AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CORA: Fine. Then I have a complaint.
I tamped down my amusement. I would not look over at her table. I sipped my wine, eyes widening as the server returned with more shots.
“We’re gonna be toasted before the bread is,” Trace said, receiving his whiskey.
My brothers and I clinked glasses and downed our shots together. Afterward, we made varying grunts of appreciation.
CORA: Don’t make me beg.
AXEL: Maybe I should.
Across the room, Cora dabbed at her mouth with a cloth napkin, set it aside, and stood. She wore a short, floral-patterned dress with a boatneck that showcased the ridges of her collarbone. The only way to prevent me from staring would have been to remove my eyeballs. She snagged my gaze as she stepped down from the VIP perch and wound her way through the carpeted restaurant toward the bathrooms.
Cora’s gaze seared into me. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found scorch marks across my chest later.
I didn’t want to follow her.
Lie—I did.
I knew Ishouldn’t.
But a few of my vital organs weren’t speaking, and this time, the one that shouted loudest was my cock.
“I’ll be right back, guys,” I said, setting aside my napkin. I took a fortifying gulp of wine. Between the whiskey and the Sangiovese, my body was abuzz with bliss and mischief. “I’ve gotta go do something.”
Damien fixed me with a look.
“The bathroom,” I said, standing. “I’ve gotta go pee. That’s all. God, why are you two looking at me like that?”
Damian lifted his glass to me while Trace delivered another round of judgmental eyebrows. I left them behind and sauntered through the restaurant, adjusting the rolled-up cuffs of my shirt as I went. Every thump of my heart told me this Cora encounter wasn’t just a bad idea, it was batshit crazy. Both her fatherandher husband were fifty feet away.
But who was I if not batshit crazy?
Jazz music wafted through the restaurant, barely noticeable over the clamor of voices and conversation. I tucked my hands into the pockets of my slacks and headed for the back of the restaurant. The air was warm and scented, notes of garlic mingling with onion taking me back to my childhood home, with my biological parents. Back to the contentment before the crash. The anticipation of dinner with my loved ones safe all around me.
Now, my anticipation was laced with something much fiercer, much more intense, than in those childhood days. I wanted Cora in a way I couldn’t rationalize. In a way I refused to allow.
Yet here I was. Taking the bait.
I maneuvered toward the open doorway with a 1940’s-style drawing of a toilet above it. I spotted her in the shadowed corner of the hallway. Half-lit and fully tempting. Cora’s eyes nearly glowed in the dim lighting as she pressed one shoulder into the wall, watching me. I took a few steps toward her—the only confirmation she’d get for now that I intended to fling myself into whatever trap this was—and a smile tugged at her lips.
This was a cat and mouse game if I’d ever seen one. Cora disappeared around a corner. She could have been leading me into a poison chamber and I would have gone in behind her. When I rounded the corner after her, she stood with her back against the wall. Her cool hand shot out to grab my wrist, and everything that wasn’t Cora faded from view.
It was just us. Alone. Again.
I didn’t blink. I didn’t breathe. I sure as hell didn’t move. But somehow, we were pressed together against the faded floral wallpaper of La Fève . My palms were glued to the wall on either side of her head—though I wasn’t sure if it was to keep her where she was, or prepping myself to bolt.
“What do you want?” I growled, my lips already dangerously close to her face. If I angled myself right, my mouth would graze her cheek. And there could be none of that.
“Talk to me,” she said, her words floating on a gasp.
“I answered your texts. We don’t need to dialogue,” I said, my gaze bouncing across her face and gobbling up all the minute details. The silver shimmer of her eyelids. The gut-punch green of her eyes. The mischievous smile that I had dreamed of so many times after we broke up that I’d probably still see it when I was dead. “In any format. Remember?”
“Okay. Then why did you follow me?”
“I got lost on my way to the bathroom.”
She laughed sharply, her breath hitting my nose. I caught a hint of wine there. Every inch of my body constricted, wanting more. Wanting to cover that mulberry mouth with my own. Wanting to hoist her into my arms and have my way with her, back hallway etiquette be damned.
