He showed no reaction to my threat. The frustrating part was that it really did seem as if he could see straight through all my bluffs. “Every time we’re together, you can’t help talking about my balls. I think people in the world of psychology would call that a fixation.”
I gritted my teeth. “There’s a difference between touching something and kicking it.”
“Yes, exactly. Because touching can be torture just as much as pain can be ecstasy.”
“Uh, no. That wasn’t really the point I was trying to make.”
“Here’s what I think. The only way I can get honesty out of you is from these.” He sat down beside me on the bed and turned my head to face him, rubbing his thumb across my lips.
I didn’t see him moving, but Landon’s face was closer to mine. No matter what words were coming out of my mouth, he was right. I couldn’t stop looking at his lips—hungry for another taste of the explosion I’d felt in the hallway.
Landon’s eyes told me everything. He was going to kiss me again. Worse, I wanted him to, secrets or not. I even felt my chin tilting up and my eyes starting to close. The last thing I saw was the satisfied, knowing smirk on his mouth.
Then our lips met more softly this time. It wasn’t the violent attack in the hallway. It was more careful, probing. It almost felt like he really could somehow read my thoughts with the kiss, and this was a physical conversation. Each flick and roll of our tongues was a message that he read loud and clear.
His big hands cradled my cheeks and I knew how easy it would be to lay backwards and let him practically fall on top of me.
The scariest part was how my worries and doubts melted with his lips and hands on me. They felt like wisps of smoke that I could see, but not grasp. I didn’t want to feel them. All I wanted was this.
Him.
Now.
I wanted it to last forever so I wouldn’t have to go back to that world where Landon was real and so were the doubts I had about him. The fear that he was going to make me care for him just in time to smash my heart to pieces.
I put my hands on his chest to push him away, but the warm hardness of his muscles made me pause.
God.
I’d never felt so out of control in my own body. My brain was like a little, insignificant pilot trying to run a complex machine—only I’d suddenly forgotten what all the buttons do and every moment spun the situation farther and farther out of my control.
“Landon,” I breathed.
“What?” His dark hair had fallen partly over his eyes and it physically hurt to see how good he looked—to know I was going to do the only thing I could think of to avoid getting carried away by the dangerous momentum I felt.
“Thank you.” I pushed his chest gently, but firmly enough that he got the message and leaned back. “Now I know what a mistake tastes like. I’d always wondered.”
His eyes smoldered, but I didn’t let myself sink into his trap. I stood, hoped I hadn’t left an embarrassing wet spot of arousal from where I’d sat on the bed, and hurried to the door.
“When do you want to sign the contract?” he asked calmly.
Right now. I want to do whatever it takes to get your hands back on me and the taste of your lips on my tongue again. I want it all, even if I’m almost certain I’ll regret every moment of it. “How about never?” I said, slamming the door behind me.I was curled in my favorite chair—the one in the lobby where I’d read hundreds of books growing up. Today, the story was of a golden-skinned alien smuggler with a massive, heat-seeking cock. The cargo he was smuggling happened to be a virgin Earthling woman, and his twelve-inch coke can cock was absolutely going to find its way to her. I grinned to myself when I imagined what Landon would think of a book like this.
Except I didn’t have to imagine for long. He was walking straight toward me. For once, he wasn’t wearing a suit. He’d dressed down in a nice button-up shirt with the collar loose and the sleeves rolled up. His forearms were muscular and covered in tattoos, which, from our time at the dolphin encounter, I knew snaked across half of his chest as well.
“I expected you to hide from me for a week or so,” he said, sitting himself down in the chair beside mine. “It’s almost disappointing to find you so easily. And not even twenty-four hours since I last saw you.”
“Maybe I just hoped you wouldn’t be pathetic enough to come looking for me this quickly.”