Page 71 of Beneath the Burn

The sculpted cuts of his gorgeous face sharpened as he dropped his hands in her lap. “Put your hands back.”

No way. She shook her head.

He bent until their brows touched. “We’re so close. Please?” His timbre was stiff, forced.

Shit. Shit. Shit. She clenched her fists at her sides. She’d wanted to push him, but not like this.

Without warning, a hum vibrated in his chest. What began as a purr, warbled into quivering notes. The first inflection of his voice sent a shiver through her. “Cut me open. Dipping deeper.” More soughing notes. “Heart in hand.”

The pitch of his voice and its reflection of meaning wrapped around her, lulling her into a trance.

He licked his lips and sang the next verse against her mouth. “With you, I float.”

The effect his lilt had on her was visceral. Immediate. Erotic. His voice stroked her body, saturating her pussy and seducing her into a dripping wet puddle. So hypnotized, she didn’t register his arm moving until he gripped her wrist and placed her palm over his heart.

His humming broke when her hand made contact, and his heart pounded against her touch.

He began again. “It’s the only way to swim.” He held her eyes, his hand over hers, and murmured the rhythm as he sang. “In your blue seas.”

Gasps broke through her parted lips.

Nestling closer into the triangle of her legs, he brushed his lips over hers. The low melody of the song vibrated through the press of his lips and the thrum in his chest. Her heart pounded and she returned his kiss while he hummed.

He leaned back and looked into her eyes. “That’s where I’ll be,” he sang. “Don’t disappear on me.”

The tune reverberated through his closed lips. “Come to L.A. with me.” He ended with a sultry hum.

Her chest tightened. She wanted more of his sexy voice, wanted more of this beautiful man. “When did you write that?”

“Just now.”

Wow. Music had always had an effect on her but..”Your voice…I’ve never heard you sing live. It was…” Dark. Deep. Panty-soaking. “Profound.”

“You inspire me, Charlee.”

She kissed him and he answered it, led it. The thrusts of his tongue were as enthusiastic as the beat of his heart against her palm. The sensation was overwhelming. She was spinning, falling. She pulled back. “This is crazy. What is this between us?”

It was dreamlike, this moment, amidst of the chaos and dangers around them. On the heels of such a frightening and death-facing experience, they seemed to fall so easily into one another. Yet, wasn’t that what she’d done in the penthouse? In the threat of Roy’s presence, she’d focused on her memory of Jay, exploring it, growing it.

“I don’t know, but it feels incredible.” He squeezed her hand on his chest to punctuate his words.

A fist rapped on the bathroom door.

They broke apart. The moment was interrupted but not lost, if the promise in his eyes were anything to go by. They had opened a window, one they would never close again.

Nathan’s voice muffled through the door. “We have a problem.”

38

Nathan’s interruption kicked Jay off his Charlee cloud and into the dregs of reality. If his protective team wasn’t able to secure a safe evacuation route, the crowd must have swarmed out of control.

He clasped Charlee’s hand and followed Nathan out of the bathroom.

“You need to get rid of those clothes, Charlee.” Nathan glanced over his shoulder, his eyes flitting from the stain on her jeans to the smears on her shirt.

She lowered her chin and picked at a splatter of dried blood as if it were something she saw every day. She shrugged. “Yeah. Good call.”

What kind of shit had she seen in her life to be so nonchalant about wearing a dead man’s guts? Jay tucked the question in the back of his brain. He needed to focus on getting them out of there. Where was everyone? Other than his team leader, none of his guards were there. Not a good sign.

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