He could bear it no more.
‘Emma,’ he said, pinning her against the wall in a spectacularly graffitied alley, where the walls were an ever-changing work of art. ‘I have to tell you I really don’t care about seeing the city. I just want to get you back in my bed.’
He could barely believe that he wanted to take her back home. Sending her on her way was the smarter plan. But how smart was it to deny himself? Emma knew the score. This wasn’t about feelings or a relationship. It was just sex.
‘Give me the weekend,’ he said. ‘I promise you won’t regret it.’
He heard his voice, low and rough. He could see in her eyes that she knew just how aroused he was. And, with his body against hers, that she could feel it.
‘I want that too,’ she breathed.
‘What I said before still stands. This doesn’t change things.’
‘I know that.’ She grinned. ‘I don’t want it to.’
His lips crashed down on hers. The moment they were on her it was as if he was breathing again. Living again. Flying again. His hands were underneath her shirt, sliding under the waistband of her jeans. Squeezing her butt.
‘These things have been driving me nuts all day,’ he growled in her ear. And she laughed.
Voices grew closer and reluctantly Alex pulled away from her, not sure if that kiss had taken the edge off or made him thirst for her even more.
CHAPTER SIX
THEYBARELYMADEit into his apartment before their hands were all over each other and they were leaving a trail of shed clothes to his couch. Afterwards, they lay together, catching their breath and enjoying the feeling of being close.
In an unguarded moment, Alex wondered why such a vibrant woman didn’t want a relationship. In his experience all women did. Even the ones who knew they would never get it from him but still hoped they might be the one to change his mind. His mind couldn’t be changed. He had seen what the illusion of love could do to a person, and he had no intention of turning into his father.
With Emma it was different. But what could have happened to her for her to be as cynical as him?
The feeling of gentle fingers tracing patterns on his chest put an end to his thoughts. It felt as if her touch left a trail of fire on his skin.
Alex lifted her fingers to his lips, pressing a kiss to the soft pads. He opened his eyes and found her gaze on him. His heart stuttered. Her lips were rosy and full from his fevered kisses. The scent of his body still lingered on her skin. It surprised him how much he liked that. To have marked her as his to enjoy. The possessiveness alarmed him.
Alex pulled away to try to break the spell—only he couldn’t leave. The electricity between them hauled him back.
Emma’s fingers threaded through his hair, tugging him towards her. She kissed him, trapping his lip between her teeth. Giving him a little nip that walked the fine line between pleasure and pain.
‘Witch,’ he growled, and she laughed with wicked delight.
The ringing of his phone pierced through the moment, vibrating loudly on the glass table. Alex ignored it, sliding his tongue over hers. The phone wouldn’t stop.
‘You should get that,’ said Emma.
‘They can call back.’ His voice was like gravel.
Still the phone kept going, until he picked it up with a frustrated sigh. He pressed the button on the side, silencing the device even as he registered the name on the screen. Feeling a niggle of guilt, he tossed it back onto the table, trying to remember a time when he had ever ignored his father’s call.
Alex loved and admired his father, but Robert Hastings could hardly complain about being ignored. Not after the way Alex had grown up.
He dropped a steel shutter on those thoughts. He wasn’t going there now. Not when he had a beautiful woman in his arms.
‘Now, where were we...?’
Emma could see that the playful twinkle in his eye had been replaced by a harder look. A haunted one. She wanted to ask about it, but then it occurred to her that it really wasn’t any of her business. Asking about his feelings wasn’t keeping things simple. She doubted he would tell her anyway. Still, she wanted to make it better somehow, and there was one way she knew she could.
‘Somewhere around here...’ Her lips found his once more.
The sun had gone down and the bedcovers were carelessly tossed over Emma’s bare back. Alex sat against the headboard, an arm draped over a raised knee, gazing down at her porcelain skin. Wanting to kiss every freckle.