His Forbidden Love (Manhattan Billionaires #2) - Ava Ryan Page 0,38

and the relentless intensity in those glittering eyes is deeply unsettling. No wonder they call him the Sphinx. I can’t decide whether he’s trying to intimidate me or laughing at me. Either option activates my defiant streak. “What else? This is fascinating.”

“I’ll tell you what else. If you think I’m going to work with you treating me like—”

“You will work with me. We have a contract. Unless you want me to sue you into oblivion.”

“Don’t you dare threaten me,” I say, mirroring his posture and leaning in. “I’m not trying to get out of my contract. That’s not even what this is about.”

“Then what is it about, pray?”

“I want you to stop taking your shitty moods out on me.”

“Why? You cause them.”

“What?” I’m so stung by the injustice of this accusation that the word erupts out of me. “I’ve never done anything to you!”

“That’s the fucking stupidest thing you’ve ever said, Harlow,” he says without missing a beat. He looks murderous now. “You should be smart enough to notice when a guy loses his head over you. Especially when it’s been going on for four years.”

“I’m a complete professional and a team player— Wait, what?”

Sudden catastrophic shock shuts me completely down while we stare at each other and the rest of the world drops away. Between my pounding heart and my heaving lungs, I absolutely cannot catch my breath. All I can do is sit there, gaping and mute.

Waiting.

He blinks, looking as surprised that he said it as I am to hear it. He presses his lips together hard enough to make a muscle clench in his jaw. I get the feeling he wants to take it back. But he surprises me. Again.

“You know I want you, Harlow,” he says, his voice hoarse.

I manage a shaky breath. “I don’t know anything. Maybe you should tell me.”

He hesitates in the pregnant silence.

Then something abruptly shifts in his expression, lighting up his entire face.

“I think about you,” he says. “The things you say. The way you laugh. Your smile. Your eyes.”

I shake my head because I cannot be hearing these things from him. I cannot be seeing this urgency. In him. As though the words have been stockpiled and hidden inside him this whole time and he can’t manage the burden of repressing them for another second.

“I’ve been trying to be a good guy. This whole time,” he continues. “I need to be able to look myself in the mirror. My marriage vows meant something. If you’re in a committed relationship with Bruce, that means something. I want to respect that.” He shrugs, looking stricken now. “But I can’t do it. I can’t keep quiet anymore. It’s killing me, Harlow. It’s killing me.”

I’m still shaking my head. This scene is so surreal that that’s all I’m able to manage for the longest time.

“This doesn’t make sense to me,” I finally tell him. My entire body feels as though it’s trembling, down to the last strand of hair on my head. My shaky voice can barely manage the words. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I’m saying that for four years I have wondered about you.”

“Wondered what?”

This seems to be the magic question. He can’t get the words out fast enough. He seems happy to tell me.

“Everything. What you were like as a kid. Whether you have any pets. Where you like to go on vacation. What you read. What it’s like to wake up with you in the morning. What it’s like to watch TV with you.”

I can’t breathe. “Oh my God.”

“There’s more,” he says, a sensual note creeping into his voice.

“I can’t take any more.”

“Too bad.” His heated gaze dips lower, touching my mouth and lingering on the hint of cleavage beneath my T-shirt before slowly traveling back to my eyes. “I wonder what you taste like. Everywhere. I wonder what your pussy smells like. How hot and wet I can get you. I wonder how you like to be fucked. Anything you want would be my pleasure, but I’m old school. Missionary is my favorite. I want to see your face when you come for me. I want to hear you.”

Images spring to life inside my overheated brain. Seething images. Illicit images.

They make my breath hitch audibly. I won’t bore you with all the details about how they affect my nipples and pussy. Let’s just say that it’s profound.

“If you want to know what I was thinking about when you walked in on me jacking myself off this afternoon, it was