielle! I phoned Hannah earlier while you were sleeping.” His voice had an edge to it which commanded respect, silencing my panicked rant immediately.

“You did?”

He nodded slowly. “Talked to her and explained everything about packing up our things and also asked her to let Clarkson know where you are. All taken care of. We might even have everything delivered by morning. My assistant will get it all organized for us right away.”

I sat on the edge of the bed and tried to process all that Ivan had done so we could have this weekend together. “You must really want me to stay here, if you went to all that trouble,” I said quietly.

“It was no trouble, and yes, I really want you here.”

I studied him boldly, admiring his body for the beautiful specimen it truly was. I thought about all the ways he’d been using it on me, too. Sex, just for the enjoyment of the experience with another like-minded person, was pretty amazing, but I’d be fooling myself if I couldn’t admit I was enjoying other aspects besides the sex and the orgasms. I liked the attention he paid to me—and the physical contact, the touches—and the way he kissed me, too. Ivan liked to kiss. And I’d decided I really liked kissing Ivan.

“I wish you believed me,” he said.

“I am trying to understand why me?”

He sighed and gave me a patient look. “If you’ll take that goddamn robe off and crawl over here I can work on some more explanations of precisely ‘why you.’”

“More?” It didn’t escape my notice that his cock had lengthened and was growing thick again.

“I’m a dedicated fellow determined to fully convince you.” He gave me a slow grin that just travelled up on one side of his sexy mouth.

I stood up and slowly untied the belt of my adopted robe, removing it carefully one little bit at a time. I liked the look of him while he watched me. He made me feel very sensual and special.

So when I crawled over to him, and he showed me, yet again, how good he could make us both feel, I let him do it. I let Ivan take me to another place in my body and mind because it felt too wonderful for me to deny.

IVAN

Gabrielle knew how to suck cock. Well, she was spectacularly good at sucking mine. I didn’t like to think about how she’d learnt her skills, but I’d have to overlook that part if I wanted to keep her.

And I did want to keep her.

I knew it now. There had been hints as we’d begun this tryst, but now, I knew for certain that my dream girl did, in fact, exist. And she was naked in my arms after a supremely satisfying session of her mouth on my cock, an experience I couldn’t compare to anything similar I’d ever received in my life. She enjoyed doing it, too.

After sex, she tended to be quiet, just content to let me kiss her and stroke my fingers over her flushed skin, so it surprised me when she hit me with words I didn’t want to hear.

“Ivan…I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to employ me now that we’ve—because we have been together intimately—it’s not professional conduct—I really can’t.” She faltered and then trailed off, the disappointing silence rising between us.

My sexy kitten wasn’t going to be easy on me it seemed.

“But, just think for a second. Have you done anything with me so far that you didn’t enjoy, or didn’t give us both a great deal of pleasure?”

“No.”

“And you are a qualified conservator of paintings certified through the University of London?”

“You know I am, Ivan.”

“So tell me what I have a houseful of, Gabrielle, just moldering away into dust. Tell me, lovely thing, I want to hear you say it.”

She shook her head at me in frustration, but I wasn’t having it.

“No, Miss Hargreave, I want to hear you tell me.”

She held onto my eyes, and I knew I’d won this small battle when her shoulders relaxed and she gave into the desires that were very hard to deny. I understood how it worked for her, as well as for me.

“You have so many paintings.”

I took her hand and kissed it, holding it pressed to my lips. “I have so many paintings, Gabrielle. And I only want you to have a look at them. Nobody else will do.”

“But, it’s so unprofessional.” She was struggling with something that went beyond just having a sexual relationship with me while working here. There was more to her story I desperately wanted to know. I wanted to know her story just as much as I didn’t want her to learn about the sordidness of mine. She was so unspoiled, and knew nothing much about my life, or my past. It was part of the magical allure Gabrielle held over me.

“Does the part about being unprofessional really matter? So we met each other under unusual circumstances. Yes, agreed. But now, we have discovered we like doing this, too.” I swept my hand down her body in a caress, coming to rest on the flesh of her arse. “This is a private job anyway. Therefore nobody gets to know what we do together in private. It’s just between you and me.”

She let me kiss her, slowly and thoroughly. My tongue had a way of getting lost inside her anyway, and kissing her soothed me. When I was finally able to pull away, she had her hands buried in my hair again. I guess she had a thing for touching my hair, and I thought it was fucking hot. She could bury her hands in my hair when I was buried in her, as much and as often as she liked.

I took her face with both hands and held her still. “I knew I had to get you back here somehow to show you that you were meant to come to Donadea. This place, the paintings hidden away here waiting—was fate for someone like you. I was determined, even after you left here the first time, I would replace you and convince you to give me another try.”

“You were?” She seemed so surprised.

“Oh yes, my lovely Miss Hargreave.”

She offered her lips up to mine for a kiss, which thrilled me to accept from her. She was so sweet and generous. Her offer gave me the courage to tell her the rest of my plan. Because I was going to tell her. Telling and directing were actions devoted to my part in this. Her role would be different.

“And Gabrielle, having you archive my paintings and enjoy each other in bed is not the only thing I am proposing here with you.”

“What else are you proposing?” she asked carefully, the slight widening of her eyes a clue as to her own perceptiveness of what was really going on between us, and maybe even what I was going to say next.

“I want you submissive when we fuck, Gabrielle. I want so badly to have that…with you.”