Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Audrey
One minute Alexei was in the doorway and the next he had his lips devouring mine. His hands cradled my face as he licked the seam of my lips. My entire body was on fire. Everywhere he touched me it was electric. Every place he put his hands sent wave after wave of pleasure through me. The date I was supposed to go on didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered but his hands on me and his lips on mine. I was dizzy with his kisses. When his lips left mine and trailed down my face, to my neck, I was a goner. My legs trembled as I fought to stay upright. Everything I wanted was right here. Everything but permanence. The sparks, the feelings, it was all right under my fingertips. All I had to do was say yes .
Alexei nibbled my ear before sending another trail of heat down my neck. Everything was molten in my body. How I was still standing, I could never tell. He must have felt it, because one moment I was on my feet and the next I was on the bed, my dress around my thighs and his hands everywhere.
He slid one hand up my thigh and a moan escaped me. Or maybe it was several moans, I was a puddle. My body was on fire. My brain was gone and I was completely lost to this man in every way. It should have scared me. It should have terrified me but all I could do was bare my neck for more.
He kissed down the plunging neckline of my dress before he stopped and pressed his forehead into my chest. Was something wrong? Oh gosh, he was regretting this already? No .
I reached up and brushed his dark hair from his forehead. He lifted his gaze to me and there was so much torment there that it almost broke me.
“We should stop.” His words were like an ice bucket over my head.
“Why?”
His smile touched his eyes and I wanted to get lost in it. What was wrong with me? One kiss and I was a sucker, apparently. “I want to do this right. I don’t want to fuck it up.”
I couldn’t think of anything better to happen. All I wanted was for him to be physical with me.
He ran a rough finger up my bare arm and I shivered. I was mush.
“I want you to know the real me. I want more than this one night and I don’t want to ruin your plans though I will.” He squeezed his eyes shut like he couldn’t believe he admitted that.
“I’ll cancel but you have to promise me you’ll take me for ice cream.” I didn’t know what changed from the moment he walked into my life to now but I was willing to take a shot at it. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was the fact that I was still ringing from the kiss or maybe it was the unspoken promise of lots of orgasms. Whatever it was, I knew I deserved it. I’d put off my own happiness for too long. It was time to embrace the wild and the uncertain if it meant I could get a taste of what Carina had.
“I always knew you were a psychopath,” I looked at Alexei as I licked the chocolate ice cream cone. His eyes darkened but he scowled anyway. “Who doesn’t like chocolate?”
He gave me a bewildered look. “Normal people.”
My mouth dropped open, ice cream forgotten. “There is nothing normal about you.”
“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or not.” He cocked his head at me and watched me with his dark eyes. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was flirting with danger, I knew that much.
He leaned in close to me and his thumb brushed my bottom lip. My brain short-circuited as he wiped some of the ice cream off of my face and onto a napkin. Everything slowed. I could have walked into oncoming traffic and I wouldn’t have known it. His tongue darted out and licked his bottom lip and once again, mush. Straight mush.
“How did you know I went on a date with a guy named Axel? You weren’t stalking me were you?” I was only half joking.
He scoffed. “I’m a lot of things but I’m not a stalker. No, Axel is my best friend.”
“You have friends?” I pointed my cone at him. “You stalked me in the park that one time.”
“Har har,” he rolled his eyes. “On a very serious note,” he bumped his shoulder into mine and I wondered if I’d been forced into an alternate universe. It was so weird walking the busy streets of the city with him on such casual terms. Women stopped to gawk at him and I found myself wondering why he was even with me. I almost reminded myself of the stripper glitter and cheap perfume. “I wasn’t stalking you that day. I saw you in the park and wanted to make sure you were okay. Axel has been my friend since boarding school. We found interesting trouble together. We might have gone to jail a few times together too and we’ve been stuck together ever since.”
“He told you about my date?” He continued to watch me eat the ice cream and I wondered if it was a bad idea for a first date.
“Not exactly,” He didn’t seem to want to give up the information. He probably heard about the date from Ace. I bumped him back in the shoulder and when I looked up into his eyes, I was confused. Instead of the hard man I’d met the first time, I saw a different side of Alexei. His dark eyes were soft and instead of the insufferable smirk, he was smiling softly.
Maybe this was a bad idea.