A Reckless Note (Brilliance Trilogy 1)

The elevator halts and he catches my hand, guiding me toward the door. I’m becoming accustomed to him touching me, of being with him, and far too fast and too easily. Already, I’m terrifyingly aware that this man could hurt me. Already, I’m exposed in ways beyond the physical and no one has ever found that part of me.

Just Kace.

Only Kace.

We exit to the hallway and our bags are exiting with a bellman from the next car over. It’s not long before we’re inside a beautiful suite decorated in the same blues as downstairs. I explore the living room, dining room, and then the bedroom while Kace talks to the bellman. I walk past the master bed to a wide window and scan the view of what I’ve gathered to be Town Lake, the lights of a bridge burning through the darkness. I set my purse on the chair beside me and check my phone to find no calls, no messages.

“Dam it, Gio,” I murmur.

The door shuts in the distance and I shove my phone back into my purse, turning to find Kace entering the bedroom. We walk toward each other, meeting at the end of the king-size bed. He cups my head and stares down at me. “Believe it, baby,” he murmurs again, repeating his words in the elevator, and then his mouth is on mine, his tongue stroking a long, deep caress that has me moaning with the sweet burn of my body.

The kiss is long and drugging. When our lips part, he turns us, his back to the bed, with me facing him. His hands rest possessively on my hips. “Undress for me.”

I blink and his hands have fallen away. He sits down on the bed as if he intends to literally watch me, tugging off his boots and setting them aside, before he repeats his words. “Undress for me, Aria.”

My heart thunders in my ears. I have never undressed so boldly for a man. I’ve had sex. I’ve dated. It all went badly. Maybe I wanted it to go badly. I was always suspicious of everyone around me. No one made me want them more than I feared everything else. Kace is not those men. I meet his stare, and in his eyes, I find a challenge. I see him asking me to trust him, and we both know I have not given him that trust, not fully. I want to, God how I want to, but while I might not be running from him, it is too soon to speak to him of a past that until lately, I have been running from. I was told to run.

I need Kace to know that I’m getting there, I’m working on trust.

Still, there is no denying the power play in the moment. He is dressed. He is waiting on me to willingly be naked and vulnerable. And there is no denying that there’s something wickedly erotic about undressing for him. I am forever vulnerable with this man but he has yet to give me a single reason to regret those moments.

I do not believe he’ll make me regret this one either.

Catching the hem of my sweater, I peel it over my head and then toss it to the bed near him. In the process, my hair is all over my face because that’s how well I do sexy. With some struggle, I shove it aside to find Kace’s lips curved, but he’s not laughing at me. There’s endearment in his eyes and warmth, the same sultry warmth that I’m coming to welcome from him. My teeth scrape my bottom lip and his gaze drops, lingering, my sex clenching with the idea that he might be thinking about where my mouth might be next. That line of tattoos down his belly gets my vote.

I decide the best way to make that happen, is to undress without delay.

I quickly remove my boots and toss them, immediately reaching for my pants. His eyes stay on my face, watching me, his expression unreadable, but that darker, edgier side of him is present, that part of him I do not know and should probably fear, but instead crave understanding.

I step out of my pants, leaving myself in only the expensive black lace bra and panties I found among the shopping bags. His gaze lowers and sweeps my body, then lifts. “All of it, baby.”

“You paid a lot of money for this little bit of lace.”

“That I appreciate so much that I want it off,” he says, his voice affected, low, almost gruff. “Everything off, Aria.”

I don’t know what affects me more: when he calls me baby or when he uses my name. I think my name. It tells me how present he is, how with me.

I inhale and unhook the front clasp of my bra, letting it fall away from my shoulders. Immediately after, I’m stepping out of the panties. Kace’s gaze slides over my body, my nipples pucker with his heated stare. I am wet. I am nervous. I am aroused.