Page 77 of Enthrall Shadows
Lotte made me so damn needy. My cock was rock hard and bulging against my zipper, my flesh ignited with lust for her.
But my conscience told me that if we were going to do this, I needed to treat her with more respect and not fuck her in a storeroom.
Breaking off the kiss felt wrong, but I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do.
“Charlotte,” I whispered, my mouth brushing her neck. “Not in here.”
She shivered against me and then pulled away. “Of course not.”
I smiled at her to ease the tension.
“That was fun, right?” she asked, smiling back at me.
I hesitated.
She reached up and smoothed my T-shirt across my chest as though it needed it. “Don’t worry, Henry. No one will hear we snogged at Charlie’s.”
“Snogged? So European of you.”
“We need to get back to work.”
Tipping up her chin, I said softly, “I don’t want this to be the last time I see you.”
“That’s adorable. And so very gentlemanly of you.”
She thought I was being polite.
Could a woman like her really want to be around a man as mercurial as me? As gruff and bold and seemingly damaged?
The truth hit me in the heart like a dagger, embedding into my soul: She deserved a man who wasn’t so torn up on the inside.
Lotte deserved to be happy every day of her life.
If we spent any more time together, she’d come to see that humanity was damned and I was an experiment gone wrong.
Maybe my parents were right. Maybe Cameron had been kind enough to make me believe otherwise.
No shaking the truth that life had struck too many hard blows my way.
Lotte was simply too beautiful a person to have to endure me.
I leaned in and kissed her forehead.
The tender act was needed to hide the shocking revelation that I’d fallen for the woman from the dungeon.
After nudging the storeroom door open, I followed Lotte back into the kitchen while brushing my fingers over my mouth, the ghost of her kiss haunting my soul.
“I’ll head to the dining room out front,” she said. “I need to prepare the cutlery and tables.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed. “Want some help?”
“No, thank you.”
I watched her leave the kitchen, feeling the awkwardness caused by a kiss that should never have happened. Or maybe it hurt because of my fear we’d never kiss again.
But today wasn’t about me.
Hundreds of hungry people were lining up outside.
