They were about to reach their floor when Astrid dropped her clutch handbag. Clay bent down to pick it up just as Astrid did the same, except she crouched, which caused her leg to poke out through the slit, all the way to her very upper thigh. The elevator dinged and the door slid open, but they were both frozen, staring at each other. It felt like a silent admission that something was going to happen between them. He hoped like hell neither of them lived to regret crossing that line.
They stepped out into the hall and the sense of urgency between them was even more pronounced than it had been downstairs. Clay pulled loose his bow tie as he strode ahead. He couldn’t take it anymore. Something had started downstairs and continued in the elevator. Hell, it started the minute they met. But he’d had enough of resisting her appeal. Spending every minute with her in the office and all day on their trip together had been too great a test.
Every inch of Astrid was temptation. Next to her in the elevator, the view had been incredible, but looking was no longer enough. He needed to touch her, without that beautiful dress. He wanted her in his bed, so he could get lost in her, if only for one night. This was their chance and he sensed it. Back in San Diego, everything and everyone else would get in the way.
He flashed his key in front of the electronic sensor and the lock clicked open. Holding the door for her, he filled his lungs with the soft strains of her perfume. He didn’t know what would happen next and he would follow her lead, but his heart was still thumping out a steadfast beat, like his own body was trying to remind him to take note of what might be about to happen.
He closed the door behind them as Astrid placed her bag on the table in the entry. She planted her hand against the wall and kicked off her shoes. “These things are killing me.”
Clay laughed quietly. Her former career had been built on fashion, but she wasn’t afraid to be real with him. He stooped down to pick them up for her and that was when she placed her hand on his shoulder. On bended knee, he gazed up at her. It was the perfect illustration of the way he viewed their dynamic—he was at her mercy and in perpetual awe. “I was trying to be a gentleman.”
She nodded slowly, and it felt like seduction, the way her face was beckoning him. “I know you were. And I adore you for it.” Her other hand went to the side of his face, her palm pressed against his cheek. “I like you, Clay. I like you a lot. Even when you don’t always seem to like me...”
He placed his hand on his knee and pushed himself to standing. “No. Stop.” He took one of her hands. “I have always liked you. I just haven’t always liked the way I am around you. That’s my fault. Not yours.”
“I know you like control. Does it maybe feel like you lose it when you’re around me?”
“That’s probably part of it. I don’t like knowing that I have any weaknesses at all.”
“We all do. It’s part of being human.”
If only she understood that her reasoning brought him no comfort. “We need to stop talking about me. I want to know what you want.” He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.
“Are we talking about right this minute, or long-term?” She cocked one of her perfectly groomed eyebrows at him.
Any discussion of the future would only circle back to his cache of reasons to avoid anything physical or romantic with Astrid. “I vote for right this minute.”
She popped up onto her tiptoes and reached for his neck. “I want this.” Before he could think twice about what she was doing, her lips were on his, just as soft and giving as everything else about Astrid. Is this happening? Her mouth was so lush, it took his breath away. Wanting to be closer to her, he lowered his head, and she responded by running her tongue along his lower lip and punctuating it with the gentlest of nips. Wow. He tightened his arms around her waist, tugging her closer as she bowed into him, doing everything he could to not rove too far with his hands. He wanted nothing more than to bunch the supple fabric of her dress in his hands, walk his fingers through it until he reached stretches of her skin. Just the thought of touching her like that made his body go tight. He wanted her in ways he couldn’t begin to understand. These weeks of admiring her every day, wanting and resisting, had forced his mind and body into a war—this first glimmer of a truce was so heavenly he would have waved one hundred flags of surrender.
“I need to know that this is really what you want, Astrid,” he said. His mouth wandered to her jaw and then her neck, his lips skimming the chain that held the diamond pendant at her throat. The kisses were meant to put this all on pause for a few seconds while she answered, but she let out a soft moan of appreciation that felt like her attempt to pour gasoline on the flame. “If even one inch of that dress comes off, if we have sex, our entire dynamic
