He was staring at her. Though she didn’t look-why ruin the game so soon-she felt the heat of his dark chocolate gaze cruising down her neck to her partially bare breasts and beyond, taking in every detail of her new dress and the body that lay beneath it. She’d thought of him when she’d chosen the red silk. Imagined his expression the first time he saw her in it and the unbelievable pleasure she would feel as he slowly peeled her out of it.

He shifted in his seat and a shiver of pure, liquid lust shot through her at the simple movement, though she caught it only out of the corner of her eye. She shouldn’t be this attuned to him-it just wasn’t normal, no matter what wicked, wonderful things she’d let him do to her body for the last three months. And, she admitted, she’d let him do a lot. She’d given him everything he asked for and more, so much more that it disturbed her sometimes.

She didn’t know how to deal with this…obsession. Annalise cringed at the word, but could think of nothing else to describe the craving she had for Gabe every moment of every day. No one else could satisfy it, no matter how hard she’d tried to find someone who could. And God, how she’d tried-every chance she got. Nearly every night he wasn’t with her she made sure she was flat on her back beneath someone else. A momentary diversion, a last ditch effort to stop the need he built so explosively, and effortlessly, within her.

She refused to turn out like her mother-her beautiful, youthful, completely insane mother. Living with one man, chasing after another, changing marriages like underwear-until her life was nothing but one long nervous breakdown. No thank you. Been there, seen that.

Yet her feelings for Gabe remained so much more powerful than she liked. Obsession, need. The words whispered through her until all she could think about, all she could feel, was Gabe.

The distance between their tables was negligible in the sleepy, little restaurant. He sat halfway across the room, immersed in a business discussion of stocks and commodities and so many other things she couldn’t care less about, but Annalise felt each of his glances like a caress.

Though she refused to look up from the menu she was oh so carelessly perusing, his need battered her defenses. Enveloped her until she was wet and aching and ready to let him fuck her right here in the middle of Emilio’s exclusive dining room. Yet, when she’d risked a glance at him earlier, he’d looked completely unruffled. How could he turn her into a raving, sex-crazed lunatic and still manage to stay so untouched?

Fuck it. She reached for her wine, took a healthy sip. Two could play his game. After all, she’d been doing it for more years and with more men than she could count. She had to remember that Gabe was just one more.