Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
A MYRIAD OF four-letter words came to mind as adrenaline flooded my system. I knew three things with alarming clarity.
One: we didn’t have enough time to escape the hallway before the guards rounded the corner.
Two: the guards wouldn’t believe the Gautheirs’ convenient new friends both had to use the bathroom together right now , when they’d been discussing business.
And three: we needed a fantastic excuse for loitering in this hallway together. Stat.
So, eyes wide and mind spinning, I whispered the first thing that came to mind.
“Kiss me.”
Colt’s brows shot up. “Wha?—”
“We don’t have time for anything else,” I hissed, my pulse ratcheting faster and faster as the footsteps neared. Four feet from the corner. Now three. “Colt, for the love— kiss me !”
His eyes flicked toward the hall, and, apparently coming to the same conclusion, he obliged.
Oh , how he obliged.
In a flash, he had me against the wall, his hands in mine as he pinned them over my head.
A short gasp escaped me before his mouth slanted over mine, swallowing my surprise.
Electricity arced between us, in us, through us.
Melting my inhibitions and melding us together until I didn’t know where he ended and I began.
He was the lightning to my thunder, lethal and precise and beautiful.
So different from each other yet destined to go together.
His lips explored mine in much the same way he did everything—meticulously and thoroughly. There wasn’t an inch of them he didn’t taste, a dip or swell he didn’t savor and sanctify into a prayer fit for only the most pious devotee.
Worship .
That’s what he’d promised when he’d backed me against a wall weeks ago, and it was exactly what he delivered.
But I didn’t want worship. I wanted surrender.
I wanted his tightly leashed control to snap, for him to lose himself in the euphoria. To want that enough—to feel safe enough—to allow himself to let go. And I’d do whatever I could to encourage that.
I arched into him as much as the belly would allow and freed my hands, only to comb them through his hair.
He melted at the touch. And when I sank my nails in just enough to prick without maiming, he shuddered and groaned.
His hands found the nape of my neck and the small of my back, his deft fingers applying the perfect amount of pressure to light up each nerve ending as I curved into him.
He’d just shifted to trail kisses down my neck when someone cleared their throat. Loudly.
We tensed simultaneously, the reminder of our situation plowing into us like a herd of hormone-addled oxen. Even so, Colt’s lips lingered against me, his final kiss deliciously slow and his teeth grazing my skin as he pulled away. I couldn’t stop the moaning gasp that escaped, even if I’d tried.
Dazed and breathing heavily, we turned to locate the source of the interruption. Oddly enough, it wasn’t either of the bodyguards, but a middle-aged woman in a hot pink tracksuit scowling at us from the end of the hall.
“Do you mind?” she griped, gesturing vaguely around her. “This is a public place, not your bedroom.”
Colt offered his charming grin, reserved solely for people who wouldn’t know him well enough to be wary of it.
“My apologies. I just learned how to dance the tango with my wife, and, well, you know how it is.” He ran his thumb along his swollen bottom lip.
“It isn’t called the ‘dance of love’ for nothing. ”
My wife .
A poor smitten schmuck like me could get used to that. Maybe cycle it on repeat through her head before she goes to sleep every night. Perfectly normal things anyone would do if Colt Dixon claimed them as his.
The lady narrowed her eyes at us before letting out an honest to goodness harrumph and stomping her foot. And then she was gone.
Off to interrupt someone else’s dream-come-true, no doubt.
Thick silence settled between us as soon as she’d disappeared around the corner, punctuated by our ragged breaths and the thumping of my pulse in my veins. My mind reeled. What just happened? Aside from getting my world thoroughly rocked from top to bottom, that is.
Talk about mixed signals. Pulling away and then coming to my dance class and looking at me like I was everything he wanted. Then the whiplash of the dreaded “we need to talk,” followed by the most mind-blowing kiss of my life.
In retrospect, though, the answer seemed obvious. He’d pulled away when it was just the two of us. But when it came to anything assignment-related, he’d played the part perfectly.
My heart sank. I played it off by peeking around the corner to ensure ButtFace and the other bodyguard were really gone and, finding the hallway empty, offered a small smile.
“That was… you were really convincing,” I said quietly. “Nicely done.”
He didn’t reply immediately, instead studying me intently. Someone else walked past the hallway but didn’t pay us any mind. I watched them long after they’d disappeared, willing the sting in my eyes to ease.
