She frowns. “Zoe, this isn’t just casual sex. Ilikeyou.”
I blow out a frustrated breath, my ass wriggling in her grasp as if to say,come back!“Okay. It’s not casual sex. Just please, come inside.” Maybe it’s not dignified to beg, but now that I’ve made this bad decision, I want to reap every last orgasm I can from it. I wriggle some more, but Laine’s hands are not persuaded to resume their advances. Instead, she runs one over her mouth, eyes squeezing closed, before standing before me.
“I can’t come in.”
“What?!Why?” I say with all the chill of someone screamingfirein a crowded theater.
“Because you’re trying to write this off as some fling, and I won’t let you. You think that us fucking will get me out of your system.” Her eyes fall to my mouth, pouting and completely pissed, and frames it between her strong fingers, stroking the corner of my lips hard with the pad of her thumb until they part for her. “Don’t you?”
“Yes.” The damning confession comes out in a whisper. But come on, we could never have arealrelationship. Laine told me her first day here that she won’t relocate to Georgia, and Bluebell Vineyards is my home, my job, my identity—I can’t leave. Sex is what we can have, and I want tohave it.Now. Then maybe I could think clearly for the first time since she showed up at my vineyard. For a second, I think her ridiculousdecision to blue bean us both might crack as she runs her thumb along the smooth, wet rim of my lower lip, a strangled sound of want emerging from her own mouth.
“Well, I’m going to do more than just fuck you, Zoe Brennan.” The words nearly send me to my knees, but Laine’s eyes flash up to mine, pinning me there, utterly under her control. “I’m going to court you.”
I blink. “Courtme? What is this, the 1950s?”
“You don’t believe that I’m crazy about you, and you need me to prove it. So, I will.” Her smile is amused and indulgent, but her hand’s still grasping me firmly by the chin.
“You know what’s very convincing? Coming inside.” I reach for her waistband so I can yank her against me.
With one swift movement, she pins both my wrists above my head. My nipples tighten viciously as she presses her chest against mine, holding me against the door. I legitgrowl.The feeling of being trapped here, in her thrall, desperate to fuck her yet watching her withhold that from me issohot it’s utterly infuriating. “Goddammit, Laine! Court me in bed, then!”
She slides one hand free, running it down the inside of my arm to caress my cheek while her other one keeps me pinned in place. “You deserve more than that, Zoe, even if you’re afraid that’s not true.” She runs her thumb over my flushed cheekbone. “You’ve made me confront my fears. Now it’s time for you to confront yours.”
With that, she lets me go. My jaw burns with the imprint of her heat my arms collapsing to my sides, freed from her grip against my will. I stare at her, furious, as she steps backward into the night, her eyes never leaving mine. I rush to open my door and step inside before I do something humiliating, like beg her to change her mind,again.
“Good night, boss,” Laine says softly, though it’s clear right now who’s really in control.
“Goodnight.” The voice doesn’t even sound like mine. Angry, breathy,needy. Is this who she makes me become?
I slam the door behind me. She wants tocourtme? After she systematically removed each of my defenses until I crumbledriotouslyhorny into her arms, she tells me she’s going tocourt me? God, the power she wields over me—it’s terrifying.
I stand before the window, looking out into the vineyards, but my lights are on, and all I can see is my reflection overlaid upon the black night. I don’t know if she’s out there, still lingering in front of the fruit-heavy vines. The grapes round and plump, getting sweeter every minute they spend in the sun before they’re ready to burst.
So, I don’t know if she sees me unzip the back of my dress she marked with her mouth so fiercely, letting it slip off my shoulders and fall in a heap at my feet. When I dip my thumbs beneath my panties’ waistband, I see only myself as I slide them slowly down each hip, turning so the curve of my ass is the first thing exposed as I pull them gently off. I don’t know if she sees me slip a finger between my split, warm and wet andachingfrom an evening spent resisting the pull of the energy between us.
But the thought that she might be standing there still, those burnished bronze eyes watching me through the window, sends chills licking across my body. I face the window fully now, watching myself give me what I want, even if Laine won’t. My clit tightens, swells, and I lift one leg to give myself more access, propping it up against the windowsill and working faster. Laine, cupping my pussy and telling me no. Laine, pinning me down, watching me squirm with heat dripping from her eyes. Now I can’t see my face, obscured by the fog of my hot breath against the glass, but I see the rest of me, trembling beneath my roving hand from the threat of oncoming release. I don’t know that she’s out there, wanting me back, I don’t.
But Ifeelthat she is.
I comehard, one hand braced against the glass while I press the other against where I ache most, clenching and releasing with short bursts of breath until my orgasm peaks and finally,finallytapers off, a heavy splash transformed into ripples traveling across the surface of a lake.
I step back from the window, run my hands down my face, exhale into my palms.
Laine might be powerful, but goddammit,so am I.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
My eyes snap open like those roller window shades, and I heave up to a sitting position on my bed.
Laine.
Did I …
I cover my mouth with my hand, a horrified laugh bouncing against my palm.I did.Drunk on emotions, lust, and a whole lotta wine, last night I exacted what must be the strangest form of revenge ever. My cheeks heat as the memories roll over me. Laine’s finger skimming down my collarbone, her hair in my hands as I pulled her into my kiss, the taste of her thumb in my mouth, the sweet release I felt after punishing her for making me want herso bad.
I launch out of bed.
The shower’s cool water does nothing to release the steam that’s been building inside me ever since Laine looked at me yesterday with stars in her eyes and told me I was beautiful. Scarlet petals from my hair collect in the drain, as trampled now as my resolve to stay away from her. If anything, the magnetic pull toward her has tripled in strength, quadrupled, filling me with the desire to hunt her down and make herpay.
