She kept his gaze as she whispered, ‘I’m not teasing.’
His hooded gaze dropped to her mouth. ‘Then you’re playing with fire.’
She lifted her chin. ‘Maybe I want to get burned.’
He shook his head, lifting his eyes to hers once more, looking both resolute and resigned. ‘After what you told me about your father, the abuse you suffered at his hands…you’re vulnerable. I’m not going to take advantage of you, and especially not tonight.’
She pressed her hand to his cheek, letting her thumb graze his mouth. ‘You’re vulnerable too.’
He jerked back slightly at that, and then a sigh of reluctant acknowledgement escaped him. His eyes closed as he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers, their hands still clasped. For a moment they both simply breathed, their foreheads touching, their hands together against his cheek.
‘This doesn’t make any sense,’ Nico murmured. ‘For either of us.’
‘I know,’ Ashley whispered back. ‘But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.’
He laughed, the sound a soft rasp. ‘Truth be told, I don’t need much convincing.’
‘Good.’ She lifted her forehead from his and then she kissed him again, deeply this time, a demand. It felt surprisingly strong, to be the one kissing him, to feel in control…but only for a moment. For within a few seconds Nico was kissing her back, just as demandingly, a kiss that was fierce and primal as his lips slotted over hers and his tongue invaded her mouth, claiming her as his own, and Ashley could only surrender.
And what a glorious surrender it was, as his hands became lost in her hair and the kiss deepened and took over her every spinning sense. His hands moved from her hair to her back to her breasts, cupping them, his thumbs running over her nipples, causing her to shudder in response before he slid them down to anchor at her hips.
He broke the kiss, his hands still fastened on her hips, to ask her yet again in a low, raw voice, ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes,’ Ashley said simply. Maybe she shouldn’t be sure; maybe she would regret this in the morning. Maybe it was an even bigger mistake, piled on top of several already substantial ones, and this time one that could have potentially even more heart-wrenching repercussions, at least for her. She didn’t give her body to this man lightly.
And yet…the brokenness in her called to the brokenness she’d discovered in him. Together, perhaps, they could find a wholeness that neither of them had found anywhere else. She didn’t delude herself that this was love, especially not after such a short time, but it was something more than lust. It felt deeper, more profound, a kind of healing…or at least it could be.
Or was she being completely ridiculous?
Ashley didn’t care. She wanted this. She wantedhim—Nico. No matter what regrets she faced later.
‘I’m sure,’ she told him again, and Nico needed no further reminders as he captured her mouth with his once more and then hoisted her up by her hips, sliding her gown up to her thighs as he stood up and she wrapped her legs around his waist to anchor herself as he carried her into the bedroom.
As Nico let her down, Ashley glimpsed an endless bed with a duvet of navy satin, the view of the city twinkling from the floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, her legs sliding down his body, her breasts brushing his chest. Even now he seemed to wait for her to hesitate or even refuse. She smiled up at him instead.
Nico slowly ran his hand from her shoulder to her hip. ‘This dress…’ he murmured. ‘The first time I saw you, I thought you looked like a…rainbow, or a shooting star. I couldn’t believe my eyes.’
She reached up and touched his cheek, letting her hand slide from his cheek to his jaw to his shoulder, amazed at how empowering it felt to touch him in this way, to see his response in the flaring of his eyes, the shudder of his breath.
‘Did I talk to you first?’ she asked as she let her fingertips brush across his chest, and then daringly, even lower, sliding under his cummerbund before skimming up again. ‘Or did you talk to me?’
‘You sought me out.’ For a second, his hand trapped hers, stilling it. ‘I thought it was because your father ordered you to.’
She tilted her head to look up at him, seeing the way he searched her gaze, needing whatever truth she could give him. ‘Why would he have done that?’ she whispered.
‘It came out in the trial that I was a little too big for my britches. Making a play for the boss’s daughter as well as stealing his money. The jury didn’t like that.’
Ashley felt the tension thrumming through him, and carefully she twined her fingers with his, lacing them over his taut torso. ‘I don’t think my father would trust me with that kind of thing,’ she whispered. ‘He only ever asked me to stand there and smile…and I hated that already.’
His fingers tightened on hers and he drew their hands up towards his heart. ‘I thought it was a set-up. Afterwards.’ It came out like a confession.
A soft sigh escaped her as the depth of his suffering and hurt reverberated through her again. ‘Nico, I don’t know what it was. I still can’t remember anything but—but how I felt when I was with you. And how scared I was after. And how…how much I want you now.’ She whispered the admission in a trembling voice before she stood on her tiptoes to brush a kiss across his mouth as he closed his eyes.
This really didn’t make sense, Ashley thought as a shudder went through him, and then his hand stole around the back of her head as he angled his mouth over hers to kiss her more deeply. They were enemies, or at least they had been. Their shared past was painful and littered with secrets she couldn’t even remember. As for their future…she had no idea what it held for Infinite Innovations, never mind for them as a couple. If there evenwasa them, which there almost certainly wasn’t. Maybe she really was deluding herself now…
And yet, as he kissed her, all those tumbling thoughts blew away and left only the purity of their shared desire. A desire that felt healing and possessed the power to make them both whole.
Nico lifted his head as he gazed down at her with eyes that blazed his need. ‘I’ve had so many fantasies of taking this dress off you,’ he murmured. ‘I never thought I’d get the chance.’
