Rejection lowered her heels to the ground with a click. Not ten minutes ago, he’d whispered erotic things in her ear and couldn’t keep his hands off her. “Is something wrong?”
He fished his phone from his pocket and swiped several times until a black and white video appeared, his face frozen on the screen. “This is the reason Linc was here today. It’s the footage from Saturday night at Pulse, showing my every move from arrival to departure.”
“Okay.” She met his gaze, solemn, resigned. He was making her nervous. “Why didn’t he just send it to you?”
“I don’t know. He’s weird about privacy. But he thought it would help shut down gossip if leaked to the paparazzi.”
“Are you going to use it?”
“I’ll talk to Marcus. See what he says. That’s why I was late. We met about it again this morning. Either way, it’ll show my family what actually happened. They’re still pretty pissed on your behalf, along with ninety percent of social media.” He grinned. “You’ve turned into quite the media princess.”
“I’m so sorry, Avery. Would it help if I talked to them?”
“Nah, this should do it.” His thumb hovered over the play button. “I’d like you to watch it before it goes out.”
She laid her hand over his, covering the screen. “I don’t need to.” A nervous laugh bubbled out of her. “God knows why, but I trust you.”
His eyes held hers for a moment, a battle waging in their dark depths, as if part of him wanted to prove something to her while another part of him wanted to believe that she trusted him without proof, that she believed in him.
In the end, he relinquished his phone to his pocket and pulled her back into his arms. “Where were we?”
On her tiptoes again, she whispered against his lips, “Right about here.”
His mouth slanted over hers, his tongue slicing between her lips and stroking the underside. A moan ripped from her throat. She drove her eager fingers into the hair at his nape to urge him deeper.
He gripped her ass and lifted her off the ground. In two strides, her back hit the wall, and the thick ridge of his cock slammed against her mound. Sparks ignited in her belly. She tilted her hips, her clit seeking relief with the next flex of his hips.
On a groan, he tore his lips from hers, and her head lolled to one side as he pressed open-mouth kisses along her jaw to that sensitive spot behind her ear. “I can feel how hot you are. You’re scorching my dick through my pants.”
His thumb grazed her nipple through the dress as he ground against her again, slowly, not as hard this time.
“Oh fuck, Avery, yes. Do that again.”
Instead, he eased off enough to peel her sweater over her shoulders. She helped him, shimmying until it fell away, but he was already tasting his way across her collarbone.
She whimpered as he dragged the material of her dress across her nipple, and she couldn’t stifle the feral cry of relief when his hot mouth closed over it and sucked. Each draw tugged at the invisible string connected to a place she’d never felt before, a new pleasure center that ramped up the desire burning its way through her body.
Oh god, he definitely knows what he’s doing.
One last hard suck and he released her breast with a pop. His weight lifted off her, but she filled her hands with his shirt. “Don’t stop.”
“Shhhhh, I’m right here.” He pried her fingers loose.
Fabric rustled, dragging her from the stupor he’d put her in. She blinked her eyes open just in time for his hands to grasp her waist, pick her up, and sit her atop the step ladder.
Sans jacket—what had he done with it—Avery dropped to his knees, one bracketing each side of the ladder, and sat back on his heels. The bulge at the V of his thighs stole her breath and scattered her tenuous thoughts. As did the white ofhis shirt stretched taut across the breadth of his shoulders and contrasting with the raven-black of his hair at his collar.
It wasn’t fair that he should be so beautiful and yet exude that degree of raw masculinity.
Sighing, she tracked his dark chocolate eyes as he, too, seemed to catalog her attributes, his gaze lingering over her exposed breast before sliding up to collide with hers. “Fuck, Legs, you’re beautiful.”
Fire bloomed in her cheeks. “What are we doing?”
“I want to see all of you.” He flicked the tie holding her dress closed. “Show me what you’re hiding.”
Ignoring the voice in her head demanding modesty, Jo tugged the tail of the bow and watched his face as the tie unfurled and one side of the dress opened. His eyes narrowed on her fingers as she reached for the button holding the other side in place. His jaw ticked and his fingers curled into his palms, as if restraint was taking a toll, as if he wanted to rip the dress off.
The power she held over him was heady, that he was giving it to her humbling. The button gave way. The other half slid aside, leaving the dress hanging on by its straps. She shivered, but not from the cold. The hunger in his eyes warmed her from the inside out.
