Page 61 of Seasons of Sin

His eyes were hooded. “What do you want me to do?”

Her throat moved in a tangle as she swallowed nervously, and her eyes beetled closed. Long lashes fanned against her cheeks. “I’m here about work; for my boss.”

“Yes,” he murmured, dropping his lips to hers. He pressed them to her mouth so lightly that she wasn’t even sure he was kissing her. “Does that mean you cannot do anything other than work?”

She shook her head slowly, but her treacherous body was leaning into his, aching for more. “I can’t,” she murmured, as her hands lifted and tangled in his hair. “It would be foolish.”

“You are fighting yourself, not me.”

“I’m fighting us both,” she contradicted, but now her mouth searched for his, and she kissed him passionately and hungrily. “I’m so angry with you,” she whispered into his mouth, as her leg lifted and wrapped around his waist.

“You should be,” he agreed, cupping his hands around her rear and lifting her up. He pressed her against the wall, her body clear off the ground so that only his strength kept her aloft.

“You were so angry with me,” she murmured into the kiss, remembering the expression on his face when they’d argued in Athens.

His hands were pushing at her skirt, lifting it higher and he groaned in relief when finally he found her nakedness beneath. His fingers caressed her most sensitive flesh with exquisite care and she bucked towards him on instinct. “I hated that you were his. I hated that you loved him. I hated that you were loyal to him. I hated, more than anything, that he met you first.”

She was torn between anger and sadness; rational thought was becoming difficult. In the end, she simply nodded. “I had to end things with him. It was a complicated situation that required care. But as soon as I ended it …”

“You came to me. I know.” He pushed his jeans down just enough to free his aching erection. “You came to me and I treated you like shit. I was such a pig. You have every right to be angry.”

He eased into her gently, watching as her face showed pleasure and relief.

“This is unlike anything I have ever felt.” His body kept her pinned to the wall as he moved inside of her. She was powerless and yet the most powerful she’d ever been, also. She wrappedher legs around his waist and her fingers she dug into his firm shoulders.

“I was never his,” she said in the throes of ecstasy that only Thaddeus could evoke. “I was never his like this.”

His moan was a sound of guttural relief. “How can you say you do not want this?”

“I didn’t say I don’t want this,” she corrected, digging her nails to his flesh as waves of pleasure became almost too much to bear. “If I could just have this without …”

“Me?” He thrust into her hard, and her eyes flew open.

Her laugh was shaky. “Without having to overthink everything else…”

“Don’t overthink. Just enjoy.”

“It’s …” she was tumbling over the edge of her pleasure threshold. Her mind was weakening. “Not …” Her body was spasming. She threw her head back, and it hit the wall. She laughed. “Not that easy,” she finished as an intense orgasm began to unfurl through her. She wrapped her legs more tightly around his waist and dipped her head into the crook of his neck. Her teeth bit his flesh. Her body was his. She was shaking with the strength of what they’d shared. But still he moved in her. Gently now, teasing out the feelings that were pulsing through her body, making her feel as though she could do anything she wanted in the world.

“We … this is … we shouldn’t be doing this …” she said slowly, but her nipples were pressed against his chest, begging to be touched and tasted. “Is there … a bed?”

“Too far.” He carried her without breaking their connection, laying her down on something cold and hard. She tilted her head and laughed to see that it was a dining table. And now, he pushed her shirt up, freeing her breasts as she’d hoped he would. His hands touched every stretch of her skin, sending goosebumps dancing along her sensitive flesh. His fingerstwisted and twirled her nipples and then his mouth descended, his teeth pressing into them with just enough pressure to make her arch her back with need.

“You really think we shouldn’t be doing this?” He demanded, as his body pressed into hers with renewed urgency. “You really think there is anything else we are meant to do, besides this?”

“I’m lost,” she confided desperately.

He shook his head, and wrapped her legs around his waist as he pulled her closer to him.

“No. You are found. With me, you are found. It is when we are apart that you feel lost. Don’t you see that?”

And she nodded, because she did. In that moment, she felt a shift of clarity and she knew it to be the truth of their situation. It knocked everything from her mind, leaving her free simply to be and to feel and to enjoy. She basked in the sense of completion that came from his body making love to hers. She gripped him and kissed him and cried his name into his home as she rode the waves of pleasure and laughed at the craziness of life.

It took her a long time to come back to earth, but eventually her breathing returned to normal and she blinked her eyes open.

Thaddeus was staring at her with the most curious expression. “I pushed you away because I was jealous and I was hurt. That night in Athens …” He shook his head. “I wanted to hurt you too. I wanted you to feel what I had. But my success has tormented me.”

She squeezed her eyes shut against the strong emotions and memories.