Going up on tiptoe, she kissed him, soft. Slow.
He wanted to crush his mouth to hers and kiss and nibble and suck on every inch of her body, but she was still giving him those teasing little tastes, her breath warm against his face every time she sighed in pleasure. She rocked her hips against his and when she found him hard—which he’d been since she strode into his office to call him out—she hummed in approval.
A groan shuddered through him as she went on like that, torturing the both of them, her breathing becoming more and more labored. His would have done the same, but he wasn’t breathing at all, not even a little bit.
Her hands slid up his back, bringing his shirt with them. “Off,” she said.
Whatever the lady wanted. He yanked it off and had barely tossed it aside when she bent forward to kiss his knife scar, making his heart melt. Then she curled one of her hands around the back of his neck, wrapping the strands of his hair around her fingers as she slowly deepened the kiss, giving him her mouth, giving him everything.
He wrapped his arms around her, keeping his hands pressed against her back, doing his best to let her dictate the pace. Not easy with her tongue in his mouth and her body rocking against his. When they finally broke apart for air, she gestured for him to lose more clothing.
While she waited, he kicked off his shoes and socks and straightened, meeting her gaze. “Your turn.”
She took in his chest and abs, and he was pretty sure her pulse took a good, hard leap as she bent to take off her heels.
“Leave the shoes.”
She straightened with an arched brow. “Really?”
“Oh yeah.”
“You have some catching up to do,” she noted.
Obliging, he unsnapped, unzipped, and stripped out of his pants, leaving him in black knit boxers that did little to hide how hot he found her.
She was staring at that very evidence when she licked her lower lip, prompting him to groan and move toward her, stroking his hands up her torso. When he assisted her bra to the floor, she sucked in a breath.
“Gorgeous,” he whispered, his mouth at her jaw, his hands gliding over her trembling body. “So gorgeous you take my breath away.”
“Finish,” she said, a quiet demand that had him smiling because even when she was down, she was never out. She wanted him naked first and he didn’t have a single problem with that. He shucked the black cotton.
This time her inhale was audible, a low feminine murmur of appreciation.
“Now you’re overdressed,” he said, his mouth at her ear and he hooked his fingers into the scrap of lace masquerading as panties at her hips and slowly drew them down, crouching before her to ease them all the way down her legs. Leaning in, he brushed a kiss across one of her thighs, and then the other. And then a hip. Her belly button.
And then just south of it.
“Archer,” she gasped, her hands going to his hair.
“Right here,” he said, and he kissed her again, this time letting his tongue snake out and stroke. He worked her over, following the clues of her body as her fingers tightened in his hair and writhed against him.
He made her come that way, loving the breathy way she moaned his name. And when her knees gave out he caught her, lifting her to his desk. Sliding his palms up the insides of her thighs, he pushed them open and stepped into the vee of her legs. “One of these days we’ll actually make it to a bed.”
“That will be hard to do since after this we’re going back to staying the hell away from each other.” She sank her teeth into his bottom lip and then slowly let it slide free and kissed him softly, which he felt all the way down to his toes and back.
“Condom?” she whispered.
He froze, eyes locked on hers, wondering how she felt about seeing a grown man cry. “I don’t—Christ.” Had he seriously forgotten about a condom for the first time in his entire life? “We used my emergency stash from my wallet the other night.”
“I see.” She hesitated, eyes on his. “Before that, I hadn’t been with anyone in over two years. I’m on the pill.”
His heart was in his throat. “Two years?” He cupped her face. “Why?”
Her eyes shuttered. “You want to talk about that or do this?”
Good point. “I’ve not done this without a condom . . . ever,” he said.
She rocked against him again, taking him into her hands, giving a playful tug to bring him right where she wanted. Leaning into her, his hands on the desk on either side of her hips, his breath decidedly uneven, he teased them both until she moaned and wrapped her legs around him.
“So what’s the holdup?” she asked, impatient to the end.
Gripping her sweet ass in his palms, he jerked her forward and slid into her.
Their twin gasps comingled in the air and he was pretty sure he blacked out for a minute. “Oh fuck, Elle,” he whispered, only vaguely aware of her nails digging into his shoulders where she was holding on for all she was worth, her head back, her hair brushing his forearms, her throat bared for his mouth. Her lips were parted, her breath came in little whimpery gasps and he felt her clenching tighter and tighter around him.
God. He already couldn’t remember what it’d been like before her. He’d thought everything was great in his life but then he’d been thrown a curveball in the form of this gorgeous, passionate woman who he suddenly couldn’t get enough of.
Which made it official. He was hers, completely. “You’re beautiful, Elle,” he said, pressing tight against her. “The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
She shuddered, whimpering against his mouth as she came, and while she was still clenching and pulsing around him, he lost himself in her. When he was with her like this, he found himself. It was as simple and terrifying as that.
Chapter 15
#DidIShaveMyLegsForThis?
After, when they were still entwined, hearts pounding against each other as they attempted to recuperate, Elle tried to memorize everything about the moment. The way his arms wrapped around her tight, protective, one hand cupping her the back of her head, the other settled possessively on her ass.
It’d been such a bad idea, she knew this, but somehow she always lost focus of that when he touched her the way he did. Things were unbearably complicated between them. Always had been. But not this. This was easy.
And she didn’t know what to do with that.
Hopping off the desk, she gathered up her clothes and escaped into the bathroom connected to his office and stared at herself in the mirror.
She had Hair Gone Wild and her mascara was smudged. Her lips were bare but curved, like she was a woman who’d been well and truly taken care of. Business handled.
That it was true didn’t help. And how was it that he seemed to know her body better than she knew her own? She didn’t know whether to be horrified or amazed.