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The spicy notes were there, making my senses burn in response.
I breathed her in, trying to make myself register that she was actually here. That I could—
Translating thought and desire into action, I reached for her with my other hand and let my finger run down the side of her throat. At first, her tension amped up again, but then she released a shuddery breath that I felt in my bones.
“If you taste of it too, I’m fucked.”
“I doubt I taste like a cinnamon roll, unless I eat one first,” she rasped.
“I could ask Edgar to make us some. The guy seems to enjoy doing stuff for us.”
I felt her soft chuckle as if it came from my own chest. “I’m not sure if he ‘enjoys’ it. It’s his job, Conor.”
“Hmm. Better than killing people for a living. It can’t all be bad. Want a cinnamon roll?”
She paused. Gave it far more thought than junk food—aka Mother Nature’s treasure—required, then she whispered, “Yeah.”
This time, I let my tongue trace down the central line of her nape. “I’ll tell him when he brings coffee.”
A broken, keening sound escaped her that went straight to my dick. “G-Great,” she stuttered, watching her hands flatten on either side of her laptop, the fingers spreading wide. “I-I guess I should get changed.”
I was more than okay with her staying in her current outfit, but I didn’t say that, just stepped back, knowing that she needed the space. Well aware that I’d taken this further than I’d intended.
Giving her room to breathe, I asked, “We’ll hash out a game plan once you’ve changed?”
“Yeah,” she agreed shakily. “Sounds good to me.”
As she stepped away, her gaze lingered on mine for a handful of seconds.
Neither of us were ingenues. Nor were we virgins. But we both knew what it felt like to have our consent stripped away from us—maybe that was why we were dancing around each other?
When you found a hundred-carat diamond in the earth, after all, you didn’t excavate it with a mallet from Lowes.
Some things took time.
Some things were worth waiting for.
Some things required cultivation.
It was as if she read my mind because she graced me with a soft nod before heading off to the bedroom.
When the door closed behind her, I cracked my knuckles, trying to get myself under some semblance of control.
Nothing about the last twenty-four hours had gone according to plan; nothing had gone down how I’d imagined it. She was here with me, though, and that was all that mattered.
Only if we were together could we bring the world to its knees, and for Star Sullivan, I’d do more than that—I’d bring civilization itself to a halt if that was what she needed to be liberated from the burden of her past.
27
STAR
The momentthe bedroom door closed behind me, I pressed my back to it and covered my face with my hands.
I could still feel his breath against my nape. The tender trail of his finger down my neck. The way he kissed the top of my spine. How his tongue tip had traced the sensitive skin.
The tiny hairs on my nape were still standing at attention from the sensory memory alone. Never mind the violent reactions in my core—Mount Vesuvius probably hadn’t been as active before she’d devastated Pompeii with her wrath.
On edge, I whispered a solid truth that I needed to hear out loud: “That was Conor.”
