Gripping her hair in his hand and holding her face motionless, he kissed the hell out of her.
She melted. God, no. this wasn’t what she wanted. What she needed. She’d been considering ending things with him and now he was kissing her senseless.
On purpose?
She twisted under his hold and he relaxed his grip on her hair. Pulling her mouth from his, she sucked in a breath before speaking. “I’m not sure this is such a good thing—”
“You’re not talking about making out in a Manhattan alleyway, are you?”
She bit her lip. “Branden, I just think that until we figure out who is behind the rumors and photographs and who’s setting me up, I should—”
He nudged a knee between her thighs and pressed her firmly against the wall with his hips. His erection ground against her belly, and his breath blew wisps of hair off her forehead. “I won’t accept you walking out of my life, Cara. Not because of some external threat that has no basis in fact. You want me. I want you. We’re together. End of story.”
She struggled to think. “You think it’s as easy as that, do you? You notify me how things are going to be and I’m just going to go along with it?”
“Yes. Because how I want things to be is how you want them to be, too. You’re just freaking out. Rightfully so, given what’s happening, but if you’d just listen to me and trust me—”
“You can’t control everything, Branden. Can’t have everything go your way just because of who you are and how much money you have.”
“You’re wrong. But even if you aren’t, I’m not asking for everything. You’re all I want right now, Cara. Unless you can look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want me, don’t want to explore more of what we’ve had, you’re not walking away.”
He spoke the words with finality, as if attempting to argue with him would be the same as trying to argue with the brick wall against her back.
He waited several beats, giving her time to answer. To lie.
To tell him she didn’t want him.
When she didn’t, he kissed her again.
This time, the kiss was sweet. Soft. His lips brushed hers, hesitated, then covered hers firmly. Warmly. As if he was holding back his passion and arousal and simply communicating with her through his lips…communicating that he cared.
When he pulled his mouth away from hers, backed up a few steps, shoved his hands into his pockets and simply stared at her, she knew then she would not be walking out of his life. Not now, at least.
After lunch, Cara went back to work and Branden went off to do whatever millionaire moguls do during the day. He told her not to wait on him for dinner because he had several meetings lined up for the afternoon that would likely run into evening. She assured him that after three pieces of pizza, dinner would be the furthest thing from her mind. She wrapped up her day around seven and headed for the penthouse. It was a nice night so she walked. On her way, she called Iris.
Finally, after days of not returning texts or calls, her friend answered.
“Hey! I haven’t heard from you in a few days,” Cara said. “I was wondering if you heard anything back from your interview the other day.”
“I did. That’s why you haven’t heard from me. They actually called me the very next day and I’ve been training ever since. I’m working at that place on the Green—Bull’s Den. Good tippers, which is great. I was scheduled at my current job the last two evenings, so I’m exhausted.”
“Congratulations! I’m happy for you. Am I interrupting your rest?”
“Nope. I just parked it on the couch and I haven’t moved. I don’t want to, either, so talk to me and give me an excuse to stay here on my butt. I don’t even care that it’s Friday night and I’m dateless.”
Cara laughed. “So do you like the new job?”
“Let’s put it this way. I’ve already made more tips in one night than I make all week in Brooklyn.”
“Good. But you know what that means. You get to pay for the next spa day.”
“Count on it. So how has your week been? Still having hot, satisfying sex with Mr. Rich and Sexy?”
Thinking about what she’d been doing over the last few nights, she blushed. “You’re so bad!”
“I know, but so are you. You’re just bad behind closed doors, right?”
“I don’t