21
Laura
After some coaxing on my part, Dax promised he’d get with D and make plans, so we’d get another chance to check up on activities at the centers.
Once I was done with my shower and hair, I was ready for a good night’s rest. I smiled, embracing the notion I’d be reunited with the kids soon.
I sensed Dax’s eyes on me as soon as I walked across the room. I’d washed and coaxed my hair into a sleek ponytail. I was dressed in a new, silk pajama short set, compliments of Dax’s black card. When he’d given Beverly and me his credit card and set us loose inside the hotel shopping plaza, we’d not been modest in our spending, especially when he’d insisted we not be.
I didn’t make enough to afford real silk, so I enjoyed the soft slide of it against my skin. I was, to a certain extent, allowing myself to be spoiled for the first time in my life. The prospect of lingering death caused you to think twice about squandering certain opportunities.
At the side of my bed near the wall, I placed my shampoo and conditioner back into my bag before sliding it back under the bed. When I stood, I jumped because Dax was standing right behind me.
“Dax, what the fuck? Are you trying to give me a damn heart attack?” I glared at him with a tightly clenched brow. I was certainly starting to understand why they called him the silent assassin. The man could sneak up on his own damn shadow.
“My apologies. I didn’t mean to scare you. I have one more question for you,” he stated, but his stormy gaze revealed more than just a question.
“You couldn’t ask from your side of the room?” I squinted as I tried to figure out his purpose for venturing into my territory.
“One question and an honest answer, and I’ll leave you alone,” he assured.
“Okay. Get on with this question.” I urged, anxious for him to leave my personal space.
He took a step closer, boxing me in with the bed to my right and walls to my back and left sides. His shining gray eyes were glued to mine as he inched closer, causing the air around me to stiffen. I’d never been a wimp, so I stood my ground, waiting to see what this crazy man was up to.
We were damn near face to face at this point, with me glancing up, and him peering down at me. The heavy silence that filled the room was broken by our heavy breathing and flickering gazes.
I didn’t know how much more of his weirdness I could take. I’d never wanted a man, but there was something about Dax that stirred cravings I never knew I had. Like now, my heat level wasn’t just hot. Lava flares were flaming around me.
His words broke into my inflamed mind. “Are you attracted to me, Laura?” His gray eyes narrowed and focused on me with firm intensity, turning my heart into a fist that pounded against my chest cavity.
“No,” breezed past my lips way too fast.
He shook his head, not accepting my answer before taking another step. This time I did back up, but the wall stopped me.
“I don’t believe you,” he whispered, his words sweeping warmly across my face. “The military trained me to notice things,” he reminded me. “I’ve respected your choices, but I’m afraid I’ve run out of the will to keep pretending.”
He tapped a finger against his temple. “I can’t get you out of my head, and I can no longer suppress my need to know what your mouth tastes like, to know what your body feels like against mine, to know what it feels like to be inside you.”
I gasped, struggling for each breath as the chaotic pulse within me started to vibrate across my skin. Every stitch of clothes on my body had gone up in flames. Next thing I knew, his warm lips were on mine, and mine yielded before gliding against his. The combination of his soft lips and firm body pressed against mine sent an ache of passion thundering through me. There was nothing rushed about the kiss. It was slow and deliberate, impacting and meaningful in a way that it would be remembered.
I breathed him in, taking in his heady scent I’d already admitted to liking. My heart pounded, the thumping beat igniting the pulse in my neck and the one between my legs. He was kissing my lips, but I felt the impact all over my body. When his eager wet tongue slid across my lips, enticing me to open my mouth, I snapped out of the spell and came to my senses.
My fingers crawled over rippling abs and taut skin. His body heat poured through his shirt and into my shaking hand. I splayed my fingers over his strong chest and found the strength to shove him off me. “Are you crazy? Get away from me!” I yelled, breathless.
My mind was set ablaze with the memory of what we’d been doing. My brief moment of insanity had been replaced by a burning anger that raced through my body and came alive in my mind. My palm opened before I reached my right hand way back into another dimension and sent it across his cheek so hard that his head jerked forcefully to the side. He kept his head turned, his eyes closed, as he allowed the sting of my slap to dissolve.
I couldn’t believe I had smacked him, but he’d deserved it, and I was ready to face whatever would follow. He turned and glared at me, moving his jaw left and right, to regain sensation in it. The hand I’d used to smack him stung as tingly sparks of pain flared inside my palm.
Back against the wall, my chest bobbed up and down from his attack as I waited to meet his fury. However, it wasn’t anger or fury that greeted. A smile spread slowly across his lips, even as my handprint started to take shape on his face.
His fingers traced the edge of my jaw, making me shiver. “You enjoyed my kiss. I can tell by the look in your eyes that I’ve made your pussy wet.” His tone was blunt and arrogant, him speaking the facts as he knew them.
He pressed his hand against the wall on either side of my head, boxing me in, before he lowered his head and placed his lips against my ear. “Your body is begging me to fuck you,” he whispered. His hot words sent a sharp pang of lust through me, and I choked down a moan. I believe this was the first time I’d heard him curse out loud—one of those men that saved his misbehaving for the bedroom.
He nipped my earlobe before he pulled back enough to glance into my eyes. His gaze dropped to my nipples, which were hard enough my bra didn’t hide the print of them pushing through my top. I didn’t give a damn what my body expressed, I wasn’t conceding to whatever plans he’d hatched in his delusional brain.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Richie Rich. Before I fuck you, I’d go to hell with my pussy dripping gas.” At this point, I didn’t know if I was turned on or angry. The line kept blurring, and his closeness was driving me nuts.