“Well, try not to,” he teased. “My CPR is rusty.”
Laughing, she walked over to join him in the patch of sunlight crashing through the window. The rays tangled through her hair, turning the downy strands into a halo around her flushed face. It illuminated the gold flecks in her eyes and the happiness shimmering across their surface.
“Do you know what this means?” she said quietly.
Captivated by how much she reminded him of a pixie, Killian could only muster a weak, “What?” in response.
“I don’t have to keep my job at the diner, or the arcade.” She paused to roll her eyes. “Thank God. I hated that place.” She bit her lip and his cock tightened. “I need to go shopping. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve stepped inside a mall? I don’t even know what size I am anymore.”
He could have told her. He’d always been fairly decent when it came to estimating the size of things. It was a family talent when one was in the transporting business. But he also valued his ability to reproduce and while he knew he could never have children, it was the thought that mattered most.
“How old is your sister?” he asked instead.
“Vi? Sixteen. Why?”
He rolled a shoulder casually. “Maybe you could take her with you. Make a day of it.”
He saw the spark of interest in her eyes, the contemplation before she nodded.
“I should. She’s a brat, but she’s a brat with really good taste in clothes.” Her grin became sheepish and a bit pained. “I’m taking up all your time, aren’t I? You seemed busy when I arrived.”
“You mean when you stormed in hell bent on putting the wrath of God in me … again?”
Her cheeks turned a dark shade of scarlet. “I’ll work on remembering to knock next time.”
“Next time?” He forced his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Is this going to become a regular thing then?”
“That depends.” She gave him a smile that was pure mischief. “Are you going to keep going behind my back and doing things for me?”
One of them drew closer, closing the foot of space separating them. He only became aware because he was suddenly drowning in the scent of her, in the temptation of her mouth being offered to him. The single motion brought her right beneath his height. It forced her neck back so her face was tipped up to him.
“Possibly.” He forced his attention up to her eyes. “Unless you’ve decided to let me take care of you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
He had expected nothing less.
“Too bad.” His hand snaked free of its confines and lifted to ghost the soft contour of her cheek. It traced the apple and dipped into the hollow. The palm settled along her jaw, aligning the pad of his thumb over the parted curves of her mouth. “I take very good care of my things.”
Slim fingers curled around his wrist, but made no move to brush him aside as she peered unwaveringly up at him.
“I’m not a thing,” she whispered, bathing his skin with the heat of her breath.
“No,” he agreed in an equally low murmur. “But I would spoil you if you let me. I would give you everything you could ever possibly want. Just let me, Juliette.”
It was beyond him why it was so important she submit. He honestly couldn’t understand why he needed her to let him shower her in all the things she deserved. But it thrummed through him like a physical wound. It coursed through him like poison. The more she denied him, the more demanding the need became.
“I only want you.” The hand not holding his wrist cradled the side of his face, mirroring the one he held to hers. Her thumb grazed his bottom lip and he felt it like a punch in the chest. “Only you, Killian.”
He kissed her.
No. He pummeled her mouth with an unhampered sense of urgency that shocked even him. It rolled up and over him, taking him under in a current of electrified waves that snapped at his sanity. Beneath his assault, Juliette whimpered. A small, weak part of him prickled with the fear of hurting her, but the madness was too strong. It had him in its clutches and he was powerless to think or do anything but claim the woman clinging to him.
“Killian.”
Her soft voice washed through the red haze in a wave of calming blue. It soothed the burn eating him up inside in a way he had never experienced before. It was as though she possessed the power to ease the storm he’d been fighting his entire life with just the whisper of his name. The mere thought had him tearing out of her arms in a panic.
“What are you doing?” The question was an unintentional snarl that cracked through the room as loud as the uneven pants coming from the both of them.
“I…” Mouth wet and swollen, Juliette stared at him, bemused and afraid. “I wasn’t … I didn’t…”
He grabbed her and hauled her back into his arms. His mouth slanted across hers, demanding and hungry. She didn’t push him away, not even when he lifted her up and carted her to his desk. He set her down on the cool surface and reached for the tiny V at the hollow of her throat, the one that had been mocking him from the moment she’d stalked into his office.
Buttons flew in all directions. Their pathetic clatter went unnoticed as the fabric was torn over her shoulders and down her arms. Full, firm breasts barely covered by black lace sprung free. The last of the buttons were ripped from their holes and he had her across the desk clad in nothing but her bra and panties. Her uniform was pitched somewhere across the room. He briefly heard it hit the floor and skid. But it was the woman splayed out before him that had his main focus.
There were no words to describe the sight she made. Every inch of her was cut from the very depths of his fantasies. It was as though someone had reached deep inside him and crafted a woman far more dangerous than any weapon on earth and the only one she could potentially destroy was him.
How are you doing this to me? Every fiber of his being begged the question. But the words remained firmly lodged in his chest. Instead, all he could do was bow his head and worship the smooth valley of her belly with his lips. Then his tongue. He followed the delicate curves of her ribs one by one to the rough fabric of her bra. Her breasts rose with the arching of her back, a silent offering that included the feather light trailing of her fingertips along his shoulders, up the back of his neck to thread through his hair. He ignored her urging and worked his way back down, pausing to circle her navel with his tongue before stopping at her mound.
Heat rose off the stretch of cotton covering her. He could feel it burning his lips even before he was near enough to plant an open mouth kiss to apex of her thighs. Juliette moaned. Her hips shifted with an anticipation he had to still with a hand on her hip.
“Patience,” he reminded her and earned a groan of frustration in return.
He concealed his grin in the toned muscle of her inner right thigh. He sank his teeth into warm flesh just hard enough to make her cry out. He kissed the spot before tracing a path along the elastic of her panties to repeat it on the other side. Her fingers tightened in his hair.
“Killian…”
Compelled by the pain in her whimper, his head lifted. His body shifted over hers, weight balanced on his palms as he leaned in close. Eyes an opaque black with arousal met his. Swollen lips parted, possibly to speak. But he nipped sharply on the bottom curve, hard enough to make her buck beneath him and gasp.
“Are you going to make me spank you?” he demanded.
She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no, either. Instead, she stared up at him with a wide eyed sort of interest that was an almost physical caress along the rigid length of his erection. It wrapped around every nerve ending like a challenge and tugged. He would have groaned if she hadn’t taken that moment to reach for his pants.
Her eyes never left his as his belt was tugged open. Then the button. He continued to watch her with his heart hammering as she dragged down the zipper and freed him. She broke the connection first. She looked away, looked down at the skin she’d bared, at the part of him that was throbbing with a searing pain that was almost unbearable. The delicate column of her throat bobbed with her swallow. Her cheeks darkened. Her lashes lifted and their eyes locked once more.