“Why did you kiss me?” she asked, her voice quiet but demanding.
I knew I wasn’t going to get out of answering the question, and probably rightfully so. The way I’d grabbed her the other day, I was surprised she’d let me get away with it for this long. I must really have looked like shit that next time she’d seen me for her to have kept her mouth shut.
My mind scrambled for any acceptable answer outside of the truth.Say something clever. Say something safe. Don’t freak her out.
Instead, I said the first honest thing that came to mind. “You were the only person I wanted to talk to after that fight I had with my parents. You were the only person I wanted to see. Actually, I didn’t just want to see you. It felt like I had to see you, and I, uh, I kissed you because I wanted to.”
The words had barely left my mouth before she was moving, closing the short distance between us. When she reached me, she surged up on her tiptoes, her hands capturing my face before she pressed her lips against mine.
Hard. Urgent. With passion she didn’t even try to hide.
My hands rose instinctively, cradling her face before they threaded through her loose hair. I pulled her close and deepened the kiss, feeling her meet me with equal force. I had no idea where this was coming from, but this kiss somehow made logic and reasoning irrelevant.
For a moment, I thought I might lose my mind entirely if she broke away from me, but then I felt her starting to pull me toward the stairs and I knew then that she wasn’t going to stop. Aurelia Van Alen wanted me, possibly even just as badly as Iwanted her, and wild horses weren’t going to be able to drag me away for as long as that remained true.
CHAPTER 26
AURELIA
The moment his lips met mine, it was like everything else was just noise. I didn’t quite know what had come over me to be kissing him like this, but as soon as he’d admitted that he’d kissed me because he’d wanted to, it was like he’d given me permission to do the same thing.
These last few days, through all the confusion and uncertainty, the one thing I’d been certain of was that I’d felt things when he’d kissed me that I’d never felt before. Things that had made me want it again. I just hadn’t known if I would ever have another opportunity.
All of that evaporated as I pressed closer to him. I tangled one hand in his hair, the other gripping the back of his jacket as if I would hold on to him forever. Harrison groaned against my lips, the sound so deep and wanting that it sent a shiver straight down my spine.
His hands were everywhere all at once. On my waist, sliding around to the small of my back, the nape of my neck, gripping me like he couldn’t stand to let go. I gasped into his mouth, breathless and so very aware of every inch of him pressed against me.
Without even realizing I was doing it at first, I started pulling him toward my bedroom. We bumped into walls, knocked over lamps, and sent at least one vase rolling across the floor. My heart was pounding in my ears as he pressed me against a side table, his fingers threading under my shirt. Heat spread through me in a way I hadn’t expected, my body responding to his touches in ways I wasn’t used to.
Every time I tried to catch my breath, he silenced me with another hungry kiss, tugging me along the hallway as if he knew where he was going. I laughed and moaned at the same time when we nearly toppled a small table and he muttered curses and apologies into the kiss.
By the time we reached the bedroom, my knees felt weak. My head spun from the intensity of our kisses and the way he made me feel like the only person in the universe. He backed me against the door, his lips claiming mine again, his hands somehow simultaneously rough and gentle.
I held him close, parting his lips with my tongue as I wrapped my arms around his neck. We were both breathing hard, neither of us showing any signs of stopping or even slowing down.
Harrison’s hands moved to my thighs and he picked me up, pressing me against the door as he stepped forward to put his hips between mine. A deep moan shuddered through me when I felt him against my core, my panties already damp and my nipples so hard that they were aching.
In response to the sound, Harrison’s hips twitched. “Fuck, Aurelia. We don’t have to?—”
“Don’t you dare.” I ran my hands across his shoulders, hooking my fingers around the edges of his jacket and pushing it off. “You said you kissed me because you wanted to. You want this too and so do I.”
“Not gonna argue with that.” His mouth slanted over mine again, kissing me hard. He pulled me away from the door and carried me to my bed.
The lamp on my nightstand was on a timer, set to come on at sunset, and since I hadn’t switched it off yet, it was still on, bathing the room in a soft, orange glow. No other lights were on and that gentle glow encased us in such an intimate way that it felt like Harrison and I were in the bubble.
A bubble in which there were no rules. No agreement. No reason not to do whatever the hell we wanted.
Harrison laid me down on the bed, his dark hair falling forward to frame his handsome face. I gazed up at him, taking in the sharp curves of his features, held tight with restraint, and the heat blazing in his eyes. I sat up a little, sliding an arm around his neck to bring him onto the bed with me.
His tongue parted my lips with seamless ease. The weight of him pushing me into the mattress made me tingle all over. I hadn’t expected to feel so connected to him, but it was right there, buzzing right beneath the surface, that same sizzling chemistry we’d had the other day in his apartment.
We undressed each other piece by piece, hips lifting and lips parting whenever necessary, but we came back together as soon as we could every time. Our movements were still hurried and urgent, and before I even knew it, we were both naked, his skin burning hot against mine and his body all toned muscle and rippling definition when he moved.
I ran my hands over every inch of skin I could find, starting with those strong, broad shoulders and across his hard biceps before I moved to his back. I raked my fingernails against him, not gently, but not hard enough to leave marks either.
He groaned into our kisses, his cock hard and velvety smooth against the inside of my thigh. When he started dragging hislips down from my mouth to my jaw, I moaned, dropping back against my pillows and writhing underneath him.
He reached my chest, pausing to bring those heated eyes up to mine even as he cupped my breasts, his thumbs flicking across the peaked points of my nipples. “Tell me if you want me to stop. If you don’t, I’m going to assume it’s a green light. Fair?”
