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“What?” she asks, laughing. “So your head can swell further?” I make a play for her hip and squeeze. “Stop!”
“Tell me,” I order softly. “I want to know.”
“I nearly passed out,” she whispers, sounding wistful. She’s gone back to The Manor that day too. Revisiting our meet-cute. It’s a great meet-cute. Someone should write a book about it. “And then you kissed me. Why did you kiss me?”
To this day, I still can’t answer that. My brain short-circuited. “I don’t know. It just happened.” I just needed to touch her. She was the shiny to my magpie. “You nearly passed out?” I smile, despite knowing she was highly affected.
She’s suddenly moving, looking back at me. I don’t wipe my smugness away in time, not that I was in a rush to. I want her to know how much that pleases me. “I thought you were an arrogant arse, with your touching, tactless comments, and inappropriate manners,” she says, and I withdraw but smile harder. “But I was so affected by you.”
I was well aware of how affected she was. It made the chase so much more frustrating. I start caressing her nipples, settling back again. “I needed to keep touching you to see if I was imagining things.” I know time is knocking on, but I’m without the will to move. This is nice.
“What things?”
“My whole body buzzed every time I laid a finger on you. It still does.”Like now.
“Me too.” She doesn’t sound particularly happy about that, more confused. I guess that’s to be expected, since this all happened hard and fast and without warning. “Do you realize the effect you have on women?” She’s feeling me, stroking my thighs, and I look at her hands moving across my skin, noting that the moment she mentionsother women, she’s got her hands all over me.Possessive. Unlike Ava, I can’t say I dislike it. But what effect I have on other women is not something I’m remotely interested in. Ava, though? I want to affect her, consume her, and yet the only thing I truly have to offer her is my complete and utter devotion. My heart. My future.
“Is it similar to the one you have on me?” I ask, holding her hands, needing to feel her. “Do they stop breathing for a few seconds every time they see me?” I take a moment, kissing her hair, feeling her body tighten on mine. “Do they want to keep me in a glass box so nothing and no one can hurt me?” Fuck, I’m not expressing myself very well here. “Do they think their life would be over if I wasn’t here?” That’s the bottom line. I’d be finished without her. I look down at the back of her head while she remains unmoving and silent, probably absorbing my declaration. It’s that simple. Except...not.
I begin to get slightly concerned by her lack of a reaction, just lying under her, waiting for...anything. She eventually begins to move, and I bite my lip, bracing myself. Will she hit me with more questions? Interrogate me again? Want some context to those words? Because... why? Why do I feel like that? Why am I so scared of losing her? Why does she mean so much to me?
Ava looks at me, and I see that curiosity. Those questions. But I also see a ton of love for this fucked-up arsehole. She pushes herself up my body, sliding, and her eyes dart over my face, settling on mine. “You stole my lines,” she whispers, her eyes starting to scan my face again, as I release the air I was holding. “I love you so much. You have to promise me thatyou’llnever leaveme.”
Fuck, I’m a lucky man. Thisis why she went to The Manor last night. Despite my anger at her being at her ex’s, despite my inappropriate—for some—manhandling of her, and our shared volatility,shedidn’t want to loseme.“Baby, you’re stuck with me forever.”
“Good. Kiss me.”
“Are you making demands?” Because I like it.
“Yes.” There’s no apology. “Kiss me.”
We really don’t have time. But...one kiss. I slowly move in, waiting for that moment for when our lips meet and my world goes up in smoke. You’d think I’d be used to it by now. I don’t think I ever will be.
It starts soft and slow, unhurried, delicate, until she’s forcing herself farther into me, her mouth becoming more urgent. It’s an effort not to respond. “I know it would make you very happy to stay here all night,” I say around her mouth, smiling at the sound of her humming, making all the right noises at the wrong time. “But we need to think about getting a move on.” I tear my mouth away and hoist her up a bit more until my mouth can reach her neck.
“Let’s stay.” She virtually moans the words, rubbing her boobs into my chest, before slipping back down my body. Her pussy skims my cock.
Fuck. “Oh, you have to let me out because if I stay, we’ll be going nowhere.” And one thing I can’t be is late for the anniversary party. I slam a hard kiss on her lips and, for my sins, push her off me.
I make it maybe a foot off my arse before I’m forced back down and Ava’s crawling onto me again. “Stay then.” She settles on my lap, her smile poorly concealed. She knows she’s got me. “I want to mark you.” Eyes on mine, she lowers until she’s sucking on my chest. Like a sign of ownership? She already did that. “Ava, we’ll be late.” She sucks harder, bites a bit, and the blood I’ve been holding back breaks through the dam and flows into my cock. We’re going to The Manor, where endless women will be waiting like wolves to pounce. And she’s marking me. It turns me on. “Fuck, I can’t say no to you.”
Literally.
Physically.
I encourage her to lift, and we both breathe out when she sinks onto me.
Yeah. Can’t say no.
32
I’m standing,suited, considering the spare bedroom I’ve stepped foot in maybe three times since I’ve lived here. All looking for Ava. It would make a wonderful nursery. But maybe a little too far away from our room.
All thoughts for another day, Ward.Let’s focus on convincing Ava—and the rest of the world, for that matter—that she should marry me.
I chew my lip, grabbing my tie, vehemently ignoring my sub-conscience, which is currently reminding me that I have already done things arse about face.
I spray some Aqua di Gio on my neck and go to the mirror, looking at a man I’ve only recently become acquainted with. A man with clear eyes and a clear mind. Which begs the question why he’s having such insane thoughts, given he’s lucid for the first time in nearly twenty years.
