Hard and fast and desperate.
I was a fool.
I was a fool.
But I didn’t care.
Didn’t care about anything but the girl whose back was to me as she fumbled to lock the door to the salon, shutting down for the night.
Blonde waves tumbled down her back. The girl wore white jeans, a black sweater that draped over one delicious shoulder, and the sexiest pair of boots I’d ever seen.
Everything soared.
This surge of energy and light and need.
Standing there, ten feet away, I had the sinking feeling that I didn’t recognize myself.
Most disturbing was the thought that maybe it was my soul recognizing hers.
Without looking my way, she froze, like she felt it, too, a tremor rolling the length of her spine.
Slowly, slowly, she turned to look at me.
A battered Cinderella.
A broken angel.
And there I stood, the devil in sheep’s clothes.
Got the sense that she’d felt the demon all along. From the moment she’d first seen me. Because she breathed out in surprise, eyes a charge of lust and fear.
I welcomed it when it slammed into me.
Held it.
Just like I wanted to hold on to her.
Ten
Grace
“Ian.” His name was a whisper that fell from my tongue, my mouth parting on fear and need and a breathy sigh.
Everything trembled.
My heart and the air and the ground beneath my feet.
“What are you doing here?”
But I already knew, didn’t I? I already knew what I’d set into motion when I’d texted him in the middle of the night. Unable to sleep. Only able to think of him. Wanting something I shouldn’t take.
But some things were unstoppable. Impossible to resist when the temptation was too great. Right there, begging for me to dip my fingers in so I could take a taste.
He edged forward, that severity a bluster from his perfect body.
Today, he wore a full three-piece suit, dark gray and sleek and fitted. It showed off every inch of the strength that rippled below the expensive fabric.
Shoulders wide.
Waist narrow.
Tie around his neck and desire on his lips.
I could feel it.
Passion.
Lust.
Need.
It radiated from him with the force of a thousand suns.
The man edged closer. Each step that he took robbed me of a little more of my sanity.
Because this was truly crazy.
He stopped when there was only the fraction of a breath between us, his heat wrapping me whole, his words warmth where he dipped down to utter them close to my cheek.
“You told me in that text that you’ve never been a girl who was afraid to live her life. To step out and take a chance. And fuck, Grace, I’m standing here, right now, asking you to take a chance on me.”
Oh God.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
I could feel every reservation crumbling out from under me.
There was no missing the way his mouth tweaked into one of those arrogant smiles where it barely brushed my skin, the words so soft but laden with a demand. “Have dinner with me.”
Need spiraled. I inhaled, drawing him into the well of my lungs. Power and influence and dominance. Cinnamon and orange and sex boiling on a stove.
Fingertips fluttered along the side of my neck, trailing my pulse that throbbed out of control. “What could one dinner hurt?”
There was a tease to his tone, a tease to his question.
The man was so damned good at winding me up. Hooking me in all those places where I’d never be released.
I almost laughed.
“Oh, I think you could hurt, all right.” I edged back so I could look up at him. “Men like you should come with a warning.”
Cinnamon eyes flashed. Red and gold and black. He was cupping the side of my face in one of those big hands, his thumb running across the hollow beneath my eye. “I think it’s a woman like you who bears all the threat.”
“How’s that?”
“You’re so sweet that you don’t have the first clue just how dangerous you really are.”
The man managed to pull a giggle free. “I’m not all sweet.”
He quirked a sexy grin. “I don’t believe you.”
“I just might surprise you.”
He was back to whispering in my ear, his aura all around me. “Oh, you surprised me. You knocked me off my feet.”
I peeked up at him. “I think it was the other way around.”
Literally.
The man had knocked me on my ass. I hadn’t fully been able to stand on my feet ever since.
He took me by the chin, eyes searching, so close I was terrified he was going to dip down and kiss me right there. I was most definitely not ready for that. Especially out in the open.
Exposed.
Hell, this was as reckless as could be. Just standing there with him that way.
My gaze flicked around, searching the packed street for eyes that might be watching. But Reed had the kids today. Their days at his place tended to keep him preoccupied with keeping up that charade. The parody of a caring parent.