He guides me by the hand through the center of the room, ignoring those who call, wave, and lay bait for his attention. The intensity of the music lessens the farther from the dance floor we get, and the pigment reflecting on my dress falls away like a waterfall. Wilder opens the tall door leading to the short hallway, holding it with his foot to let me out first.
My ears ring in the quietness, and I lean against the wall to catch my breath for the first time since Lydia ruined the surprise. Letting the door close behind him, sealing us off from the rest of the party, Wilder stalks toward me.
He licks his lips, and before I can push myself away from the wall to meet him halfway, Wilder’s with me. Resting one hand on the wall beside my head, he holds the other against the side of my face and says, “I’ve wanted to do this all night.”
Wilder’s lips are slow at first and caressing, and his hand falls from my face to the side of my neck. He tilts my head back with his thumb under my jaw, curving his body around mine to hone our fit and deepen the kiss. I reach for his sides, clutching his shirt between my fingers with such force it pulls loose from his waist.
“I can buy you anything in the world, and that’s what you want?”
Now that he’s kissing me, I can’t imagine anything money can buy is better than this.
Parting my lips with his tongue, Wilder pins me flat against the wall, driving his hips into me. His cock is hard, his mouth is soft, and I moan, opening wider for him. He tastes like diamonds and fire, like the best night of my life. I’d starve if it meant never to sample anything but this again, to keep this flavor and this feeling forever.
I lick the roof of his mouth, bite and pull his bottom lip between my teeth, and whisper Wilder’s name when he comes up for air.
Let me be greedy. It’s my birthday.
It’s my party, and I can do what I want.
Finally sinking my fingers into his curls, I push onto the toes of my heels and press into the kiss until my lips feel like they might burst. Tomorrow they’ll be swollen, and hopefully I’ll spend the entire morning in my bed brushing my fingers back and forth across the sting, remembering this very moment.
But right now, I circle my arms around his neck, with the muted sounds of the party only feet away, and I let everything but the sensation of my mouth and his melt away. We’ve gone from slow, to persuasive, and now we surrender like lovers do.
He’s not illicit, and I’m not a whore—we’re free.
When his lips move down my throat, I say, “Take me home. No one will notice we’re gone.”
Wilder smiles against my skin, where my neck meets my shoulder. “I’m not fucking you when I’m drunk, Camilla. I made that mistake the first time.”
I take his face in my hands and force him to look at me. “We’re both drunk this time. It’s fine. I don’t care.”
He scans my face from my mouth to my nose, and finally to my gold eyes. They might be hazy, but they’re true. “I care,” he says.
He robs me of the opportunity to be let down by kissing me again, leaving no room for feelings of rejection with his length pressed against my lower stomach, hard, thick, and long. Wilder wants me, and I’m emboldened by the proof. My nipples pebble under my bustier top at the same time I slip my hands under his shirt, slowly running my nails across his lower back.
Hissing against my smile, Wilder slides me across the wall, reaching for the door handle to the closest office.
Wicked girl.
“I know you want to fuck me,” I say, stepping back into the office, out of his reach.
Wilder kicks the door closed with his foot and takes off his jacket, throwing it to the side. Even in the dark, he’s the brightest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m not scared.
I’m burning alive.
“Don’t talk to me like that. Don’t talk to me like I’m one of your fucking clients.” He’s on me in an instant, lifting me off my feet. With my eyes closed, I let him carry me through the dark. “Unless you want me to treat you like a slut.”
I cover his mouth with my hand, and he kisses the inside of my palm.
Gently setting me atop a desk, the single piece of furniture in the small office, Wilder turns on a lamp at the corner of the long bureau.
“Help me out of my dress.” I scoot to the edge of the desk to stand up, but Wilder holds me down with a single look. He sneaks satin and sequins up my thighs before curling his fingers under the waistband of my underwear.
“The dress can stay on for this.” Dragging lace down my thighs, he caresses the length of my legs from my hips to my ankles.
And then he kneels before me, spreading my knees apart to expose my pussy to his wet mouth. Wilder licks me entirely, his tongue sweeping from my opening to my clit, and I fall back on my hands to let out a low moan as reckoning is substituted with desire. My chest heaves as I inhale a large breath, and Wilder spreads my thighs impossibly wider, sucking on the bundle of nerves that sends me reeling.
I comprehend nothing but his strong hands holding my legs apart and his warm mouth on my hot center, claiming me in the most personal, sensual, and fiery way. In the way only Wilder Ridge can. Because the image of him bowing before my sex is nearly enough to make me come, but then he drives his tongue inside of me, as if he’s trying to tap into my very essence… and I cry out his name, stroking against his kiss.
