“How about tonight?”
She was so close he could smell her—the sweet scent of all the sugar she’d had today, the hint of pineapple from the hair product Halliday had used to shape Cosima’s short hair into the beginnings of ringlets, and the slight tang of sweat because she’d been running around with her little friends all afternoon.
So close and so brave, and goddamn him but she was beautiful. And while she was challenging him now, he knew if he could earn it she’d submit like a dream. He’d seen her do it for Hudson, for Ian. He wanted that from her too. He’d forced himself to resist her for months now, keeping her at arm’s length if he could help it but he was only a man.
If Hudson and Ian and Cosima herself all wanted this from him—forhim—resistance was futile.
At least that’s what he told himself as he took her face in his hands and dragged his thumb across her lower lip, his cock thickening at the softness of her skin and the way her eyes widened, like she’d just realized she was a mouse and he was a hawk.
“Tonight, then.”
Then he cuffed the back of her neck with his hand and steered her down the hall toward Hudson’s bedroom so they could be all squared away before they headed inexorably down this path.
Fuck, who was he kidding? They’d been headed here since Hudson first set eyes on this woman, even if Ryker had been towed along while digging in his heels. Now he was going to stumble out of the starting blocks, and everything was going to change.