him.
A shudder racked through her.
He was a cocoon of heat and hard muscle behind her. His fingers, splayed on her hips, burned through the flimsy silk of her dress.
Molten heat drenched her inside out, turning her blood into drugged honey.
He engulfed her every sense and she had never felt more like sinking.
“Do not tease a fire in me that you’re in no way equipped to handle, bella,” he whispered, before he licked the rim of her ear. “I’m not particularly fond of celibacy, especially now that I have every right in front of God and law over the one woman I’ve wanted so desperately for so long.”
Shock waves jolted through her, spreading heat and need to the tip of every finger and toe.
His thighs were concrete columns behind hers, his midriff a steel wall. And his erection grazed her left buttock.
It was enough to jerk Clio out of the buzz.
Mouth dry, Clio jerked to the front. Or at least tried to. With one arm locking her snug against him, the other climbed up her belly, up her breasts and clasped her jaw.
Long fingers traced her lips, and she forgot how to breathe.
Stop it, please, she wanted to say but the words were consumed by the raw need coursing through her.
The blunt tip of his finger traced the cushion of her mouth. “Open that luscious mouth, Clio.” She did and he pushed his finger inside.
Closing her mouth around it, Clio sucked it while her tongue laved it. Wet heat rushed between her thighs.
He cursed again, louder, harsher, and his arousal grew against the valley between her buttocks. Left her too tight inside her own skin.
She gasped as his teeth dug into the flesh at her shoulder. Pain and pleasure fused together as he licked the tender spot, his breaths coming on top of each other in a harsh rhythm.
And still, he didn’t let her move. Didn’t give her anything more than he decided.
He cupped her breast, and heated wetness drenched her sex. Throwing her head back, Clio pushed into his touch.
Just once, she wanted to feel his touch all over. Just once, she wanted to let it be about pleasure and only pleasure. The hardened nipple rasped hungrily against his palm, an answering pull between her thighs.
Mouth buried in her neck, he licked her skin, and Clio moved restlessly. The slide of her garter against her thighs, the rub of her own skin was torturous, her sex aching and throbbing.
With his fingers under her chin, he tipped her face up. Caught by the reflection in the oval, floor-length mirror, Clio flushed. Her eyes were droopy, her mouth trembling.
And he...he could have been cast from marble for all the expression in his eyes.
“Have you had enough, bella?”
Something in that mocking tone of his lit a fire in Clio. It was a fantasy to believe that he could feel anything for her—hurt or pain or desire—without allowing himself to do so, a fantasy to think she could affect him in a way he couldn’t control.
A fantasy she was becoming more and more invested in, a fantasy that would break her if she didn’t kill it now.
That fear sliced through the haze of desire and alcohol. “Have you had enough, Stefan?” she said, meeting his gaze in the mirror. She had no idea how she strung the words together, no idea how her brain even cooperated when she was aching everywhere. “Have you proved to yourself that you can have me panting in heat within a few seconds, that I’m the same as every other woman on the planet in this, too? Isn’t that the game we are playing, dear husband?”
He turned her around, and still there was not a glimmer of emotion in his face.
Clio would have taken anything, even fury at this point. She wanted to crack that hardened shell he wore like armor; she wanted to shatter it and wound him. And it was the most dangerous thought she had had in her life.
“Why did you drink tonight when you never do, bella?”
“Because you’re a mistrusting, cynical asshole who hates the very sight of me and who thinks I’m a manipulative bitch out for your millions.”
“I never said that.”
Clio didn’t know why she was so angry, only that it was unbearable that he wasn’t even moved. “Your look all evening did it for you. After that first drink, I found it was easy to not give a damn about you and your glaring and your low opinion.”
“Or it could be because you know what’s been building between us this past week and you’re terrified to face it and you wanted an easy out.
“Whatever happened tonight, come morning, you could say, I was out of it.”
He dissected her emotions, her decisions so easily that she felt raw, out of control, bereft of words.
He undid the golden cuff links and pushed his sleeves back, arrogant confidence dripping from every pore. “Is the buzz evaporating yet, cara?”
Clio pushed him, something hot and achy clamping her throat. “I’ve had enough of you and your—”
“No, you haven’t,” he said grabbing her again. This time, she was facing him and there was nowhere to hide. “Stop hiding, Clio. Unless you stop and face it, there’ll always be another situation to run from.”
“I’m not—”
“You left England when you found out that your father had arranged every day of the rest of your life from what you’ll study to who you’ll marry. It was an incredibly brave thing to do but it was still running away.
“For all these years, you hid even when you knew Jackson was cheating you—you let him do it. Tonight, you drank because you don’t know what to do with me.”
He placed his hand over one breast and a gasp fell from her mouth. He covered her mouth with his and sparks cindered at her mouth spreading far and wide, making her hungry and desperate for more. “What you’re doing to me, standing here like this, with desire lacing your gaze... Do you have any idea how torturous this is for me?”
And he gave her what she wanted.
He stroked and bit, nipped and laved at her mouth while she clung to him, her body, her will, her mind, all his.
“You drank because you didn’t want to be responsible for this, Clio,” he whispered against her swollen mouth.
Slowly, he pushed her back, creating distance between their bodies.
“For all the names the media calls me, I will not seduce you tonight and shoulder responsibility for it tomorrow while you call it a drunken mistake.”
Disappointment cooled her body as neatly as if he had dumped the champagne bucket full of ice over her head. “No?”
“No.
