Chapter 18 #2
She cut down a side hallway, moving with a purpose that pulled me along. When she disappeared through a narrow door, so did I.
The door clicked shut behind me, encasing us in much lower light and what appeared to be… a closet of sorts.
She stood with her back to me, one hand braced on a wall at the back of the small room, her breath coming a little too quickly. Exhaling harshly, she shook her head once. “I just—needed a second.”
“Okay,” I murmured. “Then take a second.”
But she turned quickly instead. Her chest was rising and falling fast now, like she couldn’t quite catch up with herself. As her eyes locked on mine, bright even in the dim light, they looked unsettled, full of everything she’d swallowed since the elevator.
Then before I’d even formed a thought, she grabbed the front of my jacket, pulled me down, and kissed me.
Heat slammed through me so fast my breath vanished. Her mouth pressed hard to mine, urgent and filled with passion like she’d been holding back all night and there was nowhere else for it to go. God, had she known how much I’d wanted this?
I caught her waist, steadying her, steadying myself, kissing her back because there wasn’t a single part of me capable of not doing that.
Her hands slid up my chest, fingers twirling to the back of my neck, pulling me closer. She made a sound against my mouth, small and frustrated, the noise rippling down my spine.
“Teddy—” I tried, breaking just enough to speak.
She shook her head once, breath hot on my lips. “Don’t talk.”
So I didn’t. I kissed her back, matching the urgency, the frustration, the fire that had been simmering between us since the elevator—since years before that, if I was being honest with myself.
Her lips were soft, exactly how I’d imagined they’d be, but the kiss wasn’t soft at all.
Teddy kissed with purpose, not wasting a moment.
I’d imagined kissing her before, but nothing in my mind had come close to this. She met me head-on, demanding more.
She tasted like the champagne she’d had moments ago, sharp and sweet and even that was perfectly her. I parted her lips with my tongue, needing to taste more, and she met me stroke for stroke.
Her breath hitched when my hand slid down past her waist, settling on her ass. Pulling me closer, she eliminated every inch of space left between us. Without thinking, I gripped her harder, lifting her.
Her gasp stuttered in my ear as I spun us, her legs wrapping around my waist and tightening. The power of her body was as intoxicating as her kisses. The press of her against me stole any rational thoughts I might’ve had.
The door hit the back of her shoulders as I pinned her there, the soft thud vibrating through both of us. Her fingers slid into my hair, fisting at the roots, dragging me back to her mouth before I even had the chance to breathe. Shit. This was… not how I’d expected tonight to go.
The moment her nails scraped lightly against my scalp, heat shot straight to my dick, and if I wasn’t hard already, I was made of fucking stone now.
Her hips instinctively moved against what I knew she could feel, and I pushed into her core more as I dipped my head to her neck.
Drawn there like gravity, my mouth traced the curve of her throat as her hips surged forward against me again and again, breathy moans falling from her lips like a prayer.
Her legs tightened, pulling me in harder, deeper, and I pushed her more firmly into the door.
She met every push, strong and hungry. That lit a fuse in me that I wasn’t convinced would go out.
Breath shaking against my jaw, she arched her back, her hands roaming over my shoulders, gripping at my shirt like she needed something to hold on to while everything else faded away.
Then there was a rattle of the door handle behind her, and the moment was doused in ice-cold water.
Her whole body locked against mine, breath caught halfway up her throat.
Her hands dropped from my hair. Her legs loosened from around me so fast, I had to catch her hips to keep her steady as her feet found the floor.
“Teddy—” I said quietly, reaching for her again.
She looked up at me, and it was the first time all night she hadn’t looked completely composed.
Her cheeks were flushed, lips swollen, pupils blown wide.
There were faint pink marks on her neck that did nothing to stop my raging hard-on from pushing against my slacks.
The reality of kissing her, seeing her so affected by what we did, set off some kind of atomic bomb in my brain. But she slipped out from in front of me, and in a blink, the door was open and she was gone.
The waiter on the other side froze, eyes going wide as Teddy bolted past him down the hallway.
His gaze flicked to me, my shirt pulled at, my hair everywhere from her fingers.
I raked a hand through it, flattening what I could.
Pointless, really. There was no hiding from being caught in a coat closet.
I wanted to chase her; every instinct I had screamed to go after her. But another part knew she needed space. Hell, maybe I did too. My pulse was still hammering, my body on high alert. I covertly removed my jacket to hide my erection and awkwardly moved past the waiter without saying a thing.
Around the corner, I stopped and stood still, trying to figure out how the hell everything had changed in less than five seconds flat.