Chapter 28
ETHAN
I couldn’t wait any longer. I’d hoped the first door we came to would be a guest bedroom, but this one housed an enormous bookshelf, a desk that looked like it wasn’t in use, and an oversized brown leather couch.
I could work with that.
Her caramel-colored hair fell like a curtain over her bare shoulders, the ends curling softly where the sin-colored dress began.
Jesus, I’d about had a heart attack when I’d spotted her.
The plan to congratulate Shawn and Kara was forgotten once I’d seen the red dress hugging her curves like it was made for her.
“Are you going to make good on your promise?” Her voice was tight.
My brain and body were so focused elsewhere, it took a moment to realize what she meant. She wanted me to start talking. “Yes, I will. I just need a—”
Abruptly, she launched forward into my arms, her hand fisting in my hair, yanking my head down so she could crush her lips against mine.
The aggression turned me on. Not like I needed any help in that department.
I placed my hands on her waist and urged her backward.
She teetered unsteadily on the heels she probably wasn’t accustomed to, but her lips stayed with mine.
A picture frame nearby rattled on its hook when I forced her back against the wall, and that broke our kiss long enough for her to gasp. As the ragged breath came from her parted lips, I pushed her hair out of my way so my mouth could work lower, down over the delicate skin of her neck.
I’d spent every night since I’d last seen her thinking about what I would have done if my alarm hadn’t gone off, warning me to get my ass to the airport so I could catch my flight to Rome.
I’d planned different scenarios, a variety of ways I wanted to have her.
Now that she was here, I was going to execute each and every one of them.
I grazed her neck with my teeth, and followed with my tongue at the same moment I traced my fingertips over her shoulder, down the line of her exposed collarbone toward the center of her chest. But a warning sounded in my mind, making me halt.
Olivia was trembling.
Not a shudder, but trembling as if she were filled with fear. I withdrew, concerned, and the terrified look on her face made my alarm flare. “What is it?”
“Something’s wrong with me.”
Without hesitation, I pulled her away from the wall, cold sweeping through my body like it had been poured on me. What was happening to her? She was pale and shaking hard, her eyes wide. Had someone used her to get to me? I knew just how easy it was to poison a target.
Focus. Get her help.
“Can you walk?” I could carry her if she wasn’t able, down the stairs and back to the party where someone was sure to have a medical background. I bent swiftly, scooping her up in my arms.
“Wait! Wait!” She sounded guilty. “Put me down. I’m fine.” She stared up at me, her face flushed with something that looked like embarrassment. “I didn’t mean something was physically wrong with me.”
“What?” Stepping back from the edge of . . . panic? No, not panic. But whatever it had been, it made me uneasy. “You’re sure?”
She nodded and shifted in my arms, looking desperate to scurry away. So I complied, setting her back on her feet, but I held her trapped there in my embrace. I wouldn’t release her until I understood what the hell had just happened.
She took a page right out of my book and peered up at me, offering no explanation. The only thing she did was struggle to breathe and compose herself.
“Let’s back up,” I said, finally. “What did you mean that something’s wrong with you?”
Her green eyes blinked rapidly. “Not wrong. I should have said . . . different.” She sighed, and the tension fell from her body like she’d figured out how to shed it off. Her gaze hardened, and she once again became the woman I was more familiar with. “You’ve done something to me.”
“What, exactly, have I done?”
“I don’t know. You’ve given me these . . . feelings.” She said it like I’d given her a disease.
“Feelings,” I repeated. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. A short laugh escaped my lips, but then I sobered. I let my voice go heavy with accusation. “Yeah? Well, right back at you, Olivia.”
Acknowledging there was more between us than just sex should have set off alarms. Emotions made me uncomfortable, and they were something I’d prefer not to discuss, ever. In my line of work, I didn’t have time for them, anyway. Emotion could get me killed.
I kept waiting for the cold sweat to come, but it didn’t.
For once, I didn’t mind the idea of talking about emotions—provided they were hers. Her halfhearted attempt to break free from my embrace stopped when my head dipped and I set my lips on her shoulder. I watched as goosebumps lifted on her arms, and I enjoyed having that effect on her.
“Tell me about these feelings,” I said.
“We didn’t come up here for me to talk,” she reminded.
It was true, but she’d worked information out of me rather successfully, and I was looking forward to doing the same. “Tell me.”
She stayed motionless, allowing my lips to continue to wander, like she was making a stand. “You’re welcome to try to make me.”
The smug, overly confident look on her face made my heart thud faster and stirred things below my belt. This was a game she’d lose, and we were both going to enjoy it.
I moved aggressively, surpassing her attempts to dominate, and slammed her back against the wall.
This time the picture bounced on its hook and hung crooked.
Her sexy mouth fell open in shock, and her eyes hooded when I caressed a hand down over the full curve of her breast, her ribs, down her waist, and behind to squeeze her hard against me. She moaned against my mouth.
I used the most seductive voice I possessed. “Tell me.”
“Tell you what?” Her feigned ignorance was intentional, spurring me to press forward.
