“Climb up,” he commanded and nodded to the ladder.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I shot back. My traitorous bare feet were already on the first rung. Goosebumps formed on the flesh of my arms as he steadied me.
He hummed his approval. “It seems what I consider good company has changed over the years.”
“I can’t imagine a soul ever findingyougood company,” I snapped back. Though my blood boiled, my body could have melted through the rungs of that ladder. Verbal daggers made the best shield against bad decisions.
“You know…I’ve grown fond of yourunning that pretty mouth at me.”
“Sadistic prick.” My words were cutting, but the momentum of my anger began to dissolve into lust.
He leaned forward and whispered into my ear, “You’re just making me harder.”
I bit my lower lip, reveling in his nearness. He had to be able to hear my heart racing as he braced himself with one arm on the ladder over my head.
“You drive me to the brink of insanity. You make me want to be selfish. You make me want to abandon reason,” he continued to whisper into our mingled breath.
My chest touched his with every inhale. “Then go ahead—I dare you. Abandon reason,” I challenged.
He searched my gaze as if looking for evidence that he should stop. I gave him none—desire had overrun my ability to have one clear thought. No matter how hard I tried to think of another insult, none came.
Then, his mouth met mine, and his weight pressed me against the ladder. It felt part kiss, part reckoning. Our bodies took over for us. I wrapped both hands around his neck; my thumbs found his pulse point, and I squeezed.
“There would be no going back.”He’d let his guard down, let me slip into his thoughts. “Why does she have to be so fucking beautiful?”
When we broke for air, he looked mussed and delicious as he slid his tongue over his lower lip again. This time I leaned toward him, craving more. He tasted of sweet red wine and warm spice. He leaned out of my neck’s reach as though to scold me, and I huffed.
“Up another,” he said as his expression shifted to a smoldering one that should be downright illegal. As I fumbled up the ladder, one of his fingers found a loose end of a silk tie at my waist. “May I?”
Elsie’s words came back to me about the Sahlms’ fashions—about it being fun to be unwrapped like a present. “Yes,” I breathed out.
“If you don’t keep climbing that ladder, I’ll tie you to it and leave you here without ever getting to the good part.”
Then he tugged the knot loose and exposed my torso.
My feet found the next rung, and my hands returned to the rail for balance. This was unwise—I’d set all the right conditions. I’d given him the perfect, uncomplicated arrangement.
The room sizzled with humidity. The air was charged by both the storm outside and the aching sense of need that buzzed across my skin.
It took a moment before I realized that the sensation was coming from him. The barricades of his mind were down completely. I couldfeelhis desire mixed with mine—the anticipation, the wanting.
Three ties held the remaining rain-soaked silk to my body—two at my hips and one at my breasts.
I’d climbed high enough now that Krait’s eyeline was at my chest. He surprised me by leaning down and taking my pebbled nipple into his mouth through the sheer silk. The warmth of his tongue against the cool fabric caused a moan to build in my throat. Letting my head fall against a ladder rung, I tried my hardest to think of why we shouldn’t do this.
No reason or sensibility was within grasp.
I wanted to object when he drew back his head. Then he picked up the silk tie at my breast.
Seeing him pissed off was one sort of attractive, seeing him both pissed off and drunk off his own lust was fucking irresistible. He watched me, waiting, with a quirked eyebrow.
“Take it off,” I demanded, and he rumbled with a satisfied groan.
When he pulled the tie to unravel the bodice of that awful contraption called a dress, my Luz-blue ribbon that I’d stowed there fell to his feet.
On his way down to pick it up, he sucked my other bare nipple into his mouth for a fleeting, torturous moment, and my toes curled against the bar. When he righted himself, he held the blue ribbon in one hand and said, “Up another.”
Swallowing hard, I stepped up again, hands white-knuckling the railings.
