Temporarily His Princess by Olivia Gates Page B

forget everything and go with the flow. Let me give us tonight.”
    Tonight. The word reverberated between them, sweeping through her, uprooting the tethers of her resolve and aversion. His lips were half a breath away, filling her lungs with his intoxication.
    She hated that she yearned for his taste and urgency and dominance, but she did. How she did. The need screwed tighter, squeezing her vitals, strangling them. Everything that would assuage the craving gnawing her hollow was a tug away, on his lapel, his hair. Then he would give her everything she needed.
    But she couldn’t do it. Literally. She couldn’t move a muscle. And he was giving her the choice of the first move. He wouldn’t take that out of her hands, too. When that was where she needed him to leave her no choice.
    Leave it to him to do the opposite of what she wanted.
    Annoyance spurted, infusing her limpness with tension.
    With a look acknowledging that he wouldn’t get a cease-fire that easily, and with a last annihilating stroke across her stinging lips, he pulled back.
    In moments he’d stepped down from the car and come around to her door. She almost clung to him for support as he handed her down. The coolness of twilight after the warmth of the vehicle sprouted goose bumps all over her, adding to her imbalance.
    Then every concern evaporated as she gaped. Up.
    They were beneath a massive jetliner that looked like a giant alien bird of prey. This was his jet?
    The next moment left no doubt as he took her elbow and led her to the Air Force One–style stairs that led from the tarmac to the inside of the jet.
    Once inside, her jaw dropped further. She’d been on private jets before, though never his. Another proof of how marginal she’d been to him, when he’d been the center of her universe. But any other jets she’d seen paled in comparison.
    She turned sarcastic eyes up to him. “It’s clear you believe in going the extra hundred million in pursuit of luxury.”
    He smiled down at her. “I wouldn’t say I go that far.”
    She looked pointedly around. “I’d say you go beyond.”
    His smile remained unrepentant. “I travel a lot, with staff. I have meetings on board. I need space and convenience.”
    “Tell me about your need for those.” She waited until she got a “so we won’t stop dredging up the past, eh?” look, then added more derision. “And you must have yet another castle in the sky to accommodate both ‘needs,’ huh?”
    “My family’s being the first one on terra firma?”
    “And the third being the futuristic headquarters in New York. Next, I’ll find out you have a space station and a couple of pyramids. Hang on…”
    She got out her phone.
    He gave her a playful tug, plastering her to his side. “What are you doing now?”
    Squeezing her legs tighter against the new rush of heat, she cocked her head up at him. “Just estimating how many thousands of children this sickeningly blatant status symbol could feed, clothe and educate for years.”
    He tipped his head back and his laughter boomed, sending her heartbeats scattering all over the jet’s lush carpeting.
    “ Dio, will I ever come close to guessing what you’ll say next?” He still chuckled as he led her through a meeting area, where staff hovered in the background, to the spiral staircase leading to the upper deck. “So you consider this jet too pretentious? A waste of money better spent on worthy causes?”
    “Any personal ‘item’ with a price tag the length of a phone number ranges from ludicrously to criminally wasteful.”
    “Even if it’s a utility that I use to make millions of dollars more, money I do use to benefit humanity at large?”
    “By advancing science, protecting the environment and creating jobs? Yeah. You forget how I started my working life. I’ve heard all the arguments. And seen all the tax write-offs.”
    “But you started your working life with me, so you know I’m not in this to make money or to flaunt my power or