Ding.
A brief pause as the elevator settles, and this is when Will shoots to his feet, letting my skirt drop down around my knees once more, just as the doors slide open. Will rubs a hand across his face, places his hand at my back, and we head out of the elevator.
People are glancing this way, an automatic reaction to movement.
“I…” I snatch at his arm. “C-c-can’t—can’t w-walk.” Stuttering, my words are slurred—I’m literally drunk on ecstasy.
He wraps an arm around my waist and pinions me to his side, holding me up. “Where to?” he growls.
I gesture at a door marked “Authorized Personnel Only” that is secured with a keycard reader. I fumble the card out of my purse as Will half carries me to the door. I get the key through the reader, which beeps and flashes a green light and then we’re stumbling down the pristine white corridor toward the service entrance. I say we are stumbling, because as Will carries me, I’m reaching for him, consumed by a desperate need to take away his control the way he has taken mine—make him feel the way I feel now.
“Brooklyn, wait. Not yet.” He’s half-heartedly fending off my hands.
“I need you.”
“Soon.” He kicks open the door, scoops me in his arms and carries me bodily to the waiting SUV limo—one of Dad’s fleet of armored, high-powered, custom-built Mercedes SUV limos, which I only rarely use. “How far are you from here?”
I glance at Reggie, who’s too professional to register surprise. “Home, Reg. Fast as you can.”
“Yes ma’am.” He opens the back door and Will awkwardly sets me in on the seat.
I scoot over, reaching for Will with one hand, and pressing the button to raise the privacy screen with the other. The passenger cabin is now private and soundproof, and Reggie can’t hear anything from up front.
Will joins me, closing the door behind him, and as soon as the door is closed, I pounce.
Or, at least, that’s the idea. I reach for him, but Will’s hands grab my wrists and he hauls me against his chest. “Not yet.”
“But you got to taste me.” I stare up into his face, feeling petulant and a little angry and needy. “My turn.”
He shakes his head, not letting go. “When I come, it’s going to be buried deep inside you, Brooklyn. In a bed, alone. Protected.” His eyes betray…so much. “Not in your mouth in your office or the back of a limo.”
“God, Will—I need you.”
He wraps his arm around me and pinions me against him—my back to his chest, his nose in my hair. His breathing is deep, slow, and steady. “Wait with me. Breathe.”
I strain against him. “Will—Ineedyou. Now.”
He breathes. “Soon.”
“Now.”
“Soon.”
I twist, just enough that I can look up at him. “You’re impossible.”
“You’ll thank me later.” He breathes again, a long slow inhalation, a long slow exhalation. “Just breathe.”
I force myself to relax a little, to mirror his breathing. “When did you know?” I ask.
“I snuck into the cabin after you were asleep to get my clothes and leave the note,” he says, knowing exactly what I meant. “You were naked in my bed. I wanted so, so badly to climb back in with you, wake you up, do dirty, wonderful, sinful things to you. But you looked so peaceful, and I just…couldn’t. I covered you up.” He pauses. “I should have stayed, talked things through at least—but I knew, then—in that moment, when I covered you up, I knew I’d fallen in love.” He feathers a ghost of a kiss over my cheek, my forehead, the corner of my lips. “When did you know?“
“I think the first inkling was when you stood over me facing down Demon,” I say. “The moment Iknew? The way you whispered my name as you came. That’s when I knew. I knew I’d never be able to be with anyone else ever again, because no one could ever look at me like that, could never say my name the way you did in that moment, and I knew I’d—” I pause, swallowing emotion. “I knew I’d crave that for all eternity.”
I feel him—under me, behind me. Feel the thick ridge of his arousal behind me, pressing against my buttocks. His chest against my back, his shoulders sheltering me. His breath hot, his hands strong.
“When we get home,” I whisper, twisting in his grip to kiss his jawline. “Make love to me like this. In this position.”
He growls. “A hundred times. A thousand.”
