“Why?” I pushed up from the wall, pressing my body against his, turning the tables on him, trapping him. “Why? What happened? We were fine when we got here and then suddenly you started acting like I’m the enemy again. Or worse … like I’m a Holland whore you can pass off to someone else when you get bored w—”
“Wrong.” He pushed me back into the wall, his features harsh, his words guttural with feeling. “I’m a jealous bastard who watched man after man flirt with you and I can’t stand the thought of you being with one of them. I said something I didn’t mean because of it.” His chest heaved with emotion.
I sucked in a breath at his confession.
We stared at each other in thickening silence.
“Fine,” I whispered. “But don’t ever speak to me like that again.”
I saw a measure of edginess leak out of him at my response. “I won’t,” he promised softly. “I’m sorry. I’m not …” He shook his head, seemingly as frustrated with his feelings as I was with my own.
And that was when I realized what the problem was between us, where that tension sprang from, where the animosity had a place to fester and grow from …
Friendship, intimacy—it hadn’t made us any less uncertain of each other because of the temporary nature of our relationship. Other couples, normal couples, could admit how they really felt … but admitting anything more than we already had meant setting ourselves up for an even bigger fall.
And yet … I couldn’t help myself.
The words just spilled out of me. “I only want you, you know.”
Caine’s chest shuddered beneath my hand and then suddenly I was in arms. His kiss wasn’t gentle or apologetic. It was wild. His lips pressed hard against my lips, his tongue licking and stroking mine in a wet, deep kiss that I felt between my legs. I clung to him, kissing him back just as passionately, my fingers curling into his hair as I bit playfully at his lip. He groaned into my mouth and shoved me hard against the wall—
A throat cleared behind us and we both froze.
Slowly, Caine broke our kiss but kept his arms wrapped protectively around me as we both looked over his shoulder.
Henry stood smirking at us. “I guess you’re making up after a lovers’ quarrel? Am I right? I’m right, aren’t I?”
I pinched my mouth closed to stop from laughing at his boyish good humor.
Caine, however, had grown taut against me. “You breathe a word of this and I’ll knock your fucking head off.” There was a hint of his old Southie accent in the words.
Henry laughed, but he had the good sense to agree. He pointed to his own mouth. “As silent as the grave.” His chuckles trailed behind him as he wandered back toward the party.
Caine relaxed against me, his eyes still filled with heat. “Let me take you back to my place.” He smoothed his hand over my hip. “Let me apologize properly.”
“What about Kipling?”
“You’re more important.” His confession was so quiet I almost didn’t hear him, didn’t believe him.
But hear him I did.
And God help me but I wanted to believe him.
Hope bloomed through my whole body. Caine might not have admitted what I had with words, but his reaction was all the confirmation I needed.
He only wanted me too.
“Then we better leave now, because you have a lot of apologizing to do.”
I stared at Caine’s luxurious bed with its masculine wooden bed frame and majestic four posts. I’d seen this bed on numerous occasions when I stopped by his apartment to drop off his dry cleaning.
I’d fantasized about what it would be like to lie down on it and have Caine’s body cover mine.
Up until now that had remained a fantasy.
We’d never stayed at Caine’s. Our affair had until this point taken place at my apartment (and occasionally the office).
For some reason a flutter of nerves woke in my belly as I stood in his bedroom. We’d had sex more times than I could count, but as the heat of him pressed against my back, as his fingertips coasted lightly over my bare arm and his breath whispered across the back of my neck, it all seemed new and even more thrilling.
The fabric of my dress tightened across my chest for a moment at the gentle tug on it. Caine slowly pulled the zipper down. My breasts swelled and my nipples peaked with anticipation.
I covered his hands with my own as together we leisurely removed my dress. I stepped out of it, goose bumps rising all over me as I stood in nothing but lingerie and heels. Caine gripped my hips, gently pulling me back against him so I could feel the hard, rigid length of his arousal against my bottom.
He swept my hair off one side of my neck, and his hot lips brushed my ear. “You’re driving me crazy,” he confessed, and the words elicited a groan of pleasure from me as I ground my ass against his erection. “It’s never enough … never enough …” He trailed light kisses down my neck.
“Caine.” Desire bolted through me, slickening the heat between my thighs.
His hands moved back to my hips, and cool air whispered between us as he stepped back a little to allow himself room to explore.
And explore he did.
With light strokes he memorized me with his touch. It was like an erotic massage, the tantalizing gentleness of his hands only increasing my anticipation and arousal.
His heat blazed against my back, his hard-on prodding my ass again as he removed my bra and cupped my naked breasts in his hands.
I sighed, rested my head against his shoulder, and arched into his touch. Ripples of desire undulated low in my belly as he played with my breasts, sculpting and kneading them, stroking and pinching my nipples into hard buds. I thrust into his touch, his name falling from my lips in breathless whispers while he pumped his hips in rhythm with my own movements.
“Your mouth,” he growled in my ear.