“Lex.” Colt waited until I finally looked at him. His eyes seared into me like a brand, flicking over every visible inch. Maybe seeing into my soul while he was at it. And when he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. “Daffodils.”
I blinked. Not because I’d forgotten our silly little code word, but because the implications of it felt impossible to comprehend. To accept. “What?”
“Daffodils,” he repeated, a soft smile spreading across his still-swollen lips. “That was as real for me as it can get.”
My brain made a buzzing, beeping sound like dial-up internet. No thoughts, only buzz.
Would it kill him to pick a freaking lane ? Did he want to keep exploring what this was between us, or not? I’d been worried that not knowing what was real or not between us would drive me mad, but it turned out knowing everything was real still confused me.
I sank against the wall, my eyes falling closed as I sighed. “I don’t understand you. I try to, and every time I think I’m making a breakthrough…” I opened my eyes, my voice dropping dangerously close to a whimper. “You pull away.”
The skin by his eyes creased in the tiniest wince. His hair was fluffed haphazardly from my hands. It was a knee-weakening look on him. As much from what it did to relax his buttoned-up appearance as knowing I was the one who’d been privileged enough to do it.
“I know,” he admitted, his features tightening in pain. “I’m sorry. I’d like to explain if you’ll let me, and I… I want that to change.” He took a step toward me, searching my face. Distant voices echoed unintelligibly through the main hallway. “I’m all in, Lex. If you still want me, I’m yours.”
My eyebrows rose. The butterflies in my stomach took flight, hesitant and completely vulnerable.
I cracked a sly smile. “I think from the day we met, there hasn’t been some part of me that hasn’t wanted you.”
Perhaps a very ignored, fit-for-the-funny-farm part of me at first, but maybe that part was the only one who hadn’t been swayed by bad first impressions. Maybe that was the part who had seen his soul from the start.
Granted, it also could have just been the part of me with eyes and a libido, but still.
“I don’t want part of you,” Colt murmured, taking my hands in his. His spicy scent enveloped me, and it felt like home. “I want all of you. The horrible puns and unhinged pranks, the burnt toast and blaring smoke detectors.”
I snorted a laugh. “You really have a way of making me sound like a great catch.”
He smiled, a real, bona fide Colt smile that made his dark eyes twinkle and nothing else seem quite as important as witnessing it.
“And I want the dedicated, selfless woman who challenges me and doesn’t back down from what she believes.
The one with a barbed wit and a wicked sense of humor and a huge heart.
The one who loves dancing and fun socks and looks dead sexy in the world’s most hideous swimsuit. ”
This earned him another laugh. A teenager came down the hallway, side-eying us as he made his way to the restrooms.
Colt waited for the door to close behind the kid before taking half a step closer and stretching a stray curl, watching it bounce back up. His body heat called to me. Prickled against my skin. And then his focus strayed to my lips.
“Careful,” I whispered, a thrill dancing up my spine. The memory of his flirting demonstration and our first kiss invaded my mind. “Keep this up, and I’m going to start looking forward to having you drive me up the wall.”
“I think I’ll enjoy each second of driving you up the wall.” His eyes darkened. “In every sense of the word.”
Fantasies sprung to mind. My heart skipped faster and heat pooled in my belly. In my mind’s eye, I saw us swinging on a new trapeze. And maybe that’s what awaited us from here on out—a series of moments that could change everything. Where one misstep could send me plummeting.
Except now, falling didn’t feel so terrifying, as long as it was for him.
I reined in my anticipation. “Are you sure? You’re not going to change your mind after our next disagreement again? Because there will be lots of those.”
He winced almost imperceptibly again and pulled me against him.
I wrapped my arms around him. His heart beat steadily, his chest warm and firm against my cheek.
His fingers traced indiscernible patterns on my scalp as he played with my hair, and it took significant concentration to keep my eyes from rolling back from the pleasure.
“As you know,” he began, his voice a rumble against my cheek, “I need to be in control of as many aspects of my life as possible. I also want to fall in love and get married. These two desires have been at odds with each other, and I realized after our disagreement Sunday night that…”
A muted flush came from the restrooms again. Colt sighed and pulled away, his brow furrowed. “Should we walk and talk? This seems like a decidedly unromantic location to be having this discussion.”