time ago’ part of that statement?”
Her eyes flashed, narrowed, but she quickly recovered, retreated to the gentle, pleasing expression she so often wore.
One I wouldn’t allow myself to be fooled by.
“I caught it, but I’m asking again,” I said.
She huffed out, shook her head slightly. “No. What Howard and I have is strictly a business relationship.” She glared at me before again smoothing her expression. “Satisfied?”
“Not yet.”
I took two steps toward her, and before I could give myself time to change my mind, I cupped the side of her face with my hand and brought my lips down on hers.
The first contact of her soft skin against my palm made me shiver, and the feel of her lips against mine and her warm breath caressing my face pushed me further.
I’d been determined to not ask the question, even though I had fought with myself about what I wanted the answer to be.
It had been clear to me that there was history between them, and I couldn’t rule out the possibility that there was more.
I hated the very thought but told myself it would rescue me.
I’d come here, she would say that she belonged to Howard, that our kiss had been a mistake, and I could get back to my life.
But when she told me she didn’t, that fantasy was gone.
It had been futile, ridiculous even, to think that I could resist the way I was drawn to her.
Something I knew would only intensify after I kissed her.
But not kissing her, not touching, her was impossible.
She moaned softly, and I took advantage, deepening the kiss, pushing my tongue into her mouth.
It was my turn to moan when I tasted her, the mint of her toothpaste, the sweet flavor that was just her.
She lifted her hands to my shoulders, and I grasped her hip, squeezing the full flesh that was a perfect in my hands, pulling her body flush against mine, knowing there was no way she could miss how hard I was for her.
She didn’t, and I almost came when she pulled me even closer and rocked her hips against mine, creating a delicious friction.
I broke away, desperate to touch her but wanting to maintain some control.
She looked up at me with soft eyes and swollen lips.
She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
“I hadn’t realized that was a part of our conversation,” she said, her breathing jagged.
“Which is why I had to come back,” I responded, my own breath uneven.
She tilted her head, her question clear in her eyes.
I stepped closer, closing the space I had just recently opened, trailed my fingers along her cheek, and was rewarded by a soft shudder.
But I didn’t touch her more, didn’t dare risk losing control.
“You seemed convinced I was here earlier because someone sent me.”
She shrugged, her attempt at nonchalance failing. “It’s reasonable. Erin’s my friend, and Sasha is yours.”
“Sasha and Erin have nothing to do with me being here,” I whispered, my voice rough.
“Why then?” she asked.
Adora
I shouldn’t have asked that question.
Wasn’t sure why I did except maybe I was so tired my defenses were down.
Or I was so mixed up by my attraction to him, I’d taken leave of my common sense.
His eyes flashed, and he chuckled, the humor of the moment unexpected but feeling right.
He brushed his lips against mine, the touch light, barely there, but there was so much in it.
I pulled back and looked into his eyes, searching for something.
What, I didn’t know.
And then I stilled as he moved closer to me, then closer. And whatever worries or reluctance I might have felt faded away.
When he kissed me again, I let out a breath I didn’t even know I had been holding.
That exhale felt like so much more, like I had been irrevocably changed in the space of one breath.
And when he slipped his tongue between my lips, all thought, all reason, fled.
There would be repercussions for this. I knew that this thing with Mikhail had changed me, but despite all that, I needed this.
Wanted it with everything I had.
He stroked his hand against my cheek, his thick fingers warm, rough, driving me to the edge of reason with those few gentle touches.
Then he went lower, gripping my breast in his full hand, his palm rough against my nipple.
My sex fluttered, a neediness that I’d never felt coming over me.
In those few minutes, Mikhail had given me more pleasure than I’d experienced, and I wanted so much more.
My eyes had drifted closed, but I opened them