Page 94 of Unwritten Rules

My eyes travel back to her face, finding her smiling brightly, a delicious flush on her delicate cheeks, and it’s that smile that makes my feet move closer until we are toe-to-toe, chests brushing off of one another. So close that I can see the pulse beating in her neck.

I lean forward, my mouth hovering near her ear. “It’s almost as beautiful as the angel wearing it.”

She inhales sharply, clearly surprised at my straightforward candour, and she’s not the only one. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I feel like this moment is an out-of-body experience.

“A little birdie told me you’ve been lying, Nathaniel.”

I rear back, my forehead crumpling in confusion. “What?”

She smirks and arches a delicate eyebrow. “I know your secret, grump.”

Tilting my head, I narrow my eyes mischievously. “Okay, then. I’ll bite, wench. What’s my secret?”

A self-satisfied grin stretches across her face, and once again, she’s led me right into her well-laid trap. “You don’t just want this.”

She runs one hand down her side, indicating that she’s referring to her body while catching my left hand and bringing it up between us.

“You want this.”

The air is forced from my body when she places my hand on her breastbone, right above her heart.

“And it’s yours if you’ll have it.”

She raises her eyes to mine, peering into them with a fixated intensity and urgency I’ve not witnessed in her before. My jaw tics when I grit my teeth together, not wanting to confirm her bold statement.

Not wanting to admit that I want her and all she’s offering more than I need my next breath, I try one last time to reel ourselves back in.

“I don’t want to risk our friendship—”

She presses my hand closer to her chest, allowing my fingertips to graze the bare skin displayed so enticingly above the bodice of her dress.

“You’re doing it again, Nathaniel. Lying, I mean. Look me in the eyes right here, right now, and give me the honesty that I deserve. It’s not our friendship that concerns you, is it? It’s my brother and his reaction. It’s your misconception that you’re anything like your father. It’s your own damn self-doubt and belief that you, somehow, need to play the part expected of you.”

Her eyes hold mine with such ferocity I couldn’t look away even if I wanted to. She leans impossibly closer, her inebriating vanilla scent surrounding me, cocooning us in our own plane of existence, and I’m finding it hard to remember why I haven’t already given in to her delicious temptation.

“So please, Nathaniel. Put me out of my misery. You said you were honest with me that day at my place when we watched Never Been Kissed, right? But were you wholly honest, or did you just tell partial truths?”

She’s onto me, and fuck if I could give any less of a damn.

“Do you just want my body? Or do your feelings run deeper than that? Because I believe your feelings mirror my own.”

Her eyes flick back and forth between mine. I’m standing on the edge of a precipice, and all I can think of is hurtling myself off it as quickly as possible. Seeing Mila as impassioned as she is at this moment is a potent elixir with no cure in sight.

“I want you, Nathaniel Hawthorne. I want all of you, all the time, for always. I want every little morsel of you that my greedy little hands can steal, because I’ll never have enough. I’ll—”

It’s like I’m watching myself from above when I plant my palms on both her cheeks, and my lips suddenly crash to hers in a hard, fierce kiss. Her mouth opens beneath mine immediately as she slides her tongue past my lips to duel with my own.

A moan is torn from her chest, the sound travelling straight to my long neglected cock, but this moment isn’t about me. This moment is about giving her what she wants – what she’s been brave enough to demand in a show of strength and determination I’ve not seen in someone for a long time, if ever.

And she’s fucking glorious.

This moment right here has been as inevitable as the transition of day to night, and for the first time in my life, I let go of everything. All my thoughts, fears and anxieties, all of my beliefs and ideals – everything.

It’s just us two in existence. Just the two of us who matter. And it’s sheer perfection.

Our kiss deepens, and my chest rumbles with a restrained groan as my cock throbs in my tux pants.

Mila rips her mouth from mine, panting heavily. She grasps the lapels of my dinner jacket and tugs me closer as she slides her ass onto the table behind her. Her eyes pin me, locking me in as a willing prisoner within their golden depths.