“Anybody home?”
The guys’ house was quiet when I got there around five pm. I wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water, and when I returned to the living room, Kaz was there. He stood in the middle of the room in only a pair of sweatpants.
I clutched my glass tighter and allowed my gaze to skate over his lean body. He was covered in tattoos, mostly English and Russian writing that I suspected were lyrics. The words tangled over his pale skin, dancing with the outlines of his muscles and trailing past the pronounced V that disappeared under the waistband of his pants. His left nipple was pierced with a barbell. I wanted to toy with it with my tongue.
He took a step closer. “You came.”
My skin grew feverishly hot under his gaze. “I told you I would.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” His eyes flashed with something vulnerable. Like he was worried for me, and he didn’t know what to do with that emotion.
I swallowed past the weird sensation in my throat. “Yes. Trinity said I’m probably going to start doing other work for you soon.”
A wrinkle appeared between his brows. “No more pictures?”
“Maybe another week until I have enough.”
“If she pulls you off our team, I’m going to throw a fit.” He lightened his words with a smirk, but the intensity in his eyes didn’t abate.
“She won’t. There’s plenty of other work to go around.” I glanced past his shoulder. “Where’s Mason?”
“He left for the gym a few minutes before you arrived.”
“Oh.” Anticipation curled inside my stomach. “We’re alone.”
Slowly, Kaz’s smirk melted off his face. He walked toward me, stopping less than a foot away. The air between us became a compact, limited thing, as if the only way we’d get another breath was if we kept moving closer.
He lifted his hand to my face and dragged his thumb across my cheek before tracing it over my bottom lip. “You’re the softest thing I’ve ever felt,” he muttered like he was in a trance.
Leaning into his touch, I curled my hands around his neck, feeling all the hard muscles bunching in response. His usual detached persona was gone, replaced by a presence so intense it sent a shiver down my spine.
“When you look at me like that, I can’t think,” I whispered. That earned me a soft chuckle.
“Sometimes thinking is overrated.” He smoothed his hand down my arm. “You’re trembling. Are you scared of me?”
I was terrified of this man. My heart raced so fast I thought I might have a heart attack at the premature age of twenty-one. This idea suddenly seemed very bad. I could feel the wild thing’s manic enthusiasm at being allowed out of its cage. I’d agreed to this arrangement thinking my feelings for Kaz weren’t as potent as my residual feelings for Mason, but now, I wasn’t so sure.
“You’ve got nothing to be afraid of,” he said, dropping his gaze to my lips.
I felt dizzy with arousal. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
Instead of answering me, he grabbed me by the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss.
The wild thing screamed with hedonistic joy inside of me. I moaned into his mouth, unable to hold it back.
He bit my bottom lip, licked it with his tongue, and then pulled back an inch. “If you’re not thinking, what are you doing?”
The moss-green depths of his eyes told me the answer. “Feeling.”
“So feel.” His breath brushed against my lips as he trailed his fingertips over a sensitive spot on my neck. My mouth parted, my eyelids drooped, and I… I didn’t want to fight it any longer.
I’ve always told myself to be happy with less, but maybe with Kaz, for once, I could allow myself to wantmore.
We tumbled into his bedroom—him tugging on the buttons of my blouse and me sneaking my hands past the waistband of his pants. He groaned when my palm wrapped against his steely erection, then jerked my hand away a second later to finish peeling off my shirt. I pulled down my jeans and stepped out of them, allowing him to see me for the first time in my underwear. There was a sense of desperate urgency in the air. Who knew when Mason would return? We had to do this now. There was no going back. My core pulsed with need.
He sat down on the edge of his bed, his fascinated eyes never leaving my body. Inch by inch, he took it all in before extending a hand.
I took it. He pulled me closer until my knees hit the edge of the bed between his legs, and then he guided me so that I was straddling his lap. When I tried to grind against him, his hands became a vise on my hips. “Don’t,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’m really fucking turned on.”
