Steele 05 - Irresistible Forces

I promise it will be a week you’ll remember.”
    She sounded confident. Certain. But then he was also convinced it would be a week he would remember. Deciding he needed to talk about something, anything that would take his mind off bedding her, he said, “I understand your sister is getting married in June to Cameron Cody.”
    She glanced at him. “Yes. You know Cameron?”
    “Yes. We’ve met. We’ve even been partners in a few business ventures. He’s an astute businessman.”
    “So are you. It doesn’t surprise me that you know Cameron. We met when he tried to take over my family’s business.”
    Dominic lifted a brow. “You’re kidding, right?”
    She smiled. “No, I’m not kidding. It was supposed to be a hostile takeover, but he never got all the voting shares he needed.”
    “So your family became friends with him instead?” he asked, amazed. He’d been involved in a few takeover attempts himself. The last thing the parties involved felt toward each other afterward, regardless of whether the attempt had been successful or not, was friendliness.
    “Yes, at least, my four male cousins did,” she was saying. “It was a male thing. I think they admired Cameron’s tenacity and respected his drive to succeed. They never saw him as a threat because the Steele family is so close, so we weren’t worried about anyone defecting. But Cameron had to learn a valuable lesson.”
    “Which was?”
    “No matter what, blood is thicker than money. And trust me, he was offering a lot. But for us it wasn’t about the money. It was about the legacy that my father and uncle passed on to us. They started the company many years ago and had always intended for it to be family owned and operated.”
    Dominic nodded. “And now Cameron will become a part of your family.”
    “Yes, he will be. He loves my sister very much and she loves him.”
    Love. He was familiar with that word because of his parents but had yet to experience the emotion himself. He had loved Camry but not in the same way that he knew his father loved his mother. What he’d felt for his wife had been more fondness than love. They respected each other and were good friends during their brief marriage.
    “Ready to head back?”
    Taylor had stopped walking and was smiling politely at him. “Yes, I can certainly use that shower,” he said.
    And he could also use something else. Something he was looking forward to getting later.
    * * *
    “Are you going to take a shower with me?”
    Dominic’s question made Taylor’s stomach lurch in heated lust. An ache started at the juncture of her legs. They had returned from their walk on the beach and were standing in the bedroom. He had wasted no time removing his shirt and stood with his hands in his pockets, which caused the material of his pants to stretch tight against his thighs. And they were such muscular thighs.
    She cleared her throat to swallow the lump that had formed there. “I’d rather wait until later, after we make love.”
    He looked amused at her statement. “And may I ask why?”
    Yes, why? She shrugged. “Although we won’t know the exact moment it happens, I know that I will get pregnant from you this week and I’d rather not let the first time we come together be in a shower.”
    He gave her a smile that intensified that ache in her body. “You don’t think we can share a shower without making love?”
    “What do you think?” she countered.
    He stared at her for a moment, in that way that always got to her, making her hot all over, as his gaze traveled up and down her body. Finally, he said, “I think that you’re probably right.”
    Oh, yeah, I am right, trust me, she thought. “I’ll wait in the other room for you to finish and then I’ll take my shower,” she said, heading for the door.
    “Taylor?”
    She turned back around. “Yes?”
    “I think you should know that I want you.”
    She saw the heat in his eyes, felt the lust and desire in them from across the room. She was no novice at being wanted by a man, but this was the first time she could actually feel the intensity. And what was so amazing was that she craved him just as much.
    “Thanks for telling me,” she said softly. “And I want you, too.” She decided to lay her cards on the table since he was laying down his.
    “Come here. I want to give you something to think about while I’m in the shower alone,” was his comeback in a husky tone.
    She started to tell him that it wasn’t necessary. She