Chapter 15 #2
We all decide to leave the ladies where they are.
While Leon starts dinner and Stephen jumps in the shower, I start to pack up our things, leaving a change of clothes out for myself.
I’m in and out of the shower twenty minutes later and hurry into the bedroom with only a towel around my waist, closing the door behind me.
I finish drying off and reach for my briefs when the door opens. Brielle stands in the doorway, both of us frozen in place.
Her eyes rake over me, her gaze snagging on my manhood. My blood starts to hum, instantly wanting to run south.
“You in or you out?” I say quietly.
That seems to jolt her out of her stupor. She comes in and closes the door, pointedly not looking at me.
“Sorry. I didn’t know you were changing.”
“That’s too bad. I was kind of hoping this was intentional,” I joke. Kind of.
“Damian,” she chides, turning to glare at me before realizing that she’s looking and spinning around again. “We decided this wasn’t a good idea, remember.”
Of course I remember. First of all, it was yesterday. Second of all, my cock hasn’t let me forget its plight ever since.
“I was kidding,” I say, getting my briefs and jeans on quickly. “I’m decent. It’s safe to look again.”
Brielle turns around, her gaze glued to my bare chest before it snaps back up to my face, a smug tilt pulling at my lips.
“You don’t kid.” Her huffy attitude only makes my smirk grow wider.
“Must be all the fresh mountain air,” I say. But I know that isn’t it. It’s her. When I’m with her, she makes me feel lighter, like I can be myself. Her refusal to back down to me, ever, makes me respect her even more.
Brielle sits on the bed while I finish getting dressed.
“Did you have a good time ice fishing?” she asks, cradling her foot in her hand.
“It went better than I expected. As long as Stephen doesn’t convince Leon to abandon this deal out of spite.
” Her head snaps up, slack-jawed and appalled.
I laugh and then recount how it’s common for fishermen to keep score of their catches.
Stephen snagged a big catch early on, and both he and Leon were poking fun at how shitty I was at it.
I had waited for the bristles to start, the contempt of humiliation, but when they grinned and clapped my back before showing me the ropes, I realized those feelings never materialized.
When I hauled in the last catch of the day and it blew Stephen’s fish out of the water… the look on his face was priceless.
Brielle’s face lights up at my story, her laughter singing in my blood. I wish I was a funnier guy just so I could make her shine like that all the time.
I catch my errant thought and put it firmly in the box in the back of my mind. The one with a broken latch that isn’t doing its job keeping thoughts of Brielle at bay.
“What about you?”
“We took Maggie on a treasure hunt through the woods. It was fun. Maggie was so excited when she was able to identify a pine tree all on her own,” she laughs, her thumb rubbing small circles along the sole of her foot.
I take the seat next to her on the bed, our shoulders touching. “Those boots you brought were a mistake.”
“Always so judgy on my footwear,” she bites back, playfully bumping her shoulder into mine.
“Give me,” I tell her.
Her eyes widen, and she looks at me like she isn’t sure she heard me right. I gesture with my hands for her to give me her foot. She scoots back, turning sideways, and lays her delicate foot on my lap.
I rub my thumbs up the bottom of her foot, following the curve of her arch.
Brielle let out a breath, her eyes on me. I do it again, starting from her heel and pressing my thumbs into the sole of her foot as I make my way up to her toes. This time, she closes her eyes and moans.
I take my time, massaging, exploring every curve. With her eyes closed, I let my gaze trace over her features without reservation. Light freckles dot the bridge of her nose. Her wide mouth curls in a small smile, caramel-brown hair piled in a knot on the top of her head.
After a few minutes, I put her foot down gently and pull her other leg to me.
Brielle is fully lying down now, a blissful look on her face. Her hands are cupped behind her head as I continue to work the pressure points on her foot. An alternate life, a different version of me, could see the appeal of having a woman like her in my life.
I lift her foot and place a soft kiss to her sole before lowering it again.
“Damian Edgerton has a squishy, soft heart underneath all that dark intensity. Who knew?” The sparkle in her eyes is like a warm caress to my cold, dead heart.
I grip her waist and playfully haul her down the bed toward me. Her face alights with laughter. Her arms are stretched above her head. I twist myself around, leaning over her, and gather her wrists in my hand, pinning her to the bed.
“Don’t go around telling people, Brielle. You’ll ruin my reputation as the scary devil in charge. No one can know.”
Her chest rises and falls, those deep blue eyes locked on mine.
“I kind of thought that applied to everything this weekend. When this is over, we forget it ever happened.” Her breath tickles my lips as my face hovers over hers.
I can see the pulse point on her throat beating fast. I wrap my fingers around it, feeling the beat of it thrum through me.
“When this weekend is over,” I repeat. She’s laid out beneath me, her arms pinned above her head, her face flushed, eyes heavy with desire. Her knees tip apart, letting me fall between her legs.
I close the distance between us, capturing her lips with mine. The taste of her sends my body into overdrive, but as much as I want to ravage her, I know this is probably my last opportunity to take this from her. I want to take my time, to savor it.
