“You’re just saying that because I’m naked,” she said. “But that’s not what I mean. I mean...I’m never going to be everything that my mother was. I try. But I can’t sing on key. And I don’t like big fancy parties that much. I like to stay home in my pajamas instead of going to galas. I hate those stupid art shows that she used to sponsor. Generalizing, but I kinda think that modern art is pretentious and I never want to have to go host anything like that ever again.”
“Then why do you?”
“Because I don’t know how else to be...valuable.”
“Right now, touching you seems like it’s more important than air. I feel like if I don’t touch you, if I don’t have you, I might die. How’s that?”
“That feels good. Not an overarching life goal, but good enough for now.”
He put one knee on the edge of the bed and tugged her toward him, kissing her deeply, his arm tight around her waist, hand resting on the curve of her butt as he explored her slowly with his lips and tongue.
“You are,” he said, pausing to kiss her again, “the most incredible woman. The most beautiful. The most frustrating. You are, I hate to say, a terrible singer. But how could you ever doubt your value?”
He kissed her neck and she shivered, whatever words she was going to say drying up on her tongue, stolen completely by his touch, by her desire for him.
Alex advanced on her, strong arms guiding her fall to the soft mattress as he came to rest over her, one of his hands pinning both of hers above her head.
“You’ve said that I made you do things that weren’t in your character,” he said, “but you have turned me into a man I barely know. I dream of you. Of the softness of your skin. The sounds you make when you come. I think about you the way you told me what you wanted from me.” Her face heated at the memory. “You are a distraction,” he said. “One I never expected to deal with. I can’t even think of revenge, and agape, I was able to think of revenge when I was starving on the streets, when I made my first million, my first billion. I have always been able to think of it. And for the first time my head is so full of other things, other desires, that I can’t. That is what you do to me. That is powerful. You have done more than make me act out of character—you’ve changed me.”
She wiggled, wanting to touch his face.
‘No,” he said, tracing her nipple with his free hand. “I’m not letting you free just yet.”
“Why?” she asked, panting, out of breath, needing him so badly she thought she might go crazy.
“Because I want to take my time.” He lowered his head, sucking her nipple deep into his mouth. “I want to savor you.”
He lifted his hand to cup her cheek and she nipped at his finger. He paused, a smile curving his lips, his finger hovering just above her mouth. She sucked it in deep, the expression on his face taking on that slightly pained look, then as she released him, she bit him gently.
“You are dangerous,” he said. He bent and kissed her, bit her bottom lip as they separated. “But so am I.”
“I never doubted you were dangerous,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “But I’m not.”
“You don’t think?”
“No.”