“Jesus,” he muttered, his jaw going hard. He looked at the wall behind his desk. She could almost hear his mind churning. “I’ll be away a lot in the next few weeks. It won’t be enough time. Give me eight,” he finally said in a hard tone.
“No,” she whispered. “I’d get lost with that much time.”
He nostrils flared as he met her stare. “Six weeks then.”
She felt the pull of his powerful personality. She wanted to give in. “Five,” she bargained shakily. “Starting now. Today.”
His handsome mouth curled slightly in dissatisfaction. “All right, five. If you agree to spend some of the time with me in the South of France.”
“I don’t think I can. I have work—”
“We can make it happen,” he interrupted. Looking at his determined, rigid expression, she didn’t want to argue. Not now. “Just say yes,” he said.
“Yes,” Emma agreed, trying to ignore her uncertainties. It seemed so improbable, her being with him in the glamorous, gilded playground of the French Riviera. At the moment, all she could think about was how tense he looked. Was he upset by her proposal? She couldn’t tell for sure. She leaned down and kissed his lips, like she thought he was a statue she could magically bring to life. He became the aggressor, his hand sliding up to the back of her head, his mouth molding hers boldly. A thrill went through her at sensing all the frothing, repressed emotion in him, all the friction and heat.
He pulled her closer. It was wonderful to sink into the delight of his embrace, freeing somehow, now that they’d both spoken their minds.
Now that she’d set some parameters.
Five weeks, to touch him and luxuriate in his touch, to explore him . . . and herself.
“I want to do this. I want to take the risk,” she whispered next to his mouth a moment later. She felt him quicken and harden beneath her. He scored her with his stare.
“I’m going to make it five weeks you’ll never forget, starting now,” he promised before he pushed her against him, and covered her mouth with his own.
His kiss deepened and Emma drowned in its decadence, letting the heat of it wash away her anxieties and insecurities. He touched her while he made free with her mouth, his large hands running along her arms and squeezing her shoulders lightly. She felt his cock lurch beneath her bottom when he molded her flesh to his. One hand played along her spine. The other fisted the hem of her dress. He drew it up her thighs.
Despite his matter-of-fact manner, she started slightly, breaking their kiss, at the feeling of cool air and his warm knuckles sliding against the skin of her naked thighs.
“It’s all right,” he said thickly. The way he stared at her mouth, heavy-lidded, and trailed his blunt fingertips along the tender skin of her inner thigh made her heart jump into overtime. “I’m just going to keep kissing you,” he explained as he slipped his fingers beneath the elastic band of her panties. He tugged on them, and she lifted her bottom instinctively. He slipped the underwear down her thighs and over her knees. His hand returned, cupping her sex. She gasped.
“You’ve made out before, haven’t you?” he asked, his deep, seductive tone and small smile melting her almost as much as his hand warmly cupping her pussy.
She nodded, speechless.
One hand returned to the back of her head. He pushed her to him until their breaths mingled. “That’s all this is. Kissing. And I’m going to play with you a little. Just relax,” he growled before he kissed her coaxingly and moved his hand, slipping a thick finger between her labia.
She moaned into his mouth. How could she possibly relax when he was pressing and sliding his finger along her clit and melting her with his kiss? She tensed in his arms.
“Relax your muscles, Emma,” he ordered against her lips. “Let go. Just kissing. There’s nothing to get all worked up about.”
“Easy for you to say,” she mumbled incoherently because he’d continued to play with her pussy while he spoke. Masterfully. His touch was shockingly deft. He lifted his finger and then slid back into the cleft between her labia, pressing and rubbing against her clit. She bit her lip to stop her sharp cry and flexed her hips against the divine pressure. He pressed his lap upward slightly at her wiggling. She felt his cock press tighter to her and moaned.
“Sweet little pussy. Sweet little mouth,” he muttered thickly before he caught her lips again with his and began to devour her.
She couldn’t have said how long they remained like that on the couch, his hand moving between her thighs, his cock throbbing against her ass, his mouth enflaming and taming her at once, soothing her when her flame grew too high. She felt herself turning molten beneath his touch, and knew she was growing very wet by the increasingly easy glide of his finger. The burn in her clit became delicious and untenable several times. She clutched his shoulders and tried desperately to return his forceful kiss while climax loomed, but somehow, it never crashed down. It took her arousal-dazed brain a while to realize he was cooling his strokes on her clit subtly every time she approached climax, keeping her riding just below the crest of release. His other hand made soothing motions on her back; it was almost unbearably unexciting.
She broke their kiss and pressed her forehead to his, breathing raggedly. A fever raged in her. Her clit burned. Her nipples ached. She wished he’d pinch them. Suck them. Just the idea made her moan feverishly.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she whispered on a soughing breath.
He lifted his hand from her outer sex. He grasped her hips with both hands and ground her down on his cock. She whimpered, her arousal peaking once again. She leaned back and saw the hard glint in his eyes as he moved her in a tight circle against his cock.
“Because I want to take you into my bedroom now and restrain you—just your arms—while I continue to touch you,” he said. “And I didn’t want to see anxiety on your face. Just excitement. Are you all right with that?”
She nodded, her breath sticking in her lungs.
“All right then.” He pressed his lips to her warmly, and then sat forward, gathering her tightly into his arms. Emma made a little sound of surprise when he lurched up from the couch, bringing her with him.