He gave her a dark, sinful smile as he reached the apex of her thighs and rubbed his fingers against the thin cotton panel of her panties, already soaked through with her juices. She whimpered in frustration and bucked her hips against his hand, trying her best to grind her sex harder against his fingers.
He skimmed his lips along her jaw and up to the shell of her ear, the scent of her perfume, along with her arousal, intoxicating him. “Tell me what you want, princess,” he ordered gruffly, deliberately keeping his touch light and her on edge.
“More,” she pleaded desperately as she caressed her cheek against his and spoke into his ear. “More pressure. More friction. Oh, God, Remy . . . I want . . . I need your fingers directly on my clit so I can come.”
Jesus. The fact that she wasn’t shy about what she needed to get off, not to mention blatantly, shamelessly asking him for it, was a refreshing change from having to read a woman’s mind. Granting her request, he worked his way beneath the small scrap of lace fabric she wore for panties and groaned as the tips of his fingers glided along the soft, slick flesh of her bare pussy. She cried out in shock when two of those fingers drove deep inside her tight body, then moaned when he massaged her taut clit with his thumb, giving her pressure and friction in abundance.
He didn’t take things slow and gentle, because he already knew that wasn’t what this beautiful, uninhibited woman wanted. He lifted his head, taking in her expression as he fucked her with his fingers harder and faster, as he pressed and swirled his callused thumb over her clit until it was sensitive enough for her to come. Eyes closed, she writhed against the wall with her hands still restrained, her hips undulating, her breathing quickening as he drove her higher but didn’t quite push her over the precipice.
She was gorgeous and stunning like this, and he imprinted everything about her and this moment in his memory. “Look at me when you come,” he demanded, and grunted his approval when she obeyed and her lashes fluttered open, her eyes hazy with desire. With need.
“Now give me your orgasm, princess,” he ordered, finally letting her fall so he could watch the untamed beauty of her unraveling just for him.
Her entire body tensed on his command, and then she was pulsating around his fingers, her inner muscles throbbing as a long, sexy moan escaped her throat. He brought her down from the high, and even as he removed his hand from beneath her dress and released her arms, she still trembled with aftershocks.
She gave him a dreamy, satisfied smile that should have made him feel like a fucking king but instead gave him a hard, cold jolt of reality that cleared the sex and lust from his brain and forced him to think more clearly before he crossed the finish line and there was no turning back. Before he did something he’d regret later.
Because as much as he’d enjoyed being the man kissing Tempest tonight and giving her an orgasm, and as desperately as he ached to take her to the big, king-sized bed down the hall and fuck her a dozen different ways, he knew it was a bad idea. And all wrong. He was man enough to admit that what had just transpired between him and Tempest right now never would have happened if Kyle hadn’t shown up and stirred up angst and anger and spurred Remy into proving . . . what? That he could get the girl?
God, it was so fucked up, and he was furious at himself and his own loss of willpower, that he’d come on strong to Tempest for all the wrong reasons. Because what had started out as making her question the darkness in him, and the rough, aggressive, damaged man he was beneath the surface, had only backfired.
“Remy?”
It was a soft question, laced once again with concern. As if she knew he was putting up that guard again and erecting emotional walls. And he was. He needed to, for her sake as well as his own.
“I need to go,” he said abruptly, and didn’t miss the confusion that furrowed her brow and flashed in her eyes, chasing away the glow of the orgasm she’d just enjoyed. But he wasn’t in a place to reveal what had set him off. And honestly, he didn’t want to explain, because his humiliating past was something he didn’t openly share with anyone.
“Call me when you’ve got your property,” he said, then turned and headed for the elevator, knowing as he stepped onto the lift and his gaze met Tempest’s as the door closed in front of him that he’d never be able to forget the vulnerable look in her eyes at his rejection.
He was an asshole, not just for letting things go this far but for walking out afterward, and she deserved better. And once she came to her senses, she’d thank him for doing the right thing.
CH
APTER FIVE
The two months since the night of the fairy-tale ball had been an upheaval of emotions for Tempest—starting with that evening with Remy that had ended on a hurtful and confusing note she was still trying to make sense of.
