Like scalding lasers, his eyes fixate on me.
“Wh-what are you doing?” I ask, a hitch in my breath.
“You’re tempting me, Kelsey, and I don’t take too kindly to it.”
“How am I tempting you? I’m just . . . I’m showing you I’m not the innocent peasant girl you think I am.”
He lowers his body to set his water on the ground and when he comes back up, his chest is so close that I can feel the heat coming off him. It wraps around me in an unexpected grip. The hallway fades to dark, the sparkling skyline a distant memory as he lowers his face so we’re eye to eye.
The hand pinning me against the wall has slipped past one of the flaps of my romper so his palm is directly on my flesh, his thumb at the very end of the juncture of my thigh. The small, barely-there touch causes the air to seize in my lungs.
“You could’ve chosen any pajamas to bring with you, and you bring this.” The backs of his fingers run along the neckline, to just above my cleavage. “So, unless you plan on bedding someone while you’re here that I don’t know about, you brought this specifically knowing you’d be spending nights in the same penthouse as me.”
“This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with comfort.”
His hand slides farther under the slit on the side, his fingers now curling around my waist, imprinting themselves on my skin.
“So, you’re telling me, if you were sharing a penthouse with Huxley instead, you’d have worn this?”
“No,” I say before I can catch myself. Shit.
The truth of the matter is . . . I wouldn’t have worn this around Huxley. When I’ve stayed the night at their house, I wear something respectful because I’m not about to prance around in this romper near my soon-to-be brother-in-law. That would be . . . weird.
But did I really wear this because of JP?
No. I wore this because it’s comfortable.
“I mean . . . I wouldn’t wear this around him because—”
“Because he’s not single.” JP’s other hand caresses up my side, and I nearly slide down the wall from the touch. God, it’s been so long.
So long since a male has touched me. Having JP, this incredibly sexy man, come near me has me losing all sorts of intelligent thoughts.
“You wore this to tempt me, admit it.” He leans his head forward so we’re cheek to cheek and moves his hand to my shoulder to one of the lace straps. He toys with it, his fingers delicately smoothing over the intricate lace. “It’s why you keep coming after me to talk, because you want this, Kelsey.”
“I don’t,” I say, my voice coming out all breathy.
He tugs on the strap, moving it toward the end of my shoulder. “You’re a fucking liar,” he whispers into my ear, right before he tips the strap over my shoulder so it falls down, the fabric around my breasts barely hanging on.
I should move away.
Tell him to stop.
But . . . I don’t.
Because I know, deep in my soul, that even though JP isn’t the man for me, because he’s not a relationship kind of guy, I can’t help my attraction to him. I can’t help but fall under his spell.
And I can’t help but want more.
More in this moment.
Keeping his mouth at my ear, he gently runs his finger over my collarbone. “You’re glistening, Kelsey. Your breath is uneven, your body is yearning for more, and I know for a fucking fact, that if I spread your legs, I’d find a wet cunt, begging for me.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, processing his words, words that have never been spoken to me before.
Ever.
In my entire life.
And yet, they strike me so deep in my soul that I can feel just how penetrating they are. I know he’s right. I know he’d be happy if he pressed two fingers inside of me.
“Tell me it’s the truth.”
Never.
I won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that.
I can’t.
He’d hold it over my head for a lifetime.
So, I keep my mouth shut.
“Is that how you’re going to be, Kelsey?” he asks, his nose now dragging over my cheek. “You’re not going to be truthful?” His fingers shuffle down my chest, to my nearly exposed breast. I hold my breath as he dances them over the loose fabric, my mind screaming, pleading for him to pull the fabric down, to lift my breast into his mouth.
“Your nipple is hard.” He makes the briefest pass over it with his thumb—so brief that I barely feel it—but it’s enough to cause the lightest of moans to pop out of my mouth. “Mmmm,” he hums into my ear. “That’s what I fucking thought.”