Rivals Ignite Amid Shifting Gems
I leaned against the velvet-draped table in Rhydian Voss’s private exhibit, my pulse matching the heavy, rhythmic thrum of the bass leaking in from the gala outside. Around us, rare Alexandrite stones cast their shifting glow across the walls—emerald green in the ambient lighting, bleeding to a bruised purple when the shadows hit them. It was exactly like the tension that had suffocated us for five years. We had been circling each other since that first hostile takeover bid, when my family’s emerald mines clashed with his diamond empire.
But the real fire hadn’t started in a boardroom. It had ignited during a midnight negotiation in Geneva, ending with his mouth bruising mine and a reckless promise neither of us kept. Now, I was in his territory, lured under the guise of an appraisal. The air in the private vault was thick, steeped in the scent of aged leather and the sharp, expensive spice of his cologne. Through the glass wall of the exhibit, the dimly lit corridor of the museum remained visible. Anyone could walk by.
“You always did have a weakness for things that change color under pressure,” Rhydian murmured.
His voice cut through the heavy silence, low, rough, and entirely too close. He stepped into my periphery, his tailored Tom Ford suit wrapping around the broad, imposing frame I’d spent far too many sleepless nights thinking about.
I turned to face him, the emerald silk of my slip dress whispering against my heated skin. “And you always collect what you can’t control,” I shot back, lifting my chin. “These stones… they remind me of us. Untamed, until the right light hits.”
He closed the final inch between us. His large hand came up, his thumb brushing the erratic pulse jumping at my wrist. The touch sent a violent shiver down my spine. “Tell me to stop if this isn’t what you want tonight, Elowen,” he said, his eyes darkening to pitch as he stared down at my mouth. “But I see the way your eyes follow me. The exact same way they tracked me across that auction floor last month.”
“Don’t stop,” I breathed, the command tearing out of me without my permission. I raised my free hand, my trembling fingers tracing the harsh, arrogant line of his jaw.
Rhydian’s control snapped. His grip tightened on my wrist, yanking me flush against his hard body. I gasped at the solid wall of his chest, the heavy, undeniable ridge of his arousal pressing into my thigh through the thin silk of my dress. He ducked his head, his lips hovering a fraction of an inch from mine, the heat of his breath mingling with mine. “I’ve waited five years to finish what we started in Geneva,” he promised darkly.
His mouth crashed over mine in a bruising claim that tasted of old grudges and fresh hunger, tongues clashing like the boardroom wars we’d waged for half a decade. I shoved at his jacket, fingers frantic on the buttons of his shirt until wool and cotton gave way to heated skin. He dragged the straps of my gown down my shoulders, the emerald silk pooling at my waist before he shoved it lower, baring me completely to the cool air and the pulsing glow of the stones. His trousers followed in a hasty tangle, belt clinking against the velvet as he freed himself, the blunt heat of his length brushing my bare hip.
Rhydian spun me, pressing my front to the table so the cold edges of the Alexandrites bit into my breasts, a sharp counterpoint to the fire racing through my veins. His palm slid down my spine, parting my thighs with ruthless efficiency born of years spent dismantling my family’s holdings. Two thick fingers dragged through my slick folds, circling my clit with deliberate pressure that made my knees buckle, before he dropped to his knees behind me. His tongue followed the path his fingers had traced, lapping at my core with filthy precision, the wet heat of his mouth unraveling the last threads of my defiance. I bucked against the velvet, gasping his name like a surrender I’d never granted in any negotiation, my inner walls fluttering around the intrusion of his tongue as he worked me higher.
He rose again, fingers replacing his mouth to stretch me open, three digits pumping with a steady rhythm that echoed the bass from the distant gala. “You fought me on every contract,” he growled against my ear, teeth grazing the shell as his thumb pressed harder on that swollen bundle of nerves. “Now you’re dripping for it.” The head of his cock nudged at my entrance then, thick and insistent, the scorching contrast to the chilled gemstone surface beneath me drawing a broken whimper from my throat. He held there, rocking the crown through my wetness in slow, torturous passes that painted my folds with his heat, the anticipation coiling tighter with each pass until my hips chased him of their own accord.
Only when I was trembling and cursing his name did he push forward, the first thick inch breaching me with exquisite friction that stole my breath. He sank deeper in one controlled glide, the stretch forcing a low keen from both of us as our histories collided in the joining. His hips snapped once, twice, building to a relentless pace that drove me against the table, the glass wall beside us reflecting every thrust while footsteps echoed faintly in the corridor beyond. I clenched around him, the power shift between us sharpening every sensation as he fisted my hair and angled deeper, his free hand working my clit in tight circles until my release crashed through me in pulsing waves, muscles locking and releasing in rhythmic spasms that milked his length.
Rhydian followed with a guttural curse, spilling hot and deep as his body curved over mine, the weight of him grounding us both amid the shifting purple light of the stones. He eased free with careful tenderness, turning me to cradle against his chest where the rapid beat of his heart matched my own. His thumb traced my cheek, wiping away the dampness there as the exhibit’s quiet settled around us, the glass wall still guarding our secret while the gems softened to a muted glow. We lingered in the afterglow, limbs tangled and breaths syncing, the old rivalry now laced with something far more binding.