Had anyone ever referred to me as their woman?
“Just to keep up appearances, maybe.” I spoke.
But honestly, I wasn’t thinking straight. Couldn’t possibly when he looked at me like that with dilated pupils and parted lips. Couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the way my chest tightened, and my nipples pebbled at the unspoken need infiltrating the air.
“I need a tea,” I added, desperate to cut through the tension, my body using all available oxygen to maintain an appropriate body temperature under the stroke of his thumb against my wrist.
“There are mint tea bags in the top drawer,” he replied equally hoarse and instinctively I stepped closer, desperate for something,anything -just more. His thoughtfulness softened my resolve. Mint tea bags both here and at home, a pantry which would make a baker weak, a patience for every question I asked and infinite space when I needed silence. He’d been doing whatever he could to care for me. Yet, something still halted me from taking that final step.
It felt inappropriate. Like crossing an invisible linebecause with no one around, thiswasn’tperformative, and any desire came with consequences.
We held each other's gaze, the spark electric and sharp. Raising his hand, he brushed a thumb across my cheek, lightly cupping my jaw and I did everything not to tremble. My wrist was still firmly locked in his other hand, the space between us almost non-existent now as he bridged the remaining gap.
“Evy,” the sound of my whispered name was hypnotic as his tongue darted out to moisten his lower lip, his eyes fixed on my mouth. He released my wrist, his fingers trailing up my arm, before cupping my face in both hands.
My breathing increased as my eyes fluttered closed under his touch, the warmth of his body drawing me closer, begging me to melt into him. Need throbbed beneath my skin, pulsing with its own heartbeat in a place I’d touched dreaming about a moment just like this. Late at night when I’d once imagined what it would be like to be with him. When I wondered what he would look like, feel like,be likein his most primal form and if he’d ever thought about me in the same way.
Was he tender and sweet, taking his time to savour, or was he wild and unencumbered, greedy to his lust and most innate desires.
I’d come apart to salacious thoughts of both versions. Been his willing partner while he savaged and took, leaving me tender and sore in the most delicious of ways. I’d pictured myself as his hidden secret, naked and pliable, ready to be toyed with and edged until I begged for release. Always knowing, whichever form it took, it would be more than I ever could have conceived. And afterwards, I would lay in the safety of his arms, entirely content and calm.
Thoughts of him in bed blurred my rationality and I reached for him, my fingers locking through his belt loops as I closed the distance between us. A slow moan rumbled within him, the sound evoking a mewl of my own. I wanted to grind against him ever so slightly. With his eyes fixed on me, I was certain I lookedequal parts terrified and horny, whereas he was all heat and hunger, hands still framing my face, preventing me from moving away.
Unravelling at the possibilities, I silently counted.
One.
If I got to four I would press up onto my toes.
Two.
I would yank his belt loops even closer and confirm if the firmness pressed against me was as hard as I knew it to be.
Three.
I would mould our bodies so tightly, that he could feel the heaviness of my aching breasts.
Fo-
A throat clearing from the doorway startled us apart, but his eyes never left mine.
“What?” He barked, the rising and falling of his chest a dead giveaway that things were most definitely getting heated in here.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Grant had the decency to sound apologetic, scared even, “but we really need you out here.”
“Give me a minute,” he gritted dismissively, still staring at me, although the moment between us was broken. The air of anticipation, dampened with a cold hard dose of reality.
Was I really just about to kiss Cooper? And at work!
He stared at me with an unreadable expression, brushing both thumbs across my cheeks before he withdrew, the temperature of the room cooling instantly.
“I’ll grab you some lunch,” he stated as I did my best not to stare at the obvious bulge in his pants. I wished he would stay and continue whatever the hell that was just as much as I wished he would leave so I could take a damn breath, grab a sweat towel for my thirst patch and then replay the last five minutes.
“Okay,” I breathed, wondering how soft his mouth would have been. Wondering how I was going to concentrate now I knew the ways his pupils dilated when he was aroused.
If I’d reachedfour, I would have been on him before I couldcatalogue the reasons it was a terrible idea. Before I could remind myself of all I had to lose or even consider that he may not want to cross that line either. And now that he’d looked at me as if I was his lifeblood, held my face in his hands as though it were his favourite thing to look upon, the fantasies of my late nights were going to be much clearer. Starting with a sharpened gaze, burning with unspoken want and mutual hunger and ending with flashbacks to the way his pants visibly tightened displaying his arousal.
I studied the broad outline of his back as he exited, paralysed by the unexpected lust of only a moment ago and when he turned around and our eyes locked for a final second, I wasn’t frozen from fear, but something deeper. Something I’d forgotten about until these old feelings were revived.
