She leaned back,pressing her spine fully into my chest, and immediately I felt it — warmth, weight, danger. My fingers hovered over the keys as though I could somehow type my way out of the sensation.
“You know,” she murmured, voice soft, teasing, “you look ridiculously hot when you’re flustered.”
I swallowed hard. “I?—”
“Shhh,” she interrupted, fingers brushing my forearm like a spark. “Don’t answer. I enjoy watching you.”
My pulse jumped. I could feel her breath, light and teasing, against my ear. “I… I’m not?—”
“You are,” she whispered, a wicked little laugh vibrating through me. “You aresoflustered. Look at you. Hands all tense, lips tight… god, it’s adorable.”
I clenched my jaw, fingers twitching on the typewriter. “Adorable?” I rasped.
“Mm-hmm.” Her head tilted, hair brushing my cheek. “Absolutely. You can’t even pretend around me, can you?”
I swallowed hard. “I?—”
“Hush,” she interrupted, a low laugh vibratingagainst my chest. “Don’t talk. The little noises you make are borderlineaddicting, hotshot.”
My pulse spiked. My fingers twitched. “Little… noises?” I rasped, fighting the urge to jerk away and curse the world for howimpossibleshe was. Fighting to regain my composure while she wriggled on top of me.
“You heard me,” she whispered, playful and daring. Her head tilted, hair brushing my cheek. In an instant, her hips were rocking backward, just a touch, catching against my cock.
I watched as her eyes fluttered closed on a little moan, the sly grin never once falling from her lips. Impulse overtook reason… my mouth brushed the side of her neck — once.
Twice.
Three times, settling over her pulse point. With a hint of teeth, I sucked gently on the sensitive skin, feeding off of the way she wriggled against me.
She inhaled sharply, a small laugh vibrating through her, teasing and mischievous. “Mm,” she murmured, voice low, playful. “Careful there.”
For what felt like thelongesttime, I let her have her fun — all pink hair and pointed smiles. But when she looked up at me like that, I forgot to be careful. “I think you like getting reactions out of me,” I whispered. “You should know, you menace, it goes both ways.”
Her breath caught; I felt it where our bodies were still twined. The air shifted, smaller somehow. She didn’t pull back — just waited, daring me to prove it.
So I did what I always swore I wouldn’t: I let myselfwant.I turned my head slightly, close enough that her hair brushed my jaw, close enough to see the pulse at her throat flutter once, twice. “Colette,” I murmured, not as a warning this time but as a confession.
She tilted her chin, eyes closing for half a heartbeat, and that was all it took for the last thread of my composure to fray. Her name still hung between us when she turned her head, slow, uncertain,and I could smell her shampoo — something light and sweet that made my pulse jump.
Every instinct I had was fighting itself. I should’ve moved. I should’ve created space. Instead I stayed there, every nerve tuned to the places where we touched.
For once… she didn’t have to say anything; the question was already in the air, trembling between breaths. I let my hand fall to her waist, barely there, the weight of it enough to feel her tense, then melt.
For a moment, everything stopped — the wind outside, the ticking of the stove, even my own sense of reason. There was just her heartbeat against my palm and the sharp, impossible knowledge that if I leaned in any closer, there’d be no coming back from it.
And then she whispered my name. Soft, unguarded.
That was all it took.
I would like to say that I’m unsure of what came over me. That I was a man possessed when I acted next.
But that would have been a lie.
Because I wasfully, irrevocably in control of my actions when I slipped my hand from the safety of her waist.
And landed on the soft skin of her thigh, just… resting there. Just past where my sweater stopped. Colette's breath hitched as my hand paused, skin warm and smooth beneath my palm. I couldfeelthe tension coiling in her muscles, the way she held herself perfectly still, daring me to move further.
Slowly, deliberately, I dragged my fingers upward. Just a little. Just enough to make the fabric of the sweater ride up. Her breath caught in her throat, a soft whimper escaping her lips. “Silas…” she breathed, a warning and an invitation all at once.
