“Who do you think she is?” I went on. “Did she live here?”
Bryce coughed into his hand and cleared his throat. “What makes you say that?”
“Well come on,” I said, “we’re surrounded by all these paintings and frescoes, of people whose lives are long since over. You never wonder about them?”
“I guess,” he shrugged. “Sometimes.”
“And what about this one?” I pointed to another. “Three ladies, laughing with each other at some cotillion or ball. What were their lives like? What did they accomplish? You ever look at something like this and think of those things?”
Bryce nodded slowly. “Check out the background,” he said. “It’s this very room.”
I stared some more. “Wow, it is.”
“Everyone’s dancing. Everyone’s having the time of their lives.”
“And now it’s ruined,” I said sadly, scanning around. Scorched. Empty.
The smile slowly returned to Bryce’s handsome face. “Not for long,” he winked and extended his hand.
I padded across the unfinished room, still feeling silly in my slippers. Bryce looked down at them and laughed for the third time.
“Fuck you,” I pointed downward. “You’re wearing workboots.”
“So?”
“So they look even more obtrusive.”
He snickered. “Obtrusive? I’d call it sexy.”
“You look like a stripper,” I declared. “Shorts and workboots. No socks, even.”
“Still sexy,” he said smugly.
A silence descended, yet it was anything but awkward. It blanketed us in the eerie darkness. Drove us that much closer together, as we simultaneously stepped into each other.
“You got something against strippers?” he asked, his voice going lower.
“Not at all.”
We were close now, almost as close as we were in the gym doorway. Or the library doorway, depending on how you looked at it.
“Because I used to do that for a while,” admitted Bryce. “Back when we were first getting started with the company. To make some extra money.”
“Yeah?”
“Uh huh. Hours were flexible, and it paid cash.” He paused, tilting his chin to look down at me. “Plus I was good at it, too.”
Did he just shift forward a little? His body seemed somehow closer than before. His face floated near mine.
“You’ll… have to show me some time.”
“Really?”
A warmth began spreading through me. It started somewhere low, below my belly. Or maybe it had already been there the whole time, since making out with Camden.
Bryce’s hand slipped through mine, then continued behind me. It settled in the small of my back, his fingers spreading to pull me closer. I gulped hard, as our bodies touched for the first time.
“Do you really want me to show you?” he repeated.
My breathing was heavy now, and there was no hiding it. I nodded shyly.
“When I say something I mean it.”
His other hand slipped past my hip, and suddenly he had his hands on my ass. Bryce squeezed me once, possessively, then pulled my pelvis against his.
Oh my God.
Everything was hot now, and hypersensitive. The silence and darkness amplified every touch, every movement.
“I want you, Karissa.”
He said the words defiantly, like he was breaking a rule. Like the decision had been a long time in coming, and he was finally declaring it. Our flashlights were somehow gone. I couldn’t even remember setting them down.
“I— I want—”
He kissed me hard, swirling his tongue through my mouth. Rolling his lips fervently against mine, as his hands slid up and then down again, piercing the waistband of my shorts.
Oh… oh wow.
His warm palms felt absolutely electric against the curve of my bare ass. The feeling was unimaginably good.
“I want you too…”
As his hands began to wander, so did mine. Instinctively I found his midsection, and he shifted to accommodate me as I lifted his shirt.
God DAMN.
My fingertips found the playground of his abdominals, and I became almost instantly wet. His body was so hard! So delectably firm and rippled and muscular. I dragged my hands all over his midsection, from his ribs to his navel. The heat coming off his skin turned the pads of my fingers to fire. Every square inch was incredible.
OH!
Down below, one of Bryce’s hands had slid all the way down to the base of my ass. It was between my thighs now, his fingers probing upward. They found my wetness and I shifted into him, allowing the very tips to pierce me gently.
The sensation was so intense I did a full body shudder.
“B—Bryce…”
He was kissing my neck now, and it was pure white heaven. One hand grasped my ass, clutching me tightly against him. Ever so slowly, the other continued dragging three fingers through the shallows of my pussy.
“If you’re going to start this,” I whispered into the darkness, “you’d better finish it.”
It was an order. It was a plea. It was desperation.
He laughed, and his laugh was deep. Fierce. Masculine. It made me even wetter as he abruptly pulled back, holding my cheeks in both hands while planting another sweet kiss directly on my lips.
“Wanna see my room?”
A shockwave of relief flooded through me, even as he began feeding me a finger. Our eyes were locked. Our souls seemingly connected, as he dragged the tip of one digit through the wetness of my mouth.
YES.
I nodded slowly, sucking that finger past my lips. Tasting myself for him… then grabbing his hand and pushing the same finger into his own mouth, so he could taste it too.
Holy fucking shit.
I’d never done such a thing before, but the move was so sexy, so sensual, I could feel myself melting into a puddle. Somewhere in the intimacy of our connection, a moment passed between us. Our mouths curled into a pair of knowing grins.
“We’re wasting time,” I said, and spun away.
Nine
KARISSA
We raced each other back across the empty mansion, laughing like teenagers. Our hearts pounding with the exertion of sprinting the empty halls, of climbing the grand staircase back to the second floor.
But also with anticipation of what came afterward.
We’re going to FUCK.
The sheer
