Leather. Pine. And something sweet along the edges. She could taste him on the tip of her tongue, and while his fingers pressed into her jaw firmly enough to make her breath catch, it was the scent of him soaking into her senses that kept her still and calm.
Unafraid.
“Are you playing a game with me?” he asked.
The question was a fair one.
She had to admit it.
Still, she told him, “No.”
A girl like her ...
What games could she play?
Roman arched one dark brow. “I’m not sure if I should believe you.”
“So, don’t.”
Seemed simple enough to her.
What did it matter?
Easier said than done, she knew. Just standing there with his hands on her was enough to get Roman in a lot of trouble. He’d already taken one risk with her tonight, and Karine was feeling bold enough to push for two.
Maybe her stare urged him on.
Or her silence.
Whatever it was, Roman’s throat jumped with a swallow before he said, “Tell me what you want, Karine. I need to know what you want here.”
His words came out in heady whispers, right there, dark at her ear penetrating her oh, so deep whiles knots tightened in her gut. An intense desire washed over her; something she had never experienced before.
There was a lot she couldn’t pretend to understand about men. She wouldn’t even begin to try. There were a few things, however, that she could never forget, either. Men were supposed to be feared. Men hurt her. They took away everything and made her feel small and inferior. There hadn’t been one man in her life who didn’t take the time in one way or another to remind her that she was insignificant, and unwanted.
But not this man.
He asked her what she wanted. Karine wasn’t sure if he did that because of who her father was, or something else. Whatever the reason, it was the first time she had been given a real choice.
“Karine,” he pressed, voice softer than time.
It was that softness he offered her—again without her prompting—that urged her to answer him back. To find those words. The ones that she hadn’t really known how to use.
“Would you kiss me?” she asked, but he didn’t move. More words slipped out before she became too scared to say the truth. “I wonder what you taste like—your kiss on mine. Do you want to taste me, too?”
Even in the darkness with nothing but a streetlight at the far end of the alley—illuminating their faces dimly—she could see the way he reveled at that, pleasure lighting up in his eyes in the smirk of his tempting mouth. Maybe at the frankness of her words, or how she said them ... either way, it was clear he liked it.
His hand traveled up the side of her body until his palm found her left breast hard over the damp material of her dress. Under the trimmed, dark thickness of his beard, she enjoyed the way his jaw clenched, like he could barely control himself. She knew he was hard—the ridged length of his cock pushed into her thigh as they remained close together.
“Well?” she asked again. “Do you?”
The rumbling hum that answered her back was delicious. It started a fire inside her body that she hadn’t expected. But then he had to go ahead and speak, too.
That only made it worse.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve wanted to taste you from the second you came out of that swimming pool.”
Oh?
Good.
Karine let her hands travel down, too. Her mouth fell open hungrily as her hand wedged between them until she had cupped his crotch. Brazenly, she stroked him through his pants when he squeezed her breast even harder. His thumb found her nipple through the dress, erect and sensitive to his touch.
Karine loved it—that sensation.
The way he was careful when he touched her, like she was a piece of art worthy of being worshipped and cherished, but still held her tight enough that it could hurt if he wanted it to. She threw her head back a bit, delighting in his touch, and the way the rain fell on her face now. His free hand traveled to her ass, grasping hard and strong. Making her suck in a hissed breath when his hands flexed against her body.
All the while, she stroked him more.
Harder.
Then that hand at her throat reached for her nape, guiding her head back so she faced him fully again.
“I know better than this,” he groaned.
She might have laughed. If only because he said it like he was mad at the world about the situation he found himself in with her. But she didn’t believe he was mad at all, and it wasn’t very funny.
Mostly because he wasn’t wrong.
She knew better, too.
Then, he dipped down to take a kiss, their mouths met with lips already opened for the taste they’d both wanted, and Karine was sure she was going to explode into a million pieces.
Or maybe her heart would. The organ certainly raced like it might, the thundering beats slamming into her ribcage one after another as Roman’s tongue tangled with hers. Every swipe of his lips over hers urged Karine to kiss back, wanting more. He pulled the breath out of her lungs with his kiss, but goddammit, she didn’t mind.
She was right, too—there had been something sweet about the man, and she found it in the way his bruising kiss teased and lulled her into a slower rhythm. How he explored her mouth with every dart of his tongue and hint of his teeth grazing her lower lip.
The kiss turned into gentle sweeps of their mouths until both were pulling back for air. She would have gone back for more
