I nearly fly as his hand clamps around my neck and he pulls me flush against him, the other hand slipping inside my mouth, his fingers silencing me, tasting likeme. My eyes shoot wide, shocked.
"How's that?" he rasps against my ear. "Don't you taste delicious? Makes me want to plunge my tongue inside you, taste it from the source."
"What the—"
"What?" he asks, molten. "You take my fingers like that and expect me to behave?"
I feel the bulge straining in his pants, proving how much he wants me and everything in me coils into a tight knot.
18. He grabs my jaw and tilts my face to his, eyes spearing mine. "Tell me what you really want. The truth."
Everything burns down to just us—not enemies, not two idiots. Just two hearts smoldering quietly for too many years. Why? Don't ask me. But one thing I know—
19.Goodbye, virtue. Goodbye, denial.
My hips answer for me, dragging against the thick, hard line of him, like I'm trying to etch him inside of me.
He doesn't expect it, stumbles back with a strained curse, and his voice comes out wild. "This? This is what you want, Emma? You want me to ruin you right here?"
20. Before I can answer, the elevator chimes. Loud. Cruel.
I let out a frustrated sound as the door opens.
Richard could walk in any second if he decided to be home, and here I am with my hair ruffled, skirt up, and begging to be bent over the mirror.
Before I have a chance to think, Ben turns me to face him, pinning me between the wall and his heated body.
His hand flies to the panel, pressing the top button, and he says, "Come with me."
The elevator closes on us again, and we go up.
I search in his face. "Where are we going?"
He holds my chin between his thumb and index finger. "You can hate me in the morning all you want, but I want to make you mine. Give me one night—that's all I need."
"One night," I echo, light-headed.
One night with Ben. One night to be only his.
I made many bad decisions in my life, and this might be one of them.
"Take me anywhere," I breathe.
I barely say it before our mouths crash, his kiss bruising my lips. I want it to bruise me.
Because the truth is, I'd go through every floor of hell with this man.
20
The sign on the door says: CLOSED FOR RENOVATION. We're at the end of a dim hallway on the 40th floor that is empty apart from us.
"Ben," I try to breathe between his lips. "It's closed."
He slips a red card from his pocket while his arm doesn't let me get away, and taps it on the lock.
Click. The door gives and Ben pushes it open, steering me through gently.
Suddenly I'm on the open rooftop, the midnight air crashing over me, threaded with pool water and stars.
