“I’d rather not,” I mumbled over a mouthful offlesh.
“Please?”
Still not freeing my lip, I pressed the back of my skull into the wood, wishing its grainy surface could dip and swallow mewhole.
He raised his thumb and freed my lip from my teeth. “If I had wings,” he said huskily, “they’d be stretched from one wall of this office to theother.”
My heart froze, then turned liquid, melting into every extremity in mybody.
He stroked the edge of my lip, then leaned over, and pressed his mouth to mine, and I swear I no longer smoldered, I burned, a hot, hungry flame that he’d stoked with all his dark smiles and sultrywords.
I was so stunned that I didn’t kiss him back, the same way I didn’t close my eyes. Wasn’t I supposed to close my eyes? What did the heroines in my books do? They wrapped their hands around the necks of the person kissing them. I could startthere.
As my hands rose, they bumped the drink he was still clutching, sloshing the contents on hispants.
Oh . . .crap.
Jarod jerkedaway.
“I’m s-s-sorry,” I stammered. “I was trying t-to—”
“Cool me off?” His curved lipsglistened.
“No. I was—ugh—” I suddenly wished I could be struck down with angel-fire. “Trying to do something with myhands.”
His smile turned so wicked I regretted explaining my clumsiness. “And what were you trying to do with your hands?” His brazen timbre covered my smoldering skin in goosebumps.
I shut my eyes, wishing that because I couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see me, but I’d learned during a long-ago game of hide-and-seek with Eve that disappearing didn’t work likethat.
The heat from his body vanished, and then something clinked—glass against wood? I didn’t peek to find out, still dying of mortification. Suddenly, the air’s temperature swelled again, and fingers laced around my wrists, towing them gently upward, setting them around hisneck.
I still didn’t look, and the anticipation of his next move had my heartbeat radiating, making every inch of me vibrate with its wild tempo. His fingers stroked up the silk of my camisole, tracing the indents of my waist, the outer swells of my breasts, the bare skin right below my armpits, the crests of my shoulders, the dips around myneck.
Where one hand sank over my shoulder and traced a line down my spine, the other combed through my hair until it cupped the back of my head. I held my breath as sensations undulated through me, each one more debilitating and delectable than thelast.
I gripped Jarod’s neck, and the sinews tautened like stretched twine. I dipped the fingers of one hand below his shirt collar and speared the fingers of the other through his stiffenedlocks.
His spicy breath warmed my forehead, then the tip of my nose, and finally my parted lips. “Ready to try this again?” hemurmured.
Keeping my lids clasped shut, Inodded.
His nose brushed mine before pressing into my cheek, and then his lips closed over mine, stealing my breath and making ithis.
This kiss was surely going to cost me a feather. Perhaps, all of them. And yet, when he opened his mouth and dipped his tongue against mine, I welcomed him in, mirroring his pressure andstroke.
Our mouths moved silently over one another, our tongues exploring and connecting and licking. Celestial arias mingled with the rush of our heartbeats, gorging my ears with rapturousmusic.
His stubble roughed up my chin, leaving a titillating burn in its wake. I tightened my hold on his neck to bring him closer even though his nose already dug into my cheek and my hardened nipples gouged his chest. As though we were of one mind, his hand crimped the fabric at my waist and the skin beneath it, blighting every atom of air betweenus.
Our bodies fit as though created for one another, my soft curves filling all of his hard dents. As I explored his mouth, a new hunger streaked through my body, made my heart contract and thighs tremble. His kisses became more demanding, and I gave him everything I had to offer, which was probably not very much to a man like him, a man so used to gettingallhewanted.
My lower belly ached from the hard press of his zipper, but there was no pain in that ache. The brandy, which had soaked into the fine wool of his suit, transferred to my skirt, hot and wet and smelling of spice and desire. His scent tormented me almost as much as histaste.
Panting hard, he broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against mine, a gelled tendril of hair tickling my temple. His palm released the back of my head and pressed into the wall behind me, heaving his body off mine. The distance was unbidden, and I tried to coax him closer, but it was like trying to shift a marblestatue.
“Unless you want me to rob you of the rest of your innocence,” he murmured huskily, “you have to give me a minute.” He pushed a tangled orange lock behind myear.
I slid my hand out of his hair and around his corded neck, feeling his pulse drilling his throat. Worried that he might snap out of whatever spell had made him kiss me, I kept both my hands on hisbody.
