As soon as the front door clicks shut, I turn around to face him, my breath dragged from my lungs, the rasping sound filling the elegant Jeffersonian lobby.
‘Didn’t you say you were going to fuck me so hard I couldn’t speak?’ I demand, crossing my arms over my chest.
His expression shows surprise but only for a moment, then he’s sweeping across the tiles, scooping me up over one shoulder as if I weigh nothing and carrying me to my heaven, my desperation, the sweetest torture I’ve ever known—his bedroom.
CHAPTER NINE
‘OH, MY GOD.’
I must have fallen asleep. I push up onto my elbows to find Nicholas watching me, that unbearably sexy grin on his too-handsome face, and my heart does a painful little catapult against my ribs.
‘What time is it?’ I reach across the bed for his wrist and the platinum gold watch he always wears. ‘It’s seven o’clock? Why didn’t you wake me?’
I push the sheet back, looking around for my underpants before remembering I only have paint-smeared bikini bottoms to put on. And they’re in the lounge.
‘Because it was more fun to watch you sleep,’ he says, his voice frustratingly relaxed despite my obvious panic.
And I’m panicking, for no reason I can easily pinpoint. Yes, I need to get to work, yes, I have meetings in an hour. But it’s more than that.
For some reason, spending the night feels like crossing a line that mentally I wasn’t willing to cross. It is a bigger surrendering of myself than I intended. Another line in the sand, one I hadn’t realised I wanted to abide by.
‘I’m serious, Nic.’ The diminutive of his name slips out, but not for the first time. As soon as I say it I have a vivid recollection of crying the shortened version of his name over and over again, as pleasure racked my body in a way I almost couldn’t process.
‘You got somewhere you have to be?’
I pull a face. ‘It’s seven o’clock on a Wednesday morning. What do you think?’
‘I think you should cancel it and come back to bed,’ he murmurs, patting the matte black sheets. As a further enticement, he pushes the sheet back, revealing his rock-hard, naked body.
Predictably, my insides squeeze. And despite my panic, a smile spreads over my face. ‘I can’t,’ I say, in an almost whining tone. ‘Help me find my bikini.’
His laugh is low, a rumble. ‘Oh, no, Miss Anonymous. I have no intention of aiding your escape. In fact, if I had my way, you’d be tied to this bed so I could have my very evil way with you some more.’
Okay.
I have meetings. But there’s also this. I stop looking for my bathers and give Nicholas the full force of my attention. At his mention of tying me up, I remember something from our night in Sydney.
‘You ordered handcuffs.’
He lifts a brow, his expression teasing, silently prompting me to continue.
‘In Sydney.’ Heat blooms in my face. ‘You had handcuffs put in the toy chest,’ I remind him. ‘But we didn’t...’
He stands up, his dick at a ninety-degree angle to the rest of him, his haunches so strong and capable. ‘Yes?’
He likes teasing me. I get it. I suck in a breath and assume my very best kickass CEO expression. ‘We didn’t use handcuffs.’
‘No.’ He shrugs nonchalantly, his naked body next to mine now.
‘Why not?’ It’s breathy—all of me is consumed by his closeness.
‘I wasn’t sure you were ready.’
Indignation flares inside me. ‘Oh, really?’
‘Hmm,’ he agrees, and then he’s lifting me up, wrapping my legs around his waist and carrying me easily through his bedroom to the tiled adjoining bathroom.
‘What are you doing?’ Though it’s self-explanatory when he flicks on the shower taps and steps past the wide glass wall.