Chapter Eleven #2
Had he already moved on? Even without the sex first?
That would definitely be a new one. Unless he’d decided she wasn’t worth the trouble.
She cast a look at herself in the mirror across the room and wondered what he saw.
If maybe ... he’d found her lacking. Less sophisticated than the girls he typically dated.
The hurt that thought caused her told her she’d already let herself fall maybe just a little too far.
A knock at the apartment door jolted her back to the present.
When she started to call out for Honey to answer it, she remembered her roommate had already left for her afternoon physics class.
With a sigh, she tossed her mascara down onto her secondhand dresser and clicked through the apartment on her high heels.
“Who is it?”
“Delivery man.”
Louis. A feather-winged creature took flight in her stomach. She started to open the door but decided not to appear overeager. “How did you get in?”
“Some guy with a captain’s hat downstairs.”
She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “So much for security.”
“I’m persuasive.” A long pause. “You realize you haven’t opened the door yet, right?”
“Maybe I’m wearing a towel.”
“I’ll be right back.”
She lunged for the peephole to look out at him. “Where are you going?”
He looked straight at her. “To get a battering ram.”
Her lips spread into a smile, but she quickly turned down the wattage and opened the door. “Hey,” she said casually, trying not to stare at the shopping bag in his hand.
“ ‘Hey’?” He laughed under his breath. “That’s all I get, huh?”
“I was just about to leave for the audition.” Wow, she was pettier than she thought. Giving the guy a hard time for not calling on a Sunday. Who was she turning into? “What’s in the bag?”
Louis came toward her, until she had no choice but to move and let him into the apartment, or let him walk straight into her.
Tempting, but she had a feeling that if he got that close, she’d be late for the biggest opportunity of her professional life.
She closed the door behind her and turned, ready to explain that she only had two minutes and not to get any ideas.
He immediately backed her up against the door, his muscular body aligning with hers. Pressing, pressing, until she had to suck in her stomach to let him closer.
His breath fanned her ear, sending her pulse into hyperdrive. “Mad at me for not calling?”
“Nope,” she said too quickly.
“Yes, you are.” He dropped the bag with a thud beside her, then lifted his hand to curl it around the back of her neck. “Good.”
“Good?” Irritation prickled along her skin. Irritation. Not awareness. Right. “Are you playing games with me now, Louis? I thought that was my job.”
“It is. And you’re good at it.” He pulled back to stare at her mouth, but he didn’t kiss her. “I don’t play games. But I’m also not going to be the guy who you keep blowing off.”
Her throat felt tight. “I didn’t blow you off.”
He ignored her, massaging the back of her neck with his thumb.
Holy hell, it felt great. Everything about this felt great.
Having him close. Breathing in his scent.
She wanted to sink into him and never come up for air.
“I want to know that you’re not going to disappear every time we have a bad moment or my sisters show up looking like something out of a haunted house.
I need you to stick. The fuck. Around.” Their thighs melded together, his belt buckle nudged her stomach.
“You’ve been keeping me awake at night since we met, and until now, I honestly didn’t know if you felt anything for me.
So, yeah. If you’re mad at me for not calling? Good.”
Holy wow. She’d never been more turned on in her life. Everything he’d said had been fair. He’d accurately called her on her bullshit, and she liked that. A lot. There might even be a small part of her that got a thrill over keeping him up when he should be sleeping. “Are you finished?”
His minty breath warmed her lips. “Why?”
“So I can kiss you.”
He sucked his bottom lip through his teeth as she watched in shameful fascination. God, he really did have the most amazing mouth. “No kissing this morning.” What? Had she heard him right? “You want to be kissed, you come and find me later. You come to me .”
“That definitely sounds like a game,” she said sharply.
“Maybe. But it’s a game we can both win if you’re not stubborn.
” Before she could deliver a response, his mouth moved away from hers.
Bracing himself with his hands on the doorjamb, he very slowly lowered himself toward the ground in front of her.
