She blinked, eyes wide as she finally met my gaze.
I smiled softly. “It’s not just your body I want, Deena. It’s your mind. Your heart. Your soul.”
“This is crazy,” she whispered.
“I jumped on a jet and flew down to North Carolina because I had to see you. It wasn’t for some screwed-up business deal. It was because I had a sliver of a chance of seeing you after all those weeks of silence. And I’ll keep chasing you down wherever you go because you’re in my bones, Deena. It’s not just sex to me. You make me feel alive. You make me want to cut myself open and bleed when I’ve spent my whole life trying to keep myself as protected as possible.”
I’m falling in love with you. I already have. It was on the tip of my tongue, words that would forever change what was happening between us.
But Deena beat me to it. “Cal,” she whispered, her voice pleading, her eyes wide and liquid. “Touch me. Please.”
TWENTY-TWO
DEENA
I expectedCal to move fast. He’d won; I thought he’d rush to claim his prize. Instead, he watched me through half-lidded eyes, studying my every reaction. His hands skimmed down my sides, and the feathery touch sent bolts of heat through me.
I’d missed this. It had been a little over seven weeks since my parents’ anniversary party, and I felt like I’d been starving ever since. Touch starved. Attention starved. Sex starved. How could I have gone years without sex before him when now it felt like I’d die if I didn’t feel him inside me? I trembled as his hands splayed over my thighs, tracing the crease at the base of my ass.
His declaration rattled around my brain, but I couldn’t make sense of it. Was he telling me he cared about me? Was he telling me he wanted more than just sex and bickering? Was he telling me helovedme?
I couldn’t think straight at the best of times when he was around. And especially not when his hands were on me.
Slowly—too slowly—Cal inched my skirt up my thighs. It was a black pencil skirt that hit just below the knee, and there seemedto be endless yards of fabric for him to tug. I squirmed impatiently, and Cal’s lips curved.
“Missed this,” he hummed. The way he said it made me feel like he meant more than just sex. He meant the energy zapping between us, the electricity that made me jump and writhe.
I’d missed it too.
But giving in right now felt like giving up—on everything I’d worked to achieve. Everything I’d run away from. Onme. The very fabric of me. If I surrendered to the desire to be Cal’s perfect little pet every time he touched me, didn’t that make me weak?
The tight bottom hem of my skirt pinned my thighs together, and Cal stopped pulling it up. His hands slid over the sides of my neck, and he tilted my chin up with his thumbs. His eyes were intent. “Do you remember what I told you the last time, Deena?”
Just like that—just like he always did—Cal cut through the noise in my head. I immediately knew what he was referring to. I swallowed. “I’m in charge,” I whispered.
“You’re in charge,” he confirmed, eyes never leaving mine. “Now tell me what you want.”
Words clogged in my throat. I didn’t know what I wanted. I just knew that I was restless and wound up too tight, and he was the only man who’d ever been able to make that feeling go away. I stared at him, pleading.
“Do you want me to make you come?”
I blinked over his shoulder to look at the door.
He turned my head so I’d meet his gaze. “No one’s here.”
“Willa—”
“Left after she sent that email. Now answer the question, Deena.”
Did I want him to make me come? “Yes,” I whispered.
He grunted, and the line of his shoulders softened. When hespoke, his voice was quiet and commanding. “Keep grabbing that desk, love. Don’t let go.”
My grip tightened on the desk on either side of my hips, and Cal’s lips curved into a smile. Then he leaned down and kissed me, slow and thorough, until I was glad I gripped the desk because my legs were doing nothing to keep me upright.
The kiss was salvation. It was everything I’d told myself I didn’t need. It was all his attention, his affection, his all-too-perceptive assault on my every sense. Stubble rasped against my cheek as he kissed my jaw before returning to my lips. His scent filled my nostrils. His tongue slid against mine, and I let go of whatever last defenses were holding me back.
I wanted this. I’d wanted it every day that I’d worked here. I’d wanted it every day I’d had him blocked. I’d wanted it the night we spent in rooms at opposite ends of the hall at my parents’ house. When Cal kissed me, everything was right in the world again.
