Page 42 of Bottles & Blades

Something comes over his face I can't read—maybe it's softness, maybe it's vulnerability, maybe it's a flicker of annoyance that I seem to have noticed something about him he didn't want me to see.

But Idonotice.

So, I take him by the hand, closing the door behind him and locking it.

“I don’t need much sleep, baby,” he says.

“Everyone needs sleep, Jean-Mi.”

His brows flick up and I realize what I’ve done.

“Sorry,” I say quickly. “I—I don’t know where that came from.”

“Don’t apologize.” His mouth ticks up on one side. “I like it.”

My cheeks feel hot, but I ignore that. “Did you need a place to crash?” I ask quietly.

He’s still for a long moment then an emotion flashes through his blue eyes. “Fuck,” he whispers.

Confusion ripples through me. “What?”

“We don’t have time, but we have to make time.”

I frown. “Jean-Michel?—”

“Jean-Mi,” he corrects, stepping toward me.

“I-I—” I bite my lip. “What?”

“I like it when you call me Jean-Mi.” He’s close now, near enough that I get the hint of spice from his cologne. It’s faint, likely because it seems as though he hasn’t been home to reapply it. Concern blooms again, but before I can give voice to it, his big, rough palm is cupping my jaw. “Now, buttercup, we don’t have time, but we need to make time?—”

“Don’t have time for what?”

“For me to kiss you the way I need to.”

Fourteen

Jean-Michel

Her eyes flare wide,and she’s fucking beautiful.

But it’s almost eight and that means the guys who are going to fix her door are due any moment.

So, I tilt her head up and then I bend down, closing the distance between our mouths.

It’s…perfection.

She’s sweet and gentle and tentative, but one stroke of my tongue over her lips has them parting, allowing me inside.

I’m hard in an instant, and I want to dive my fingers into her hair, pull out the tie and scatter the strands of that tight ponytail. Iwantto have those deep brown strands spread out on my pillow while I’m naked and plunging into her. I want?—

Her hand settles on my biceps, nails biting lightly into my arm as she shifts closer, as her body comes flush against mine, her lips parting further, her soft moan vibrating up through her chest and along my tongue.

My dick aches.

I want?—

That thought disappears when I stop thinking all together.

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