‘Well, thank you. But you can go now.’
She wheels the trolley across the room and leaves it next to the dining room table, which is big enough to comfortably lie across. Heat burns in my cheeks and I push the image away immediately.
Ryan grins at me, as if the same thought occurred to him.
‘Call me in the morning. I’m not due in until the afternoon.’ The nudge she delivers with her elbow is firm enough to make me yelp. For someone supposedly concerned with discretion, she certainly isn’t subtle. She gives me the thumbs up before finally closing the door.
‘Are you hungry?’ Lifting the polished silver lids, I inhale the succulent aromas.
‘Yes.’ Ryan’s gaze drops over my body in a deliberate motion and the butterflies swarm and soar once again.
I pull out a chair and motion for him to sit. Reluctantly, he drops into the cushioned chair and tuts, as if eating is a waste of his time. I don’t remind him dinner was his idea.
He soon changes his mind, devouring mouthful after mouthful of juicy fillet, dripping in a red wine jus. ‘It’s unbelievably good.’
‘Conor is very talented.’ I pop another melt-in-the-mouth bite on my tongue and close my eyes. When I open them, Ryan’s staring at me.
‘Oh, he is, is he?’ Jealousy flares in his pupils.
Now he knows how I felt any time I caught a glimpse of him on the front page of a glossy with some beautiful high-flying actress on his arm.
I shrug and nod, stoking the fire, unable to help myself.
He places his knife and fork on his plate in a slow deliberate motion. I do the same, and put my plate back on the trolley, no longer hungry all of a sudden.
Using his index finger, he beckons me to where he sits at the head of the table. I shake my head, unconvincingly. My body begs me to leap across to him, but my hammering heart still urges caution.
He rolls his eyes in borderline arrogance. ‘Playing hard to get, Sash? We both know where this is going to end.’ The legs of his chair screech against the floor as he stands, stalking deliberately towards me.
I rise to my feet and raise my hands in surrender. ‘I’m not playing anything. I’m just trying to act with caution.’
He turns my body to meet his, pushing his powerful frame against my front, pinning my bum to the table behind me.
Saliva pools in my mouth and heat rages through my core, and lower. I want him. I can’t deny it. I’ve always wanted him.
My thinly veiled self-control is pushed to the limits when his hips press against mine, leaving nothing to my imagination.
‘I’m done with caution. I want to make you mine again, right here, right now.’ His deep velvety voice commands my attention, as do the fingers that tilt my chin to meet his smouldering stare.
My tongue darts over my lips as my hips buck defiantly back at him, refusing to meet the lips that linger tormentingly, millimetres from mine, because once I do all sense of self-preservation evaporates. ‘Who says I want you to?’
Laughter dances in his eyes. ‘Oh, Sasha, I can read every minute signal from your beautiful body. And like every other instrument I put my hands on, I can and will play it perfectly.’
As if to prove his point, he drops a hand to my bare knee, sliding his finger up the inside of my thigh. When he slips it inside my silk underwear, the gasp that slips from my lips has him grinning.
‘You know, you’re quite persuasive when you want to be, but you can’t just walk back in here after ten years and expect me to roll over for you.’ I’m soaked. I can barely stand and my tone’s weighted with wanting and he knows it.
His index finger glides up and down my centre. Raw lust rips through me. Burning desire swells in every single cell, yet I manage to hang back, to not bury my tongue in his mouth.
‘I never said anything about you rolling over,’ his husky voice growls into my ear.
My legs tremble as his index finger continues its maddening, addictive stroke. I haven’t even come yet, but I already know once won’t be enough. It’s been ten long years and I have craved this body for each and every day of them.
The hand that’s not inside my underwear strays to the back of my dress searching for a way to undo it. The sweet metallic swish of the zip lowering is the sexiest sound in the world. When he removes his fingers from my sex to whip the dress over my head, I whimper out loud. The ice queen has officially melted.
The satisfaction sparkling in his pupils shows he knows it.
‘Oh, Sasha, what am I going to do with you?’ Hungry eyes roam my body as I stand before him in nothing but an ebony silk thong and matching Agent Provocateur bra.