As she sat at her drafting table and absently sketched an idea for an upcoming piece of lingerie for Wilder Passion, her thoughts wandered back to that night, replaying it over in her mind for the umpteenth time. Everything had been fine between her and Remy . . . until Kyle had unexpectedly arrived at her apartment. All she knew was that something about the situation with Kyle had set Remy off in a major way, and the change in him after he’d kicked Kyle out of her place had been shocking to see from a man who’d always been so composed around her.
The entire atmosphere in the apartment had shifted in those moments, along with Remy’s demeanor. She’d been concerned at first, and when he’d lifted his head and she’d met his dark gaze, there had been a surprising amount of possessive jealousy in the depths of his eyes, but she’d also glimpsed something more haunting that reminded her of an animal who’d been provoked and was lashing out.
Her fingers fluttered to the base of her neck and she shivered as she remembered the way his big, strong hand came up to her throat as he pinned her against the wall, and all the sexual energy and the unequivocal need that had vibrated off him in waves. All the heat and potent virility. She hadn’t been alarmed or afraid. No, there had been something thrilling about the assertive, dominant man who’d kissed her so aggressively after years of resisting her . . . something so breathtaking about the wicked, indecent way he’d touched her when she’d shamelessly begged him to . . . and God, the soul-awakening way he’d made her body come alive with such hunger and intense need, as if everything inside her had lain dormant, just waiting for him to tap into all the erotic things she yearned for.
He’d overwhelmed her with glorious sensations, and she couldn’t remember being so satisfied by an orgasm. But that immense pleasure had been negated by the fact that he’d completely shut down afterward. There had been so much turmoil in his eyes when he’d abruptly told her I need to go that she’d believed him, because for a reason she hadn’t figured out yet, he seemed desperate to escape more than what had just happened between them. She still found it all so confusing.
She hadn’t seen Remy in person since that night, but she’d spoken to him a few times on the phone—when she’d finally purchased the perfect building for Wilder Things—to give him the property address located in a trendy, up-and-coming area of Williamsburg so he could pull the original structural plans from the city to see exactly what he had to work with. And another call about a week ago when he had some questions about what she’d envisioned for the bar on the ground level and the hotel rooms above. He’d forwarded the contract and the estimated costs for the project by email for her to sign online. He’d kept everything about their interaction strictly business, as if he hadn’t ruined her for all other men the night of the ball before walking out on her.
But late tomorrow afternoon, they had their first face-to-face meeting at his office for the two of them to discuss the preliminary design plans and drawings he’d already done and any changes she wanted to make. Nothing was official until she had the keys to the building and permits were pulled, but she felt as though the main groundwork would be laid out for Remy and his crew to get started as soon as possible once she approved his ideas. And seeing him in person again would at least give her the chance to confront him about his behavior two months ago.
The buzzing of her cell phone vibrating against her drafting table pulled her from her thoughts, and she unlocked the screen so she could read the message that had just come through.
I’m on my way up to your place.
Tempest smiled at the courtesy text from Maddux’s fiancée, Arabella Cole, still unable to believe that the daughter of Theodore Cole—the man who’d killed their parents—was now engaged to her previously moody, driven-to-destroy brother who’d once only had contempt and scorn for the Cole family. What a crazy difference two months and a fairy-tale ball made, she thought, so incredibly happy that Maddux had found his happily ever after with Arabella—the beauty to his beast—as had Hunter with Elaina “Elle” Darian that night of the ball. The fact that Hunter had been able to track down the woman who’d disappeared on him after a night together based on the crystal shoe she’d left behind was straight out of a Cinderella story.
But both of her siblings’ paths to happiness hadn’t been easy. Maddux had been shot while trying to protect Arabella, which had scared the shit out of all of them. The entire situation had induced the same kind of terror and fear she’d felt when her parents had been killed, but thank God he’d recovered and was already back to work in the MadX-Tech offices. And Hunter had essentially saved Elle from her evil stepmother’s schemes, but not before he’d almost lost her for good.
Things in the Wilder household had finally settled down, and she loved that both of her brothers were becoming domesticated, when they’d both sworn they’d never settle down with one woman. Tempest didn’t want to think about where that left her. At times, she felt like the odd man out when they all had dinner together since she was the only single sibling around two ridiculously happy couples.