I didn’t think about it, just choked out, “Yes.”
He kissed my throat, teeth skimming over the surface, causing me to vibrate all over, clenching on his fingers. That only quickened his pace, his thumb rubbing slow but hard, making my head swim. If he kept at it, I might forget myself completely. There was only so much I could take before need outweighed reason.
“Don’t fight me. When I do this, just let it happen.”
“Okay,” I replied, not caring what he meant as long as he didn’t stop doing what he was doing.
He bit me.
He pushed me backwards on the couch so he was on top of me, his hand still conquering me with its demanding, impossibly precise thrusts that made me wonder how he knew the needs of my body well enough to meet them so perfectly. But riding the crest of an orgasm, I didn’t care how he knew, only that he was putting his knowledge to practical use.
The bite took me from the edge of ecstasy right into the abyss.
The heat between us exploded as I screamed, and I was sure we were both on fire, burning each other from head to toe, but it didn’t matter. Let it consume me and turn me to ash, nothing else mattered but drowning in it.
Where his teeth sank into my neck, it felt like an electrical current was running through him and into me, and the spark of it, like a live wire, ran from his mouth all the way to my groin, making me clench around his fingers again and turning one orgasm into two, then three, then they came so fast and hard I couldn’t keep count anymore and lost all sense of my body except for the riot of need.
When he pulled his mouth away, I was sagging and boneless. I couldn’t open my eyes or lift my head. I simply lay beneath him, panting and soaked with sweat, aftershock shivers rolling over me. Lucas licked my neck, then kissed my lips with a restrained delicacy that was in glaring opposition to what we’d just done.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Uhn.” I raised one limp hand and patted him on the back.
He laughed, then lay down beside me, snuggling me close to him. Before we both fell asleep, he picked up the remote off the table and hit a button, bringing down lightproof curtains over the massive windows. Now I could sleep through the day, safe from the deadly light of morning.
“I love you,” he whispered into my hair.
I didn’t know what to say back to him, so I let my breath go deep and slow and hoped he’d think I’d fallen asleep.
Chapter Nine
Dusk fell and I awoke to the sound of the shades opening on an automatic timer, letting in the purple, sunless glow of evening. Lucas was gone, but he’d put a blanket over me, and a Prada box was on the coffee table instead of a broken wineglass and my soiled shirt.
I folded the blanket, then poked the charcoal-colored box with my toe. When it didn’t explode or bite me, I lifted the lid and pushed the tissue paper aside. Lucas had replaced my twelve-dollar Forever 21 blouse with a gold-toned Prada dress that still had the seven-hundred-dollar price tag attached.
Instead of arguing about the extravagance of the gift, I decided not to question the kind gesture. He was a billionaire, after all, and I doubted he’d understand why such an expensive gift made me uncomfortable. I shucked off my skirt and slipped the dress over my head. It fit perfectly, and now I wouldn’t have to go home topless.
I entered the kitchen in search of my purse, holding yesterday’s skirt in one hand and my leather jacket draped over the other arm.
“Did you come to give that back to me?” Dominick asked.
I yelped. He was leaning against the counter beside the fridge, and I hadn’t noticed him when I’d come into the room. The jacket I thought of as mine had, in fact, once been Dominick’s. I’d sort of forgotten about that since I’d had it for so long.
Sheepishly, I looked down at the jacket, then back at him. “Did you want it back?”
He laughed and set the bowl he’d been eating from back on the counter, next to an open box of MultiGrain Cheerios. Five thirty in the evening seemed like a weird time to be eating cereal, but sometimes people get strange cravings. “Keep it,” he insisted. “It looks better on you anyway.”
I hugged the jacket possessively and smiled at him. “Thanks.”
When I came closer to the island, looking under the stools for my missing bag, Dominick went rigid. He stood in front of me, and as I straightened, he grabbed my face and turned my head abruptly to the side.
“Hey,” I snapped, smacking him in the chest. “What the hell?”
Dominick dropped his hand like I’d burned him, taking a step back from me. “What happened last night?”
“Uh, personal question, Dominick.”
“It’s not like I’m asking if you guys got it on or anything. I?