Will’s body ten feet away warmed my skin. Feeling his eyes suddenly on us, my heart beat so hard in my chest I could hear it in my ears.
“What’s wrong?” Michael asked.
He must be on the phone, but I didn’t look away from Alex.
“Okay, got it,” I heard Michael say in the distance. “Yes, we’re all right. Send an attendant to check the rest of the cars. Thank you.”
The V of Alex’s gray T-shirt hung open as I gazed down the tunnel between her breasts. I dug my nails into the carpet.
“The trip stop engaged,” someone said. “We were going too fast. It won’t take long to get the railyard to throw the switch and get us going again.”
But no one responded to him. Something pulled at me, and I looked over, seeing Will leaned back in his seat, arms slung over the back of the sofa, and his eyes locked on me.
Alex grabbed my foot, and I sucked in a breath, turning my eyes on her.
She stared at me, and then slowly…slid her other hand up my ankle, held my leg, and pulled her shoe off my body.
Heat rushed in my veins.
The eye of the storm. The eye of the storm.
I drew in a breath and gently exhaled, calming my breathing as I leaned back on my hands and let her take my other leg, pull it up, and slide off the other sneaker.
Rain hit the windows, the forest silent outside under the cover of night, and Michael lit a candle, everyone in the room looming in the background as the hairs on my body stood on end.
Everyone was silent.
There. Filling the room.
Watching us.
She gripped my ankle.
“I don’t want to fight,” I murmured.
But she retorted, “I still want my shirt.”
Will didn’t move, but I heard his intake of breath.
The pounding in my chest grew harder, and I felt his eyes and the heat pooling between my legs. I couldn’t think about anything.
No fear. No doubt. Just the moment.
There was nothing about me to lose that I wanted to keep.
Slowly, I pushed off the floor, Alex rising with me, and I wasn’t going to run.
I unbuttoned my shirt.
“Do you think he’s dead?” Alex whispered, closing the distance between us.
“No.” I moved my hands down, unfastening one button after another. “You know he’s not.”
Aydin had destroyed his life over her. He was too single-minded to die yet.
Slipping the shirt off my shoulders, I handed it to her, and she took it, letting it immediately drop to the floor.
“That’s my favorite corset,” she told me, not breaking eye contact.
I swallowed, my stomach dropping a little. I could feel six pairs of eyes all over the bare skin of my arms and chest.
With my gaze locked on her, I started unfastening the hooks, thinking about her bare chested at that party, and me feeling in front of Will right now what she would’ve felt in front of Aydin that night in the pool.
Others looking. Standing and not backing down.
If this made her feel stronger in front of her crew, I could take it.
Let’s see how far she wanted to push this.
She dropped her head, her hair brushing my cheekbone as she ran her knuckles over the lace on my stomach. “You look good in it.”
I unfastened the last hook, whispering, “It feels good.”
Hesitating only a moment, maybe wondering if anyone was going to stop me as the fire of Will’s gaze covered my skin, I opened the corset, baring myself, and slipped it off, holding her eyes as I held it out to her.
But she didn’t take it. “And my pants?” she ordered next.
The air pricked my nipples, and my head swam. Michael Crist, Kai Mori, Erika Fane, Will Grayson all stared at me and…
Nine years ago, I wouldn’t have given them the pleasure. Now, it was about my own.
Screw ‘em. Alex and I had this coming.
I unbuttoned the jeans, and she slid down my body, dragging my pants with her. I breathed hard, closing my eyes as she helped me step out of them, and when she rose again, I pulled her in, hovering over her mouth and slipping my fingers just inside the hem of her pinstriped little boxers.
“You think so, huh?” she teased.
“Yeah. I think so.”
I pushed them down her legs and then took her T-shirt, lifting it up.
She met my eyes, but before she could worry about me or what I was diving into, I pulled it over her head and then yanked her body into mine.
“Yes,” I whispered over her mouth as I ran my hand over her face, down her neck, and back up to her jaw, squeezing it.
Threading my other hand up into the back of her scalp, I kissed the tip of her nose, her forehead, and ran my lips down her cheeks, tasting her soft, sweet skin, my stomach filling with this need that I knew I couldn’t stop.
I dug my fingers into her, baring my teeth, and both of us panting hard as she whimpered, “Emmy.”
But I didn’t want to stop. I sank my mouth into hers, covering her lips and kissing her strong and hard. My nipples pressed into her own, and any protest she had died on her tongue as it tasted mine, sending a shockwave current right under my skin with its fucking wet touch.
I wanted to open my eyes and look. To see the look in Will’s eyes, and know that he was traveling with me on this, but it was enough to know he was watching.
I nibbled her bottom lip, biting it with my teeth, and then flicked her top lip with my tongue, unable to stop kissing her.
Grabbing her hands, I forced her on me, peeling my panties down as I tugged at hers. Both of us naked, I pulled her into me again, nearly every inch of her body touching mine, and I couldn’t think.
Gasping for air, I let my head fall back and closed my eyes, feeling her mouth graze all over my neck and fall down my chest.
I held her head to me. God, I want this. I wanted it all. I wanted Will to see me like I saw him in that wrestling room and know that I wanted to feel. I wasn’t scared to fall with him, because he made me feel safe no matter how high we climbed.
I wanted him to see me, and I wanted it to be in her arms, and I wanted them to watch.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
I tipped my head forward again, caressing her face as her breath hit my lips.
I opened my mouth, but before I could tell her to keep going, I heard someone else instead.
“Don’t stop,” the other voice whispered.
My mouth dry and my body throbbing with need, I glanced over her shoulder to see Kai’s wife sitting on the floor between his legs, staring at us and barely breathing. He leaned forward, his hand on her neck and his thumb caressing her jaw as they both watched us.
Michael held Erika in his lap, her leaning back against him and their gazes fixed on us, too. His hand rested inside her shirt.
And that was it. Any spec of hesitation or doubt completely drained out of me. I wanted to see me, too.
“Emmy…” Alex started.
But I grabbed the back of her neck and brought her in nose to nose as I stared at her mouth and reached down, stroking her pussy.
She whimpered. “Emmy, we should…”
“Don’t talk,” I growled low over her lips. “I want you.”
She shivered under my touch, tears filling her eyes, and I pushed her back to the chaise. She crashed onto her back, her brown hair spilling over the upholstery as I came down on her, grazing my fingers over her cunt and reveling how fucking soft she was.