CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I BUMPED INTO HAL, INSTANTLY TOO AWARE OF HOW THIN the fabric of my dress was. It sparkled in the low light from my sleeve-covered golden wrist. “Sorry.”
“Shhh, they’re coming closer,” Hal whispered, his warm breath caressing my cheek, and my heart galloped.
Heels clicked, then paused.
“Emeline,” I heard a honeyed voice call out. A voice I knew. I gasped, but Hal’s hand clamped over my mouth, pulling me back against his chest.
Had Nora been sent to rescue me once more? She called my name again before the sound of her heels clicked away.
Hal lowered his hand from my mouth as I faced him, our chests meeting with each breath. My body uncoiled and awakened as if he were siphoning the tension from me.
“This is dangerous,” I muttered.
My eyes had adjusted enough to the dim light to see a smile tug at his lips. “I know where the Illum’s attention currently are,” he said. “You look beautiful tonight, Moonlight.”
“The Starlings did a good job.”
“You looked beautiful in your office that first day in gray and no lens. You are beautiful, not the gown.” Hal ran his hand up the side of the dress, leaving sparks in its wake, then ran a finger along my jaw.
“Or the makeup.” He traced the shell of my ear, grazing the diamond earrings, then caressed the column of my throat, where my pulse fluttered wildly.
“Or the jewels.” His hand gripped my waist. “Just you, Moonlight.”
I lifted a hand to his chest, his heart steady beneath my palm. My breathing became difficult as he held my gaze. His entire face had a golden glow, as did his hair.
Heat flooded my cheeks at the reminder of reality. Hal captured my wrist before I could pull it away.
“Don’t,” Hal told me, bringing my wrist between us.
He let go of my waist to slowly unbutton the delicate cuff of my dress, then gently tugged the sleeve up until the golden glow fully illuminated our small closet.
“You don’t have to hide anything from me,” Hal whispered as he brought the outside of my wrist to his mouth and kissed the glowing skin. “You don’t have to pretend.” He turned my wrist. “I want you, contract and all, Moonlight.”
His mouth found the inside of my wrist where the chip glowed brightest. A soft moan left me.
“Tell me you want me too,” he whispered. He trailed kisses up my arm. His other hand snaked around my waist again, tugging me into him. I went willingly, my pulse a wild thing, demanding more as it began to burn beneath my skin.
His lips found my neck, and my body ground against his in a plea for more. The last of my sanity reminded me of his injuries.
“You’re hurt,” I practically panted, grabbing his shirt.
He growled against my neck, and my body responded. My head tilted to the side without a thought, giving him better access.
“I’m fine,” he said roughly, his voice deeper than normal.
“But Barrett—” I began, and rational thought fled as Hal kissed along my exposed neck. I gripped his shirt tighter.
“I don’t want to talk about Barrett right now,” he said, his gaze searing me. “Do you want this?” His grip on my waist tightened.
I nodded my head, the screaming need extinguishing all sanity. I wanted more.
“I need you to say it, Emeline. If you want me to stop, I will. You can leave and head back. It’s the smart thing to do.”
He was right. Logically, I knew that. His hold on my waist loosened, and my body wailed in protest.
“I’ll let you go,” he rasped.
An ache had grown deep in my core that I couldn’t ignore. I knew what awaited me out there, but in here . . . I didn’t know what this was or where it would lead, but I wanted to know. I wanted to just be me. I wanted it so desperately, I was consumed by it.
“You want me,” I whispered. I swallowed, my heart banging against my chest to get to him, “and I want you, Hal.”
Hal came unleashed, body trembling. His lips collided with mine, tongue tracing my lips instantly. I opened for him.
I ran my hands through his hair, pulling him into me until our bodies crashed together. I heard him suck in a deep breath.
I pulled away, worried, but he tugged me back in, his mouth claiming mine as the hand on my waist slid up to my breast. Another moan escaped me as Hal dragged his hand along the under-side through the thin fabric before cupping me, tracing the tight peak.
“Hal,” I begged.
I didn’t know what I was begging for, just that if I didn’t have more, I would explode.
Hal spun us quickly. I found my back pressed against the wall as Hal spread my dress, the high slit exposing my legs and panties.
He traced the arc of my hip bone, his calluses scraping my skin.
The ache in my core throbbed, demanding more.
Hal dipped his hand lower, stopping at the edge of my underwear, and I arched my hips toward him.
