“Yes,” he replied.
“Thoroughly.”
“Yes.”
“And now”—She heaved a great sigh and came to her feet—“Jiro isn’t even Jiro anymore. He is Kai.” A mirthless laugh escaped her. “Mina’s father.”
She closed the remaining distance between them. Fortunately, she wasn’t required to travel far or in a straight line. She tipped her head back to hold his gaze and poked a finger into his chest. Despite the fact that she was undeniably three sheets to the wind, her eyes held his with clarity and control. He would take whatever punishment she chose to dole out, anything she threw at him until she was finished.
“But there is one question that remains unresolved.”
“Ask.”
“How did you find Jiro . . .Kai?”
There would be no use in hesitating. So he didn’t. He ripped the bandage off in one swipe, swift and sure. “I followed you.”
~ ~ ~
Her body went numb at the confirmation, even as her heart doubled its erratic beat. “Followed me?” Betrayal and exposure blossomed, robbing her of breath.
He’d used her. He’d lied to her. He’dfollowedher.
Her afternoons spent roaming the East End were part of an intimate life that no one had the right to violate. How dare he?
“You bastard!” She reared back her right hand and swung it around to slap his lying face.
Except her hand never made contact. He caught her wrist and held it fast, suspended in the night air. His gaze pinned her in place, and her body flushed hot, her focus concentrated on the point where his gorgeous, capable hand wrapped around her wrist.
A succession of thoughts flowed in a rapid cascade. She could ignore his scent . . . his warmth . . . his powerful body . . . his piercing eyes . . . his gorgeous, capable hands. They needn’t affect her as they had in the past. But . . .
How closely her body was positioned to his . . . How their breath mingled together in a ragged cadence of uncertainty and . . . Was this anticipation making her heart race? Anticipation of . . . what?
At once, she was certain of a single, irrefutable fact: more than she wanted to slap his perfidious face, she wanted this man one last time.
Every time was supposed to be the last time. Yet it never was.
Tonight was different. Tonight, he didn’t have to be more than a body, his only function to be a source of pleasure for her. They didn’t have to solve anything between them to do this temporary act. They both wanted it. She saw the truth of that reflected back at her in his eyes, irises flared black with desire, surely a mirror of her own.
Oh, he wanted her. And she would have him.
She reached up and touched fingertips to the dimple in his chin, traced the outline of his stubbled jaw until she found the back of his neck, her fingers threading through his sun-kissed hair. Gently, insistently, she tugged, pulling his face down, even as she rose to the tips of her toes, her mouth reaching, straining, toward his. In a final push of the sweetest anxiety, her mouth took his . . .
~ ~ ~
. . . In a kiss that ravished, urged, insisted, left nothing in reserve, left Jake no doubt how this night would end.
Her tongue pushed inside his mouth. Her body carnally rubbed up the full length of his, her intent clear. He released her wrist, and her hand snaked between their bodies until it reached the laces of his trousers, already strained to their limit by the bulge of his swollen cock. The cool tips of her fingers feathered down the hot length of his shaft, once, twice, a taunt, a tease.
A growl, rough, demanding, sounded from the back of his throat. He needed . . . “More, Olivia.”
“When I say.”
Her palms pressed flat against his shoulders, and she pushed his yielding body onto white marble, his hard cock exposed to the night air and the avarice of her gaze. She took her skirts in hand and slowly lifted, exposing ankles, calves, thighs . . .mons pubis. He heard an animal moan and realized it came from him.
The knowledge of Eve lit within her eyes. “I know whatmoreyou want.” Her tongue grazed her crooked tooth. “And what I want.” She braced her hands on his shoulders and straddled him, her naked, wet quim poised inches above his cock, another taunt, another tease. Her lips met his ear. “Beg,” she whispered.
“Olivia, if I could take back—”
