All he had to do was walk her to her apartment door, then see her inside, and finally leave.
Three steps. Easy.
So why had he felt the need to repeat them to himself the entire car journey? As though it was the only way to distract his mind? His body? The way he’d had to do all night.
The effect her proximity had on him had been impossible to ignore. Not least when he’d made the stupid mistake of luring her onto that dance floor in order to haul her into his arms.
Only it hadn’t felt like a stupid mistake. It had felt like a fire raging so savagely that he hadn’t thought it could ever be smothered. Like a hunger so desperate it had eaten its way through him. Like nothing he’d ever felt before in his entire life.
He’d wanted it never to end.
Tak would never know how he had managed to hold it together on that dance floor, conversing calmly with her whilst his body had been talking itself up into a veritable showdown. He barely remembered much about the rest of the night, save for the fact that Effie had been at his side. Stoking that internal blaze without even realising it.
If it had just been the physical reaction then he could have withstood it. Couldn’t he? But it had been more than that. It had been that inexplicable emotional connection, too. It had called out to something deep inside him. Reminded him of things he’d once thought best forgotten.
Yet now, finally, the night was almost over and he would soon be released from this pretend date he had never wanted in the first place. However many times he told himself that was a good thing, his body seemed determined to protest, its fight only growing stronger.
When the car stopped, he hurried around to let her out himself, and then walked her into the lobby.
‘Thank you.’ She stopped abruptly. ‘I’m fine from here.’
He eyed her obliquely. ‘It’s late at night. I’ll walk you to your door.’
‘Really, I’m fine.’
‘This isn’t up for debate, Effie,’ he growled. ‘Now, do you want to lead the way or should I carry you?’
She sniffed delicately. ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
He didn’t recall anyone ever calling him ridiculous before. Except perhaps his sister Hetti, and she certainly hadn’t said it with the kind of undercurrent that was rippling between Effie and himself right at this moment.
It was intoxicating. And unexpected.
The whole night had been so unpredicted. So voltaic.
He didn’t realise they’d reached her apartment until she stopped outside the door and turned to him, her hands playing with each other in that way of hers that he shouldn’t already be able to recognise as showing anxiety.
‘Well... This is me.’ She screwed up her nose. ‘Um...thanks for this evening. It was...’
He was too close, he realised belatedly. Too close and too intent. Wholly unable to tear his eyes from the rise and fall of her chest, which betrayed how shallow her breathing was, from her lips and the way her tongue flickered out to moisten them, as though her body knew what it was doing even if her head didn’t intend it.
He knew exactly how that felt.
Before he could think twice Tak lowered his head, the fleeting sensation of her hot breath on his chin only charging his body all the more, and claimed her mouth with his own.
He knew he was in big trouble in an instant.
She tasted of lust and longing and pure sensation. All exploding inside him. As if he’d detonated a charge he’d known all along would send him skyrocketing.
He couldn’t get enough.
And as her arms looped around his neck, without even the slightest hesitation, and the most delicious of sounds escaped from the back of her throat, he felt as though the whole evening had been building up to this one single moment.
Something rumbled through her, soft and low at first, but as he kissed her and caressed her, sampling her over and over, taking his time and allowing every millimetre of his mouth to become acquainted with every millimetre of hers, it grew louder and more insistent. Tasting, touching, teasing. Angling his head for a better fit and feeling Effie mould her body to his as though by extension. Driving him wild. Heaven and hell all rolled into one. Sweet and sinful, wistful and wild.
He certainly wasn’t prepared for Effie to wrench herself away, pushing him back with her palms even as her fingers still gripped his lapels.
‘I... That is... You...’ She dragged her fingers over her temptingly raw lips incredulously. Her eyes were slightly wide, but still dark with desire. Without warning she swung around, fumbled with her key in the lock, opened the door and finally disappeared inside the flat.