down at the glass and back at him. “Like you said, it’s very warm.”
He closed the space between us, and for a moment I fought the urge to run. I had tried it before, and to my delight, he had stalked me across the room like a panther tracking its prey. When he pounced, I had forgotten my name completely.
Well…I had the same power. If I wanted to use it.
I jiggled the ice in my drink, then pulled out one cube and held it up to my mouth, tracing around my lips, delighting in the dilation of his eyes as he watched.
“Nina…” His tone was equal parts warning and praise.
I sucked on the ice cube, then trailed it down my neck and over the swells of my breasts. This wasn’t a particularly revealing dress—none of mine were—but it was flattering and showed enough of my chest that Matthew could complete the picture using his imagination. And I already knew that was quite avid.
“Sweetheart,” he growled. “It’s been five fuckin’ weeks. If you don’t drop the ice and get the fuck over here, I’m going to—”
“You’re going to what?” I interrupted gently.
He didn’t bother to answer, instead closing the space with two long strides, grabbing the glass from my hands, and upending the entire thing over my chest.
“Matthew!” I shrieked as the ice and water soaked my dress, causing goose bumps to fly up everywhere.
But before I could shout again, his mouth, hot and hungry, closed over mine, shuttering my cries. One hand slipped under the hem of my dress to find my backside, the other found my breast and squeezed. Our tongues coiled together all over again before he broke the kiss and looked down.
“I knew you weren’t wearing a bra.”
I followed his cocky inspection. The water had made my dress completely transparent. “How could you have possibly known that?”
“Because.” Both hands now closed over my breasts. “I know this body like I know my own. I know its shapes. Every peak”—his thumbs drifted over my erect nipples, making me shiver—“and valley.”
I watched transfixed as he leaned down to take one nipple into his mouth through the soaked silk. He sucked, using his teeth to lightly worry the sensitive nub.
I gripped his hair even tighter. “Matthew.”
He moved to the other side as he plucked at the buttons down the front of my dress. “Hmm?”
“Matthew, p-please.”
Lord. I never stuttered. Just like every de Vries child, I had been taught to enunciate perfectly. But he brought that out of me, just like everything else.
Matthew stood straight again just as he undid the last of the buttons, then peeled the fabric to survey his spoils. “Perfect,” he murmured.
I pulled back enough to allow the dress to drop to the floor.
“I should pick that up and lay it to dry,” I said. I didn’t move, though. I was shameless, standing before him in my heels and a pair of nude silk panties.
“You’ll do no such thing.” Matthew’s voice was thick with desire—just like the bulge in the front of his pants. He looked like he was two seconds from tossing me backward onto the bed.
God, how many nights had I fallen asleep dreaming of that exact expression on his face? In front of him, I was the center of the universe. Nothing existed other than the two people in this room. Two bodies aching for each other.
“A work of art,” he murmured as he had time and time again.
He never ceased to make me feel so much more beautiful than I really was.
I tipped my chin up, giving him a view of the neck he loved to praise as swan-like, though I was no pinup. Thin rather than curvy, but he loved me just the same.
Or so he had said. Once.
Matthew stepped toward me, but just as he was about to kiss me again, he stopped. “What’s that?”
“Hmm?” I was too ready for his touch to even notice his change in tone.
“That. Nina, what the hell is that?”
My eyes flew open in panic. I had taken such care before coming, but perhaps the ice water had washed away some of the cover-up. Perhaps our kisses had made the one on my lip that much worse. Or maybe the bruising on my thigh had gotten worse…
Relief flooded me as I realized he was staring just above my left breast.
“Oh, that. You gave me that.”
Matthew reared. “I gave you that? It’s been five weeks. I remember dropping a few hickeys here and there, but…”
He drifted off,