Page 8 of All for Love

4

MERCEDES

Why I was so insanely attracted to him that I’d seemingly lost my ability to hide it, I didn’t know. All I knew was that my heart was racing and every primal nerve in my body was screaming for me to kiss him.

Rip his shirt open even more than just the buttons at the top he’s already undone. Drag him inside by his belt and show him that I was more than the goody-two shoes organizer my mother liked to brag to everyone about.

I leaned in closer, unable to move even though I knew I should.

He was right. I was still pressed right up against him, standing so close that I felt the ridges of his abs against my stomach.

This was so not good.

In fact, it was awful, horrible, and I really should’ve put an end to it.

Only I couldn’t because it felt too good.

Instead, I tilted my head back. My gaze dropped to his lips, those perfect oval-shaped cushions reminiscent of something belonging to a Hemsworth brother.

I could smell his cologne, the woodsy, expensive scent with a playful undertone of citrus and warm spice. It took everything I had not to inhale deeply just to breathe him in. The fact that his scent was pervading my nostrils while I was breathing just to stay alive was enough. I didn’t need to give him the satisfaction of actively breathing him in.

Purposely dragging my eyes away from his mouth, I looked back at him and he arched an eyebrow at me. A silent dare for me to do it. To kiss him.

“You wish,” I purred, digging down deep and reaching for the strength of my convictions as I started pulling away from him.

Kody was an ass. A slut. Being so damn hot didn’t excuse those things. I wasn’t a slave to my baser instincts and I refused to let my own body betray me.

The thought wasn’t even fully completed yet when his strong fingers circled around my wrist again, looping around it with firm but gentle pressure. He spun me the same way he had before, but this time, I ended up against the door and he was penning me in, letting go of my wrist to catch my face in both hands.

And then he kissed me.

Fiercely.

The kind of kiss girls dreamed about but hardly ever got. One where his whole body was pushed into mine, the weight of him adding to the sensations he was eliciting from every inch of me.

Those large, warm hands on my face, fingers splayed out so that one palm was resting on the side of my jaw and his fingers wrapped around the nape of my neck. The other covered my cheek, those fingers fitted around my ear and pushing into my hair.

He wasn’t gentle, but he also wasn’t forceful. Assertive was the word that popped into my head as I opened my mouth for him. His tongue licked at the seam before it dove in, his lips slanted over mine and the soft, wet sounds of our mouths breaking apart and then urgently coming back together again filling the air around us.

My heart was thudding against my ribs. Somewhere deep down inside, my instincts were screaming, at war with one another. One part of me insisted on taking him to my bed while the other tried to reason that I’d regret it so much in the morning.

A low, throaty groan vibrated in his chest, and the sound made me press my thighs together as heat seeped out of me and pooled between my legs. With our bodies pressed this close together, he felt the slight movement of my thighs and he chuckled darkly, letting go of my cheek to reach behind me.

I nearly fell into my house when the door suddenly opened making me realize I somehow managed to put my key in the lock, but Kody caught me, his arm dropping away from my neck to loop around my waist. We stumbled inside, knocking things over in the dark and just really not caring.

I finally did what I’d wanted to do when we’d still just been staring at each other. I grabbed his belt, dragging him to my bedroom by it as we kept kissing. Sloppy, hard, desperate kisses that made me want to giggle and moan at the same time.

This was so absurd. So wrong. Taboo, even. But it felt good enough that I was willing to accept the consequences.

My nipples were peaked and aching, my skin tingling so much that I had goosebumps. Butterflies fluttered happily around my stomach—because of the kiss, not the man giving it—and if I was being completely honest, I was a little giddy.

It had been a pathetically long time since I’d had decent sex, and much, much longer since I’d had the kind that made my toes curl. Kody sure slept around enough that he had to be decent in bed, if not better than that, and right now, I didn’t even care that he was a complete man-whore. I only cared about benefiting from his experience.

We crashed into something, and my hip stung but I didn’t care about that either. I’d take a big old bruise any day if it meant he was about to make my toes curl. Here’s hoping.

Ignoring the slight burst of pain, I looped my fingers into his belt, tugging it free before reaching for his shirt. I felt him toeing off his shoes while we moved and I took care of the suit for him, sliding my hands in underneath it and then pushing it off watching it and his jacket fall from his shoulders.

He let go of me for the time it took to get his arms free. Then his hands were on my back and the zipper of my dress slid down. Meanwhile, I was hurriedly working at his remaining buttons, sliding them out of the holes as fast as my trembling fingers would allow.