Chasing Temptation (Chasing Love 2)

“Hours,” he murmured.

And yet she’d taken it, begged for it. Her tender body must be hurting and sore. Christ, she wasn’t experienced, not even used to normal sex, much less to his kind of play. Truth be told, he’d lost himself in her.

It wasn’t just the sex. It was her. Not how she let him handle her, but how she handled him. It was how she looked at him, arched for him. How she called out his name. How that sweet body just kept giving and taking. She’d given herself completely to him—he’d felt it.

And that was a heady drug he wanted another hit of.

The glass shower door slowly opened, and he looked over to find her standing perfectly naked and staring at him.

“Hi.” Her voice was soft, and all that red hair was in wild tangles, hanging around her ivory skin. Fuck, she was gorgeous. She looked so innocent, so fragile.

He thought of what he’d just done to her an hour ago.

He really was a deviant.

“You okay?” It was the only thing he could ask. He saw a faint mark lining her wrists from where the lace had dug in. Her skin was flushed, her ass likely still pink.

“No. I’m not okay.”

Shit. “I’m sorry.”

He went to step out of the shower, to get as far away from her as possible and apologize for ever hurting her. But she placed her hands on his chest, stilling him. Instead of letting him step out, she maneuvered him back and stepped in.

His gaze stayed on her face. But hers? She looked from his eyes to his chest, down to his cock, which—damn the thing—was stirring already.

“You asked me what I wanted. Asked me to say it.”

He nodded. He’d prepared himself for this moment. The one where she told him he was some kind of sadist in bed and he scared her and—

“I want to know you,” she whispered.

The hands on his chest slowly moved down his stomach. She looked at him like he was some piece of art. She touched him, gliding her fingertips over every ridge of muscle and inch of skin. He felt an overwhelming sense of…peace.

She wanted to know him? The way she was touching him, looking at him, was like she was cherishing the sight and feel of something foreign. As if she didn’t want to give him up.

For the next two weeks, he could only hope so. Eventually, they’d give each other up. But right now?

“Know me how?”

She smiled at him. “You’ve done a great job of showing me a thing or two.” She laughed a little, but her hands brushed over his nipples, and he hissed. “But I want to learn how to make you feel good. I want to touch you, kiss you, like you touch and kiss me.”

Temporary. A word he repeated in his mind to try to bring himself back to why things would never work out between them. Penny was light, Sebastian was dark, and long term was not in his DNA. He’d had a plan to push her away, showed her how rough he could be, thought last night would have done it.

But holy fucking hell. Not only was she not running the other way, she wanted more. Yet again. Only this time, in a very different way. This was either a dream or a nightmare, because no fucking way was he that lucky or that stupid to think this was a set up to fall really, really hard in the end.

He kept things on a surface, sexual level for a good reason. Hard and rough usually meant fucking, and that’s what he did. Yet when he took her, it didn’t matter how fast, or where they were, there was a deep sense of connection. Which was bad.

It took typically two weeks to form emotions that could mess with the surface dynamic he prided himself on keeping. That didn’t seem to be the case with Penny. Which, again, was bad. The consequences were too great.

But with the way her soft hands were slowly sweeping over his chest, he could already see the temptation to fall into a spiral of bad decisions. Like wanting to know her right back, in a way that went much deeper than physically.

He should shut this down. The way she looked at him, touched him, was something he couldn’t risk. Yes, he’d been wanted before, but in this way? It was like she had a true interest in him as a person. Had an interest in his pleasure as much as an interest in his life. He was all for teaching her a few lessons on sex, but her tenderness was blurring a line.

Shut this down.

He opened his mouth to tell her he was going to get out, dry off, and see her later. But instead, her mouth pressed against his chest, right over his heart, and a groan escaped. Those lush lips on his skin sent a shock of pulsing need through his entire body.

He’d kept things under control for a reason. He was realizing now that the moment her mouth hit him, he was a goner. Control was nowhere to be found.