She obeyed automatically, the heat of his lust melting her reason. He kissed her again. Delicious pressure pushed on just the right spot when he rotated his hips.
The kiss turned wilder when he smoothed his hands over her breasts. He explored her mouth and curves while keeping her up with his body. Her arousal climbed, needy and demanding. He groaned, his teeth catching her lip when he palmed her breasts more greedily. Needing something to hold onto, she gripped his hair.
This was out of control. Wrong.
She needed him so badly she thought she’d go crazy. She pushed up the hem of his T-shirt so she could feel his skin. Her dress had shifted over her hips. His fingers dug into her globes, slightly parting them when she tilted her hips to bury his hardness between her legs.
Her body responded to him in ways that didn’t need teaching. She was frantic with lust. If he bruised her skin with how hard he was gripping her, she didn’t care. She needed more.
“More,” she said, just like on the yacht.
He stilled.
What?
He tore his mouth from hers, staring down at her face with a mixture of shock and fury. Dropping his hands from her breasts to her hips, he steadied her as he angled his hips away.
Her arms fell to her sides. The rejection stung, making her sound bitter. “Why did you stop? I thought this was what you wanted.”
A vein pulsed in his temple. “You have no idea.”
“What do you want?” she exclaimed.
He lowered her to her feet and tested her balance before taking a step back. “I already told you, everything.”
She gaped at him, her heart still racing.
“I know you have needs.” He rested his hands on his hips, regarding her like a rose with thorns that prick to the touch. “There are other ways I could satisfy you.” He looked into her eyes as if he was afraid to look lower, to the rest of her body. “I could make you come in ten different ways without undressing you.”
She took a tremulous breath and stepped away from him, leaning against the wall with her hands behind her back. “I don’t need that from you. I don’t need anything from you.”
Despite the muscle that ticked in his jaw, his voice was calm. “I could run you a bath if it would help you relax.”
Rejection morphed into anger. “Stop treating me like a child. I’ll run a damn bath if I want one.”
After another moment of studying her quietly, he said, “We should go out for dinner. There’s less chance of getting into a fight in front of spectators.”
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. Being cooped up with Joss was infinitely worse. “At what time are we leaving for Larmor?”
“At 9 am.”
A whole night alone with Joss to get through. “We better have a long dinner,” she said, moving past him.
He caught her arm. “Will you say yes?”
“To what?” she whispered, her heart galloping in her chest as she stared up at his darkly handsome features.
“Just thinking out loud.” He let her go with a strained smile.
Chapter 26
Choosing a restaurant in the square, Joss ushered Clelia to a table by the window so his defiant little witch could benefit from the view. The cobblestone streets were alive with nightlife. It made a pretty scene.
He ordered for both of them when the waiter came over to take their order, ignoring her cutting look. There were many decisions he’d make on her behalf in the future. He guessed it was another thing she’d have to get used to.
He glanced at her hand resting on the tabletop, her pale fingers slender and the bones delicate. For a moment, he was tempted to fold his hand around hers, to feel the softness of her skin and the warmth of her body, but he suppressed the impulse. Their feelings were far from romantic. Lustful, yes.
Every so often, she lifted her eyes to the door, but he wasn’t worried. She wasn’t going to run away again. Erwan meant too much to her.
He considered striking up a conversation, but dropped the idea as quickly as it had formed. Idle talking wasn’t his thing. Besides, his companion was clearly not in the mood for small talk. Instead he took out his phone to check if there was a message from Cain about Lupien’s whereabouts. Cain had promised to keep him in the loop. Their understanding was that Joss would cut short his sabbatical and return to the team should they pick up the pyromancist’s trace.
Clelia fiddled with her napkin until the food arrived. It was a simple meal of onion soup and cassoulet, but the hearty food was filling. She needed some flesh on her bones.
While she ate, he studied her heart-shaped faced framed by long, midnight black hair. She wore her hair loose tonight. It was so thick and straight it fell like a curtain of silk to the small of her back. The cut of her fringe was a harsh, solid line, no feathery bangs or soft wisps falling around her face. The style was bold, hard, but it only enhanced her pretty features and delicate bone structure. Short and slender, she could easily be mistaken for one of the legendary fairies the forest near their hometown was famous for. Sometimes, he forgot she wasn’t weak. She was strong, all right, strong enough to have escaped him and survive. Yet there were forces in the world for which no man was a match, let alone a little woman. He preferred to, where she was concerned, avoid danger rather than going for a head-on collision. Unfortunately the collision was unavoidable, and that chilled him to the bone.
They finished dinner early. She needed rest. She was going to need her strength for what waited in Brittany. Walking Clelia back upstairs with his hand on her back, he suddenly had the weird notion that he was courting her. He’d never courted a woman in his life. His strategy
