glint of uncertainty in her gaze.
She’s waiting for me because she doesn’t know what to do now.
Jesus Christ!
I was done waiting, done trying to convince myself that I could wait until Paris.
I couldn’t.
I moved until I was right in front of her. “I warned you, right?”
She nodded. “You did. Do you like the new underwear?”
I swung her up and into my arms. Much as I wanted to fuck her up against the wall, I wanted her in my bed more. “You know it made me hard enough to cut through granite,” I accused.
Her happy grin was like a sucker punch in the gut.
“I didn’t know, but I’m not about to say that I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to,” I told her in a hoarse tone as I started up the stairs. “Your fate was sealed the second you took off that sweater, and started to talk to me in that fuck-me voice that makes me crazy.”
“So no wall sex?” she queried.
“Not this time,” I told her as we hit the top of the stairs.
I wanted her to be comfortable, because it was going to be a while before I’d ever let her go.
CHAPTER 24
LAYLA
I was completely relieved that Owen had finally given up the idea of waiting any longer to take me to bed.
However, I was just the tiniest bit nervous.
My one attempt to enter the world of sensual pleasure had been one of the worst experiences of my life, and really, it hadn’t taught me much of anything.
We entered Owen’s bedroom, a space I hadn’t ever seen before because I’d never had a reason to go upstairs.
It was dark, but I could hear the rustling of sheets as he pulled back the comforter, and then he tossed me onto the bed.
I blinked a couple of times after Owen turned on the bedside lamp, and I could suddenly see again.
My mouth went dry as I noticed that he was unbuttoning his shirt.
“You do realize that you’re going to have to lead me through this whole . . . process, and show me what you want,” I said, my voice soft and low. “I really don’t know how to turn you on.”
His eyes locked with mine. “Baby, you won’t need anybody to lead you. That seduction scene downstairs was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. And you don’t need to lift a finger to get me turned on. My dick gets hard just from watching you fucking breathe.”
My heart skittered as he finished with the buttons and his shirt fell open. As he took it off, my body shuddered at the sight of his gorgeously formed, muscular chest and well-defined six-pack abs that I suddenly wanted to trace with my tongue.
Sweet Jesus! The man was hot everywhere.
I licked my dry lips as he removed his shirt and then reached for the buttons on his jeans.
Owen Sinclair had suddenly become a sex god, and I was savoring every moment of this new side of him.
His eyes were infused with heat as his focused gaze remained directly on . . . me.
“I wanted to wait, to make sure that changing our relationship completely wasn’t going to mess with your head. But I think it’s screwed with me even more than it’s affected you,” he said as he popped every button on his fly. “I told you that this was going to change everything. There is no going back. You get that, right? The moment I get my hands all over that gorgeous body of yours, you’re mine, Layla, but maybe it doesn’t even matter. You’ve been mine since the second I saw you again. That striptease downstairs was just the final straw.”
My breathing grew heavier as his jeans came undone, and his mammoth erection strained to get completely free of confinement.
Moist heat flowed between my thighs, and I ached to touch him. His words of possession didn’t faze me one bit, because I knew that he was mine, too. Every glorious inch of that mesmerizingly masculine form all belonged to me.
Every ounce of Owen’s attention was focused on me, and for now, we belonged to each other, and I was trembling with need to claim what was mine.
He was the sexiest man alive, and when he shucked his jeans and his black boxer briefs without a moment of hesitation, all of the desire I’d been holding back flooded my body with intense heat.
“I-I really need to touch you,” I stammered. “Please.”
His cock was standing hard and proud against his lower abdomen, and even though