“Did you get my note?” he asked.
“I still have it actually.”
I felt his stare burn into me as my eyes rose to meet his.
“Some cryptic Yeats poem about losing innocence, portraying yourself as dangerous. I heard you loud and clear. So, I left. Why are you hunting down a booty call from three years ago?”
I slammed my rag onto the top of the counter and his eyes narrowed. In that very moment, I knew I’d made a fatal mistake. A rush of heat drenched my panties, even as that thread of fear grew into a pulsing tree that spread its limbs throughout my body. As petrified as I was of this situation, he was still so hot. So dominant and self-assured. I knew I’d never find someone who could make me feel the way he did that night. So, I hadn’t bothered to date. Not while I was pregnant and not after Ana was born.
But there was something in his stern stare that told me he already knew. He already knew all of it.
“You’re hiding something from me, songbird,” he said.
I poured all of my energy into my little girl. Being a single mother was tough, especially when you were raising two kids. Your entire life gets put on hold for them. I sacrificed everything to make sure my family stayed together, but the moment those words flew from his mouth, I was hooked.
Hooked on him again, just like I was that night.
My pulse sped up with the rough turn of his accent. His voice had dropped into that octave that sent my knees quaking. I looked away from him, not wanting to say the words that were sitting on the tip of my tongue.
But I didn’t have any choice. I knew he knew.
I walked away from him and came out from around the counter. I had to continue cleaning up so I could close this place down. My boss had already left, and the cook had slipped out the back, leaving me alone with this beautiful, petrifying man while I swept the floor. His eyes were hard on my body as I came closer to him and, when I was within arm’s reach, he yanked me from the floor and pulled me onto his lap.
I squealed as his hands pinned my arms behind my back, thrusting my chest out to him. Without any warning or any words spoken, he kissed me harshly. My lips automatically swelled underneath his touch while our tongues danced a familiar tango and I felt myself short of breath by the time he pulled away. All this time had passed and his kiss could still render me speechless.
The attraction between us was so strong, I could feel it electrifying the stale air of the diner.
“Tell me what you’re hiding,” he said.
I turned my head away to try and disconnect what I knew was brewing between us.
“Now,” he said darkly.
I tried to fight the animal magnetism between the two of us. I could feel my entire body trembling as he tugged harder on my arms. My chest wrenched out toward him and his lips descended to my skin, pressing his barely-there kisses while he watched the whole of my skin pucker at his touch.
But the soft moment was soon gone. He grabbed my ponytail and forced me to look him square in his eyes.
Those beautiful, icy eyes that brought both hope and fear into my life.
“You’ll tell me, or I’ll punish you,” he said.
His words made me hot and I started to squirm in his lap. I remembered how his spanking made me feel last time. How his finger had slipped effortlessly into my virginal hole. He forced me to bend farther, my back threatening to snap as his free hand wrenched my work shirt over my face. He pulled it so high that it covered my eyes while exposing the lower portion of my face and that’s when I felt it.
His lips pressed once again into mine, and I whimpered softly at his touch.
He bit my bottom lip, pulling a moan from my throat that caused him to growl. I started grinding down into his lap, feeling his erection swell in his pants while his hands traveled to my bra. I started to backtrack from him, trying to get off his lap as his grasp held me in his lap.
I knew the moment he saw the stretch marks that trailed up the sides of my breasts that he would know.
He pulled my bra down, and my breathing sped up. For a moment, my nipples were bared to the warm air of the diner. I could feel them puckering underneath the dark prince’s gaze, hardening as I spilled into my panties. His fingertips rose to the side of my breast, tracing every lightened stretch mark he could find as I visibly quaked in his lap.