No Romance Required(24)

Of wanting him more than she cared about the consequences.

His tongue snaked through her parted lips and he pushed his hand under her sweater. Just the sweep of cold flesh against warm had her moaning. He swallowed the sound, pulling her up on her tiptoes as he devoured her with kisses so desperate and hot she couldn’t do much more than try to keep up.

His touch didn’t travel upward as she’d expected. He never did anything she could anticipate. One cool finger stroked her belly ring and his lips curved against hers as she trembled. Oh, he liked that he could make her quiver.

As easily as he aroused her anger, he could inspire her lust. Now he exploited both, teasing her to the point of madness with his talented tongue sucking on hers and that single finger reminding her how close she was to begging.

He caressed her thin leather belt as he lowered his mouth to her jaw. With one pull of his lips on her pulse point, she had to grab his shoulders to keep from falling off the edge of the world.

“Do you know how long it’s been for me?” He used her belt to yank her closer. His cock was so hard she could feel its imprint on her flesh as if they were both naked. “Long enough that I don’t want to hide what I need. How I need.”

She offered him her throat, holding on while he took full advantage. There would be marks from his teeth, his lips, and she’d happily resign herself to turtleneck sweaters for eternity if only he’d just keep going.

“This.” He yanked on her belt, his mouth almost vicious in its blazing sweep down the column of her neck. “I want you in this. Around your wrists. At my mercy.”

His words finally reached her in that blissful cocoon of longing she’d retreated into, and she snapped back with enough force to lose her balance. She scrabbled to hold on to him as he pulled her fully upright, his gray eyes locked on hers as if his life depended on her answer.

He’d been serious. This wasn’t just fun and games or a way for him to push her away. What he wanted from her was a lot more extreme than her body.

He was asking—demanding—her trust. Even without truly earning it, he’d settle for nothing less.

After a humming moment, he stepped back. “Exactly what I thought.”

Shivering in the cool air, she risked a look at him. He’d already shoved his longing behind those thick icy walls he summoned so effortlessly, causing her to wonder if she’d ever seen it naked and aching on his face at all.

Maybe it had simply been the reflection of her own.

She flung a glance at the sky until her hazy vision cleared. Once it had, she chanced another look at his face. Taut jaw, hooded eyes. All locked up tight. Whatever she said now, the moment between them was gone.

Did it really matter? If he expected her to bare all with giving nothing in return, he was asking for too damn much.

She’d never let herself look too closely at her interest in him for a number of reasons, the biggest that she’d feared he would laugh in her face. Hot on its heels was that Cory wasn’t the kind of man who would share himself with more than one mistress. He was completely and totally owned by his work.

In his world, she would rank right around the level of a goldfish he forgot to feed until he discovered it floating belly-up three months after it had died.

Sex with Cory was one thing. What he was asking for—a trust that went way beyond an on-and-off snarktastic friendship—didn’t slot neatly into that category. Giving him more without a guarantee of the same would be a mistake she wouldn’t make.

After her mother had left years ago, she’d spent too long using things outside herself to quell her fear at being left again by those who mattered most. She’d found other coping strategies, such as yoga and even feng shui, and had learned how to quiet her mind during times of stress. Inviting Cory to play games with her emotions would be akin to summoning a deadly tornado and then stepping back while he wreaked devastation. Not going to happen.

“Better hold on to your notebook, Santangelo. You’re going to be out here a while waiting for Orion to show up in the night sky at this time. Like a few months.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder before marching inside.

He’d never know the stars had blurred from her tears.





Chapter Five

She could do this.

After Friday night’s disaster, walking into their usual Monday magazine meeting with her head held high took balls, but Vicky had them to spare. If her life had taught her anything, it was that she could handle whatever was thrown her way.

So what if she suffered from recurrent bouts of lust for a man who not only was emotionally unavailable, but was in a whole other league sexually as well? So what if she still had to lean over his desk and pore over photos of daybeds and antique armoires while she tried to breathe through her mouth so she couldn’t smell his sex-potion cologne?