Hal took me in, gaze locked on me. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No.” I gripped his neck and pulled him to me, my lips finding his.
Hal traced the edge of my panties. This time, he didn’t stop. His fingers dipped between my legs. Hal’s mouth swallowed my gasp as he began tracing my center through the soaked fabric. Heat scorched me.
He groaned into my mouth. Everything that weighed me down let go.
My conditioning slipped away, as did my contract and the rules I had been force-fed my entire existence.
The games and roles disappeared. Until it was only Hal.
His mouth against mine, the hard planes of his body pressing against mine, and my burning need for more.
This was everything I wanted. This was everything I needed. He nimbly pushed aside the thin fabric of my underwear. The feel of his rough skin against my most intimate part left me undone.
His thumb pressed against the bundle of nerves. A moan ripped from me.
“Shh, Moonlight, they’ll hear what I do to you.” Hal breathed into my neck as he cupped the apex of my thighs, rubbing slowly. Another moan escaped me—there was no hope containing it.
“If you can’t be quiet, I’ll have to stop,” Hal hissed, tracing tight tantalizing circles until my core began to tighten. “You don’t want that, do you?”
I tried to tell him no, but it was lost—hidden under another aching moan.
A glimpse of a smirk lit Hal’s face before his mouth found mine again to drink in my ecstasy or to quiet it. I didn’t know. I didn’t care as my tongue met his stroke for stroke.
I wanted more. My hips undulated against his hand, the added friction mounting something within me. Growing stronger, consuming me.
Hal moved his hand against me and pulled his mouth from mine, staring at me.
“Let go.”
I felt my body tremble at his command, his hand increasing slightly in speed and pressure, and his mouth found my neck, kissing and nipping in encouragement.
One of those fingers dipped into me. I was consumed by the foreign sensation. He moved inside me, and I couldn’t breathe as everything went taut and hazy with cresting desire. I couldn’t contain it, couldn’t stop.
He slipped a second finger in with the first. My head rolled back, resting upon the wall as I panted through the intrusion, the fullness stretching me as his thumb rubbed tight circles over the bundle of nerves.
His mouth found my neck again and his teeth grazed over my heated skin.
It was all too much. I couldn’t have stopped the desperate moan he coaxed from me if I wanted to as my core throbbed—all-consuming.
“Let go, Moonlight.”
That name on his lips unraveled all I was. I let go. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t do anything but grip desperately onto Hal as my pleasure shattered apart. He didn’t stop. Fingers moving as waves of pleasure racked my body.
Everything I was fractured around us as his movements began to slow like he knew my body needed the reprieve. It was the closest thing to divinity I had ever known.
I opened my eyes to find Hal staring at me greedily.
He withdrew his hand, wrapping it around my waist, careful of my gown. He held me tightly to him, his need for me pressed into me as I attempted to put myself back together, gasping.
“You’re beautiful when you let go,” Hal whispered into my hair. I sighed into his embrace. My hand found his chest, an exploration of my own beginning. Hesitantly I dragged it down his chest—searching.
I met his waistband, tentatively dragging my finger along it as a nervousness filled me for all I didn’t know. I fumbled with his button. Hal groaned but his hand closed over mine, halting me.
“Please,” I whispered, desperate to explore—to make him come undone like I had been.
His hand found my chin as he tipped my face toward him. “Not tonight. Tonight was about you,” he told me. “You have to get back. They won’t be distracted forever.”
I hated that he had spoken it out loud. His words like a key that opened the door to all that waited for me on the other side. A deluge of reality that trampled the bliss. Those sane, rational thoughts I had lost trickled back in.
“Tell me there’s a time when it isn’t like this,” I whispered. “Tell me there’s a place where I dance with you.”
Hal smiled sadly down at me. “I don’t know when or where, Moonlight, but I will fight to find it. The place where we don’t say goodbye.”
I blinked rapidly. “Hal . . .”
His eyes held such tenderness as he looked at me like he knew.
“We have to get you back,” Hal said, letting me go.
“When will I see you?” I asked as cold air flooded all the places that had touched him.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen some art.” Hal tucked a curl behind my ear. “If tonight goes well and the plan goes forward, I’ll be seeing you very soon. But you have to get back.”
Hal pulled the door open before I could ask about the plan as hurried footsteps filled the hallway outside our hiding spot. Hal snapped the door shut, shielding me behind him. Terror left me paralyzed. Had Collin found me?