Pride After Her Fall

‘Penthouse.’

She looked around. ‘Must be nice being in the centre of everything.’

‘It has its compensations.’ Like now.

‘At least you can park somewhere. So we’re safe from the public ordinance.’

He liked her turn of phrase. He also liked that she was betraying a little feminine nervousness. No, sweetheart, you’re definitely not safe.

‘Nash?’ She put her hand on his knee and for a moment he had the thought she was going to climb over and straddle him in the goddamn sports car. But then he realised that was his fantasy and she was just looking at him with a question in her eyes.

He didn’t want to answer those questions. Except he was remembering something she’d said to him. Here was I, thinking you were a gentleman, but you’re just a man...like all the rest.

He winged the door. ‘Stay there. I’m coming to get you.’

‘No, Nash—’

‘Yes, Nash.’ He gave her a slashing smile and in a fluid movement was out and around to her side of the car.

She looked up as he winged her door and hesitated a moment. He liked that hesitation. It made him want to reach in and scoop her out, to take instead of ask, but Lorelei seemed only to need a moment to make up her mind. She swung her lithe legs out, never taking her eyes from his, reminding him in every movement of her class and her poise and why he needed to be a gentleman... She literally stepped out of the car and into his arms.

He felt the delicacy of her bones, the softness of her bare arms as they wound themselves around his neck, the scent of blossoms and honey bees from her hair or her skin or simply the way she was. She brought her lips to his, confident and sure, before his mouth slanted over hers and his plans for tonight disintegrated.

He had intended to thrust deep, to make sure they both got the message that this was about dealing with a problem—sexual attraction—and overturn any idea this was a romantic scenario. They were both grown-ups. They’d both been here before. It wasn’t going to go beyond that. Yeah, he was going to make her understand...

Until now, with her in his arms, one hand curled against his cheek, her lips soft and responsive beneath his, when the kiss turned tender and romantic and deeply fulfilling on some atavistic level he didn’t want to explore. Not now.

Not when he had this.

He heard her sigh his name.

Obeying primal instinct, he tucked his hands under her bottom, shaping the incredible contours, and lifted her until she was sitting on the bonnet of the Veyron. Thinking he needed to get her sky-high and they were currently below ground, he wondered what in the hell he thought he was doing. But he needed to kiss her more.

One more taste, he promised himself, pulling her in tight, feeling the warm skin of her waist as his hands delved under the silky fabric of her top. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair, making soft, satisfied little noises in the back of her throat that warned him this was quickly going to move out of control if he didn’t get her off the car and somewhere private.

But it was Lorelei who broke the kiss, pulling back, eyes wide, breath coming fast, her whole body quivering. She looked around, not yet past caring.

Nash found himself bringing a hand to her cheek. ‘There’s just us. You and me.’

Her eyes softened. She touched his hand with her fingertips. It was a small gesture but he couldn’t help entangling his fingers with hers, taking that small rough palm in his own.

‘Inside?’ she said a touch anxiously.

‘Inside,’ he agreed.

* * *

Nash lifted her from the bonnet and, taking her hand, strode to the elevator. He swiped the pass key and the doors closed. Even as Lorelei turned into his arms, pressing her face to the hard solidity of his chest, she felt the ground give way beneath her as they were hurled skywards.

She was breathing him in—heady, musky, spicy, hot male and, faintly, soap. The kind of plain soap she liked, not fancy. He was all kinds of good things, and even as her mind was running ahead, fantasising wild and wonderful, she wanted to cling to this moment, when it was just her, burrowing into the strength and solidity of him, and him tightening his hold on her.

She was vaguely conscious of a slight ping, the doors sliding open.