But what was so wrong with that? She wanted someone, too. Didn’t she deserve to satiate her own needs?
When his grip loosened and he nudged some space between them, understanding and perhaps a shred of disappointment tainting his features, it didn’t offer the relief she’d hoped for. Only left her cold and unsatisfied.
So she stood on her tiptoes to draw him back, pressing her lips to his before she could change her mind.
He faltered in surprise, and then his hand was in her hair, providing a cushion between her head and the bookshelf as he kissed her. His lips were rough, desperate, pulling her further into this strange, new corner of herself. She didn’t have time to wonder what she was doing, why she was doing it, only that it was the first time she’d felt alive,real, in a long time. She was no longer blended into the background while everyone else lived. She was here, andherefelt right.
Crumbs, no.
Sense returned like an avalanche. She pushed him away, a hand rising to her tingling lips as she worked to recogniseherself. Her own body. It felt like somebody else’s in all the places he had touched. “We … We barely know each other.”
His eyes were almost black: from the shadows of the stockroom or the lust broiling between them, she didn’t know. “I know that I tried to get my coffee and go about my day this morning, and I ended up here instead. I know that I’m so hard, and so fucking weak, for you it hurts. Does the rest really matter?”
Yes. But she didn’t want it to. For just a few minutes, she wanted to take control of her life, her emotions, her body. And she wanted him to do the same. So she uttered a, “No,” and kissed him without trepidation.
He moaned into her mouth, urging her legs to wrap around him just like she’d imagined. His erection settled between her thighs, the friction of his jeans against her leggings enough to make her back arch.
Around them, books rained down as they kissed harder, faster, his mouth roving her neck and her fingers twisting through his soft hair.
“Please tell me you’re not wearing a bra.” Hungrily, he kneaded her breasts through her jumper. “These tits are all I’ve bloody thought about since last night.”
“Last night?” He couldn’t have wanted her then, when she’d made an utter fool of herself. Could he?
His smile was sheepish. “Your PJ top was a wee bit damp and more than a wee bit see-through.”
She stiffened, embarrassment returning, but he shook his head quickly, preventing her from retreating into herself.
“Believe me, I was trying to be a gentleman, but fuck, Eiley. You’re the sexiest, most terrifying woman I’ve ever met, even when you’re wearing dinosaurs.”
For that, she circled his nipple with her thumb, eliciting a hum of enjoyment that vibrated in his throat. Into her. “You sayterrifyinglike it’s a good thing.”
“It is. Mostly. Though if you scream at me again, I’d like it to be for a different reason this time.”
Her toes curled, cheeks flaming. Nobody had ever said things like this to her before, and it left her both vulnerable and more turned on than she’d thought possible. Did he really see her as some force of nature, something powerful and free? She’d never been those things.
“Am I making you blush, firecracker?” He buried his grin into her neck, kisses turning rough now.
She squirmed, which only left his cock seated more firmly against her.
“You’re so full of it,” she managed to pant out.
His teeth nipped her collarbone, and she strangled a cry. “And I think you like it. Are you going to let me touch you?”
She nodded wildly, no longer able to conceal her desperation. His hand was quick to sneak under her jumper, over her stomach, to her boobs. She was wearing a bra, but like most of her clothes, it was designed for comfort over anything else, so he skirted beneath the wireless fabric with ease. That he found any of it sexy was beyond her, but she didn’t have time to question it when he circled her nipple with the calloused pad of his thumb. She ground harder into his crotch, wishing she didn’t need her hands to keep upright—
The sound of her name sliced through her stupor.
It wasn’t Warren calling her.
“Eiley, get out here now!” Her brother’s voice echoed through the bookstore.
She pushed Warren away as lust dissolved to panic, reality crashing down with the remaining books around them.
What the hell had she just done?
11
Warren muttered a curse as Eiley peeled back, his skin tautening around his bones at the sudden lack of touch. It wasn’t the only taut thing, either, his erection painfully stiff against the seam of his jeans. If he’d been thinking clearly, he would turn around, adjust himself before their visitors saw, but his attention, his clarity, even his body, still belonged to her, and it all clenched at the wild panic in her eyes.
