Page 63 of Release Me

She gazes down at me with wide brown eyes that drip gasoline over the open flame licking at my ribs. The need to go slow, to be gentle, is a song on repeat in the back of my mind, but I’ve waited for this for so long that it’s hard to hear the lyrics. And when Nadia brings her hands up and grabs my jaw, running her fingers over the hairs in my beard, it becomes nearly impossible. She’s touching me so freely, but I’m going slow. The fingers of the hand not wrapped around her throat exploring the soft curve of her waist a quarter of an inch at a time while hers move through my locs in swift strokes that send tingles through my scalp.

“I want you to kiss me,” she says, and I love the strength hidden in the quiet whisper vibrating against my palm. She looks good with my hand around her neck, but I slide it down her chest, over the mesh panels of her corset that are covering her stomach and let it come to rest on her side. “Sebastian?”

“I heard you, precious.”

She sucks in a breath at the nickname. I don’t know where it came from, but it feels right. I search her face for any indication that she dislikes it and find nothing but appreciation glittering in her eyes. That, paired with the mischievous tilt of her lips when she winds my locs around her hand, makes my dick throb.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

“I’m just giving you time to change your mind.” I lean in, placing my lips on her neck, relishing the way her pulse spikes when I continue. “To run. To push me away and walk us back from this line I’m so fucking desperate to cross.”

Nadia squirms as I open my mouth and pull delicate skin between my teeth, kissing and biting my way down to the hollow point at the base of her throat that I don’t hesitate to dip my tongue into. Her hand is a vice at the back of my head, pulling thick strands of hair taut and making me wonder how her instincts are in such perfect alignment with what I like.

“I want you, Sebastian.” She tugs on my hair, forcing me to abandon the home I’ve created in the curve of her neck. “I’m not going to change my mind.”

Her reassurance is the only invitation I need to dive into the lushness of her mouth. Kissing Nadia is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. She’s sweet and soft and receptive. She’s commanding and impatient, using her grip on my hair to hold me still and control the kiss. I let her. Because her comfort trumps my need to lead. Because she gives me more when I give her less and what she’s giving me is all I’ve ever wanted from her. Desire laced breaths. A seeking tongue plundering my mouth with want on its tip. A quiet moan that comes from deep in her chest and comes to live in mine. A kiss that goes on for forever, erasing everything from my mind that isn’t me and her.

“Whoa!” Zoe’s voice, colored with shock and maybe a little bit of disgust, comes from behind us, announcing her sudden and unwelcome intrusion. Nadia breaks the kiss, her panicked eyes flying to my little sister’s face. I look at her too, but I have to turn around to do so, and when our eyes meet, mine aren’t panicked or apologetic, they’re narrowed and filled with the kind of annoyance a big brother can only have for his little sister.

“Get out.”

“Sebastian, this is my office,” she reminds me with her hands on her hips.

“You’re not using it, Zo. Go home, I’ll lock up for you.” I start to turn back to Nadia, determined to finish what we’ve started even if it means defiling Zoe’s office, but when I see that my sister isn’t moving, I pause. “Did you need something else?”

“The only I need is the image of this—” she waves a hand at Nadia and me “—wiped from my brain, but I don’t think the man waiting for Nadia outside will be so easily appeased.”

“Oh my God! Preston!” Nadia shouts, untangling herself from me with a quickness that leaves my mind and body reeling from the sudden loss of contact. I push to my feet, watching as she tries to wipe smudged lipstick from around her mouth.

“Don’t.” I reach out and grip her chin, turning her head to make her face me. Her eyes are pools of caramel that simmer with heat when I rub my thumb across her lip. “You look perfect like that.”

Zoe gags, which makes me laugh and Nadia blush. “I’m going home now. Nadia, text me later so we can get you another appointment on the books. I don’t think that silk press is going to make it past tonight.”

“Bye, Zo.”

She flips me off and blows Nadia a kiss before departing, leaving us to figure out what to do with Nadia’s date. In my head, there’s only one option—send him home with his tail between his legs and his heart broken because there’s no way Nadia’s leaving here with anyone but me—but keeping Nadia’s autonomy in tact is paramount.

“How do you want to play this?” I ask, opening up the door for all manner of possibility.

Nadia stands up and straightens her blazer even though it’s not messed up. She doesn’t have her shoes on yet, and the difference in our height makes me realize that I’ve never seen her barefoot. That I’ve never seen her without makeup or in anything less than a perfectly coordinated outfit. The observation creates a need to know her outside of those parameters, to witness her in the comfort of her home, with sex mussed hair and one of my shirts swallowing her frame or with a scarf on her head and a glass of wine in her hand.

“Umm.” She bites her lip as her voice pulls me out of my head and brings my focus back to the task at hand. “I guess I should go talk to him?”

“What are you going to say?”

“That tonight isn’t going to work for me.”

“Just tonight?” I ask, lifting a brow. “Are you planning on being available to him some other night?”

She hasn’t even answered the question, but my chest is already aching at the thought of sharing her. Not just with Preston, though that fucker isn’t worthy of a second of her time or an ounce of her energy, but with anyone.

One kiss.

A singular encounter with the unique flavor of desire on her lips.

That’s all I’ve had, and it’s all I need to know that sharing her isn’t an option.

“No,” she says finally, lifting her hand to my face so she can stroke her fingers through my beard. “I just think it’s best to let him down easy.”

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