Chapter Forty-One
‘You can put me down now.’ My voice is muffled, my cheek lying against his back. ‘This isn’t very dignified, you know.’ As I raise my head, I can see my bikinied arse to infinity through the corners of the mirrored elevator walls. It’s as disconcerting as the flight of butterflies through my insides. I’m wondering how my shoes have stayed on when he slaps my arse again.
‘Ow!Lay off!’
‘You said you needed spanking.’ His reflection smiles wickedly. So I try to poke him with my toe without much success.
‘No, I saidwe, Kai, plural.’ Call it crossed wires, call it jealousy, but we’ve both been a little ridiculous this afternoon.
‘Not really my thing.’
‘And it’smine?’ I squeak, and he laughs, but I don’t think it’s funny. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
The doors opens at this moment and he strides down the hall, not bothering to answer me.
‘Put me down, you can stop with the caveman thing now. Ha! You don’t have my keys...’ My words trail off as he dangles a familiar pink, fluffy key-fob, extoling the virtues of a genericKate.’
‘Pays to have friends in high places, don’t you think?’
‘Low, you mean. Of all the dirty—Niamh gave you my keys?’ I squeak, incredulous. It could only have been her, I’d left them in her bag earlier. I’msogonna have something to say to her about this.
‘She thought we could do with some alone time.’
Oh.
Inside, he makes a beeline for the open door to my bedroom, throwing me against my rumpled and unmade bed. I squeal as I land, bouncing against the mattress, a little short of breath and chest heaving in anticipation. Judging by the gleam in his eyes, it’s a good visual.
And,Christ, there’s a sex god in my bedroom!
Why didn’t I want to be here with him earlier, again? I must be nuts.
He doesn’t follow me onto the bed, instead stepping backwards until he’s leaning back against my dresser. He smiles that knowing smile. It’s an expression as provoking as the sliver of skin exposed above the waistband of his shorts. I bite my lip at the sight of the taut, tanned skin as he pulls his tee to rib height, drawing it further up and over his head. His hands and hips lean back again, legs crossed at the ankle in a very casual stance.
My every nerve is heightened as the muscles of his back bunch and relax in the mirror, his heated gaze roaming over my skin.
‘Come here.’ There’s a hint of playfulness in his husky command, but still I push back.
‘No. You comehere.’
Unexpectedly, he shrugs as he pushes himself from the dresser, holding out his hand. ‘Okay, but fairs fair, sweetheart. I’m topless, it’s only right that you should be, too.’ Taking my hand in his, he pulls me from the bed, tucking me tight to his chest. ‘Take it off,’ he whispers into my hair, tugging on the loose end of my bikini’s halter-neck tie.
He could easily untie it—one slight pull and the whole thing would come loose. But he’s making a point. A push to my shove.
He turns me in his arms, and sliding behind me, pulls my still damp hair to one side. To better watch my reflection?
I smile at the mirror and raise one brow. ‘Haven’t you heard that saying, if you want something doing, you should do it yourself?’
‘There is that,’ he agrees, his low, throaty laugh licking my skin. ‘But sometimes you just want to watchsomeone do...themselves.’ His reflection smoulders in the mirror. ‘Especially when you’ve been privileged enough to see it with your own eyes.’
His finger slowly strokes my spine, the sensation travelling all the way to my bikini bottoms. I fight both the resulting quiver and my blush, recalling our make-up sex; the evening I’d stood before him, a hand between my legs at his command. Not that it’s not happening that way tonight, I decide, when he suddenly reaches out, loosening the strands at my neck and back.
Kate for the win!
Suppressing a smile, I pull the item from my skin, dropping it to the tiles as he watches me, eyes drifting over my body’s reflection, and back to my face again.
I start as his hands find my hips, the hard press of his cock flexing into me, making my knees feel suddenly unsteady. I want to turn, push away his hands, place my own all over him. I chance a glimpse at him through the dresser mirror, desire pooling between my legs. This push and pull, this stand I feel I’m making: I’m fooling no one, least of all him.
If this is his business face, it looks like I’m a done deal.
