“I saved you from the embarrassment of walking around with icing on your face.” His grin is wolfish. “I think that falls quite comfortably in the ‘taking care of a friend’ column.”
I shake my head. “Stop saying it like that. You make it sound—”
“What? Tell me how I make it sound, Sloane.” His words are playful, but his tone is the exact opposite. It’s rough, husky, sinful to match the wicked curve of his lips.
“You know what it sounds like, Dominic.”
“I do.” He reaches up, brushing the same thumb that was just skating across his lower lip over mine. “I just want to hear you say it.”
I glare at him. “Dirty. It sounds dirty.”
His other hand comes up, and now he’s cradling my face, hungry eyes steady on my mouth. My lips are tingling, and I know my skin is flushed. I can feel the heat creeping into my cheeks, burning up underneath the rough skin of his palms.
“Is that a problem for you, angel?”
“Yes.”No.
“Why?” He licks his lips, and the quick swipe of his tongue sends my mind into a free fall. Vivid images of all the obscene things he could do to me with that tongue bombard me, and another warm rush of arousal slips down my spine.
“We’re not like that, Dominic. We can’t be like that.”Can we? Please say we can.
He takes another step forward and steals every bit of air from my lungs when his erection presses into my stomach. Andoh my God, the feel of him, hot and hard against me, has me biting my lip to stifle the moan clawing up my throat. My eyes fall closed of their own accord, but I can still feel his gaze on me.
“Stop biting your lip and look at me, Sloane.”
But I can’t do it. I can’t look at him. He releases my face, and his hands glide down my neck, coasting over my shoulders and arms. It’s like he can’t stop touching me, and nothing in me wants him to. His fingers feel exactly how I imagined: rough from years of physical labor and hot enough to brand me.
“You’ve thought about what it would feel like for me to touch you?”
Fuck, I said that out loud?
My eyes pop open, and my reward for the delayed response to his command is diving headfirst into two liquid pools of pure desire andneed. A look so raw and carnal I want to look away again, because if I don’t, I’m going to explode right here in James’s unfinished bathroom. I start to turn my head, but his hand comes up and catches my chin between two long fingers—forcing me to look at him, to bear witness to the unexpected desire pouring off of him.
“Answer me, Sloane.”
Another command. One that matches the heat and severity of his gaze. My lips part, but the words won’t come. I don’t know how to tell him his touch has been in my mind for days on end, that I’ve dreamed ofhim touching me just like this except with a lot less clothing between us. Putting those words into the world would make them too real, so I settle for a small nod. His answering smile makes my knees weak.
“I want to kiss you. I need to know if you taste as good as you do in my dreams.”
What?The confession is a low growl, one that has me squeezing my legs together in a laughable attempt to quell the ache between my thighs. Before I can say anything, he dips his head and presses his lips to mine, rendering me motionless. Warm and wet lips work against my stiff and stunned ones. I can’t remember the last time I’ve welcomed a kiss from a man, but damn if this doesn’t feel amazing.
Dominic’s kiss is hungry yet gentle. Both of his hands are back on my face, tilting my head so he can slant his full lips over my mouth. A moan rings out, and it takes a second for me to realize it’s mine. He laughs, and it’s a sensual, dark sound full of promises I shouldn’t want him to keep. “Quiet, angel,” he whispers against my lips. “Do you want everyone to know what’s happening in here right now?”
His words should scare me. The idea of any member of his team walking in on us like this—with Dominic’s dick pressed into my stomach and my body soft and pliable against every hard inch of his—should be like having a bucket of ice water poured over my head, but it just intensifies my need, making it a tangible thing in the room.
I want to feel his skin under my hands and find out if my touch affects him as much as his affects me, so that’s what I do. I run my hand down his face, over the hairs of his beard that are tickling my face. And then, when it’s not enough, I fist his shirt in my hand, tugging hard to bring him closer to me. Dominic releases a groan of satisfaction. And then that wicked tongue swipes over my bottom lip, coaxing me to open for him. My body obeys his command without any direction from my brain.
Suddenly he’s tasting me, groaning into my mouth like a starving manwho’s just had the first bite of an amazing meal. I want to laugh at the way he’s disregarding the warning he just gave me, but a shiver rolls down my spine at the sound.It’s so damn sexy.Dominic traces the path of the shiver over the thin fabric of my blouse, and that familiar zip of energy races through me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’m screaming at myself to stop—telling myself it doesn’t matter that my body feels alive under his touch or that I’m so turned on the evidence of it must be soaking through the lace of my thong—because this isn’t right.
I pull back. “Dominic.”
“Sloane.” He draws it out. It’s similar to the way he did on Sunday, when the sight of his mouth curling around my name set my soul on fire. His lips move to my neck, and he takes a deep breath, inhaling my scent before dropping more kisses down my throat to my collarbone. My pulse pounds in my ears, stealing all of my thoughts.
“Dominic, please…” The desperate plea hits the air, and Dominic freezes. He pulls back to search my face, and I wonder what he sees there—desire, hunger, panicked need that matches his own.
“What is it?” Another kiss to my lips. Soft and quick like he knows he’ll have the chance to do it again. “Tell me what you want, angel.”
My eyes fall closed when he pulls my bottom lip between his teeth, bites it, and then releases it. Suddenly, I’m all sensation, trembling in the hands of my husband’s best friend. Dying for his lips to coast over mine again. For his hands to touch me, to do something about the incessant need that’s like a heartbeat between my legs. Why am I stopping this again?
