“I’m good at hiding things I don’t want other people to know about. Believe me, Tate, I want nothing more than you out of this dress right now.”
I choke out a laugh. I misheard him. I must have.
He leans closer, his heady, expensive aftershave lingering in the air. The aroma is decadent and dark, mixed with warm skin. Creating a scent that’s so uniquely… him.
“I want you, Tate,” he says simply, like he needs to spell it out. “I want to kiss you, taste you… sink my head between your thighs and fucking drown in you. I want your curves filling my hands, and your moans filling my ears.”
“You what?” I squeak, my breath ragged.
Heat flares deep in my core as he looks at me with hungry eyes.
“I want you,” he rasps.
He leans down, lowering his mouth to mine.
“But I won’t touch you.” His breath fans over my parted lips. “I won’t…” He licks his lips. “Not unless you want me to.”
“Unless I want you to?”
“Precisely. The choice is yours.” He exhales, and I breathe in his air, my nipples pebbling beneath my dress.
“And if I say no?” The piano presses into my back. I don’t know when we moved, and I became trapped.
“Then we’ll forget this ever happened,” Sullivan murmurs, his attention dropping to my mouth.
“And you’ll what?” My lips tingle as I search for the right words.
Go back to looking like you hate my clothes? Go back to being curt with me, bordering on rude? Go back to scowling at me when you think I’m not looking?
“You’ll go back to?—”
“I’ll go back to dreaming about if you’d said yes. That’s what I’ll do.”
24
SULLIVAN
“Sullivan…”
I stay rooted to the spot, waiting to see what her next move will be. Waiting to see if she wants me like I want her.
My name breathed so softly from her lips has my eyes hooding with lust as I stare down at her. She rises on her toes and lightly dusts her lips over mine with trepidation like she’s testing out how it feels.
“Say the word, Tate,” I whisper. “Let me kiss you.”
She sinks her teeth into her pouty lower lip, looking at me from beneath her lashes, still toeing that line between what her body wants and what her head is telling her to do.
I cradle her face in a way that leaves no room for hesitation, stroking her cheeks with my thumbs. “I want to kiss you so badly. Let me. Please.”
She nods. It’s so slight that if I weren’t enraptured by her every move, I’d miss it.
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes,” she whispers.
“Thank you.”
I crush my lips to hers, the move making us stumble backinto the piano. I drop my hand to her hip, squeezing it as I steady her.
