“Turn around.”
I’m not fully standing before he spins me to face him, pulls me onto his lap, and guides my legs to straddle the spread of his.
“So damn beautiful.” He cups my face, seemingly hypnotized by whatever he sees there.
I look him in the eye and give him a sweet subtle grin, communicating that I know how entranced he is.
His attention lowers to my chest, and his hands follow, lifting the hem of my shirt with slow, agonizing patience. Cool air brushes my nipples. Then his gaze.
“Pink.” His expression intensifies, lighting me on fire.
He grips my ass and shifts me up his chest to nuzzle my breasts. I use my hands to squeeze what little I have around his face. His breaths become shallow, and his teeth graze my skin. When he swirls his tongue around a nipple, my head falls back, my fingers clutching his shoulders for support.
But he has me, his arms holding me tight as he lowers me onto the rigid cock trapped within his slacks. He rocks his hips upward, groaning, his hands roaming everywhere—my thighs, my breasts, my neck, always returning to knead my butt.
I slide my face along the side of his until I reach his ear. Then I draw the lobe between my lips and suck.
It sets him off, his hands plunging into my hair and his tongue sweeping into my mouth.
“You’re so fucking hot.” He growls into the kiss, the fingers in my hair wrenching my head back for a deeper angle. “You make me crazy.”
I know the feeling. All reason has abandoned me in the powerful arms of desire. I want him, need him, and none of this is rational. But I’m caught in the rapid rhythm of his breaths, the flex of his body, and the expert strokes of his tongue.
With my legs hooked around the back of the chair, my skirt rides up to my hips. I gently grind against him, rocking up and down, like I’m riding a bull in slow-motion. The wetness between my legs will no doubt leave a stain on his slacks, and the thought makes me grin against his lips.
The song loops again, and he eases back but not away. “I can’t do this anymore.”
A fist of dread clenches inside me. “Can’t do what?”
“I can’t keep pretending you aren’t the first thought in my head when I wake and the reason I can’t fall asleep at night.”
I stare at him in shock.
Eyes hooded, mouth parted, he cradles my face and touches our foreheads together. “I lied to you.”
My heart skips. “What do you mean?”
“I want you, Danni.”
Oh. “That’s not exactly a secret.” I press my weight down on his erection.
“It’s more than that. I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you.” His fingers tighten against my jaw. “I want all of you.”
“You want all of me?” My pulse accelerates, and my voice cracks on a fragile breath. “What does that mean?”
“Just when I think I can’t possibly want you more,” Trace says roughly, heatedly, “this hunger, this gut-deep need I feel for you consumes me until I can’t imagine a future without you in it.”
My mouth dries, and the room spins around me, tipping me off balance.
“I don’t understand. All this time…” I slide off his lap and back out of his hold on my neck. I don’t know what this is, but something’s off. “You said you wouldn’t fuck me. You didn’t want the mess. Why would you lie?” I shove my hair away from my face. “Why are you telling me this now?”
He bends forward, dropping his head, and bracing his forearms on his knees. “This isn’t about sex.”
“Really,” I drawl, incredulous.
“Okay, yes, sex is… I want to be inside you. Desperately.” His eyes burn into mine. “But that’s not all.”
I cross my arms over my chest.
“I need to know, Danni.” Scraping a hand through his hair, he releases a breath. “If Cole was in this room right now, where would I fall? Would you shove me aside to get to him?”
“What kind of question is that?” Blood pumps hard and fast through my veins. “You wouldn’t be here, because I would’ve never left him.”
“But he left you, and I am here. What if we were both here? Who would you choose?”
“That’s not fair!” A chill sweeps over me as I pace through the room and power off the sound system. “Way to buzz kill my libido, by the way. You’re like your own cockblock.”
“Answer the question.” His glare doesn’t waver.
“There is no answer. Because one, Cole’s dead. And two…he’s fucking dead. Why are we even talking about this?”
“Am I your second choice?” His tone is angry and confrontational, but the creases around his eyes and the uncertainty in those blue depths halt my feet.
Is the right cup full?
If Cole were here, there wouldn’t be a choice. He’s my forever.
Was.
He was my forever.
Empty the cup.
“You’re not a choice.” I take a step toward Trace, and another, softening my expression. “You’re my second chance.”
“Not good enough.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “Too bad. I’m not making a choice that doesn’t exist.”
“It exists to me.” He stands and charges into the kitchen. “I won’t live in his shadow.”
“His shadow?” I chase after him, voice rising. “What are you talking about?”
He grabs a water bottle from fridge and shoves it into my hand. “You can’t love me, because you’re trapped in another life with another man.”
Love him? Why did he go there? Why now? And I am not trapped!
“That’s not true!” I scream, slamming the water down on the counter. “I lost someone I loved. I miss him desperately, but I’m moving on. I am!” My breaths wheeze as I fight to rein in my temper. “What do you want from me?”
He reaches toward my face and slips his fingers beneath the hair hanging near my eyes. Without touching my skin, he slowly, tenderly, slides the strands back to expose my distressed expression.
“I need to know if you’re mine or his.” He lowers his hand, scrutinizing every twitch on my face.
What have I done to make him so fixated on Cole? Is it the shrine of photos in my bedroom? The motorcycle in the dining room? The ring I only just took off this morning?
They’re keepsakes. Memories. Fundamental pieces of my life. I would never be with someone who asks me to give that up.
Except… If I turned the tables, if I walked into his penthouse filled with physical reminders of another woman, I wouldn’t like it. My heart sinks. I’d lose my fucking mind.
I uncap the water bottle and drink, calming my sprinting pulse. “What about the woman on your lap two nights ago?”
“What about her?” He steps out of the kitchen and pauses in the hallway with his back to me.
“Were you thinking about how you can’t possibly want me more while you fucked her?”
Silence vibrates from his rigid posture.
Why is he just standing there? He can turn left toward the bedrooms. Or he can walk his sexy ass through the dining room and out the front door. Instead, he pivots right and grips the one doorknob in the house that I avoid.
“What’s behind this door, Danni?” He twists the glass knob, unable to open it.