“Not all of it. I’m not going to pretend that you didn’t get hurt and who hurt you, and I’m also not going to forget what you asked me, either.”
She shakes her head; her expression anguished. “Please, forget it, Rush.”
I look at my hands holding her waist. “I can’t. The way you looked. What you said. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and I’ve never had that before.”
“Forget about it, please.” But her hands on my shoulders aren’t pushing me away. They’re holding me closer.
“I’m not good at letting go of things.”
“You have to. We can’t do this.”
“Can’t?” I lean closer slide the edge of my nose against hers. “That’s not a very rock ‘n’ roll attitude of you.”
Her gentle intake of breath is a powerful drug coursing through my veins. “You’re the rock star, I’m a dancer. Coming onto everything that moves is your job, not mine.”
My lips ghost over hers and I feel her shudder against me. “You really think I’m like that?”
“You’re exactly what I think you are. A bad mistake waiting to happen to me.”
I pick her up in my arms and her thighs wrap around my hips and straddle me. I kiss her hard and push her back against the wall. She yields so perfectly in my arms, her mouth opening beneath mine and tasting like pink sherbet, fizzing right through me.
She’s wrong about me, and she’s wrong about this.
Not in my wildest dreams could I believe that kissing Dree is a mistake.
11
Dree
Rush’s kiss ignites my blood and sets my soul alight. The world drops away until there’s just the heat from his chest and his mouth burning into me. His tongue parts my lips and he steals the breath from my lungs.
I break away from him, panting. “Damn, you kiss good.”
Rush smiles and kisses me again. His hands cup my ass as he holds me pinned between the wall and his hips. He kisses my throat and I hear the gentle clink of the chain around his neck as he pulls me higher against his body.
What am I doing? I should never have opened my mouth. “What I said yesterday, you should forget that. I wasn’t in my right mind.”
“Maybe,” he replies. “Or maybe you were being straight with me for once.”
“You—ah.” I break off as he kisses me behind the ear and sinks his teeth into my earlobe.
I would be insane to give myself, body and soul, to him. No one can be trusted with that sort of power, and especially not someone like him.
And yet, here I am turning my face back to his, so he can give me what I’m dying for. Another kiss. Just a few more minutes of feeling like I’m soaring.
He shifts me so I’m propped against one of his hips and held by one hand, as the other grips my waist and then slides higher.
“Baby,” he whispers against my mouth as he squeezes my ribs. “I’ve never had anything like that before, and now here you are, asking me for it. If you think I can forget that then I need to show you more of who I am. I don’t let go of what I want. Ever.”
I’m treated to a close-up view of those dazzling eyes of his. “Are you sure we want the same thing?”
“I heard you ask for someone to hurt you, so how about you tell me how you want it? Then after, you let me kiss it better and hold you so tight until whatever it is that makes you think you’re pathetic and worthless shuts the hell up and you can just be.”
My mouth goes dry and my arms lock around his neck. He heard what I said. He laid out in words as inviting as a big bed exactly what I’m craving, and now I want to crawl between the sheets with him and live there.
Rush shifts me in his arms, pulling me flush against his chest. He carries me over to the sofa and sits down with me in his lap, looking into my eyes the whole time. “Maybe that’s not how it’s done. I don’t know. I’m new to this whole thing.”
That sounds pretty amazing to me.
Just about perfect, actually.
Damn, another thing Rush has good instincts about, along with sound and pitch, timing and rhythm. I’m straddling the hard muscle in his thighs.
“Can we try something, baby? Nothing scary,” he adds quickly. “I just want to talk to you.”
I find myself nodding, thoroughly under his spell.
“Sit down for me. Just there.” He points between his feet.
I slide off his lap and down on the carpet between his knees. Nestled at his feet. He cuddles me with his long legs and leans forward and wraps his arms around me, his face close to mine.
“What are we doing?”