I instinctively adjust my robe, which is failing spectacularly at concealing his interest.
“You’re absolutely maddening.”
“Your body disagrees. You’re at full mast, and I haven’t even touched you yet.”
“Do you ever stop?”
“Only when someone shutsme up properly.”
My brain glitches.I can do that.
She steps closer. “Ready to admit I outplayed you?”
I shake my head, despite every instinct screaming surrender. “Not happening. Sweet dreams, Pip. Try not to lose sleep over what could have been.”
I start closing the door with exaggerated slowness—calling her bluff.
She doesn’t budge.
Until there’s just a sliver to look through.
“Wait.” She exhales. “All right, fine. I’ll say it… I want you, Bryce.”
The confession pours over me like warm honey and wildfire. Everything I’ve tried not to feel floods into me at once.
I open the door wide. “Thank Christ, because I’ve been out of my mind wanting you.”
One pull, and she’s flush against me. My mouth crashes into hers, like she’s oxygen and I’ve been suffocating for years. Her lips part on a breathy noise Isensemore than hear—and then, it’s heat and tongue and her taste flooding my senses.
THUD!Somehow, one of us manages to close the door.
Her mouth is wild and confident. Like she owns my lips and is only here to remind me. I match her intensity, opening her up and sinking in. She fights back, because that’s who she is. Who she’s always been.
This is exactly what kissing her felt like years ago—like grabbing hold of a live wire and choosing electrocution. Every safe, predictable part of my life is going up in flames, and I’m too far gone to worry about the ashes.
My hands slide down to cup the globes of her ass, squeezing through the crimson fabric. She gasps against my mouth, the noiseshooting straight to my groin. Then her fingers twist into my hair at the nape of my neck and yank—hard. There’s a sting of pain, and it excites me.
A lot.
I’m outside myself now. Not the Bryce who gives press quotes and signs billion-dollar deals. No longer calculating risks and playing the long game. I am the man who let her jack him off in the jungle like a goddamn animal. I moan into her mouth—savage and greedy. She swallows the sounds, giving it back to me twice as dirty.
Fuck.That alone almost does me in.
The friction of the silk, her warmth pressing into me, triggers a full-body jolt. My eyes roll, and I tighten my grip on her juicy backside. My body drives the rhythm, pulling her hips harder into mine until we’re both panting.
Petra kisses like she’s corrupting my soul. As if she knows I’ve spent twenty-nine years being polite, restrained, appropriate—and she’s dragging me out of that hell, kicking and screaming.
Then my brain—my perpetually overanalyzing brain—hijacks the moment.
Why would she choose this? Me? When this girl has spent her whole life tearing down everything I represent? Does she think she owes me? Is this some kind of thank-you?
I tear my mouth away, both of us breathing hard. She looks thoroughly kissed—lips swollen, cheeks flushed, eyes dark with lust.
“Before we…” I clear my throat, searching for the words cautiously. “If this isn’t what you’re here for, say it now.”
“What?” She stares at me as if I’ve sprouted a second head.
“If you don’t want tocontinue—”