Brielle tries to take control of the kiss despite being pinned beneath me. I don’t relent, keeping the kisses slow and deep. She fights dirty though, wrapping her legs around me, pulling us together.
Christ.
I’ve never been this hard just from kissing.
We have more clothes between us than we did last night, but it isn’t doing shit to curb my reaction to her.
I release her wrists, needing to get my hands on her body.
Goose bumps pebble across her abdomen when I snake my hand up her shirt.
She kisses me harder, faster, as my fingers glide over her soft skin.
Brielle moans, her lips trailing across my jaw, her fingers raking against my scalp. As much as I want to believe I know what that sound means, something is telling me there’s more to it than I’d like.
“What are you thinking, Brielle?” I nip at her ear. Her skin beneath my fingers is the only thing keeping me grounded. If not for the feel of her, I would think this is the most beautiful dream.
“You smell like good times and bad decisions,” she groans.
I bury my face in the crook of her neck and laugh, something I didn’t think I was capable of doing quite so frequently.
“Oh yeah? How good of a time?” I tease.
“The real question is how bad of a decision?” she volleys, the chuckle in her voice keeping things light.
“That is the question, isn’t it.” My head is dizzy with want, but I’m smart enough—or foolish enough—to pull back. I sit back and take in the sight of her laid out before me like a fucking treat.
Brielle pushes herself up the bed to a sitting position as well. She eyes me with uncharacteristic reservation. The lines between us haven’t been blurred; they’ve been completely set on fire.
“I’m sorry. I—” My words are cut off by a knock on the door.
“Don’t mean to interrupt, but dinner will be ready in five,” Stephen shouts through the door.
She looks back at me and heaves out a breath, shaking her head with amusement. Her lips are kiss-swollen, her hair frazzled. She’s absolutely stunning.
Too bad she isn’t mine.
We pull up in front of her apartment building some hours later, and I get out, grabbing her bag from the trunk. She lets me walk her upstairs without fighting me on it, and I’m unreasonably grateful for that. I want to see her in, make sure she’s safe before I leave.
“So,” she starts, stopping at her door and turning to face me.
“Yup. As of tomorrow, we act like this entire thing never happened. Deal?”
“Tomorrow,” she says slowly.
“Yeah, back to work. Back to Mr. Edgerton and Ms. Collins.”
“You never call me Ms. Collins,” she laughs.
I place the bag at her feet. She hasn’t made a move to unlock the door yet.
My gaze roams over her face—her wide, round eyes, those long, dark lashes, her apple-like cheeks.
It dips to her perfect, sultry lips, and the tension around us amplifies. “It’s not tomorrow yet.”
“We’ve already ruined this weekend. Why stop now?” My voice is gruff and low. My pulse is sending electricity through my body as I move closer. I lean forward, closing the gap to nothing more than a few inches.
She tilts her head back to meet me and swipes her tongue across her bottom lip, the taste of them gone but not forgotten. “Kiss me, Damian. Just one more time,” she whispers.
I shouldn’t. This needs to stop, but I can’t seem to help myself. Not when she’s looking at me like that, not when she tells me point-blank to kiss her.
I dip my head; every millimeter disappearing between us is completely out of my control.
My lips touch hers, and fire races through my veins.
I lick into her mouth, swallowing her soft sigh, letting it feed my soul.
I wrap one hand around the back of her neck, the other gripping her waist. All of my senses are on Brielle overload.
The feel of her hip under my hand, the scent of her skin, the taste of her lips.
She surrounds me like a vortex, like the world could be ending around us right now, and I wouldn’t have a single clue.
She laces her arms around my neck, her fingers tangling in my hair. I pick her up from behind her thighs, pushing her against the door as she winds her legs around my waist.
The idea that I’m supposed to forget about this, about how good she feels in my arms, her body molding to mine, is about as likely as an asteroid striking me right here in her hallway.
“Bri, that you? Are you home?”
The door that I’m bracing her against disappears in an instant, but luckily, she holds on to me for support.
Brielle slowly climbs down my body and back to her feet. Her face is flush, her breathing ragged. It’s an image that’s made a permanent home in my mind.
“Well, hello,” Holly says. “Have a good weekend, you two?”
“Hols. Could you give us a minute?”
“If he’s only going to take a minute, you should probably rethink your choices, honey.”
My eyes narrow, and I glare at her over Brielle’s shoulder.
“Hols,” Brielle says again. Their eyes have an entire conversation before Holly finally closes the door, leaving us alone again.
“Thanks for this weekend,” she says, not looking at me anymore.
I’m not having any of that. I place two fingers under her chin, tilting her head up so I can see her eyes. “Thank you for coming with me. Even though you’re the one who agreed to it with the Vitales in the first place.”
I should be walking away already, but I can’t seem to make myself do it.
“Have a good night, Damian.”
“You too. See you in the morning.”
She tries to smile, but it fades fast. I wait until she’s inside her apartment before I turn and go.
Starting tomorrow, she’s just an employee, like anyone else who works for me. But tonight, I’m not going to feel any guilt when I wrap my hand around my dick to the memories of her lips on mine.