"It would be a little more stylish than Sorensen, but the fit might be a little too tight."

She closed the door without comment and headed to Sebastian's master bedroom upstairs. As quietly as possible, she tiptoed into the large walk in closet and pulled out a nice pair of slacks, a beautiful blue s.h.i.+rt and a stylish tie.

Dark and gloomy... Price had no idea what he was talking about. Sebastian had beautiful clothes.

"Here we go," she said as she returned to the room she kept Price in. "Sebastian's style is somber and moody, so I don't know if you'll be able to pull it off, but it's better than nothing."

Price chuckled. "Can you give me a hand? My wrists are sore from the cuffs."

"It's your fault for pulling them apart." She tossed the clothes on the foot of the bed.

He smiled, warm and charming, and oh so cunning. "Admit it. You just like seeing me in the nude."

Determination burned in her eyes as she looked directly at him. "I'll leave you to get dressed." She turned and walked away.

"Serena. Wait."

She stopped at the door, but didn't turn to him.

"All right, fine. I'll drop the charm and be honest. I did hurt my wrists yesterday, a little more than I thought. I was so eager to get out of those cuffs that I might have exerted too much force and it's my wrist that took the brunt of it. I'm also freezing here. Please, just a little helping hand and I won't ask anything more of you all day."

Biting her lip, she faced him. "No games."

"No games."

Her jaw tight and her eyes hard, she marched back to him and grabbed the s.h.i.+rt off the foot of the bed. "Hold up your arm," she commanded.

He obeyed and she slipped the sleeve on. "In the old days I would be asking you to bend over for a quick f.u.c.k right about now."

"Those were the old days."

"The good old days."

She said nothing as she pulled the sleeve up to his shoulder.

"Was that you I heard playing the piano?"

"You nearly broke Sebastian's arm. What do you think?"

He c.o.c.ked a surprised brow. "You don't have to bite my head off."

"And you didn't have to be so rough."

"I didn't really mean to hurt him, you know."

She shrugged.

"It sounded really good... the music you were playing."

"I do the best I can."

"Was it your composition?"

"Yes. Pull your other arm back for the other sleeve."

She leaned into him to get the other sleeve on him. His scent immediately worked to get her brain thinking back to all the times she'd had that scent in her nostrils; all the times she'd been aroused by the mere scent of him.

"I never realized how much talent you have."

"You never gave me a chance."

"I know, and that was my mistake."

There was something so sad and forlorn in his words, she couldn't help but look into his eyes.

"I realize now that I held you back. I didn't allow you to flourish... and you have such beautiful talent. I could feel your emotions all the way from here; feel how strong you've become."

"You never wanted me to be strong."

"I was afraid. I was afraid that if you became strong enough, you'd leave me. I know that's childish and selfish, but you were all I had and I couldn't bear the thought of living without you."

"You've never even acknowledged that I could compose. You completely stifled my love of music, like I had no right."

"And that's my greatest lost. Just hearing you now, I see all that I've missed these years. You could have filled our home with music, beautiful music. You could have composed beautiful love songs meant for me, instead of such an angry piece, as beautiful as it was."

"It's not angry. It's hopeful."

He nodded. "Hopeful for your future without me?" As he spoke he laid his hand on her hip.

For the moment the touch was innocent enough, but it still stirred something deep inside her. She swallowed the hard clump of arousal that worked its way up her throat and tried to concentrate on b.u.t.toning his s.h.i.+rt. Her fingers brushed against the heated skin of his smooth chest and after only two b.u.t.tons she was too flushed to go on. She turned her attention to the b.u.t.tons at the cuffs.

"We're not through, are we, Serena?" Price asked in a heartbreaking whisper. His eyes were heavy with longing and his heated breath a strong reminder of all the scorching nights they'd spent together. "Tell me we're not through."

There was something so sincere, so genuine in his words, in his voice, something that tugged at her heart and pierced her soul.

Flashes of her nights with him sped through her thoughts, arousing a dormant side of her she'd kept quiet the past months. A quick glance down and she noticed he was already hard. She returned her focus to his cuffs.

"Old habits die hard," he whispered. "I want you now just as much as I wanted you the very first time I saw you. You still have that effect on me."

"You'll have to forget about those days, Price." Her voice was suddenly soft and unconvincing. "I'm not yours anymore."

She b.u.t.toned the cuff of one sleeve and he brought his free hand up to caress her cheek. Her eyes closed and she instinctively leaned into his hand before backing away with a start.

"Why back away, Serena?"

"You're out of line. You have no right, Price. None."

"But you feel something, don't you? They're still there, all the feelings you've always had for me. Why are you denying it? Why can't you just set them free and we could move on together. I've learned so much about you. Things would be dif..."

She took another step back. "I'm sorry, Price. You'll have to finish without me." The dual sense of her statement didn't escape her.

"I'd rather finish with you."

"I gotta..."

"Serena," he whispered, holding an imploring hand out to her. It was such a submissive gesture. "Please don't go."

She met his gaze and was struck by the pain in his eyes. Gone was the strong, self-a.s.sured man who'd had such complete control of her for so many years. She couldn't detect an ounce of the dominant role he'd played for so long. Looking at him now, he was simply a broken man begging for the touch of the woman he loved.

"Can you honestly tell me it's not hard for you to let go, too?" he said.

Taking a small step closer, she felt her heart slowly cave in.

