a place for that red ornament?” he asked.
Was he grasping at straws and trying to change the subject? Was he trying to stop thinking about me the way I was thinking about him?
I thought about the sparkly red ornament he’d bought for me at the Christmas market. I hadn’t even taken it out of the box yet, but it sat on my coffee table, the lid off, glittering nonetheless. “Not yet,” I said.
“You shouldn’t let it sit too long. Before you know it, the holidays will have passed you by.”
We should.
I grabbed him by the front of his jacket, spun him to me, and pulled him in. He met me with a desire that matched my own and held my face in his hands as he kissed me like our lives depended on it. I whimpered against his lips and ran my hands down the lapel of his suit jacket. I kept going, down, down, down, until I reached his belt buckle.
I flicked it open.
Ethan caught my wrist and I stilled as I looked into his eyes.
“Are you sure?” he asked, voice strained, eyes dark and full of lust.
I nodded.
“I need to hear you say it.”
I licked my lips and tasted his kiss. “I’m sure.”
We crashed together again. There was no time to think—hardly any time to breathe—as I stripped his jacket off and worked to undo the buttons of his shirt. All the while, he was kissing me like he needed me to breathe. Maybe he did.
He tasted like eggnog and rum and smelled like cedar and pine. His hand grazed my cheek and trailed down my neck to settle at the collar of my shirt. My heart raced and my breath hitched in my throat. I couldn’t believe this was happening but I didn’t dare stop. The rush felt too good and the promise of what was to come was a temptation I couldn’t deny.
It had been too long since a man touched me that way or looked at me the way Ethan did. Even if he hated my guts, this was better than the cold touch of being alone at my apartment.
He backed me up against the window and pinned me there with a knee pressed between my thighs. His hand slid around to the base of my neck and up, where he hooked a finger in the elastic securing my bun in place. He gave a sharp tug. It hurt, but the pain was replaced with relief when the hair tie came free and my hair tumbled down around my shoulders.
Ethan let out a satisfied growl and smothered me with more kisses. He cupped the back of my neck and curled his fingers in the hair at my nape so he had control and could tilt my head back. His lips trailed from my lips down my throat and farther still to my cleavage. I tried to undo the buttons of my shirt for him but he slapped my hands away.
I gave him the control he wanted and it felt glorious. After calling all the shots at work and having a week where I hardly had a chance to breathe, the release of having someone making all the decisions for me was what I needed.
He held me in place with the hand at the nape of my neck while he tore open my blouse with the other. Buttons scattered. A perfectly good shirt was torn off of me and reduced to silky rags at my feet and I didn’t give a damn.
I hooked a leg up around his and tried to get him to kiss me, but all he had a mind to do was free my breasts from my bra. He pulled the bra down until they came free, and he let out a needy growl that set my skin on fire.
The man was going to ruin me.
A devilish smile curled his lips before he descended on my breasts. He took my nipples in his mouth and flicked his tongue over them one at a time until they were hard and I was breathless. I squirmed in his grasp as a fleeting and panicked thought washed over me.
Could people see us? He had me pressed up against his window, after all.
“Ethan,” I managed.
He paused and came up for air. He nipped at my lips.
“Can people see us up here?”
He shook his head. Some of his hair fell loose from where it was always neatly slicked back and hung over his brow. “No, one-way windows.”
“I hope