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Holt turned into his parking lot and blew out a long breath. "Is that what you think? That I told them about your past? After I promised you I wouldn't?"
"What the hell else could have been going on back there? Why was everyone treating me differently?"
This time, it was Holt who chose to remain silent. He parked the truck and turned off the engine. "It's complicated," he finally grunted.
"Then uncomplicate it for me, Holt," I responded tersely. "Ever since last night, I’m so confused. I don’t understand why you kissed me, made me feel…things, and then just shut down on me. I want to believe you kept your promise, but something was definitely different from the time I went outside to the time I came back in, just like something is different between us since last night, and I think I deserve to know why.”
"You deserve to know? That's rich coming from you, Madelyn." His voice was steeped in sarcasm and anger as he swiveled to face me. "Maybe I deserved to know answers about your prison record when I welcomed you into my home, introduced you to my family, but I trusted you and gave you time until you were ready to share it with me. And even then it took something catastrophic to get you to open up to me. Now you want me just to spill my guts to you the first time you ask?"
“I…I…” My fingers curled into fists in my lap to keep from pulling on my hair. “Oh, just never mind. I’ll find somewhere else to stay first thing tomorrow since staying with you is obviously an issue.” I flung the door open and slammed it shut, ignoring him calling my name as I stomped into the building. I didn’t bother to hold the elevator for him, but by the time I’d found the key he’d given me in one of the million pockets of my borrowed purse, I heard his feet pounding up the stairwell. Hurriedly, I shoved the key into the lock, hoping to get in and reach the safety of my room.
I wasn’t fast enough. The lock had just turned when he reached the door and forcefully pushed it open, causing me almost to fall into the entranceway.
We were only a few steps inside the door when Holt spun me around, causing me to take a step backward to avoid getting my toes stepped on. He followed me. I don’t think I’d ever seen his eyes glitter quite so darkly. I retreated until my back was against the door and still he took another step toward me. My heart pounded frantically, and I almost forgot to breathe as his body brushed against mine.
“God, woman, you drive me crazy,’ he rasped, his breathing fast and ragged, but whether from running up the stairs or the intensity of his feelings, I wasn’t sure. He ran his hands through his hair then settled them against the door on either side of my head. “Tell me, what is this magic spell you’ve cast over my family and me?” he whispered hoarsely.
“Wh…what?”
“I don’t want you to leave,” he barked. “My brother was right - you’re a sorceress who’s bewitched everyone in my family. My mother practically wants to adopt you. My brother and his wife think you’re a baby whisperer. My sister asked for your phone number so she can invite you to lunch. Hell, even my dog drools all over you, licking you everywhere and practically ignoring me, which he never does.”
He leaned closer effectively trapping me. Usually being in such close quarters triggered a panic attack, but oddly enough with Holt, I wasn’t scared. I felt lured to him as if he was a powerful magnet, and I was tired of resisting it. In fact, I felt unusually bold.
“And what about you?” I challenged. Teased. Tempted.
“Me?” he whispered. “Hell, yeah. I want to lick you all over, too.”
I wasn’t experienced enough to know what his mouth would feel like against my skin, but it didn’t stop my body from suddenly craving it. His confession was enough to send shivers throughout my entire body. I recognized a hunger in his eyes that made me feel like I could be his next meal, and I was ready to offer myself up on a plate for his pleasure. And mine.
My breath hitched as his head moved toward mine. My lips parted of their own accord in anticipation of meeting his once again. He was a breath away, but he bypassed my mouth. His nose skimmed my jaw line until it reached my ear. “Would you like that, Maddy? Would you like my mouth and tongue on your body?” His breath warmed my skin with his raspy words but covered my body with goose bumps.
My knees started to buckle as his tongue found the skin at the curve of my neck.
“I didn’t want this, Maddy.” His words tickled my skin, but there was nothing funny about them. Rather, they caused a ripple of desire to flood throughout me before pooling between my thighs. “I thought I shouldn’t want this. I’ve tried to fight it, but your magic is too powerful for me.”
“I don’t have any magic,” I gasped as his lips continued to skim the neckline of my shirt, which was cut low enough they brushed the swell of my breasts causing me to breathe harder, which only served to push them against his mouth.
“No?” he breathed and finally lifted his head. The warm glow of desire in his eyes almost made me forget to breathe. “Then what is it? Because somehow you’ve gotten under my skin, and I can’t ignore it anymore. I’ve desired other women, but you…I don’t just want you. I crave you. I need you.”
I was held captive by his gaze; entranced by his words. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but it wasn’t the slow, gentle, almost torturously seductive motion he made. The back of his fingers caressed my cheek as he slowly lowered his head to mine. He rubbed his nose
against mine, up one side and down the other. I could feel the warmth of his breath as my eyes fluttered closed, our lips so close but not quite touching; mine parted slightly in anticipation, only to have him graze over them like a whispered promise.
I shivered under his touch, both nervous and needy of this shift between us. Holt’s hands sifted into my hair while his thumbs slid under my jaw, tilting my head further up while he placed tiny kisses on either side of my mouth as he held it in place.
“Holt.” I exhaled his name on a sigh running my hands up his neck and into his hair, pulling on his head with a wantonness I didn’t know I was capable of. But that was what Holten Andrews did to me; he brought out a confidence that had long been suffocated and allowed me to breathe.
At my touch, he groaned, finally allowing his lips to find mine, and like a match to kerosene, it ignited an explosion. Hands and mouths devoured and touched anywhere they could reach. His hands left my hair only to wrap around my waist and pull me tight against him, while his mouth forged a path of kisses along the side of my neck and to the hollow of my throat. I could feel his erection press against my stomach.
Somewhere down the hall, a door slammed, startling me back to the present.
“Holt,” I gasped. “What…what are we doing?”
“It’s called kissing,” he teased. I could feel his lips turn upward in a smile against my throat. “And if you had to ask, we should practice more.”
His mouth found the pulse in my throat and he sucked gently, and I swear if he hadn’t been holding me, I wasn’t sure I could have remained standing. I tugged on his hair. “Holt, stop.”
Bemused brown eyes peered at me.
