The elevator’s on the top floor and stops a few floors above us.
“This,” he rasps, waving between the two of us. “We have a pact. A deal. We laid down rules and I can’t seem to find the fucking willpower to keep following them.” He shakes his head and looks down at the floor.
I swallow hard. We drew lines in the sand, specific ones we said we wouldn’t cross. When we first made this pact, I told him I wouldn’t be trading sexual favors for him helping me. That’s not what this is. God, this is the farthest thing from that.
“So, don’t.”
His eyes flick to mine. The elevator starts to descend toward the lobby. “Don’t what?”
“Follow the rules.” I pinch my lips between my teeth and my heart hammers harder. This is probably a mistake, but I’m done worrying about that. I’m done worrying about how I might feel in the future, when I can feel and experience so much in the moment. “Sometimes they’re meant to be broken.”
“Jade…” his voice is hoarse, his eyes hooded. The elevator dings as it reaches the lobby. “You said no sexual favors.
I lift a brow. “It’s not. We have an agreement to help each other outside of that. This is more like an added benefit.”
A smirk tugs on his lips. “I like added benefits.”
The elevator doors slide open. He reaches for my hand and I slide my fingers through his, tugging on his arm as I step through the doorway. “So do I.”
Matteo walks in after me, pulling on my arm as he spins me around to face him. “Fuck the rules,” he murmurs, stepping into my space, until my back hits the wall. His eyes search mine, as if he’s silently asking for my permission.
A ragged breath slips from my lips and I repeat the same three words back to him. “Fuck the rules.”
His fingers slide through my hair as he cradles the back of my head. “Fucking elevators,” he murmurs, his face dipping down to mine. “I’ve been waiting to do this in here.”
His mouth claims mine, his lips hard, yet soft as he kisses me with a fervent need. He steals any words I could have possibly spoken in response. I kiss him back, my lips moving with his, tasting, teasing, melting. We cease to exist separately.
He groans, his hips pushing against my torso, tearing his mouth away from mine. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Yes,” I murmur, tugging his mouth back to mine, sucking his bottom lip between my teeth. “You said you need to get me out of your system.”
And I think I might need him out of mine too.
“Just once is all we need.”
The elevator dings when it reaches my floor. I pull back, my eyes searching his for a brief second.. “What if it doesn’t work?”
“It has to,” he rasps, his nostrils widening. I love seeing him like this, unraveling for me.
The doors slide open and I give him a gentle shove, smirking as I reach for his hand and walk out into the hall. “It’s cute that you think you won’t be the one getting attached.”
Matteo’s silent as I lead him into my apartment, but as soon as the door shuts behind him, his hands find me once more.
“I’m already attached, Sunny baby,” he murmurs, grabbing my hips, pulling me flush against him. “Let me pretend I still have some control over what’s happening here.”
His hands slide around my back, slipping down over the back pockets of my jeans, and beneath my ass. He grabs the backs of my thighs, lifting me into the air in one fluid movement. Instinctively, my hands go around the back of his neck and my legs wrap around his torso. He kicks off his shoes the same time mine fall off my feet.
“Which room is yours?”
“End of the hall, on the left,” I murmur, trailing my lips along his sharp jaw covered in day-old stubble. I like it. It makes him look a bit more…undone.
Matteo moans, his hands gripping my ass as he stalks through my apartment, his strides long and purposeful. My lips move to his ear, finding the soft skin beneath it. I nip at his flesh, sliding my hands through his damp hair.
“Jade,” he pants as I drag my tongue along the side of his throat. His cock presses against my ass and he quickly turns to the left.
We don’t make it past the kitchen.
He sets me down on the island, shrugs off his coat and leaves it on the floor. His hands reach for the bottom hem of my shirt. “Do you want me to stop?” he asks, his voice quiet, eyes searching mine as his fingertips dance across my skin.
