Page 46 of Tempt My Heart

"Why?"

He stiffened, as if he hadn't even realized what he'd said, before taking a long gulp of tea and sputtering when it clearly burned his mouth. "How are you drinking yours already?"

She raised an eyebrow, ignoring his question as he avoided hers.

He sighed and set his cup down onto the light wood coffee table in the center of the room. "Maybe this makes me a fool. I know what we're doing... Well, you never wanted it. We were supposed to be pretending."

Supposed to be.Her mind seemed to skip and stop on those words like a record scratching to a halt.

"But I like you. I liked pretending you were mine and walking into that party with you on my arm, like you belonged there. I know it wasn’t meant to be real, I do. But it was the most real thing I've felt for someone in what feels like forever."

Was she still breathing? She took in a ragged breath just in case and tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry. She sipped her tea but didn't look away from him. She had asked, hadn't she, and she couldn't say she was disappointed with the answer—not if she was being honest with herself anyway.

"Say something, please." He leaned forward so his elbows were on his knees and in the low light he looked even more devastating than usual. "If you want to leave, if I made you uncomfortable, just say the word and I'll take you home. Or wherever you want to go."

"You didn't," she said quickly, the words flying out of her so fast they blurred together. "I'm not uncomfortable."

"But you don't feel the same," he said, nodding like it was what he'd expected and she didn't know how he could have been so oblivious, so wrong.

"Christopher..."

"No, it's okay. You don't have to explain. I get it."

"Shut up," she said, exasperation making her voice breathless and he straightened in surprise. "It felt real to me too," she said, biting her lip.

"Thank God," he breathed and stood, crossing the space between them in one stride to sink one hand into her hair as his lips met hers.

Kissing Christopher felt natural, like breathing. Her skin tightened with electricity and her breaths came rapidly as they deepened the kiss. She would have let him strip her bare right then and there but he pulled away, eyes hooded and heavy and his lips red from the force of their kiss.

"Upstairs?"

She nodded and then squealed when he scooped her up into his arms and carried her with ease.

Thankfully, the stairs were few and the distance to the bedroom was short. He put her down once they were inside, sliding her down the length of his body so she could feel how much he wanted this—and she knew she felt the same.

"You're sure?" she murmured, needing to check one last time that this wasn't a fever dream brought on by her deepest desires. "No more pretending?"

He lifted her hand from her side and pressed her palm to the hard length of him straining against the material of his pants. "Doesthisfeel pretend to you?" he said, groaning when her hand tightened on him, stroking him lightly. She was hungry for this, she realized. He had tasted her, touched her, but this was the first time he'd let her touch him in return.

"Why not before?" she asked and he seemed to know exactly what she meant.

"I couldn't let you touch me like that. Not when it would mean more to me than you."

"You never meant any less," she said, and meant it. "Let me show you." She bent her knees and knelt on the floor in front of him, lowering his pants with a smooth tug of her hand and feeling her mouth water when he fell free of the material.

"You don’t know." she said huskily as she wrapped one hand around him, "how many times I've thought about this. Though I'll admit that in my head this happened while you were sitting at your desk."

He chuckled but the sound turned into a groan at the first touch of her mouth as she kissed her way from the base of his cock to its tip.

"Well," he said somewhat breathlessly, "I hope I can live up to the fantasy."

Ali didn't reply, too busy running her tongue over the underside of him and wrapping her mouth around his head, sucking him gently as she smoothed her tongue over his slit.

She took him deeper, dipping her head towards him in a rhythmic movement that quickened the more he twitched in her mouth.

"Ali," he said and then cursed. "Fuck. You need to stop. I'm not ready for this to end yet and if you keep going on like that..." His hips flexed as he pumped into her mouth and she hollowed her cheeks to suck him harder. They had all night, and she wanted to taste him on her tongue, to feel him lose control beneath her.

His hands fisted in her hair as she flicked her tongue over his tip and his head fell back with a gasp that set her blood aflame. "Ali, can I fuck your mouth?"

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