I kiss her, take full advantage when she opens her lips and invites me in. I can taste the champagne, taste her, as she kisses me back. When she starts to tug at my belt, I pull back, cradle her head in one hand as I gaze down at her.
“I would have spun you around, had you plant your hands on the glass, and lifted up that skirt so I could finally taste you.”
Her eyes darken. “I thought you didn’t like the dress.”
“I liked it.”
Too much. When I turned around after hanging up on Cassian and saw her standing there looking elegant and beautiful and bridal, for a single moment I wanted it to be real. Wanted her to be mine. But Seraphina belonging to me would require exactly what I can’t give: love, marriage, commitment.
So I’ll give her what I can. Pleasure, luxury, the kind of attention she deserves. And after our ten months are up, I’ll pull back, resume the relationship we had before. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to do it, but I’ll do anything to keep Seraphina at the firm.
Including letting her go so she can find the happiness she deserves.
That selfish streak rears its head and growls at the thought of another man holding her the way I am. Sliding his ring on her finger. I grab her left hand and bring it to my lips, greedy satisfaction curling through me as the emerald glints in the silver light. I move my grip to her wrist, guide her hand until her palm is facing me.
“The first time I held your hand outside the store, I didn’t want to let go.” I lay my lips against her palm, kiss the skin. “Every time we touched during that damn photo shoot, I wanted more.”
“So did I.”
I slip my fingers into the waistband of her shorts and pull down. She arches up off the chaise so I can yank them off, leaving her clad in another scrap of lace. This one, however, is red. A vivid scarlet I can’t tear my eyes from.
“That day in the dressing room,” I say as I start to kiss my way down her stomach, “when the zipper was stuck and I saw the blue lace underneath, I wanted to watch the dress pool at your feet.”
“I wanted you to strip me naked.”
I look up, completely aroused and utterly enchanted by the now telltale blush creeping up her neck. I lay a finger at the top of her panties, run it over the lace.
“And then what?”
Her throat bobs as she swallows. “And then I wanted to undo each of the buttons on your shirt. Kiss your chest.”
I slowly run my finger down, tracing the gentle swell of her skin, every muscle in my body tightening when I encounter her wetness seeping through the cloth.
“Tell me more.”
I sound like an animal, raw and primal, as I stroke her. I drink in every whimper, every cry as I move up and down.
“I wanted to undo your belt. Slowly,” she adds on a breathless whisper. “Then I wanted to touch you.” She looks down, boldly meets my eyes. “I wanted to suck your cock.”
The thought of her kneeling before me, one hand wrapped around me as she took me in her mouth, makes me swell. Her confession rips away the last traces of control.
“Later.”
I grab her panties, yank them down and lower my head. The wordslowlypounds through my brain, but I don’t listen. Can’t when I can smell her, feel her heat.
As soon as I place my mouth on her, as soon as I start to kiss and lick every inch of her skin that I can, she arches back and cries out, her body shuddering as her hands grasp at my hair, my head, the chair. Every sound she makes spurs me on as I use tongue and teeth to bring her pleasure.
“Aiden!”
God, she’s incredible. The way she lays herself bare to me, embraces the heat between us as she climbs higher, pressing her core against my mouth until she shatters again and collapses onto the chaise longue.
I stand, gazing down at her limp, nude body. I see now the subtle muscles in her arms from her dancing, appreciate the litheness of her limbs. She’s not just incredibly beautiful but strong, powerful.
I slowly lean down and gather her into my arms. Not the kind of powerful I’m used to where I can wield money and influence. No, it’s the kind of power that comes from overcoming the impossible and choosing to live again, of surviving the worst humans have to offer and still having a kind word for everyone she interacts with.
Tenderness sprouts, slipping its roots into my chest as I cradle her against me. She murmurs my name, her head resting against my chest. An unfamiliar feeling and one I’ve never felt for a lover before.
Ten months, I remind myself as I lay her out on her bed. I know Seraphina on a far deeper level than any of my past lovers. She’s dedicated so much to the firm I created and is now giving up nearly a year of her life to help me. It’s understandable that I’m feeling something more.
