Page 156 of Boss of the Year
A strangely calm accompanied the heat that filled my veins. One that made the world recede back to its normal shapes and sounds.
Home, my body chanted as my mouth opened under Lucas’s.Home, home, home.
I shoved him away, gasping, but my fingers weren’t quite willing to loosen their clutch on his shirt.
Lucas looked down at them, then back at me. More specifically, he stared at my mouth.
“Did you miss me, sweet Marie?” he asked in a voice that was both eager and careful.
“No,” I said too quickly.
Something in his eyes sparked. “Liar.”
In the next breath, his mouth claimed mine again, and this time I grabbed his collar to tug him closer. His hands found my ass and lifted me against the wall so he could pin me there, face-to-face, while he devoured me completely.
“I saw you,” he gasped in between kisses that nibbled—no,bit—along the side of my jaw and below my ear. “I saw you with those people. Dancing. Kissing them.”
The hands on my ass squeezed hard enough to hurt. My ankles twined around his back and pulled him closer as if acting of their own accord, even though my conscience screamed for me to shove him away.
“You were trying them all on, weren’t you?” Lucas’s teeth found my earlobe and nipped along the rim. “But none of them fit, did they, baby? Because only one person can kiss you the way you want. Only one man knows exactly what makes this body fall apart.”
The next kiss stole my breath to the point where I was nearly distracted from the heavy length of him grinding at my core. Or was it the way he maneuvered me back down so I was straddling his thigh? Maybe how his knee started to work calmly, purposefully under my skirt?
“Lucas,” I gasped. A shudder rolled through me like thunder on the horizon.
Lucas groaned, low and rough, his hands gripping my hips as he rocked his thigh in slow, devastating rubs. “God, look at you, already so close. You did miss me. Your body missed me.”
“Shut up.” My forehead dropped to his shoulder, and my fingers dug into his shirt and the lean muscles under the soft linen. “Just—don’t stop.”
He stilled then, just enough to make me whimper at the sudden absence of movement.
His lips brushed my ear. “You think I didn’t see you? That transparent shirt? That microscopic skirt?” His voice cracked with heat and fury. “Letting the whole damn club see what’s mine.”
“I’m not yours,” I panted weakly—breathless and shaking as I rocked once, desperate, against the unmoving muscle.
My breath caught as he ground me against his thigh again in a motion that was controlled and brutal. I cried out, so close I couldn’t see straight. Even here, just steps away from one of the busiest areas of Paris, I was almost completely undone.
His thigh flexed, but as I surged forward, chasing the edge, he stepped back and let me drop to the ground, still caged by his tall form, but no longer touching.
“I—what are you doing?” I demanded. “Don’t stop now.”
He ripped a hand through his hair. “Not like this. Not in a fucking alley while I punish you for being beautiful.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” My breath was stolen from me as I realized what had just happened.
That he had done it again. Used his mind, his mouth, his utterly effective magic to spin me into a frenzy and manipulate me into doing whatever he wanted.
Lucas didn’t answer, but I could see the truth in the way those dark eyes sparked.
Tears pricked at my eyes. I could not believe I was this stupid. Again.
“I hate you,” I said, ducking under his arm to step away and right my clothes.
Lucas turned, his shoulders a shaking silhouette against the streetlamps behind him. “I don’t think that’s true.” His voice was a soft growl, as dangerous as any predator’s. “I think you like me, and you hate yourself for it.”
He reached for me again, but when he touched my arm, I spun around and shoved him away with all my strength, sending him stumbling backward.
“I never likedyou,” I seethed. “I was in love with your brother. I’ve been in love with Daniel for ten years, and you got a little crush and couldn’t handle it!”