On the way into a kneeling position, he dragged his partially open mouth between her breasts and over her belly, deep groaning noises vibrating through every spot he trailed over.
When he landed on his knees, he gripped her hips and pressed his mouth between her legs, sending her falling back against the door in a rush of sensation.
She only had mere seconds to feel the heat of his mouth through her dress before he took it away.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a rush of breath.
He reached for the shopping bag. “Wishing you luck at your audition.” As she watched through hooded eyes, he lifted a shoe box out of the bag and set it on the ground.
With a flick of his wrist, he lifted the top and revealed a pair of black leather pumps.
Angels sang in the distance. They were the most beautiful shoes she’d ever seen in her life.
Without even trying them on, she knew they were her size, too.
“I had to go shoe shopping with my sisters yesterday to get these. Now that you’ve met them, you know what kind of a hell it was. ”
She couldn’t take the shoes. Could she? Her own pair were so worn out, but at least they were hers . At least she’d paid for them herself. No, she couldn’t accept this from him. Especially after she’d run him in circles. “Louis, I can’t—”
“Oh, yes. After four hours in Bloomingdale’s on a Sunday afternoon, you’re going to keep them.
” He wrapped a hand around her ankle and removed her shoe before slipping the new one on.
Good Lord, it felt like a cloud molding itself around her tired, blistered foot.
She had no choice but to let him repeat the process with her other one.
She had to know what it felt like to have them both on.
Louis’s big hands holding her foot so carefully might have had something to do with her reluctance to pull away, too.
Seeing him kneel down in front of her, frustration evident in every line of his body, sparked an ache deep inside her.
If she joined him on the floor now, she could make him cave on the no kissing rule, easy peasy.
But it would be a hollow victory. For some annoying reason, she wanted to give him the win he needed, so she would wait until later. Tough as it would be.
“How did you know my size?”
He rested his hands on his bent knees, surveying the shoes on her feet. “My sisters are good for some things. They took one look at you and knew your measurements.”
She refused to be hurt over his clipped tone. “You sound really pissed at me.”
“I’m looking at your bare legs from an advantageous position and there’s nothing I can do about it right now or we’ll both be late.
” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Ah, fuck it. I need something .” Without warning, he leaned in and kissed the inside of her knee, as if he couldn’t stand staying away another second.
His breath huffed out against her sensitive skin as his lips stroked higher, to the inside of her thigh.
A wave of heat hit her so hard that she had to steady herself with both hands on his strong shoulders to keep from toppling over.
His mouth moved to the opposite leg, using his tongue this time to tease her flesh, giving her small bites in between licks.
She heard a loud noise and realized her breath had started to rasp in and out.
Louis squeezed the backs of her thighs and released an irritated growl before rising to his feet.
Her new heels put her eye level with his mouth, and she wanted to kiss him more than anything.
So badly her hands shook. His throaty sigh told her he knew how she felt, but his chin was set with resolve.
Now who’s stubborn? she wanted to ask. “I have to be downtown in court all afternoon, starting about ten minutes ago. But I want to see you tonight, Rox. Come over.”
A command, not a request. Part of her was annoyed by that.
She decided where and with whom she spent her time.
Oh, but then there was the other, more significant half of her that appreciated him taking the decision out of her hands.
Kind of loved it. It might have been the hot tinge of need in his voice that did her in, too.
He needed her. She needed him. Really, there was no decision to make. “See you tonight, Louis.”
He tried to hide his relief, but she glimpsed it anyway. “You all set for your audition?”
“With these fancy new kicks? I’m a shoe -in.”
His face transformed with a reluctant grin. “Stop being so damn cute or I’ll break my no kissing rule.”
“We can’t have that,” she breathed dramatically, pulling open the door for him.
On his way out the door, he raked her with a hot glance. “Wear the shoes for me tonight.”
She ran her fingernails down his chest. “Only if you wear the tie.”
When she closed the door behind Louis, she heard him groan a curse loud enough to echo through the hallway. She couldn’t take the time to laugh, though. She was officially running late.