Tempting the Crown (The Crown 1)

“God, you’re fucking sexy.” He caressed me, taking my mouth with a hard kiss. My knees almost buckled.

The world felt dizzy and surreal as if I existed in a body that only felt the electric waves Vaughn passed along to me. Every time he touched me I felt something new. Something I’d never experienced. The kisses. The looks. The need.

I clung to him while his fingers expertly moved in and out of me, pushing me closer to the point where I lost control. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to lose control with him so quickly. But here I was on the roof. Under the stars, Under the lights. Kissing him, with his hand under my dress.

The coiling tightened deep in my belly. My legs felt detached from the rest of me. The only reason I was standing was because Vaughn held me up.

My breath quickened and I knew I was standing on the tightrope. One more thrust and I’d fall over the side, gliding down through the air, through the heat, through the magic of stardust and glitter.

“Oh, God,” I whimpered. I could tell him to stop. I could back away from his hold. I could stop kissing him. But I wanted to take one foot off the tightrope. I wanted to fall through the ecstasy.

I looked into his eyes, and I swore Vaughn could read me. He knew what I wanted. He held my gaze while pumping his fingers in and out of me, never letting my eyes wander. Never letting me close my eyes.

And that’s when I fell.

I spiraled off the tightrope. My body flew through the mist and the haze. It shivered and trembled with pleasure. Vaughn held me as the orgasm spiraled through me, binding me to him with an intimate secret we now shared.

I bit my lip. I couldn’t catch my breath.

Vaughn eased his fingers from me and straightened my panties and the hem of my dress. He kissed the top of my forehead.

“Fuck,” he whispered.

I was speechless. Breathless and speechless.

It had happened so quickly. There wasn’t time to think or talk myself out of it. And I liked it. I liked being impulsive and reckless. I was drawn to him. I knew it the instant I backed into him with my chair. I wasn’t going to start second-guessing it now.

He held out a hand. “We still have time for my surprise. Want to go?” He winked.

I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe that he would want to take me to bed. That he’d want something in return. But he seemed satisfied. I didn’t expect the date to keep going. I felt a new kind of flutter in my stomach. The kind that said this could be something real. Something other than a hot guy who liked sex.

I smiled. “Is there food involved? Because I’m kind of starving.” I might as well test him.

He laughed. “There is food. I think I promised you last night I’d be your D.C. tour guide.”

“Is that what you promised?”

I made sure to turn off the radio and the lights as we walked into the living room. I locked the sliding door behind us.

“I don’t make many promises.”

I felt a shiver. There it was again. The part of him that I was intrigued by. The part that said there was something mysterious a

nd dark about him. He didn’t reveal much. He could seduce. He could flirt. He could sure as hell kiss. But there was some kind of wall—I could see it in his eyes. I recognized it last night.

And I was one of those girls who couldn’t walk away from the guy who had walls and secrets.

I was like a moth to a flame. It was my weakness. The bad boy. The man buried behind a mountain of pain. The guy who gave his emotions in bed, but never out loud.

“Ready?” Vaughn asked. He stood next to the door.

Maybe I should tell myself to end it now. To fake a headache before he stole another kiss. To delete his number so I didn’t end up letting him fuck me the rest of the night. To lock the door as soon as he walked past me so I could avoid the heartache that was inevitably going to follow. But I knew I couldn’t. Vaughn was already under my skin.

I smiled. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Four

I held the bar lightly overhead on the Metro. My fingers clasped the metal with hesitation. I was still trying to adjust to public transportation. I tried to visualize the hundreds of people before me who had stood in this spot today going to work, or riding home. How they had been staggered in here shoulder to shoulder, avoiding eye contact.