Cocking his head to the side, Silas stalked forward three steps, sending the floor undulating below his feet.
“No, Brinley. It’s my punishment.” He punched his chest right over his heart, and his words were jagged fragments of strained breath.
Harsh and hard.
“Touching you and knowing that it’s only temporary is my sheer and utter punishment. Nothing but a penalty knowing what a treasure you are. How beautiful you are. This fucking gorgeous body and this wild, untamed heart. How’s it you managed to get under my skin this way?”
My inhalation was strangled.
He took another step forward, and the scent of him smacked me in the face.
Cherries drenched in whiskey.
I had to be drunk.
“A sentence for this sin,” he continued. “Taking this bit of you that I could never deserve. Taking it and knowing I will never get enough. And even with that bare taste, I know I’m still going to have the memory of you scored on my soul for the rest of my life. I don’t know how you got there, but there’s going to be no getting you out.”
I almost laughed. It was me who was going to be marked.
He angled in close, his mouth at my ear. “Now why don’t you be a good girl and actually listen to me for once and turn aroundand bend over the desk. Unless you want me to walk out that door because you know I will. It would be best if I did.”
He was giving me an out.
Asking for consent as he took a step back.
I heaved another tremulous breath and slowly fumbled around.
A shot of greed puffed from his nose.
“Bend over.”
It said a whole lot with the way I hastily complied. My fingers trying to find purchase on the smooth, slippery surface of the desk as I bent over the wood.
Cool air brushed up my backside, and the skirt of my dress rode so high that I felt it tickle over the juncture of my thighs and butt cheeks.
“You have any idea, Brinley? You have any idea what you’re doing to me? Walking around my house and sleeping in my bed?”
Silas remained three feet behind, though with the heat radiating off him, he might as well have been touching me.
In it, I felt like I was going to combust.
Waiting in the baited air that swirled and danced between us.
He finally did, his hand landing on the back of my thigh and riding all the way up until he was palming one cheek. “This ass. Sweet fucking torture.”
“Silas.” I couldn’t help but whimper it, and I squeezed my thighs together like it might be enough to quench the desire.
A bare touch of his hand and I was already shaking.
“You need it, Little Wildfire? You need me to send you soaring again?”
I rocked back as he kneaded my bottom. “Yes.”
“So eager.”
“You already know how much I need it. What I’ve been missing.”
“And what you’ve been missing is me.”
