She looked back at me once, lowering her lids before pressing her lips shut together tightly. Fuck me, that flicker of awareness mirrored my own. She wasn’t quick enough to mask her look of longing.
Hannah. Stop fighting it. Make a fucking move. Please.It couldn’t be me. She had to show me that she wanted it just as badly.
A curt nod was her polite farewell, but when she made eye contact again, she dropped her focus to my lips and frowned.
Before she could step away, I took the tray out of her hands and set it back on the side table. “What do you mean?” I asked.
She faced me, shy to look me in the eye. “About what?”
“Being lonely.”
Smiling too quickly for it to be genuine, she shook her head. “Never mind. I, um, I didn’t mean to actually say that.”
I stared at her, willing her to stay. Wishing she’d snap before I did.
“Are you?” I asked.
Her shoulders lifted then fell with her deep sigh. She lifted her arms to hug herself, then lowered them, only to bring one back up. “It’s…” Another exhale whooshed out of her. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
I grabbed her hand. It wasn’t a tight hold, but a strengthening grip to let her know I wasn’t in the mood to release her any time soon.
Something about this woman being lonely made me want to roar. She wasn’t. She never would be here. With my family. And later, after I saw to my revenge, if she wanted to wait for me, I’d be there for her too.
“Dmitri…” She shook her head, still not looking at me. “I can’t…”
“Are you lonely?” I asked as I tugged her closer.
“It doesn’t matter if I am.” She turned her head to the side even as I led her to approach.
“Says who?” Inches parted us. I gazed up at her, wishing she’d face me.
“Idon’t matter, so?—”
I pulled her hand harder, snapping her forward. She placed her free hand on my shoulder, catching herself.
“The fuck you don’t.” I lifted my hand to caress her hip, angling her to me.
“I mean as something more than a…” She shrugged. “A hired helper.”
Dammit.
“Or an unofficial therapist. Or…” She bit her lower lip as she faced me. The pure desire swirling in the depths of her brown eyes was my undoing.
I closed the last few inches parting us. With a firm hold on the small of her back, I urged her to fall onto my lap. She twisted to the side, intending to sit sideways, but I corrected her into a better position so she’d straddle me.
“Or?” I prompted. Her lips were a breath away, and up close like this, I felt like I was drowning in her lusty gaze.
“Or a convenient piece of ass. A one and done.”
“Hey, Hannah?”
She gave me that lidded look that teased me. “Yeah?”
“Nothing about you is fucking convenient.”
Her brows snapped down as she scowled. As she opened her lips to sass back, I slammed my mouth over hers and stole whatever comeback she wanted to fling at me.
A moan pushed out of her lips and vibrated against mine. I’d caught her off guard, and it was a perfect moment of clashing together after so much tension and distance. Her sexy sounds charged me to haul her tight against my chest. Smashing her breasts to me, I felt the tips of her nipples.