Page 37 of Tempt

Then he hit the spot.Thatspot. The one that made my entire body light up all at once. Like some sort of nerve center with a connection to every inch of skin and every molecule of air in my lungs. I cried out and sank my nails into his tattoo as my body began to pulse uncontrollably. I couldn’t stop my climax now, not that I wanted to. I let my head fall back as I held on for dear life. Theo mumbled incoherent things as he lost control, too. It urged on my orgasm and I rode it until I didn’t think I could hold myself up any longer because, damn. Just…damn.

There’s sex, and then there’s sex with Theo.

We panted and groped at each other for a while. It was like touching his skin somehow made the high last longer. Maybe it did.

I didn’t think Theo was going to answer my question, but then he surprised me. “I didn’t want to call you,” he said.

I nuzzled against his sweaty chest. “Why?” I dreaded the answer.

He took a long, slow breath and didn’t speak until he’d blown it all out. “Because I didn’t want to need you.”

I froze. Not want.Need.“Theo…” I whispered against his skin.

He shook his head and began brushing my hair back with his hands.

“I wanted to be as strong as you. To giveandtake. But I don’t have it in me, Allison. I’m too screwed up. I don’t have control around you,” he paused. “I can’t stop. I’m a taker, through and through.”

A shiver raced over my skin. There was desperation in his voice. Not just the arousing, needy kind, but the lost, frantic kind, too. “I don’t want you to stop,” I whispered and his eyes locked onto mine. “What you do to me?” I squeezed my eyes shut and let myself get lost in the swirling emotions that I’d been holding back. “You make me feel things I didn’t know I could feel.” When I looked back his eyes were dark and a little unfocused. “I need that. Please don’t take it away from me.” I’d been hiding from the truth. I didn’t want to need Theo any more than he wanted to need me. It was one thing to have fun. And it was something else to want more of it, but at some point this crossed a line. A line I couldn’t walk back across because I was completely addicted to the way Theo made me feel. The intensity and urgency washed away everything else. There were no expectations and rules. No families and stress. There was just a man who needed me, and the infinite pleasure I got from being with him.

“The last person you should spend your time with is me.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t be good for you. I don’t knowhowto care about someone other than me. I’m selfish.” His fingers flexed into my skin. I don’t think he even realized he was doing it. “I’m a truly selfish person, Allison. I care about me and iON Innovations.”

That wasn’t true. I knew some seriously self-centered assholes and there was no comparison. “You want more?” I guessed.

“No.” He shook his head like he was trying to change his own mind. “Yes?” He leaned his head back. “I thought if we got some distance that things would settle down. Usually when I work nothing else matters.”

So he had been working, but he’d also been avoiding me. “You’re allowed to enjoy my company. You know that, right?”

“There’s a fine line between enjoying and using.”

That stung. Mostly because Iwantedhim to use me, and that was incredibly stupid. Not to mention the chilling lack of emotion in his voice. Theo genuinely believed he was capable of using me, but using implied a lack of feeling, and what we were doing was anything but lacking in feeling.

“Let me see if I understand what you’re saying. This isn’t just a bit of fun and fucking the stress away. You want more. More sex, more friendship, morereleasefrom your troubles. And even though I want exactly the same thing, you’re worried that your lack of control will lead you to use me?”

There was a glimmer of something in his expression. I would call it fear, but since I’d never seen it on Theo before I really couldn’t be sure. But the way his pupils dilated and his skin went pale, I really didn’t know what else to call it. He held up a hand. “Can we pause for one second and take care of this condom?”

As much as I wanted to hold Theo hostage, I had to admit that my legs were killing me and this conversation was far from over. I hopped off his lap. While he went to the bathroom by the workout corner, I pulled on his light blue dress shirt and stared out at the city below us. I was thrilled that Theo was admitting to feeling more than a passing interest in casual sex, but I was also conflicted. This wasn’t my home, but I wasn’t leaving any time soon. Theo needed to know that.

The toilet flushed and I felt the air shift as he moved in behind me. He didn’t touch me this time. Instead, he leaned his hands against the glass on either side of me. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know when I’m leaving London.”

“I know.”

My heart skipped a beat. “You do?”

He ran his nose along the back of my neck and planted a kiss along my hairline. “You’re working on my contract. I’m the one that requested you stay until the project was done.”

My heart skipped another beat. He knew I wasn’t leaving. He didn’t want me to leave. “But you stayed away.”

He stepped into me so that his front was pressed flush against my back, then wrapped one arm around my waist to hold me. “It didn’t work. I couldn’t think of anything but you.”

“Theo,” I whispered as I tried to find my bearing. “What you’re talking about is more complicated than just sex.”

“Yes, it is.”

I swallowed as my heart started racing. This was it. What I was about to say was either going to make or break this. “But you said I shouldn’t be around you.”

His arm squeezed me closer, like he was refusing to let me go. “You shouldn’t.”

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