Nick. Chaste.
Two words that had never before been used in the same sentence.
But even as I was thinking it, all those feelings of innocent affection flew right out the window as his hands circled aroun
d to the front of my dress.
My teeth clamped down on my lip, as my eyes shot wide open. In a way, I was grateful that he was standing behind me. That way, he couldn’t see whatever lusty expression had completely taken over my face.
But from the looks of things, Nick was feeling pretty damn lusty himself.
I felt his cheek against the side of my head, as he ran his fingers up the soft silk. They lingered on all the right parts, hovering for just a moment, just long enough to start my blood boiling over, before moving on. By the time they got to the bare skin above my navel, I was about ready to explode.
“Abby?” His hands lingered, but for the first time, he sounded a bit uncertain. “No line you don’t want me to cross.”
My eyes closed again, and I leaned back into his chest.
“There’s no line I don’t want you to cross.”
His teeth bit into my shoulder, at the same time that his hands slid into my dress.
And just like that, we left professionalism behind us. Just like that, we took a step into a world where neither one of us had ever ventured. Where neither one of us had the answers.
A world of the unknown.
Chapter 9
At least...we tried to.
There was a sudden banging on the door, and the two of us sprang apart. Panting as if we’d sprinted all the way from Brooklyn. Flushing as we tried desperately to avert our eyes.
“Mr. Hunter?” an anxious voice called from the other side of the door. The voice of a young man, probably one of the wait-staff. “Mr. Hunter, is everything alright?”
The door shook again, and Nick bowed his head with an almost imperceptible sigh. He flashed me the quickest of glances, before his lips twitched up with a regretful smile.
“Yeah, Jake. Everything’s fine.”
Fine was one way of putting it. I had never felt so unbalanced in my entire life. It was like I was having some kind of out of body experience. A dream from which I couldn’t wake up.
I tried to come out of it, while I hastily straightened my dress. Pressed against the far wall of the little room, Nick was having a similarly hard time fixing his own attire. No matter how calm he might have looked on the outside, his hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
To make matters worse, this Jake—whoever he was—was unbearably persistent. Not a second later, the bronze handle rattled again.
“The door is locked—”
“Yeah,” Nick interrupted with a touch of impatience, “I’m opening it up right now.”
Before he did so, he cast a quick glance over his shoulder. Our eyes met, and upon seeing my clothes straightened and smoothed, he sighed again with the deepest frustration.
“You ready?” he asked softly.
No. Not hardly. Not at all.
“Yeah,” I replied, giving my dress one more unnecessary pat down. “Lead the way.”
There was a tiny crowd waiting for us when stepped out. A crowd consisting mainly of butlers, security, caterers, and half a dozen other people who had worked themselves up into a panic that one of the world’s richest men had somehow barricaded himself in the coat closet.
In the forefront stood Max Marino—Nick’s long-suffering bodyguard, and one of his closest friends. His eyes sparkled with amusement as Nick stepped self-consciously out of the closet, just as he’d done so many times before, but then widened almost imperceptibly when I was the one who followed him out.