His voice, low and soft but still commanding, washed over her. “I know the way I can make you feel is undeniable. You proved that to me the other night.” With his other hand, he reached out and very gently touched his finger to her cheek, slowly drawing it down to her jawline just beneath her lower lip. Lacey trembled from head to toe, the furnace of heat centered between her legs spreading to every other part of her body as his finger began to trace the outline of her lip. A tremor of need shivered its way through her as she barely restrained a moan.
“And I know that I want you so badly I can hardly think.” His voice roughened with his desire. She was absolutely certain he was telling the truth. “I can’t get you out of my head. These lips,” slowly, the thumb tracing her lip edged into the corner of her mouth, where it carefully, gently ran along the inside of her lower lip, “your skin,” his other fingers reached around to cup the other side of her face, “the way you smell like lilies, and sweet oranges, and rainfall in the spring.”
Lacey’s skin raced in uncontrollable pleasure where he touched her. She knew all reason was about to leave her. The wild glint in his eye made a promise to her that she desperately wanted to agree to. He slowly ran his hand down to her neck, causing a stampede of tingles throughout her entire body, then back up again to her cheek.
She was still supposed to be noting their professional relationship, though, she thought vaguely. Something like that, yes?
“Mr. Bernal,” she began in a whisper.
He shook his head. “Sebastian.” Hearing him say his own name in that low, dark voice filled with need had Lacey swaying on her feet again. “When we are alone, my name is Sebastian.”
Oh, holy…. She was done for.
“Sebastian,” she tried out, her voice seeming loud in the still room. “Sebastian,” she said again, more slowly. Oh, yes. She really liked saying his name.
But there was something else she should be thinking of. Ah. Right. “The security cameras.”
One corner of his mouth very slowly edged up into a dangerous, thoroughly panty-wetting grin. Lacey swallowed as her pulse slammed to some primal tempo she could almost hear in her head.
“This will not be recorded, Lacey.” His voice was practically a growl. “I already had both the camera in the hallway and this office turned off.”
Lusty haze somewhat clearing, she lowered her eyebrows. “Really? You were that sure of my response?” Despite her challenge, her voice was uneven from her ragged breathing.
His thumb dragged along her bottom lip again, very gently pulling it out. Lacey’s breath whooshed out of her completely. She suddenly didn’t give a damn if they were cameras zoomed in on them from every angle.
“I was sure of the fact that you want me as badly as I want you.” The molten words kissed the air by her ears, sending scorching little darts straight down between her wobbly legs. “I was sure of the fact that neither of us would want there to ever be any sort of public evidence of what happens here. This is between you and me, Lacey. This” and he said the word so fiercely the little hairs on the back of her neck stood up, “is ours. We belong to no one else.” He seemed almost surprised by his own vehemence, but the desire wafting from him didn’t lessen one iota.
We. That word snagged on Lacey’s remaining rational consciousness, but she pushed it away. Sizzles were zipping throughout her body. Sebastian still gently held her lip in his fingers, although not a single other part of him touched her. Gently releasing her lip, he put his entire hand beneath her chin to gently tip it up. He was easily half a foot taller than her, and so broad in the shoulders she literally couldn’t see behind him.
It made her feel—protected.
Possessed.
“Lacey.” His hazel-green eyes seemed even brighter now, as if he were lit from within by the same fire she felt crackling inside her. Desperate to get out and explode into white hot flames. “Say my name again. I need to hear you say my name again.”
His other hand moved off the wall and slipped behind her head, his fingers very gently threading through her hair. Heart thumping erratically, body primed to an attention that she instinctively knew he would know exactly how to soothe, Lacey nodded. She sighed out, “Sebastian. This may be the craziest thing I’ve ever done, but yes. I want this,” she whispered, reaching up to curve her hands up behind his neck.
A groan ripped out of him. The sound was so filled with sheer relief that Lacey’s knees actually did buckle. He caught her up and gently crushed her to his chest, murmuring back, “As you wish, my sexy as hell beauty,” before finally, thank god, taking her lips with his own in a ravaging kiss that knocked her sideways and inside out with the intensity of it.
She was definitely a goner.
***
Sebastian’s thoughts turned into fiery, nonsensical bolts of stunned blankness as his lips touched Lacey’s. Her sweet, decadent taste exploded in his mouth. He didn’t have to ask how aroused she was. The pliable sensation of her body as she pressed her exquisite breasts into his chest, the heat he could feel pulsing off her, told him she was already wet for him.