I elbowed him.
His hands slid down my spine.
“I was talking about when you said we were done,” I clarified. “What did you mean, exactly? And don’t start another fight. I’m too tired.”
“I meant exactly that. No more parties or public events together. I want my money back, but not if it means you suffer this much for it. Like I said, I try to avoid physical torture.”
“But mental torture is okay?”
“Yes, and I think I’ve put up with more than enough of it from you. I need a break.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” I said, my tone flat. “What if you don’t recoup your losses?”
“I will.”
“But what if you don’t?”
He sighed, kneading his way back up my spine. “Stella, just drop it. One way or another, I’ll get what I’m after, but you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
I waited for the elation his sentence should have caused, but I must have been through too much shit tonight to feel joy, because all I felt was numb. Not even relieved.
“Do you promise?” I said.
“Yes.”
I turned in his arms.
“What are you—”
I kissed him. Maybe just to be reckless, maybe just to feel something, or maybe because I’d been fighting the urge to kiss him again for so long that I couldn’t fight it any longer.
Theo froze for half a second, but then he groaned, deep and guttural, and yanked me the rest of the way onto his lap. His lips opened, our tongues brushed, and—yes. This was what I wanted. This was what Ineeded.
His hands fell to my ass, fingers digging in. I lifted mine to his face and tilted his head back to get a better angle. He was an annoyingly good kisser, knew when to push deeper, when to draw back. When to nip at my lower lip in a way that spiked my lust. Unable to help myself, I rolled my hips, dragging my pussy over the entire length of his cock and pausing at the top to feel the swell of his head prod my entrance before forcing myself back down.
He pulled me into him, dick straining between us, and I swirled my hips as much as he allowed, the friction of his skin against my clit enough to make me lightheaded. He shuddered, his mouth moving faster, forcing me to keep up. I might have been the one who started this, I might have just escalated it, but I was under no illusion that he didn’t have the power to rip control from my hands. And yet he let me have my fun, allowed me to tease and torment us both by rolling my hips again and again, my nipple rings dragging over his chest every time I moved.
With a gasp, I leaned back to stare down at him, my hips working in a circle, his cock straining beneath me. Goddamn it, why did he have to be so beautiful? The water had slicked his hair back, leaving nothing to distract from the sharp angles of his cheekbones, that pouty mouth. His eyes held another challenge, another dare, like he didn’t think I could do this. That I would change my mind or chicken out, leaving the question of how good it could be between us unanswered.
But if he was being serious, and this was the last night I’d ever see him, I saw no reason to hold back. No reason to pretend I hadn’t wanted him since the first time he’d walked into my shop. Was it messed up? Borderline pathetic to lust after my blackmailer? Maybe, but right now, I didn’t give a shit. I was choosing problematic over safe, letting myself be reckless and stupid one more time before I had to go back to living the most boring, cautious life imaginable.
I bent forward and bit his lower lip. “I want you, Theo.”
The devil was in his grin as he stared up at me. “I’ve been waitingweeksfor you say that.”
“Then why didn’t you say it first?”
His smile widened. “Because I couldn’t be the first one to break.”
I tried to climb off him.
He called my bluff, yanking me back into place and holding me there, his eyes dropping to my tits, tongue slipping out to wet his lower lip. “I couldn’t let you know how bad I wanted it.” He squeezed my hips and ground upward. “That every time I said something to piss you off, it was because I was thinking about fucking you and needed you to put me in my place.”
A blush crept across my cheeks. “You must have been thinking about it constantly.”
He dragged his gaze up to mine, his eyes almost black they were so dark. “Yes. That night in the restaurant, I imagined dropping to my knees and licking your pussy right there at the table. And then outside that first party, when I got you up on that car. I was desperate to pull your panties aside and get you off where anyone might catch us.”
I braced my hands on his chest, meeting his renewed thrusts, feeling my slickness start to coat his shaft with every dirty word that fell from his mouth. I wanted him inside me, so bad, but knew I couldn’t take him yet.
