His rough, growly voice snapped my head around, and when his eyes caught mine, I shivered at the heat there. Wilder opened his mouth to say something, but he slowly closed it, shaking his head instead.
“I’ll be back tonight.”
He nodded at Lincoln, grabbed his car keys, and strode from the room.
* * *
Wilder might have leftthe house, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still thinking about the night beforenonstop. And worse, now I wasalonein the house with Lincoln.
Lincoln who’d watched me get spanked, who’d held my gaze. Lincoln who’d had that hungry, fierce look on his face.
I thought again about the huge bulge I’d seen in his pants, and felt the heat bloom inside of me. I was the farthest thing from “experienced,” but I knew what it was I’d seen. I knew he’d been as turned on as I’d been, and I wantedmoreof that. I wanted more of that heat in his eyes, and the hungry, powerful look on his face when he looked at me
And so I decided to tease.
I think in my head, it started as almost a self-dare — like I was egging myself on to “do something.” My skin tingled as I shut the door to my bedroom and shrugged out of my clothes. My heart thudded in my chest as I swallowed and opened my dresser drawer, pulling out the skimpy, light blue bikini.
It was insane, and I knew it. It was playing with fire, and probably messing with something I had no business messing with. Lincoln wassomuch older than me, and so much more worldly. Not to mention, he was Wilder’s best friend. Part of me felt torn, knowing that it wasbothof them that set the fire blazing inside of me, and not really knowing how to act on that. There was a part of me that thought teasing and tempting Lincoln would be almost a slight to Wilder, even if I knew how ridiculous that sounded.
He’dspankedme, not asked me to marry him, for crying out loud. Given, the spanking he’d given me had movedwaypast “discipline,” and I think we both knew that, but still.
Theybothhad my body aching in ways it’d never ached before, but it was Lincoln who was at the house that day.
I shivered as I stepped out of my room, clad in just the tiny bikini that barely covered much of me at all. An intoxicating mix ofnotknowing what the hell I was doing and knowingexactlywhat I was doing roared through me as I padded back to the kitchen.
“So,I guess you’re in charge of me today, huh?”
Lincoln glanced up from his paper, and his eyes instantly flickered with some unseen heat as they locked onto me. I trembled a little as I felt the power in his gaze as his eyes teased over every inch of me from top to toes, and then right back up again.
His eyes narrowed and I could see the twitch in his chiseled, clenched jaw.
“Put some fucking clothes on, Kenzie.”
I shrugged, looking away and prancing to the fridge for a bottle of water.
“To go swimming?”
“You’re not swimming,” he growled, his voice low. I could hear him get up from his chair behind me as I grabbed a cold bottle of water from the fridge, and I swallowed thickly.
“Not yet I’m not.”
I turned around, and gasped instantly as I came face to face with him. Lincoln’s cool, gorgeous blue eyes burned right into mine, his frame towering over me as he stood barely a foot from me. The look on his face washunger, but he kept his mouth shut tight and thin, and his hands clenched into fists by his sides. I took a shaky breath, my eyes tracing over the open top buttons of his dress shirt and the defined muscles and ink I could see under it. His sleeves were rolled up over his forearms — andGodthose forearms.
I shivered again, inhaling the scent of him and feeling the heat of his body with him so close to me like this.
“No games, Kenzie,” he growled quietly, his eyes firmly holding mine.
I forced myself to shrug. “Whatgames, Lincoln?”
“You can’t just walk around like this,” he muttered, his gaze breaking as his eyes dropped down to my bikini again.
I trembled, feeling that heated gaze tease over my skin and leave electric tingles in its wake.
“I’m just going swimming,” I said quietly.
“Of course you are,” he purred back, and I swear he moved even closer to me. “Just going swimming, huh?”
I nodded, swallowing thickly and feeling my pulseroarinside my head.