Chapter Twenty-Two
The moment his lips touched mine was like being hit by lightning all over again. The kiss was filled with the same electricity as a storm, only stronger, so much stronger. There was no holding back, and my mouth opened under his, allowing his tongue to find mine. One of us groaned.
The kiss was confident but not overpowering.
He allowed me to give as much as I took.
And I did, running my tongue along the fulness of his lower lip until I felt him shudder, and then deepen the kiss until my knees threatened to give way.
But I couldn’t fall, because he’d moved one hand from my hair and slid it slowly down my naked back, stopping where the material of my dress began.
His splayed fingers supported me and pulled me tightly against him.
I gave a small moan of protest when his lips left mine and then shivered as he laid a trail of featherlight kisses down my neck before running his tongue teasingly along my collarbone.
It was an area that had never featured in foreplay before, which was clearly a huge oversight.
Drunk on his touch, his taste, on him, my grip on his shoulders tightened.
Beneath the fine linen of his white shirt, I could feel the strong muscles of his shoulders and the trembling he was unable to control.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that there was a room full of his associates directly behind us, I would have been tearing the buttons off the fabric barrier, relishing the sound of them ripping free and hitting the stonework beneath our feet.
Rhys’s lips returned to mine, and the kiss that I already knew would claim the title as the best of my entire life once again threatened to turn me into a molten mess of desire.
I like to think we had enough control and good sense to have stopped on our own accord and that we hadn’t needed the interruption of another guest coming out onto the balcony to make us spring apart like guilty teenagers who’d just been caught by one of their parents.
But I was so lost in the moment I didn’t even identify if the intruder was a man or a woman from their hasty apology and rapid disappearance back into the library.
Rhys had instinctively moved his body to protect me from view when the French window opened, and I’d remained behind him in a hidden pocket of anonymity.
It was a chivalrous and probably unnecessary gesture because no one here knew me.
Rhys was the one who could potentially be embarrassed by our actions.
But he didn’t look that way. He looked hot, sexy as hell, and still very much lost in the same red mist of desire that had enveloped me. His breathing remained uneven, and there was just enough moonlight for me to see that his green eyes were all dilated pupils. Desire looked good on him.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt so close to losing control,’ he admitted, running a hand through the hair that I’d already messed up with my fingers. He gave a shaky laugh. ‘At least not in public.’
‘Me neither,’ I said, my chest still rising and falling as though I’d run for miles but still hadn’t left the starting line.
‘That kiss was . . .’ He paused as his eyes went to my lips and he seemed to lose his train of thought.
‘Yes, it was,’ I agreed.
He lifted a hand and ran his thumb tenderly over my swollen lower lip.
‘All I can think about is wanting to do it again . . . and again . . . and again.’
‘Ditto,’ I said, which was about as articulate as I was capable of being right then.
‘Do you want to get out of here?’ he asked, and I loved the way there was still a flicker of doubt in his eyes. As though he couldn’t quite believe the fire that was burning him up was incinerating me too.
‘Oh, yes.’ My reply sounded almost like a plea.
‘Then let’s go.’ He looped an arm around my bare shoulders and scooped up his jacket that had fallen to the ground, in the way I hoped my own clothes were about to do before too much longer.
It was emptier now inside the library. Quite a few people must have already left, and the evening was clearly winding up.
However, a few tables, occupied by diehard party animals, were still going strong, and ours was one of them.
There were several new bottles of champagne in ice buckets, and everyone looked just a little more tipsy than they had the last time I’d seen them.
‘Rhys. There you are. We’ve been looking all over for you,’ exclaimed Charlie.
If he had been engaged in a manhunt, it was a very relaxed one, because Charlie appeared well ensconced on his seat, with one arm thrown companionably over Helen’s shoulder.
‘We were just deciding where to go on to next.’
‘Not us, thanks,’ Rhys said smoothly, reaching across and retrieving my bag and wrap from the chair. ‘Ellie has work in the morning.’
That was news to me, but I did a very good job of not showing my surprise.
