“I wasn’t sure I was doing that right.” She gave him a weak smile and noticed her hands were shaking. That was intense.
“It’s stupid,” he mumbled.
“It not stupid. You suffered a major injury. One that took the lives of two of your friends and literally took a part of you. There’s nothing stupid about what happened to you, Eli.”
His eyes went to where she sat on her knees in front of him, then flicked to her mouth and danced around her face. She had to explain. Had to tell him why she’d run out on him that night like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight.
“Saturday night, I—”
Without warning, he grabbed hold of her ponytail, tipped her head back, and lowered his lips to hers.
The meeting of their mouths was electric on contact, shooting sparks into her bloodstream and erasing her mind of the explanation she’d been ready to give. The same undeniable force saturated the air no matter what they did, where they were, or what she wore.
Pure, unadulterated attraction.
His tongue slipped along the seam of her mouth and she rested her hands on his thighs, opening her lips to let him in, to taste him. She dug her fingers into his leg muscles, being careful to ease the pressure when she worried she might be hurting him. He hauled her up by the waist to thoroughly explore her mouth.
“Tell me to stop,” he said between kisses.
“Why?” She allowed her tongue to graze the soft hair of his returning beard. “Will you?”
“Yes.” He cupped her ass and met her eyes. “But I don’t want to stop, Sable. Not until you’re naked and satisfied and out of breath.”
She stroked his face with her hand. “Then I’d be a fool to ask you to stop.”
“Agreed.” His mouth twitched.
She’d amused him, and herself quite frankly.
Isa stood, bringing her breasts to eye level with him, but his gaze stayed locked on her face. Standing over him as he sat on his office chair, his chest expanding with each breath, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than him.
So she’d have him.
She unbuttoned the first button on her dress, watching as Eli swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the movement.
“If only you had your knife,” she joked as she slipped another button free. “This process could be so much faster.”
“Don’t tempt me.” His voice was choked with lust instead of pain, which she preferred.
Another button open, then another, and she untied the fabric belt at her waist. His fingers dug into his thighs as he watched her slip the upper half of the dress off her shoulders. She may have dressed plainly for work today, but underneath she wore a silk cami and panties—both navy to match her dress. Judging by Eli’s shell-shocked reaction to seeing them, she’d chosen well. Not that she’d expected to strip for him, but now that she had…
May as well keep going.
She took a step forward to stand between his legs. He swept his hands up her skirt, to the backs of her thighs, his eyes following her fingers as she ran them down her neck and tucked her thumbs into the straps of the cami.
Then slowly, slowly slipped those straps aside…
***
Eli felt a bead of sweat trickle down his temple as he watched Isa strip for him. She had teased him by sliding the straps over her shoulders, and from the heated glint in her eyes, he could tell she wasn’t done yet. The more skin she revealed, the more he wanted to see.
She kept teasing him, tucking her fingers into the cups and tugging the material down to expose her breasts. She ran the tips of her fingers over dusky nipples that pebbled beneath her touch. By the time she circled in the other direction, closing her eyes and dropping her head back, Eli’s erection was full tilt. He was couldn’t sit idly by a second longer.
Splaying one hand across her back, he tugged her to him, closing his lips over one waiting breast and cupping the other with his free palm. Her hands went to his hair, kneading his scalp. He laved his tongue over and over her nipple, reveling in the sounds she made—soft, sensual, keening moans he hadn’t heard in far too long.
Sex. He needed it.
He needed her.