Page 83 of Wicked & Wildflower

We finish out the meeting, approving the designs Dawn Patrol mocked up. Leo and I sign a contract under Lynn’s reluctant eye. Once the conference room clears and only my brother, Dahlia, Lynn, and me remain, I say to Dahlia, “Do you think we could talk in your office for a moment?”

My brother is shooting me a devilish smile as Dahlia nods silently and follows me across the room toward her office. I hold the door open for her as we walk inside, slamming it shut the moment she enters.

Grabbing her arm, I spin her so she’s pinned between the door and my chest. Bracing my arm on the wall above her head, I lean in close. Her eyes flutter upward, two blazing sapphires that see right through me.

“Nobody has ever done that for me before.”

“What?” she whispers.

“Stood up for me.” My voice turns rough as I add, “Seen my value.”

She slowly lifts a hand, wrapping it around the nape of my neck. My body shudders beneath her touch as she brushes her thumb against my skin. “You’re invaluable, Everett.”

All of my resolve melts as those words burn into me. My head drops, nose grazing against her cheek and lips pressing into her jaw. I inhale her paradise scent, feel her skin on my mouth as I whisper, “I need to kiss you now.”

She lets out a soft laugh. “Finally.” I pull back to look at her, a blush running up her chest and into her cheeks. A teasing smile accents her lips, her ocean eyes on fire. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and she believesmeinvaluable. “Are you going to—”

I steal her words, capturing her mouth with my own, and when she lets out a surprised moan, I steal that too. I inhale her breath, devouring her lips in a kiss that is fervent and desperate and far too long awaited. I want to absorb her touch, imprint her on my skin.

I attempt to do just that as her lips move against mine—soft, warm, and addicting. Dragging my hand down the door, I tangle it in her hair behind her head, tilting her face up slightly so I can kiss her deeper. She opens for me on a moan, and I let my tongue slip inside her mouth. My other hand runs the length of her body, slipping behind her back and grasping her perfect ass outside her tight skirt. I pull her into me, pinning her between my hand and my hips. She hisses when she feels my hard length press against her stomach, and I take the opportunity to slip her bottom lip between my teeth and bite down.

“Everett,” she whimpers, the sweet music in her voice singing along my skin and opening all my senses. I’m hyper-aware of her—the strands of hair between my fingers, the feel of herflesh beneath my palm, the wet warmth of her tongue inside my mouth, and the drag of her breasts against my chest.

I’m consumed by her.

I know this will destroy me later, but in this moment, I revel in my wrecking.

Dragging my lips from hers, I kiss my way along her jaw and down her neck. She bucks her hips against me when I hit a soft spot behind her ear. She does it again when I nip at the hollow of her throat. I catalog these places—these moments. I memorize all the little things that bring her pleasure, praying she’ll let me do them again.

“Do you,” I pepper kisses down the center of her chest, “have any idea,” dragging my lips along her sternum until I reach the v of her shirt, “how long I’ve craved doing this to you?” I glance up, finding those flaming eyes hooded and hazed. “What torture it is to be in your presence and not ravage you the way I do in my dreams?”

She throws her head back against the door, running her fingers through my hair and sending shivers down my spine. “Me too,” she breathes. “I think about it all the time, about watching you come all the time.”

“Fuck.” I rapidly drag my mouth back up her body, finding her mouth again. Her hands land at my back, digging into me as if she wants to pull me closer. I wonder if she feels as consumed as I do, if she’s also searching for a way to bind our beings.

I slide my hands up her bare thighs, taking her skirt with me as I wrap around her legs and hoist her up. She’s pinned between the door and my body again, reminiscent of the night we met. Though then, I didn’t know her name, had no idea how ingrained she’d become in my life.

I know we’ve kissed before, butthis? Holding her against me when I know her name, feeling her lips when I’ve seen her tears, knowing she’s losing control with me when she’s afraidto do so in any other aspect of her life…Fuck. It’s different. Kissing Dahlia is a privilege, one I didn’t know I had before, and something I’m damn sure I’ll never take for granted again.

“I wanted you to kiss me Saturday night,” she murmurs against my lips. “I was so sure you would when you came back to the door, but you didn’t.”

I capture her lip between my teeth again, dragging slowly as I let it go. “Because I knew once I kissed you, I wouldn’t be able to stop,” I moan into her mouth, and she takes the opportunity to flick her tongue across my teeth, eliciting another sound from me. “I knew I’d want to taste you, and I wasn’t going to do that with our siblings downstairs or with your daughter two doors over.” I kiss along her jaw again. “Not when I need to hear you scream my name.”

She hums, letting her head fall back so she can bare her neck. I nip along it, taking her soft skin beneath my teeth, feeling her buck against my erection. “What about now?” she asks breathlessly. “What do you plan on doing now?”

“Now, Wildflower,” I growl against her flesh, “I plan on devouring every inch of you. I won’t stop until you’re crying out for me, and I don’t give a fuck who hears it.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’ve got a filthy mouth?” she whimpers.

I smile against her lips. “Let me show you all the wicked things I can do with it.”

I pull us back from the door, marching across the office with her in my arms before sitting her down on the desk. I hear items go falling to the floor beneath us, but we’re both past caring. Dahlia leans back, bracing her hands on the wood and widening her legs for me to step between them. I move slowly, tracing my tongue along her jaw and down her neck, moving between her breasts again, my mouth meeting the fabric of her top.

Reaching for her blouse so I can untuck it from her skirt and pull it off her, Dahlia’s desk phone suddenly rings. We pause, and she looks up at me with lust-hazed eyes, flushed cheeks, and swollen lips. I think I could come from the sight of her alone.

“Don’t answer it,” I snap.

She nods rapidly, and the chiming stops just as I dip my head to continue my descent down the rest of her body—until the goddamn phone starts ringing again.

---