Cool was out the door as my body heated. I expected steam to rise from under his jacket, signaling just how intense the fiery feeling pooling in my belly had gotten.
“How was that?” he asked against my lips.
“Warmer.” The cool-girl front was melting fast.
He guided me to the front door with his hand on the small of my back dipping maddeningly lower with each step. “Let’s get you inside and out of these clothes.”
The doorman opened the door, and we walked across the lobby.
I jammed my finger into the elevator button. “Let’s.”
27
Hunter
The humming in my body shifted from rage to something much more dangerous the second my lips met Sabrina’s. It was dangerous to more than my fists or my face; it threatened to wreck my heart. The fury dissolved like a winter’s chill leeched from my body by the forced air in the lobby.
I’d wanted to tear Trevor apart when I saw his hand on Sabrina and what he said sent me into a wrath mode I hadn’t experienced before. And for her to apologize to me…
It was only the plaintive look in her eyes and the apology that quelled the beast clawing inside of me. Trevor was garbage and I’d always known that, but he’d been useful garbage. A fool who could get what he wanted and I could get what I wanted, but when what he wanted became Sabrina and to disrespect her when she shot him down? All bets were off.
I’d spend all night letting her know that none of it was her fault and the vileness he’d spewed at her was as worthless as he was. If he couldn’t see her beauty, then he didn’t deserve it. There had never been another woman who’d gotten to me like Sabrina.
All I saw was her, and all I wanted was her. How I’d restrained myself this long was a minor miracle. But dancing with her, touching her, kissing her had driven home how our first night hadn’t quenched half the thirst I had for her. I was crawling in the desert, and she was a glass of ice water under the shade.
Inside the hallway, we rushed to the front door to our apartment with matched steps of anticipation. Once the door closed, both our coats hit the floor and my hands were in her hair.
Hers were on my back, and I turned to press her against the wall before pitching forward into darkness. Twisting my body, I took the brunt of the fall.
She looked up at me with wide, twinkling eyes.
Shoes dug into my back, and above her head, coats swayed, jostled by our unceremonious plunge into the coat closet. A hanger flipped off the rod and whacked me in the center of my forehead. Real smooth.
“Was this where you meant for us to end up?” She didn’t try to stifle her laughter.
I yanked at a boot that had been digging into my back and tossed it aside.
“Not exactly.”
“Are you always this suave?” Her full-on grin banished the last gasps of the tumultuous feelings that had plagued me outside.
“I’ve been known to be smoother.”
She crawled off me and sat on her haunches, watching me try to extricate myself from the tangle of dropped coats and hangers.
I tried to sit up but was jerked to the side, unable to move. Something was caught on my shirt.
“A little help?”
She crawled back over me with her knee settled between my legs and hips astride my thigh. Her fingers moved deftly by my collar. With a sharp tug, the tension eased and I was able to sit up.
Instead of pulling us both free, I gripped her hip and the back of her neck, meeting her lips with the hunger I’d restrained all night.
Her body jolted before she sank into me, like she’d melted from my touch.
I cupped the side of her neck, and the coats brushed the top of my head. A cashmere peacoat dropped over the top of us, blanketing us in darkness.
Sabrina broke the seal of our lips. Her melodic laughter tapped against my heart, pushing it close to bursting.
I was feeling things for her I’d vowed not to feel, not just for her but for anyone. She made me want things, wish for things I’d sworn would never be for me. Resting my forehead against hers, I tugged the coat off and let it drop to the floor.
I traced my thumb along her cheek. “Maybe we should get out of the closet.”
“Good idea.” She scooted off me once again and stood in the dimly lit hallway looking like an ethereal vision. The flower crown was gone, but little bits of baby’s breath stayed nestled in her hair.
Looking up at her with the light creating a halo over her head, flowing dress dancing around her knees, and desire swimming in her eyes, I was overpowered by how much I wanted her.
I jumped up and wrapped my arms around her and scooped her up.
She yelped and pushed against my chest. “Hunter, put me down.” With wide eyes she wiggled her body, pressing her full breasts even harder against me and driving the blood pumping through my veins even lower to the point of pain. Walking was difficult with my cock trapped against my inseam, but I couldn’t be deterred from my objective, which was getting her into my bed again.
“Stop squirming.” We made it down the hallway with her repeating the phrase the whole time.
The tender feelings were getting harder to ignore. Not the carnal pleasure still riding me hard, but all those feelings draped around our quiet moments together—sitting with her at the table scrutinizing every puzzle piece, listening to her rock out to One Direction, or sitting on the couch with her curled up beside me.
Finally in my bedroom, I loosened my arms and did as she asked.
She dropped onto the bed and shot a playful accusatory glare my way. “I told you to put me down.”
“I did.” I toed off my shoes.
She kicked hers off too. “I meant in the hallway.”
“I meant in the bed.” I unbuttoned my shirt.
“I’m too heavy to carry.” She jerked down the zipper on the back of her dress.
“Obviously not, if I did it.” My shirt dropped to the floor.
Her gaze narrowed, and she gathered the bottom of the dress and whipped it over her head. “Tell me you won’t carry me again.” Her glower was tinged with desire, and I didn’t miss the way her gaze skimmed over my now-exposed skin.
My mouth watered. The light pink molded cups of her bra pushed her breasts up, simulating the overflowing handful I’d experienced already. The black underwear wasn’t lacy or skimpy, but my cock didn’t mind, rising to the point the zipper of my pants bit into the head of my cock.
Her body called to me, striking a keen chord of yearning to be inside her all over again.
My belt jingled, and I kicked off my pants. “Not on your life.”
“Hunter, be serious.” She chucked the bundle of fabric straight at my face.
I let the dress fall and crawled onto the bed, dropping my hands on either side of her. My body skimmed along hers. Our lips were less than an inch apart. “I’m completely serious.”
She gasped. Her breasts, still contained by her bra, pressed against my chest. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
There were only two swaths of fabric between her and me. “I won’t.” I ran my fingers through her hair.
“But you might.”
My lips were on her. Her mouth, her neck, the spot just below her ear that made goose bumps rise on her skin.