“I miss a lot of things,” I admit, the level of honesty surprising me.
Ari’s hand slips down to tease the swell of my bottom, before lifting again so that no one will notice how he touches me.
“I think you should let go for once. Do something reckless.”
I smile against his cheek.
“I think you’ve already helped me accomplish that twice.”
He spins with me across the dance floor, and I cling to him, mesmerized, seduced.
“More reckless than what we’ve already done,” he answers, undisguised lust in his words. “He doesn’t notice when you’re missing, and although I wish I had hours to play with you properly, I can make do with a few minutes as well. There’s something to be said for fast and hard.”
The comment hits me right between the thighs, heat blooming.
I feel damp all over. Sticky. Needy in a way I’ve never felt before.
“It’s a pity this music isn’t faster,” he murmurs, the corner of his mouth brushing my cheek. “I’d like to watch you lose control. Watch you let go to something stronger than yourself. I bet I’d lose control, too. My hunger for you...”
Ari’s voice trails off, but he’s already achieved the damage he’s looking to cause, has left my will to deny him in a puddle at his feet.
“You make me vulnerable,” I admit, not sure why I’m telling him this. “I can’t hide from you.”
I feel the brush of his mouth against my ear, his heat surrounding me and drawing me in. Every place he touches me is a feather light stroke, but every one of them is a promise of sensual pain.
Ari isn’t the type to play fair. He isn’t the type to ask nicely either. I know that when this man wants something, he’s the type who will take it and refuse to apologize.
The song ends and grey eyes capture mine, his thumb rubbing against my hip. “Meet me by the restrooms.”
“I can’t,” I argue, the sound of it so ridiculously weak.
“I think you can,” is all he says as he slips away from me to wind through the crowd and out of sight.
I turn to find my husband isn’t concerned about me, his gaze focused on the potential money gathering around him in their designer tuxedos. He won’t know if I slip away.
Stuck in place, I look toward the back hall leading to the restrooms, indecision holding me in that one spot where Ari left me.
I hate him for this. Hate the temptation, but it’s still there. So undeniable that I’m swimming in it, battling myself about what I should do and what I want to do.
Why am I kidding myself? I’d already lost the battle before Ari took the first step away from me.
One last glance at my husband and I walk to the back hallway, my steps hurried, my head angled so my hair will hang down and hide my face.
I’m three quarters of the way to the restrooms when guilt consumes me, my feet stopping in place, my heart hammering hard beneath my ribs.
I can’t do this...
Not again.
This would be the last step to undoing all I’ve worked to accomplish, like this decision will be the disaster that decimates everything I’ve become.
Poor little Adeline wants Ari so bad she can taste it. But grown up Adeline can hear the ticking of a bomb, can sense the certainty that it’s only a matter of time before it explodes.
I turn around and head in the opposite direction, only to have fingers lock down on my arm, my body tugged down a darker, narrow hallway I hadn’t noticed.
My back slams against the wall before I can complain, a hand locking over my throat as Ari’s mouth closes over mine with such male possession that I open for his tongue to slide in, his taste like the sweetest of poisons sinking slowly into my veins.
Fingertips drag up the back of my thigh, and I tremble in place.
He takes without apology. Just like I knew he would.
When he breaks the kiss to drag his mouth down to my shoulder, my hands dive into his hair, the dark silk so soft between my fingers.
“We’ll get caught,” I whisper.
Ari speaks against my skin. “Don’t make a sound and we won’t.”
He bites the soft spot of my shoulder and my knees threaten to give out. “Someone will come down here.”
His hand flexes over my throat. “They won’t.”
“How do you-“
He tugs the knot at the back of my neck, and my dress falls down,