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I shut down my computer. I say goodbye to the security guard in the office tower lobby. I cross the parking lot and enter my home by the front door.
I find Alix in the kitchen, staring into a coffee mug like she’s forgotten what a cup is for. She’s changed her top. Brushed her teeth, too, from the fresh, minty smell.
She looks up when I enter, her face clouded with worry. She opens her mouth to say something, but I cut her off.
“Let’s go,” I say.
“Go where?” She sounds wary.
“The county fair. And I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
5
ALIX
* * *
It’s dark by the time we return home from the fairgrounds, even the long summer afterglow faded from the sky. I’m exhausted as I climb out of the Range Rover, but I’m strangely restless, too. Part of me wants to collapse into bed and sleep for a year. Another part of me wants to build a campfire in the backyard and feed it endless cords of wood, fending off the darkness.
The stuffed panda Trap won for me looks even larger on the kitchen counter. Its plastic eyes glint when Trap turns on the under-cabinet lights, like the bear knows my deepest, darkest secrets.
“Thirsty?” Trap asks, already moving to the cupboard to collect a pair of glasses.
“Mmm,” I say. Iamthirsty. And hungry, too, which I wouldn’t have thought possible after everything we ate at the fair. Or maybe that’s another need, making my belly feel like I’m swooping down from the top of the Ferris wheel. Thinking about what we did up there, where anyone could have looked up, where anyone could have seen…
Trap grins at me as he cracks open a bottle of Berg and pours over clear ice cubes. The twist of his lips makes him look ten years younger. “You got some sun today.”
I wrinkle my nose and feel the crackle of rosy skin. “You did too.” His cheeks are flushed, and his forehead looks like it might be warm to the touch.
“Maybe if we hadn’t been trapped on the Ferris wheel for so long…” he says, taking a seat on the bar stool next to me.
I gulp my water, fast enough that the ice cubes shift. Water splashes the front of my T-shirt. My sunburned cheeks heat with embarrassment, and I cross my arms to hide the spill.
My motion, of course, does little to disguise the wet fabric stretched across my chest. My sports bra isn’t concealing much either. It does, though, draw Trap’s sharp attention to my breasts. “Quit it,” I say.
He leans closer. “Quit what?”
I draw in a shaky breath. “Quit staring at me.”
He reaches over and catches one of my suddenly peaked nipples between his thumb and forefinger. His pinch rockets through my body, stealing my breath and making me sway on my stool. “Is this better?” he breathes.
Before I can answer, he fishes an ice cube out of his glass. He presses it against my other nipple, holding it fast through my wet T-shirt and bra.
I gasp against the sudden burn of the cold. His grin turns wicked as he pulls me between his legs, close enough for me to feel the massive erection trapped inside his jeans.
He raises the ice cube to my lips, teasing until they purse. I suck in the crystal cube, feeling it puddle almost immediately in the hot little cave of my mouth.
He doesn’t wait for me to swallow. Instead, he squeezes his thighs to keep me from escaping. At the same time, he strips off my T-shirt with quick and efficient fingers. “Trap!” I laugh, automatically glancing over my shoulder at the wall of windows behind us.
He’s told me before that no one can get into the back yard. But still, I feel like a naughty schoolgirl when he pulls my bra over my head. I start to cover my breasts, but the fierce look in his eyes stops me. He holds my gaze as he reaches for his glass, easing an ice cube past his ready lips.
And then he leans forward, sucking my nipple into his mouth.
The heat of his lips merges with the cold of the ice. He rocks the cube across my nipple, holding the ice in place with his tongue as he sucks hard enough to send darts to the needy place between my thighs.
The ice hurts, but he soothes me before I can whimper a complaint. His fingers clutch my hips, squeezing in the same rhythm of his mouth. Needing more, fearing more, I thrust my shoulders back, giving him better access to my chest. His teeth close over my nipple, and a shudder ripples through me, so intense that I have to steady myself by placing my hands on his shoulders.
My motion leaves me staring directly into the dining room.
