Temptation - Leigh Lennon Page 0,50

be everything to one another.” Her shoulders tense, but I don’t move my fingers, which are interlinked with hers. At least it’s not a no. But because I push, and it’s my way, when I lean in, she meets me halfway. And with a nod of my head, our lips part, and when our tongues meet on the top of the bus with Manhattan as our backdrop, our connection deepens. It’s what I want. Eve Lipton is who I want.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Eve

I hadn’t missed the way his body reacted when I absentmindedly told him to change into jeans, and now, he’s next to me telling me we can be everything to one another. Is he crazy? He’s been romanticized by this idea, but it’s not practical, not in the least. I’d been romanticized to think even yesterday in Seattle, we could work. And of all people to be seduced into the idea of romanticism, the last person I would have predicted would be Chadwick Westbrook.

Once the tour is over, we walk hand in hand back to The Pierre. “Are you hungry?” he asks.

I know where this night has been leading. Sure, a bus ride and a hot dog aren’t his idea of seduction, but for this simple girl, it is.

Can I give in to him without it being about submission? And if he takes it off the table, can one night be enough to let go of Chadwick Westbrook?

“You mean a hot dog isn’t enough for you?” I tease.

He stops on the busy sidewalk of Fifth Avenue, pulling me close to him. “I’m not hungry for food, Eve.”

I can’t form a coherent sentence, not when his expensive cologne swims in my mind. He takes my silence as an answer and pulls me toward our destination.

“Wait, Chadwick, you misunderstand.” He’s still walking fast, and with his long stride, I can barely keep up.

His head turns to me. “Understand this, Evelyn Lipton.” We’re closer to our hotel. “You want what I want, you enter the elevator with me and tonight has nothing to do with submission or the bet. It’s you and me, together. But you stay downstairs, and I’ll run to the room to change for dinner, no questions asked.”

We cross through the doors to the hotel, and he drops his hand from mine, not giving me a backward glance. I stop, and even with his back to me, there’s an evident tic in his jaw. I know this in the way his shoulders stiffen and how he moves his neck from side to side. And I wonder—the second I get a taste of Chadwick Westbrook, would it be possible to walk away?

The doors begin to close, and his back is still to me, I step a little closer, my opportunity about to be taken away from me. “Hold the doors,” I call out, and in one fluid motion, Chadwick turns around, pushing the buttons and pulling me flush to his body.

“Are you sure, Kitten?” he asks.

Am I sure? Hell if I know, but I can’t say no to him. I know this much. With his hand extended, I take it, and I’m in the elevator with him, along with an unknowing onlooker. It may be the only reason we keep our hands to ourselves.

He almost pulls me off the elevator, slipping the card into the door, and he slams me against the wall. “This is not me. I don’t have sex without going over the rules.” I don’t stiffen at his words, and I’m surprised I don’t. “But tonight, I want to take you. I can’t say it’ll be vanilla. I can’t say it won’t be a little rough because this is you I’m talking about, and if you don’t know what you mean to me, then you’re blind.”

He pushes a tendril of hair from my eyes. “But tomorrow, I’d like to introduce you to my room at the New York club.” This is when I stiffen. “I’m not asking for a commitment right now, and your answer is not contingent on my fucking you tonight. But I want to show you we can be both things to one another.” His fingers caress my cheeks, and I relax into his touch. “Will you follow my lead tonight? Let me take care of you?”

I nod my answer, and he scoops me up in his arms, passing the luscious view of Central Park to lay me gently on the bed. “I will take care of you, Eve. I’ll always take care of you.”

I