I addressed the table with what was meant to be a regretful smile. ‘Sorry, everyone, but Saturday is one of my busiest days of the week. But I hope you all enjoy the rest of the night. It’s been great meeting you, and congratulations again on the win.’
Rhys had his arm firmly planted around my waist and was gently steering us away from the table when Charlie got to his feet with a visible sway. He rounded the table to envelop us both in a champagne-infused embrace.
‘Look, if you want to join us after you’ve dropped Ellie off, we’ll probably wind up at that place on Baldock Street that we used to go to back in the day.’
Before Rhys could politely refuse, Helen’s voice cut across the table.
‘Don’t be an idiot, Charlie.’ She swept her eyes over us, and I felt like a bug on a microscope slide.
‘They’ve got other plans.’ The men at the table might not have noticed that my hair was now freed from its clips, or that my lips were pinker and more swollen than they’d been before, but Helen hadn’t missed a thing.
‘Do you think they all know why we didn’t want to join them?’ I asked Rhys as we began our descent of the sweeping staircase back to the foyer.
He reached for my hand and folded it within his.
‘I don’t know, and I don’t care.’ He shot me a smile that made me glad he had a firm hold of me because the stairs were steep and when he looked at me the way he was doing right now, my equilibrium disappeared.
It’s MIA along with your good sense. I had to hand it to my conscience; it wasn’t going down without a fight.
Rhys must have messaged the cab that we were ready to be picked up, because I could see the vehicle already idling by the kerb through the building’s double glass doors.
I slid onto the back seat and realised I was in trouble when my fingers were incapable of fastening the seat belt. After two abortive attempts, Rhys leant closer and took the buckle from my hand.
‘I’ve got it,’ he said, his face intoxicatingly close as he bent to slide the metal fastener home. The fire within me hadn’t been extinguished, just tamped down, and when he looked up at me through his long black lashes, I blinked back at him through eyes heavy with desire.
I’d have happily tipped the driver extra to go faster, but he must have been in a hurry to get home too, for he somehow managed to shave fifteen minutes off our journey time.
‘Are we still doing two drop-offs?’ he asked, his eyes going to the rearview mirror as he waited for our reply.
Rhys looked at me for a long moment and I loved how he was allowing me to take the reins. If I wanted to change my mind and derail the rest of the night, he was willing to let me. Except that was the last thing I wanted to do.
I shook my head. ‘No, just one stop,’ I said as we swung into my road.
The main door was a challenge. I was stone-cold sober, yet it took several attempts to insert the Yale key into the lock. Hopefully my inability to open locked doors was only a temporary glitch, because that could be a real hindrance in my line of work.
We shut the street door behind us with a soft click, and it was as though a spring had been released.
Rhys reached blindly for me, and all the restraint we’d had to put in place in the taxi was suddenly set free.
My arms wrapped around his neck as we half fell back against the door.
His mouth was on mine, hungrily making up for every single minute we’d been separated since the balcony.
Mid-kiss he reached up to find my hands, removing them from his shoulders and lifting them up above my head, gently pinioning me against my own front door.
I thrust my hips towards him and gasped at just how hard and ready he was. There were still three flights of stairs to climb before we reached the privacy of my flat, and I was beginning to doubt either of us was capable of holding out until we got there.
Rhys lowered his head and gently bit the sensitive skin at the juncture of my neck and shoulder, and I arched my throat to give him further access.
There wasn’t going to be any holding back once we hit the mattress of my king-size bed.
We were standing in the path of a tsunami of emotions, and neither of us was making even a token effort at getting out of the way.
‘Upstairs,’ I murmured into his mouth. He raised his head, his eyes clouded with lust, and nodded.
Lust. It’s just lust. I repeated the words like a mantra as he took my hand and we climbed the steps to my flat.
It felt important that one of us kept in mind that we were simply obeying a carnal impulse that had the ability to override good sense.
Once the fire is put out, we’ll be able to think clearly, I told myself, my hands already roving over him as Rhys took my flat key from my hands and unlocked the door.