“Okay…”
“Also, if we were at the table, I wouldn’t be able to do this.” With a smirk, I yanked Hunter’s arm, pulling him into the bathroom behind me. With my free hand I locked the door, while my other pulled him close enough that I could stand on my tiptoes and kiss him hard, his back pushed up against the door.
“Is this a good time for us to discuss those details you mentioned?” he asked, touching my knee as if to remind me of the heat that had passed between us earlier.
“Why, yes,” I purred, flashing a smirk. “I believe it is an excellent time for that.”
He growled, his hands coming up around me and pressing me further into him. The bathroom was small, private, barely enough room for one person, and his tight embrace made it feel even smaller, made my heart beat so fast I thought I might forget to breathe. Oh, his lips were soft, and warm, and starving for me. Oh, to sink into his embrace, to sink into him, to never let go. I opened my mouth beneath his, and let his tongue entwine with mine, let him say without words everything he had been keeping pent up for so long. I grabbed his ass shamelessly and pressed my hips into his, grinding against him and desperately wishing our clothes would spontaneously combust.
He drew back, panting. “I’ve needed this. It’s been too long.”
I pulled him back toward me and whispered softly into his mouth, “I’ve had to use every ounce of self-control I have not to jump you tonight.” He groaned and hungrily claimed my lips again.
We finally had to break apart for air, though our hands didn’t let go of each other even as we gulped in oxygen, dizzy with the lack of it and the surplus of each other.
“I like your pep talk style,” Hunter gasped.
“I’m only just getting started,” I promised.
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
“Seriously,” I said. “There is an actual verbal component to this conversation I had planned.” I reached up and ran my hand through his hair, straightening the mess I’d made of it. “I know this is hard on you. But you’re doing great out there.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, his eyes worried. “I feel like I’m about to burst at the seams.”
The close quarters meant I could definitely feel him bursting at one particular seam—no, no, no, I had to ignore that right now! No point in starting something I couldn’t finish. No matter how nice he smelled. No matter how long Chuck’s conversation with the senator was likely to be.
No matter how much we both wanted this, needed this, after all this time…
“The anger shows, but that’s good,” I said. “It just makes it look like the truth. After all, you’d be this angry if you were forced to do this for real, right?”
“Damn right,” he growled, glowering.
Even that hint of anger, the way his hands tightened on my hips, sent a shot of arousal through me. My nipples hardened against the silk of my bra, my thighs grew slick. It was hot inside the bathroom suddenly, so very hot. My lips were dry.
I licked them.
Hunter’s eyes were drawn to my mouth like magnets. He cleared his throat, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.
God, I wanted to lick his Adam’s apple.
“I couldn’t do this without you,” he said. “I’d have punched him in the first thirty seconds if I didn’t have you by my side. You remind me…you remind me of what I’m doing this for. You’re so strong, and I look at you—” his fingers found their way beneath my chin, tilted my head up. “I look at you…and you inspire me.”
“Hunter, I—”
Tears gathered in my eyes, my heart swelling till I thought it would burst, and I blinked them back fiercely. I knew that no matter my eloquence when I was trying to sell a product, I could never put the feeling I was having that moment into words.
So I kissed him again instead.
He kissed me back, hungry and demanding, his hands sliding under my blouse and roaming over my skin. My hands had found their way to his lapels, gripping them tight, and from there it was only a short journey to the buttons, my fingers flying in their desperation to feel his smooth skin, to taste it—