Aiden pushed the button for the correct floor, and as soon as the doors closed, as soon as we were alone, he exploded into action.
Before I could breathe, I was against the wall, his mouth hard and demanding over mine, his hands ruthless as he strained the seams of my dress by pushing his grip underneath to fill his palms with my flesh.
His tongue was hot and slick, and I whimpered when it swept around mine in a tantalizing circle. My arms were around his neck so tightly that when he straightened, I could hardly find purchase on the floor. But I didn’t need it. He wrenched my hip up and rolled himself between my legs.
This kiss was a dark prelude that we’d danced around the entire time we knew each other.
It was dirty, and everything I wanted, everything I’d dreamed of from him. He devoured my mouth, tilting his head to deepen it further, and I stole the breath from his lungs because I’d not be the one to pull away.
I’d live there, in that kiss, if he let me.
His body shook from the force of everything he was pouring into our embrace. If we stayed on that elevator much longer, I swear, I would’ve given it up to him right there.
We arrived at our floor, an inconspicuous ding heralding the gentle stop of the car, and Aiden pulled back, breathing hard, lips red from our kiss.
“Fucking finally,” he said, tugging on my hand as I exhaled a laugh.
We rushed down the hall, and when he found the right door, he almost dropped the key in his haste to unlock the door.
Behind him, I couldn’t help myself. I pressed my front to his back and started unfastening his belt. A hand shot out, bracing against the doorframe, and he muttered another foul curse word when I got the buckle undone.
“I’m going to tell you something before we walk in that room,” I whispered against his heaving back. The muscles shifted against my forehead when he lifted his head. My nimble fingers pulled the leather belt from the metal buckle. “For reasons which we can discuss later, I need you to know that I’ve never done this before.” When his whole frame, big and broad, went still as a statue, I smiled. It should have made me feel at a disadvantage that I couldn’t see his face, but I’d never felt more powerful. Never felt so in control of what I wanted.
We were still in the hallway, and I tugged his shirt out of his loosened waistband and slid my hands over the ridges of his abdomen, which was all scalding skin and heavy muscle. When I tried to push my hand lower, Aiden growled my name. I stopped.
“You’re a …you’ve never—”
He couldn’t say it.
“Never,” I affirmed.
Aiden spun, gripping my face in his hands, eyes burning down at me. “Why?”
I gave him a coy smile, reaching behind his back to finish pushing the key card into the door. “I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you. No one’s hands or mouth,” I whispered, leaning up on my tiptoes to suck his bottom lip into my mouth, “and wasting time with someone who doesn’t know how to handle me has never been appealing.” I kissed down the strong column of his neck. “But I think you know exactly what to do.”
With a tortured groan, he slanted his mouth over mine, fisting his hand into my hair. Our tongues dueled, and I felt him grapple with the doorknob. I exhaled a laugh when he still couldn’t get it open.
Down the hall, we heard the ding of the elevator, and he tore his mouth from mine to face the entrance to the room again.
The door opened with a click, and he shoved it open so violently that it banged off the wall. Aiden turned, and the look in his eye had me breathless with anticipation, because I knew he was about to absolutely destroy whatever fantasy I’d had of him in the very best way. He reached forward, gathering a fistful of my dress, and tugged me forward as he walked backward into the room.
“You’ll pay for that,” he said, glancing down briefly at his opened belt.
“Promise?”
The door slammed shut behind me, and before he could move, I reached up behind my neck and unhooked the strap holding my dress up. Before it could fall, he stepped up to me, gripping the back of my neck.
“Nothing else comes off unless I do it,” he whispered against my lips.
My eyelids fluttered shut. I wanted to say something cheeky like, yes, boss, or maybe I’ll do it myself. But no words came. I’d lost the ability.
At my expression, he hissed in a breath through clenched teeth. “On the bed,” he commanded.
I walked into the room, heart thrashing and legs quaking as he locked the door.
Chapter Twenty-Eight Aiden
The click of the lock may as well have been a gunshot going off in the room. Red-hot tension coursed through my veins, angry at being pent-up for so long. Before I went to her, I pressed my forehead against the cool metal of the hotel door and attempted to steady my hands. They didn’t tremble because I was nervous, but I did feel a slight tremor of apprehension at my ability to keep myself in check.
Maybe it was the way I’d wanted her, or how long I’d resisted something that felt irresistible.
Maybe it was that I’d gone so long without this type of desire—wild and untamed. I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt it, and I needed this moment of pause to ensure that I wouldn’t unleash a beast onto Isabel in my rib-crushing need to slake what she’d stirred in me.
Very little surprised me anymore.
The fact
