Can't Get Enough (Skyland, #3)(69)
“Shit.” I break our kiss to rest my forehead against his. “Mav, I’m gonna…”
My words are swallowed by a wave of pleasure swelling from the center of my body, and every thought is drowned. Every reason this isn’t a good idea, capsized in the torrent of this thing I can’t deny. I lower my head to his neck, hiding my face as my body quakes with release.
He grabs and lifts my chin, trapping my gaze with his.
“Show me,” he says, his voice harsh, edged with his own desperation. “Look me in my eyes when you come for me.”
And I do. I don’t look away as the pleasure crests and crashes over me, wresting a moan from my throat and tremors from my body. Never removing one article of clothing, looking into his eyes this way, I’m completely exposed, my desire undeniable and on full display. But I’m not alone. An almost-pained grimace twists his even features as he struggles for control. Harsh breaths push past his lips. He doesn’t avert his stare. He shows me everything—the desire and the restraint required not to take me. It makes me want him more.
He clasps my neck and brings my head down so our lips crash. I know I should pull away, but my arms slip over his shoulders and I cup his head in my trembling hands, deep diving into the kiss. I meet him stroke for stroke, my tongue seeking his and exploring the lining of his mouth for any spot I might have missed.
I don’t know how long the kiss would have lasted if he didn’t slide his hands down so his thumbs frame my neck, pressing against the frantic pulse before he tears his lips away with obvious reluctance. The rough pad of his thumb caresses my bottom lip. With his finger he nudges my chin up so our eyes meet, his somehow already possessive even though I haven’t given him anything yet. He tugs one of the braids resting on my shoulder and runs the back of his hand over my cheek.
“Now about my dilemma,” he says, his voice controlled even over his ragged breaths.
I could easily assume with that comment he’s making light of the situation since I obviously caved and orgasmed all over his lap, but his expression remains unsmiling. I scoot back and off him to stand. Composure shaken, I stride over to the bar and reach for a bottle of tequila.
Yeah, it’s like that.
“You want something?” I toss the words over my shoulder as I pour myself a shot, the best I can do on such short notice.
“You know what I want.”
I still, the shot glass trembling in my unsteady hands. I set the glass and the bottle down and close my eyes.
“I’m not doing this,” I grit out, refusing to look at him lest I mount him again and go grinding for round two. “I’ve seen women make this mistake too many times. Choose good dick right now over what’s best for them in the long run.”
“You haven’t even tried it yet,” he says, some degree of levity finally threading through his voice. “How do you know it’s good?”
“Don’t.” I turn to face him and shove my hands in my pockets. “Don’t play with me right now.”
“The way I want you,” he says, the tiny trace of humor disintegrating. “What I want with you—that shit’s serious. I’m not playing, Hen.”
“Do you think Zere will work with me on this show if we start…” I gesture toward the sectional, the scene of our hunching crime. “Doing that? It’s not just me to consider. Chapel deserves this chance.”
“And do you think Zere is the only way you can get a TV show made?” He stands and walks over to me, his gait confident and powerful.
“What do you want?” he asks, stopping in front of me, cupping my face and holding my eyes. “I’ll get it for you.”
I jerk away, his words like a bucket of cold water on my overheated body.
“Why do I need you to get something for me I’m already doing for myself?” I snap. “What? I bet everything on you? Fuck you for a few months till you’re bored and off to the next supermodel, meanwhile I’ve ruined something I actually worked for and earned on my own?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” He rubs a hand over the back of his neck and blows his frustration out on an extended breath. “I shouldn’t have made it sound like… I respect your work and your choices, Hendrix.”
“I like Zere. When a lot of people would have written Chapel off for her differences, she saw her light the way I do. We both believe in her and think this show could do something really special, that women out there who haven’t been affirmed will see themselves on-screen as beautiful and worthy when they see Chapel. Zere and I share a vision for that. I want to do this show with her.”
“Zere’s amazing. I never said she wasn’t, and I think she’d be the perfect partner, but she shouldn’t be able to dictate your private life.”
“Not even when my ‘private life’ is with the man she’s still in love with?”
“She’s not,” he scoffs. “We broke up a full month before that party in Miami.”
“What?” I do math in my head, retabulating everything I thought I knew about their history. I suspected they’d broken up before the press release, of course, but a full month?
“Yeah, and things had been falling apart for a long time before that,” Maverick presses on. “Because we fundamentally wanted different things and came to a fork in the road. We couldn’t escape that reality anymore.”