"We've been through so much together. Each in our own way, we helped the other. I'll admit there was a time I may not have been as good to you as I should have. I even knew it then, but I guess the demons that haunted me kept me from being the man you needed. I should have backed away from you then, let you go. I wanted to, several times. I'd make love to you and tell myself it was the last time; that I'd release you after. But I couldn't. The more I told myself I had to cut you loose, the more I wanted you."

His eyes glistened with tears and Serena couldn't believe what she saw. He'd never been so emotional, so open.

"If I hurt you... ever, I'm so sorry. Maybe I just had a clumsy way of showing you how much I love you. I'd never met anyone like you before, and I'd never felt the way I felt about you. For the first time I was with someone who knew how I felt, someone I could relate to. You knew what it was like to be left by the curb like a bag of trash. You knew what it was to be cold and hungry. And despite the hards.h.i.+ps you'd faced, you still had a fighting spirit. I saw it in your eyes that night in the alley."

"I guess we were kind of compatible."

"Compatible? We were a perfect fit. We were made for one another." His hand slipped to the small of her back. "I know you see it, Serena. You feel it. We were meant to be together. This latest episode is just a setback, but now..."

"As compatible as we were, I always felt you were unattainable, that you were too high above me and I'd never be able to reach you. I was always your inferior. You were untouchable."

"Then how do you explain how profoundly you touched me? How do you explain doing the impossible? No one has ever gotten as close to me as you have. No one. That's why I'll never find anyone to replace you. No one will ever understand me the way you do."

His lips were parted, just enough to show how hungry he was. Mirroring him, she parted her lips and could almost taste him.

When he dropped his gaze to the floor, then slowly met hers again, she felt the weight of his emotions. He seemed so profoundly distraught and broken, nothing like the man she'd first met.

"I know you may not believe my story about Kaiser Sorensen, and I don't blame you. I guess I haven't given you much reason to trust me, but why else would I go through all the trouble I've gone through? Just for the h.e.l.l of it? You know I'm not that idle a man. When I do something it's with purpose, with a reason, and with just cause. I'm not going after the Sorensens just to occupy my time. I need to set right the wrong he's done. He's been enjoying his success for far too long while I've had to live my life without my father, without my mother, without a home. He took away everything I had in the world, Serena, everything. And now his son is taking away the only woman I've ever loved."

Tears streaked down her cheeks as she reached out to wipe the tear falling from his eyes.

"I'm sorry for the pain you've had to endure."

He leaned his forehead against her and closed his eyes. "Watching you with him..." He pulled in a long hard breath. "Seeing you involved... in love with the man whose family destroyed everything I ever had. It's like losing everything all over again."

Her heart swelled with the desire to relieve his pain. Her lips brushed against his and her body was instantly in flames, heated with the need to touch him.

"Please, Serena." His whispered plea beckoned her. "In all of this s.h.i.+tty life that's just heartache after heartache, you're the only person who can make me forget; who can make me feel something other than the pain."

She raked her fingers through his thick hair, eager to comfort him. Was it just a force of habit after so many years? Was the submissive in her reacting to him?

His tongue delicately swept into her mouth, testing the waters, but when she received him, invited him in, he became bolder, sweeping his hungry tongue through her mouth.

The hand at the small of her back tightened and pulled her to him, pressing her up against his hardened shaft. His quick fingers worked to pull her dress up over her head, tossing it across the room.

Her body was instantly flooded with desire. No longer thinking about right and wrong, she followed Price's lead as he laid her on the bed and covered her with his body.

She'd forgotten how hard and toned his chest was, how strong his shoulders, how powerful his biceps. He grabbed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, his feverish fingers squeezing her flesh and making her cry out for more.

"How many nights I've dreamt of tasting your flesh again. You're like a drug, Serena." He brought his lips to her nipple and sucked until it was tight and erect, then brought the same pleasure to the other nipple. "Let me taste you again, Serena."

She arched her back, guiding his lips further down, past her navel. She was on fire, burning up with the need to be sated. His tongue painted circles around her c.l.i.t, taunting her.

"Tell me you'll let me taste you."

"Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Taste me, Price."

He ran his tongue up her heated lips and she let out an enraptured sigh. She tilted up her hips, eager for another touch. But his lips were no longer there.

She looked down at him and met his hungry stare.

"Tell me what you want, Serena."

The old master was there, taking the reigns, taking control, though in a softer, more subtle way. She needed to fight him, but her body wanted release.

"Take me there, Price. Just take me there."

He pressed his lips over hers and let his tongue play with the folds of skin that were so ultrasensitive.

He brought his finger to the moistened opening, poked and prodded until she was virtually thras.h.i.+ng on the bed, eager for the sensations to come.

Her whole body went silent and numb just seconds before the explosive o.r.g.a.s.m shook her. Like an endless wave, it crashed over her, filling her with exquisite pleasure and leaving her breathless, Just as Price licked the last throbbing pleasure of her c.l.i.t and came up to position himself over her, ready to drive his c.o.c.k deep inside her, Serena heard a movement out in the hall. In a surreal moment, through the fog of arousal, pleasure met pain, and joy collided with sorrow as she saw Sebastian, leaning in the doorway, his hand over his aching ribs.

He groaned with pain, but his eyes spoke of the true pain he was in. He'd come out here, seeking her help, but had found her...

Sickened, she gagged.

d.a.m.n.

There was no use trying to deny what had just happened, what he'd just seen, but she nonetheless shoved Price off her, jumped out of bed and ran after him, as he turned and stumbled away.

She threw a hateful glare back at Price. "Now look what you've done." Though inside, she knew very well what she had done.

Chapter 4.