I stare up at him. Twenty-eight years old. Twelve years younger than me. In any other scenario, I'd feel ridiculous. Like some desperate cougar chasing some long-lost youth I can't get back.
But when he looks at me like this? Like he’s in awe, like I’m something precious to be treasured? I don't feel old. I don't feel desperate.
I feel seen. For the first time in my life.
“Okay,” I whisper.
I raise my arms and he pulls my hoodie off. His fingers trace the sides of my torso as they slide toward the hem of my tank top. He pulls that off next and drops it on the floor, his eyes never leaving mine.
“You're shaking,” he says.
“It's been a while.”
“How long?”
I hesitate, biting the inside of my mouth. This is embarrassing. "Maybe… a year.”
His eyes darken, the icy blue morphing into cobalt. They sear through my walls, penetrating my soul. “That's criminal.”
“None of the other guys from my past were worth my time. And besides, I was busy building a company and running things. I didn't have time for?—”
“Adriana.” He loops his fingers into the waistband of my leggings and pushes them down.
Then he slides himself down to my ankles, pulling the leggings off one leg at a time. “Stop making excuses for dumbass guys who didn't deserve you in the first place.”
He straightens up, his rough hands on me causing goosebumps to pebble my skin in anticipation of what comes next. He runs them over the swell of my breasts, then reaches around myback to unhook the bra as his lips tease the side of my neck. My pulse jumps so high, it nearly chokes me.
I’m not ready for this, to be completely exposed in front of him… figuratively and literally.
“You're beautiful,” he says, his gravelly voice making my body hum.
“You don't have to—” I start to say when he cuts me off.
“I know I don't have to.” His eyes hold mine for a heart-stopping minute. “I want to. And I'm going to keep saying it until you believe it. Because you are the most fucking beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
My mouth falls open, waiting for words I can’t string together for the life of me because I am so shocked by him. Yet again. And it’s not just what he says, it’s how he says it. How he shows me with his actions and body language that he actually means every single incredible, beautiful syllable that slips out of those perfect lips.
With a flick of his fingers, my sports bra falls away. I fight the urge to cover myself. Goddamn gravity.
But when I start to cross my arms, he takes me by the wrist and stops me from blocking his view.
“Don't you dare hide from me.”
Heat floods my cheeks. I look down, hating that I feel so empowered while in the middle of a conference room full of men, but so self-conscious behind closed doors.
I know I have a good body. I eat well and workout. But the kind of women he’s used to are just… different. Perkier, tighter. Things I’m just not. And I’ve been okay with that, at least until the day I saw my husband without a shirt on and began fantasizing about less of the celibate marriage I’d been resigned to. “I'm not twenty-five anymore, Lochlan.”
“I don't want twenty-five.” He leans close, his lips brushing my ear. “I want you.”
He walks me backward until my legs hit the bed, then he slowly lowers me down to the mattress. My heart thrashes as heruns his fingers down the front of my torso, a shiver skittering across my bare skin. His gaze never wavers. It grounds me, gives me something to cling to despite the rush of frenzied thoughts bouncing between my ears.
The weight of his stare is like a lifeline I never knew I needed. But right now, it’s an offer to let go, to be free, to trust that he will always bring me back from the edge.
I’ve never felt so protected. So cherished. Andsoinsanely hot for a man.
The butterflies I’ve become well-acquainted with over the past weeks have taken flight, swarming in my belly like I’m a googly-eyed teenager staring at my first crush; and even though my body is on the brink of spontaneous combustion under his demanding touch, I’m safe. With him.
I've spent my entire adult life making sure I never needed or depended on anyone. I built a company from the ground up because I refused to rely on my father's money or connections. I dated men I could manage, men who wanted what I could give them, men I never let get close enough to matter.
