Kai’s gaze sparked with amusement at whatever he saw on my face. He handed me one of the bottles, which I accepted without a word.
We hadn’t spoken to each other since we left Verve, but instead of cooling my desire, the silence amplified it. Without conversation to distract me, my mind spun off into a dozen directions—toward the basement in Bushwick, where we’d kissed for the first time; the piano room at Valhalla, where he’d given me one of the best orgasms of my life; and the dance floor at Verve, where his appearance had skyrocketed my pulse more than I cared to admit.
I didn’t take my eyes off his as I tilted my head back and downed the drink. Kai’s expression seeped with lazy interest, but his gaze scorched like I was standing too close to a fire.
“What were you doing at Verve?” I finally spoke, my curiosity overtaking my fear of upsetting the delicate balance between us. “You don’t strike me as the clubbing type.”
Vivian had mentioned something about article research, which I didn’t believe for a second.
Presidents of multibillion-dollar companies didn’t run around doing grunt work.
Kai observed me with those dark, knowing eyes. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Isabella.”
A shiver ghosted over my skin. God, the way he said my name was indecent, like a wicked lover stealing kisses in shadowed corners. Smooth silk layered over dark velvet. Deceptively proper yet dizzyingly sensual.
I’d told him to stop, but in truth, I was addicted to his voice, his touch, every single thing about him. And the way he looked at me made me think I wasn’t the only one spinning out of control.
“Come here.” The soft command skated down my spine.
My feet moved before my brain could protest. One step, two steps, three, until our bodies nearly touched. His body heat licked at my skin and singed the edges of my resistance.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I breathed. “It’s against Valhalla’s rules.”
That was what I kept telling myself. I clung to the rule the way a shipwreck survivor would cling to a piece of driftwood. It was my lifeline, the only thing keeping me from drowning beneath the ferocious waves of my desire. But the pull of the tide was too great, and I could already feel my arms fatiguing. One more undertow, and I was a goner.
“I know,” Kai said, as calmly as if we were strolling through Central Park. “I don’t give a damn about the rules.”
My heartbeat tripped. “That’s unlike you.” The words came out so fast they almost blended together, but I kept talking, afraid that if I stopped, I would drown. “I thought you worshiped rules like they’re your religion. It’s the British education, isn’t it? I bet Oxbridge is quite rigid when it comes to that type of thing. Don’t you—”
“Isabella.”
I forced a swallow down my throat. “Yes?”
“Shut up and let me kiss you.”
And there was an undertow.
I didn’t have time to think. One minute, I was standing; the next, Kai had crushed his mouth to mine, and my bones dissolved with such embarrassing speed I would’ve melted to the floor had he not been holding me up.
Our kiss in Brooklyn had been a sweet, tentative surprise. This one was deliberate, delivered with such aching, targeted precision that it obliterated all my defenses in one fell swoop.
The hand fisting my air. The sensual firmness of his mouth. The dizzying heat and scent of him.
Every weakness of mine, plundered and stroked into submission.
My head grew light, and I didn’t resist when Kai maneuvered us to a chair. Part of me noted we were still in public, despite the empty room, and someone could come in at any second, but that hardly seemed important when he was fisting my hair like that and tugging on my bottom lip just so.
Every shiver melted into the next until I was racked with one long, ceaseless shudder of pleasure.
Then he pulled back, and I inhaled a shallow breath before I found myself on his lap. I didn’t know how we ended up in that position, but I wasn’t complaining. Not when his mouth scored a fiery path down the side of my neck and his arousal pressed flush against my back, driving the oxygen out of my lungs again.
I ground against him, chasing the orgasm that shimmered on the horizon like a mirage. Close enough to touch, but too far to claim.
“Spread your legs for me, love.” Kai’s murmur dripped honey into my veins. God, that accent.
I obliged. Pressure built between my legs as his hand trailed lazily up my inner thigh until they reached my soaked thong. The force of my need squeezed a low, embarrassing whine from my throat.
He’d barely touched me, and I was already a mess.
“Just like that.” He coaxed the straps off my shoulders with his other hand and gently tugged my dress down. I wasn’t wearing a bra, and every brush of air against my tight, sensitized nipples sent an answering jolt to my core. I squirmed, desperate for more friction, but I couldn’t get enough leverage in my position. “Let me feel how wet you are.”
He pushed my underwear to the side.
“Kai.” I gasped when he pushed two fingers inside me. Sweat beaded on my forehead at the agonizingly sweet stretch. “We can’t…” My sentence evaporated when he palmed my breast and squeezed. He rubbed a thumb over my nipple while his fingers delved deeper.
My head fell back even as lust and caution warred for dominance. Nothing except a velvet curtain separated us from the rest of the bar. Someone only had to push the drape aside to get a wanton view of me sitting half-naked in Kai’s lap, dress pushed to my waist, legs spread and skin flushed while he played me like a toy.
“Someone will hear.” A humiliating whimper clawed through the air when he buried his fingers to the hilt and pressed a thumb against my swollen clit.
Tiny bursts of fireworks erupted beneath my skin. Low, rhythmic bass saturated the air, but my heart pounded so loud I was sure people could hear it from across the island.
“No, they won’t.” Kai sounded maddeningly calm, like he was dissecting an academic text instead of finger fucking me in semi-public. “Do you want to know why?”
I shook my head. My teeth dug into my bottom lip with such force the taste of copper spilled over my tongue.
“Because you’re not going to come,” he said softly. He pinched my nipple, hard, in warning emphasis. Twin streaks of pleasure and pain forced another whimper from my throat. Arousal dripped down my thighs and onto his expensive, perfectly pressed pants. “That would be highly inappropriate, considering we’re in public.”
The velvet curtain rustled. A stranger’s laugh coasted perilously close to where we sat, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
My entire body thrummed with need. I was ravenous with it, hungry and hollow for something only Kai could give.
It went beyond the physical. I’d had sex with other men before, but I’d never wanted like this. Like I would die if I didn’t have him inside me soon.
“Please.” The word splintered on a broken moan when he dragged his thumb over my clit.
Slow. Firm. Utterly exquisite in its torture.