“No?” The air heaves out my lungs.
“Nope. I’m thinking about the dance. We gave the crowd a show they’ll never forget. You moved across that floor like an angel. Only, I don’t think angels are supposed to stir up my head with sin. I’ve still got plenty rolling around up here.”
He moves his hand up and gently taps his temple. His gaze threatens to burn me alive.
Holy hell.
It’s almost worse that he’s playing coy.
Not just coming out with some lewd remark about what he’s aching to do to me.
Not just running those firm, rough hands between my legs.
Not just moving in for the kill.
He touches the side of my face then, tracing my jawline. “So are you done sleuthin’ around in the mud on Google? Do you want to know the real Ridge?”
I keep my eyes down, my breath fluttering.
“Yes.”
His laugh comes soft, sexy, heavy as an approaching storm. “You know why else I came up here?”
Lifting my head, meeting his gaze, my mind goes blank, except for the memory of that body grinding against mine as if we’d both been pounding aphrodisiacs at the bar.
“I forgot to kiss you good night, Grace,” he whispers. “It’s the proper thing for a man to do after a big engagement party.”
Oh, God. Oh, no. Oh, please!
I pinch my lips shut to prevent something stupid from ruining the moment.
Then those big, strong hands of his are on my waist and I’m in rapture as he pulls me against him.
It’s a kiss like we’ve never had, the first kiss alone we knew was coming.
Ridge Barnet claims my mouth with a vengeance, a low growl, all teeth, tongue, and fire.
I push up on the tips of my toes, sighing, melting into a moaning mess in his arms.
Thank God he holds me up.
Because my knees go out from under me, and every last part of my brain focuses on holding on and giving as good as I get.
From the way he stiffens and the places those hands roam, I think I hold my own.
He barely breaks for air before he’s on me again, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth, giving me this feral love-bite with a snarly demand.
Mine. Tonight.
Wow, and I don’t think he’s taking no for an answer.
Good thing I wouldn’t dream of saying it, either.
We’re already past reckless, this seething mess of tangled arms and raw emotions. Ridge pushes me against the wall, driving his hot lips against my throat, taking me over.
My legs part, and that bulge I felt back at the bar…
It was nothing—absolutely freaking nothing—compared to the hard weight pressed against me, throbbing with vicious need.
Oh.
My.
God.
I lock my arms around his neck, returning the kisses, needing it so bad.
Needing him.
I trace his jaw with one hand, staring into his eyes, panting. He tucks his fingers under my chin, lifts my face, staring like a beast who’s driven to swallow me up.
“Fuck,” he rasps, those blue eyes pinning me to the wall. “You’ve been hiding a mouth like that this whole time? You have any clue what you do to me?”
I wonder if I’ll even get a chance to find out.
I’m about to die.
Keel right over before I’m even ravaged by a dark prince half the women ever born would fling themselves at. I’m so dizzy I have to lean against him, and he chuckles, low and sultry.
“Ridge…are we getting carried away?” I whimper.
“Probably,” he growls, before moving on me again. “Don’t think for a second that means we’ll stop, darlin’. I want to make you come so good for me you don’t have any room left in your head for worries. Let me fuck the bad right out of you tonight.”
So much for the filter he had a minute ago, not that I’m complaining one bit.
In fact, I think I like him in this rough and tumble, downright dirty mode.
I’m lucky my body runs on instinct as his hands cup my butt, lifting me high, pressing me firmly against his hard-on. The look he gives me when he sees I can feel it shreds me.
Rips me apart with a wicked blue-eyed fire.
My hands flatten against his chest, and I claw at his shirt, starving.
Shamelessly, I push my breasts harder against his chest, wanting more, but settle for him setting the pace.
He pulls his mouth away from mine, only to drag these amazing kisses down the side of my neck, raking his stubble against my skin.
My head falls back, giving him full access to more skin, more places to kiss, more everything.
His hands slide lower, fingers digging under the hem of my shorts.
I get the impression it wouldn’t take much at all to shear them right off. But he takes them down so very slow, skimming my legs as they fall.
God.
My pussy hurts, throbs with a heat that’s ravenous, wanting him inside me right now.