“Tell me what I’ve done to you.” Jesus, how I’d wanted this tight body back beneath my hands. “Tell me how you feel about me.”
I didn’t give her a whole lot of time to do it, though, kissing her hard. She clawed at my tie, either tugging the knot loose or tugging me closer, I wasn’t quite sure.
“I like the way you look at me,” she said, breathless.
I grabbed the fabric of her skirt by her thigh, balled it into a fist, and began to drag it up at a painfully slow pace. “That’s not new intel.”
Her wicked smile hinted she had something on me, like an ace up her sleeve.
Her breath caught when I’d lifted the skirt high enough to slip my hand beneath the layers of fabric and touch the heated, silk-covered skin above her knee.
Like the last time I’d trapped her against a wall, I yanked her knee up so she could wrap her leg around me.
When I found a band of lace high up on her thigh, I glanced down—
“Jesus.”
“Is something wrong?” she purred, gloating.
“Hell no, nothing wrong here.” Only that I was going to have to rethink the plan of getting her naked. One look at her leg wrapped in that see-through black thigh-high, with her creamy skin peeking out at the top, and I was fucking drowning in lust.
Since her leg was propped up, I now had access beneath her skirt, and I was ready to take advantage. The backs of my fingers skimmed over the inside of her raised knee, steadily drawing a line toward my target.
“Tell me,” I said again. Now her tremble wasn’t in fear, it was in anticipation, and I watched her throat as she swallowed hard.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” she whispered quickly. “I close my eyes, and I see you.”
I found more black lace, and the panties were sexy as hell. Was I going to have to leave those on, too? She sighed in seeming relief as I put my hand right where the lace covered her, where her body was damp. Her green eyes slammed shut as I touched her, massaging her clit through the thin lace.
The idea that she was still seeing me, even with her eyes closed, brought me closer to the brink. Every breathless moan and almost inaudible sigh rang loud in my ears.
Apparently, she thought about me as much as I thought about her.
“Is that all?” I tightened down on the last of the control I held over myself before it broke.
Her eyes fluttered open when my hand stopped moving but remained cupping her, and the expression on her face was confusion. It accused me of asking too much, but too fucking bad. I wanted to hear all of it, and that drove me down to my knees in more than one way.
I had to spend a frustrating moment sorting through the layers of her skirt, until it was pushed to her waist.
“Hold this,” I commanded and sat back on my heels. The beauty of her body packaged in the sexy lingerie was too much. It made me weak.
“I want to know everything about you,” she admitted.
Shit, did I understand. I held myself at arm’s length because personal information could be used as a weapon against me.
“Oh, God, you make me feel out of control,” she gasped.
I leaned forward, pressing her thigh against the wall and holding it so she was open to me. I put my mouth on the black netting and dragged my tongue across the band at the top of her thigh-highs, then over her trembling skin, up toward her pussy.
I sucked at her through the lace I found there, licking where it would give her the most pleasure. She cried out when the panties were pulled to the side and I kissed her, using my tongue to caress and please.
But I had to hurry. Soon, the guard downstairs was going to wonder what happened to the couple he’d let go by, and he’d come knocking on the door.
Goddammit. Next time, I’d get to do this on my timeframe.
I’d drag the orgasms from her slowly and properly.
There was no voice in my head correcting me about next time.
Because there would most definitely be a next time.
I fluttered the tip of my tongue, lashing at her clit. The muscles in her legs tightened. The knuckles on the hem of her skirt went white. Above me, her chest heaved, and the sound of her gulping huge gasps of air echoed in the spacious office.
Last time I’d gotten to do this, she’d been so close when we’d had to stop, and I’d be damned if I was going to deny her again. No one was going to stop or interrupt us.
I flicked my tongue over her soft, wet skin and pressed my middle finger inside her. She issued a sound of satisfaction through her fingers because her hand not holding up her skirt was covering her mouth.
I started slow, letting her get used to the possession, before my index finger joined in as well.
I pumped both fingers at a measured tempo, and shit—her body was like an inferno.
The tip of my tongue spun and cartwheeled over her clit while I fucked her with my fingers, and she struggled to contain her moans.
On some level, I was aware what I was doing was dangerous.
My guard was completely down because I was so focused on her, and the rest of the world dropped away.
It’d be easy for someone to sneak up on us.
For the door to be unlocked, swing open, and have someone discover me with my head between her legs and two fingers inside her.
But I wasn’t concerned about any threat. All that mattered was giving her the pleasure I’d intended to weeks ago back in South Africa.
I curled my fingers, trying to find the spot that would send her over the edge. Her moans were so sexy, my hand holding her thigh pinned to the wall tensed instinctively. I closed my lips around her clit and sucked, while my fingers thrust deep inside.
She came in a spectacular rush, bowing off the wall and swallowing back what might have been a cry so loud it would draw attention. I had to hold her steady and let her recover before releasing her so she could stand on both feet.
“I stare at that stupid phone all day,” she said between two heaving breaths, “wanting to call you. I’m worried I’ll never see you again.”
The red dress dropped like a curtain, and I was on my feet a half-second later, back to towering over her. “Not a chance.”