A Million Different Ways (Horn Duet 1)

I tried to evade his marauding hand but it was futile––it fell in disorderly clumps over my shoulders. His laughing gaze roamed over my features, tracing every angle, absorbing every detail. When it landed on my lips, his expression turned serious. His eyes grew heavy-lidded and his soft lips reached for mine. He nibbled my bottom lip, licked the seam until I opened for him. Every part of me melted under his tender ministration. And as he deepened the kiss, I suddenly didn’t care who walked in on us.

“The DOJ is being very thorough.”

Marcus. I pulled back and glanced at Sebastian. He continued stroking my spine with unhurried care while his eyes narrowed and his attention pivoted to the conversation.

“We have nothing to worry about. Sebastian has everything under control,” Mr. Hightower responded. That silky accent was unmistakable.

“Yeah, but do you have control of Sebastian?”

“Relax, Marcus. Take the poker out of your arse.”

“I’m not the only one that’s nervous, Charles.”

“Let me handle them. You, on the other hand, need to pay more attention to your wife. I saw her stumbling around the living room a short while ago.”

“Fuck!” Determined footsteps walked out of the room, followed a minute later by slower, softer ones.

“What was that about?” I whispered. Sebastian’s gaze was far away, thoughtful.

“I’m not sure but I intend to find out.”

“What’s a DOJ?”

His eyes returned to me bright and smiling. “Curious little thing, aren’t you,” he murmured. “U.S. Department of Justice, they’re going after tax evaders.”

“Oh,” was all I could think to say because my mind was quickly going numb, lulled into a relaxed, sensual fog by the rise and fall of his chest. The heat emanating from him soaked into my body and turned me boneless. The comfortable silence between us slowly morphed into something else altogether. His eyes, sulky, smoldering with naked lust, drifted to my kiss-bruised lips again.

“I want you.” It was one of the sexiest things I had ever heard, full of unabashed confidence and naked honesty. I drew back, feeling trapped, unsure. Although my body didn’t share that uncertainty––it knew exactly what it wanted. The feel of his rock-hard shaft pressed against me was enough to send every ounce of blood in my body to that area. He wouldn’t let me squirm away, held me steady in his warm embrace, and nudged me with his erection while he stroked my bottom in lazy caresses that had me aching for him. “Come to my room tonight. Be there by eleven.”

“I can’t,” I said, shocked back to reality from the pheromone fog I was drifting in.

“You will,” he buried his knowing smile on the side of my neck and kissed me softly, “because you want me as much as I want you.”

When I pushed off, he let me go and tucked his hands neatly behind his head. I stared at his sexy, confident smile and attempted to herd my scattered thoughts. It rankled that all my resolve and good judgment crumbled in the face of his charisma. “We can’t,” I said in a shaky voice. He didn’t say another word. That smug smile on his face said more than enough. So I did the only thing I could, I bolted out of the library, putting as much distance between me and temptation as possible.

Chapter Fourteen

I lay in bed watching the minutes tick by on that blasted clock, debating whether I should get up and chuck it out the window. Unspent desire was making me restless and irritable. I slipped out of my underwear and kicked off the covers in a fruitless effort to cool off the heat beneath my skin. I tried everything to find a comfortable position, but every time I closed my eyes I saw him. That sexy smile playing on those soft lips. The sensual flare in his eyes.

I turned on my stomach and my hand sank down below my belly, over the soft worn linen pressed up against my enflamed skin, lower still to the place that felt empty and achy. Sensual images tormented me. Those eyes, warm and fiery one moment and fathomless the next, tempting me to join him in a dangerous game. The gilded silky skin of his muscular chest. Those pants hanging precariously, baring his hipbones.

Because you want me as much as I want you…and I did, I just didn’t like being an open book. That made me cringe. He already had scores of women panting after him, to count myself among them was aggravating, and that he knew it was worse.

Jumping out of bed, I pushed the curtains aside, and opened the window. A warm breeze blew my hair back. At the edge of the garden, a dark figure disappeared into the copse of trees, a familiar hitch in his step… and then I knew what I had to do, what I couldn’t resist doing if my life depended on it. I raced out of my room without a second thought.