“It’s understandable, you know? To feel weird about it. You are engaged.”
“Right, ’cause my moral code on that is stellar. I just had sex with someone else.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes sex can be easy to keep separate, but sharing a bed overnight is a whole different animal. Especially with someone you used to have feelings for.”
She leaned back against the wall and sighed. “I’m being ridiculous.”
“Nah, not at all.” Andre stepped closer and held out his hand. “Come on, take my bed, and I’ll sleep out here.”
She waved him off, heading toward the couch. “Oh, no, really, I’m fine. I’ve slept in worse places.” Much worse.
“Not a request, bella,” he said, his tone firm. Her gaze snapped up as he moved in front of her and closed the space between them, his brown eyes flickering with more than candlelight. He braced a hand against the wall, caging her between him and the fireplace. “Jace told me about your invitation. I’m honored. But now you’ve got two bossy men on your hands. So, no, you won’t take the couch.”
“Oh.” Blood began to thrum against her pulse points, his heady, masculine scent mixing with the vanilla of the candles. She searched for her voice. “I, uh, guess you accepted the invitation?”
Smooth, Evan. Real smooth.
He laughed softly. “I’m making you nervous.”
“Maybe,” she said, giving him a shaky smile. He must be a force of nature in an interrogation room. She certainly felt ready to confess her darkest secrets to him. “I haven’t seen this side of you yet.”
“I didn’t have any right to show it to you.” His lips curved as he reached out and drew the tip of his finger along the edge of her collar. “But feel free to tell me to back off.”
She gave a little shake of her head. “Don’t want to.”
“Good, because you know what I’ve been trying to do all night?” His tone and touch were soft, hypnotizing, lulling her into some suspended state between reality and dream.
She held his smoky gaze, her breathing loud in her own ears. “What’s that?”
“Been trying to make myself go back to the main house and find someone for me to spend the weekend with like I should. Give you and Jace some privacy. But instead . . .” His gaze slid down the length of her, making every inch prickle with awareness. “All I could think about was how the person I wanted was already here. How I’d rather watch you with Jace and listen to your sexy screams tonight even knowing I couldn’t have you.”
His words snaked over her, stirring urges she thought had been exhausted for the night. Now she knew what it felt like to be truly and utterly seduced. There was no other word for it. “Well, now you can.”
His smile was slow, confident, his whole demeanor a shocking departure from the easy-going guy in the hot tub. It was as if she could feel the dominance rising within him, a floodgate being unlocked. “Indeed I can. But you’re not sure that’s what you want right now.”
She blinked, his words not registering for a second.
“What? I . . . Yes, I want . . . But I’m—” Her words came out a jumbled mess. There was no doubt she wanted to pull Andre down to her, feel his mouth on hers, touch him. But there was a tug in her chest, a strange urge to ask Jace first even though he’d already given her permission. She glanced over at the door to Jace’s bedroom.
He followed her gaze. “Ah, bella. It comes so naturally to you already, doesn’t it?”
She turned her focus back to him, her brows knitted. “What do you mean?”
He brushed her hair off her forehead and smoothed her brow. “To be loyal to your dom. To make sure that what you want will please him as well.”
She started to deny it, but snapped her mouth shut when the accuracy of his words set in.
“It’s beautiful to see. And hard to resist.” He bent and put his lips to hers, a gentle press, a taste with a promise of more. She laid her palms against his chest, enjoying the pounding of his heart beneath her fingers and the feel of his mouth on hers. So different from Jace’s, but no less potent. He pulled back way too soon. “But I’m going to.”
She stared at him in shock. “What?”
He palmed her hip, drew her against him, and let her feel just how aroused he was. “Believe me, there’s nothing more I’d like to do right now than lay you out on this rug and taste and touch every inch of you.”
She sucked in a breath, her panties instantly dampening as he molded her against him.
“But, you’ve had a long night, and I don’t want you going into anything with doubts.” He eased away from her. “I’ll wait until tomorrow when Jace can be here with us, too.”
“But all night you’ve been—”