"Deal," I say, toasting her with my cup of deliciousness.
We finish our coffee and go our separate ways. Since I’m already out and about, I chance a walk around the building. It’s nice to learn the various ins and outs, even though it’s taken me a moment to come out of my shell. I admire the large and beautiful atrium before going back up to my temporary condo. Making my way back up in the elevator, I check my bank app and there’s even more money deposited into my account.
I’m still looking at my phone when the elevator opens, which is possibly how I miss Thane standing in my hallway, right outside my door. I’d have run into him if he didn’t put his hand out to stop me. I startle and drop my coffee.
He’s damn lucky the cup was almost empty.
As it stands, he’s blocking my path with a sour look on his face.
“Why are you here, Thane?” I ask, putting an equally sour look on my face.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you’re trying to get yourself killed in the field?”
Oh, for the love. It’s all I can do not to roll my eyes, and while his concerned expression stops me from really ripping into him, I can’t help but toss a little sass his way.
“Your faith in me really warms the cockles of my heart, Thane.”
“Don’t act like you didn’t know it would upset me.”
“Okay, I won’t. But here’s the thing,” I say, pulling out my cell phone. “There’s this invention, you see. A mobile com-communication device that could’ve spared you the trip. It’s a brave, new world, one in which I can just as easily tell you to fuck off on the phone as I can in person.”
I follow this up with a snarky grin. If it so happens that I recall his love of my snark…well, that’s neither here nor there.
Running his hand over his beard, he draws himself up to his full height. “As if I was just gonna let you hang up on me. You’re not going into the field. I’m managing this op and won’t be able to concentrate with you there.”
The annoying fluttering situation in my chest needs to go away, now. I tilt my chin up at him and give him my best glare. “I don’t know why you care.”
He frowns, now running his hand across the back of his neck, the angle showing off his immense biceps. “C’mon, man. Please don’t say that. You know I care about you.”
I snort. “No, Thane. I don’t know that at all. I only know two things. One, I have more sexual chemistry with you than any man I’ve ever slept with.” I pause, not sure if that’s what I actually meant to say. Eh, too late now. “Two, whenever we fuck, you’re eyeballing the exit as soon as you pull your dick out of me.”
He walks away, then curses to himself before spinning around and coming right back. He mutters something under his breath, something about “you’re just…wrong,” then grabs my shoulders and pushes me against the door.
Fuck, yes.
I mean…no. This is wrong and bad and…I can’t quite control the gasp that escapes my lungs. And even though I know I’mnot wrong, sharp need hijacks every damn synapse I own. His reaction, like mine, is autonomic and stronger than either of us. Growling, his grasp on my shoulders tightens as he pulls me into a bruising kiss.
He presses that finely honed body against mine, squishing me into the door as he devours me. I arch into the pressure, my neurons doing the fucking Cha-Cha with his weight on me, sending want and need and desire racing through my electrical system. The back of my head hits wood as he crushes the air out of my body, kissing me with abandon. His monster hard-on presses into my belly, and my head swims from the lack of oxygen. Just as my knees go weak, I place my hands on his shoulders and push back, desperate for a sip of air.
He towers over me, his powerful physique deliciously intimidating as he wraps his hand around my throat. “Also? Don’t ever fucking talk to me about the other men you’ve slept with.”
I’m not even aware of the existence of other men because the weight of his hand on my throat is a reminder, firing up powerful images of the two of us. Sex between us was never a quick affair. He’d patiently edge me until I was gagging for it and then fuck me until I couldn’t walk. And then stroke me even after I was an oversensitive mess, extracting at least two to three orgasms before finally allowing himself to come.
But as soon as he’d come, he’d be gone within minutes.
“Doesn’t matter,” I say, blinking up at him coquettishly as I ignore the blaring alarms firing off in my head. “It’s been so long, I’m practically a virgin again.”
He grunts, looking at me like he wants to eat me alive. Grabbing my ass with those enormous hands, he hoists me up, crushing me in his grip. I wrap my legs around his waist and throw my arms around his neck, our kissing once again an inarticulate, violent thing.
He lets me take a few gulps of air before ravaging my lips, my jaw, my throat, again and again.
Releasing my mouth, he bites at my ear, whispering in that rough gravel voice of his, “Bed?”
I nod, and he lets me down only to wrap himself around me from behind. I fumble with the keypad and he reaches around me, typing in the digits that my brain left somewhere in the elevator. The door buzzes, and I let us in, racing to the bed, his heavy footsteps just behind me. A giggle builds up in my chest as the anticipation swamps me.
I don’t know what the fuck I’m laughing about; this is stupid. It’s stupid and—
Suddenly, my feet leave the ground and I’m airborne, being wrestled to the bed with more of that delicious violence.
