“No.” He had to stop and deliberately focus on drawing his next breath. “No, no, no.”
She laughed, the sound soft and naughty. “Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes it does.”
She moved against him, and pressure pulsed in his cock. Spread through his pelvis. Gathered at the base of his spine.
“Jesus.” Nothing had ever felt as good as Mia’s body against his. He’d dreamed, fantasized, but never, never believed he would ever know the reality of it—so much sweeter, so much stronger, so much deeper than his imagination had been able to conceive.
But part of him, that deeply loyal part she’d talked about, knew he shouldn’t know the reality.
Rafe squeezed his eyes closed to cut off the sight of one of his longest-standing fantasies: Mia’s beautiful face drenched with the raw desire of wanting him.
He needed to push her back and walk away.
He needed to pull her closer and hold on.
“I want you to fuck me, Rafe.” Her voice was husky and dripping lust. “And I want you to fuck me like you mean it. Like you want it. Like you love it. I want you to fuck me like you’re hungry for it. Like you can’t get enough. I want you to fuck me so perfectly, I’ll never need you to fuck me again. I want us to fuck and forget.”
Ding.
Rafe heard the doors slide open. Felt Mia ease away. But he didn’t move.
“… fuck me so perfectly, I’ll never need you to fuck me again…”
Something stirred inside him. Something vague, deep, and unpleasant.
“…fuck and forget…”
His heart, so full and aching just seconds ago, deflated until it felt like it was crumbling. He shook his head and opened his eyes. Mia stood between the doors, holding them open, her gaze expectant.
“No, Mia.” Hurt darkened his voice, and hearing it made him realize just how quickly she’d fileted him open. Just how stupidly hopeful he’d been. How completely unrealistic. “I’m not a rebound guy.”
“Rebound?” Her voice held a note of incredulity. Turning, she hit the Door Hold button and approached him. Winding her arms around his neck again, she slid that delicious body along his and held his gaze with a look that was pure Mia—open, kind, warm, and affectionate. “You’re right, Rafe, you’re not a rebound guy. You could never be a rebound guy. And you sure as shit are not, and will never be, my rebound guy.”
The heat of anger thrumming through his belly transitioned into need. He released the bar and gripped her waist. “Then what is this?”
With one hand combing into his hair, the other cupping his jaw, her beautiful green eyes softened and her lips turned in a little smile. “It can be absolutely anything you want it to be. But only for tonight.” Her thumb slid over his cheek, and her gaze lowered to his mouth. “Only one night. And it stays between you and me.”
Again, a conflicting sense of disappointment stabbed his bubble of hope. But before he could ask any more questions, the hand in his hair tightened, and Mia pulled his head down. She rose on her toes to meet him, pressing her lips to his for the very first time since they’d met two decades ago. The way he’d dreamed she would for at least ten of those years.
Her lashes didn’t dip until after their lips touched, and in that split second, before he let his eyes close, Rafe witnessed the most beautiful wash of emotion drift over her face. Emotion that eased her features into an expression of such desire and bliss, it turned him inside out.
When her lips moved against his, suckling and sliding, Rafe’s breath eased out on a moan. He curved his arms around her until they’d doubled at her waist and her delicious little body was as close as he could get it while they were clothed. Mia answered with her own sound of satisfaction and hunger, parting her lips and demanding more from Rafe.
After the sheer number of women he’d kissed over the years, he didn’t know how it could even affect him anymore. But the feel of Mia’s supple lips under his didn’t just affect him, it moved him. A mountain of emotion shifted inside him, absolutely none of which he understood, but all of which overwhelmed him in a way that made it instantly clear he couldn’t let her go now. There was no turning away. No heading home. No pretending this didn’t happen. At least not to himself.
He didn’t give a shit why she’d chosen to bring this up tonight. He didn’t care that she’d come here to screw Kilbourne and ended up with Rafe. Nothing mattered to him now but getting his chance with Mia.
The elevator buzzer sounded, signaling they’d held the door open too long. But Mia didn’t care. Her tongue slid over Rafe’s lips, pouring liquid fire into his groin. He groaned, opened to her, and stroked his tongue into her mouth. Her warm, wet, sweet mouth.