Page 21 of Shark’s Pride

“And what, Abbigail?”

“God, I feel so awkward around you sometimes. And so damn tongue-tied.” I felt the flush clinging to my cheeks. Thank God for the dimly lit stoop.

“Tongue-tied?” He rasped it when he stepped in closer, sliding our bodies back together. He didn’t stop there. He dipped down so close, his breath fanned across my mouth. “That sounds…dangerous.”

“I…I suppose it could be,” I whispered back. “I mean, serious injury could result.”

“Oh. We wouldn’t want that.”

“No?”

“Definitely not. I have plans for your tongue, Abbigail.”

I swallowed roughly. “You—you do?”

He dipped a steady nod. “Think you’re up to the challenge?”

“Yes?”

“That a question or an answer, Little Red?”

I didn’t waste time speaking my reply. Instead, I just showed him.

Starting with a straight surge forward, stopping only when I’d seized his nape with one hand and his hair with the other. I kept going by twisting my fingers and pulling hard, ordering his lips to slam mine. I answered his hot, sweeping tongue with erotic stabs of my own. A heavier sound escaped as he took command of my ass, gripping it hard enough to hoist me off my feet as he spun around and reentered the house.

Somewhere in that cavernous space, Sebastian finally set me back down—yet I still felt several feet off the marble floor. I was floating on breezes, a feather wrapped in the buoyance of his magnificence. And it was just the start of my new dizziness, as the air-stealing, Mount-Olympus-dwelling male turned his stare fully upon me.

Without a backward look, Bas kicked the front door shut and whisked me back off my feet. Instinct guided me to wrap my arms around his neck as he enveloped me in his capable arms and set a course straight for the staircase.

“I—I haven’t been on the second floor before,” I said quietly once we’d reached the top. How was that the only thought that tumbled out of my mouth?

“No, I suppose you haven’t.” He smiled through every word, gazing down at me while practically gliding down a long hallway.

“Do you get lonely here? It’s so big. For just you, I mean.” I was rambling, letting my nerves get the best of me.

“I’m not here that much. Work consumes most of my time.”

“You can put me down, you know. I can walk on my own.”

“Hmmm. Okay.”

I yelped as Bas obliged me—by flinging me onto the hugest bed I’d ever come into contact with. My head sank into luxurious pillows of all shapes and sizes. The fabrics were fine enough to swaddle royalty. But the most surprising aspect of the room was the color. Correction. Absence of. Everything was white upon white, giving me the sense of actually floating in the clouds—until the god himself brought me back down to earth. Sebastian pulled on my ankles, hauling me across the comforter toward him.

“Tell me, Little Red. Where are we now?”

I looked around, mildly confused. “Your…bedroom?” I propped up on my elbows, trying to gain a better view while he pulled off my sneakers and socks.

“Yes, obviously.” He tilted his head, eyeing me past quirked brows. “But I mean your head. Your heart.” He pressed firm thumbs into the arch of my bare foot, stroking the underside that absorbed so much of my day’s abuse in the kitchen.

“Ooohhh God, that feels so good.” I let my eyes drift closed. The bastard was not playing fair.

Especially when he stopped.

“Talk to me, baby. Tell me where things stand between us. Last time we discussed it, you wanted space. Time to think. I don’t want to assume or rush—”

I cut him off before he could say anything else. “I want to be here with you.”

“Out of obligation?” He bored his stare into me, seeking an honest reply.