Page 44 of The Charmer

“There isn’t anything between us beyond the usual guy-girl chemistry. We’re opposites in every way and you want something from me I can’t give you, imperative or not.”

Avoiding his penetrating stare, she continued. “I won’t sell, you don’t get what you want, and we have no reason to keep meeting like this. So let’s call it quits while we’re both still being civil to each other, okay?”

She expected him to bamboozle her with more convoluted arguments, similar to the ones in his long-winded business proposal, to change her mind. She expected him to pressure her, to ram home the reasons why obtaining her gallery was imperative to him.

Instead, he surprised her again. He took a step forward, invading her personal space with his overpowering presence, and she resisted the urge to lean into him, to experience the thrill of having his arms slide around her one last time and make her forget every single reason why they couldn’t be together.

He placed a finger under her chin, gently tipping it up, and stared into her eyes. “You know the interesting thing about chemistry? It can lead to explosive reactions and unexpected outcomes.”

She should look away.

She wanted to look away.

Instead, she stared at him like a hypnotised dummy while his thumb brushed her bottom lip with infinite tenderness and he smiled, a hot loaded smile rather than the smug smile of a guy who knew how he made her resistance melt.

“And one more thing,” he said. “Chemistry was my best subject at school and I love combining elements to create combustion.”

Before she could gather her wits and tell him exactly what he could do with his elements, he hauled her into his arms and kissed her with the force of a man hell-bent on proving how great he was at chemistry.

This was her last chance. Push him away, ignore all the great things he’d said about her, and forget that she hadn’t had sex in three years.

Three long years.

He deepened the kiss, his hands winding through her curls, angling her head for better access, and the second his tongue touched hers, she lost it.

The point of no return.

She practically leaped on him, pushing him back against the sofa, her hands everywhere, sliding under black cotton, stroking the hot skin of his tight abs beneath.

Someone moaned, a low, sexy sound, and in the passionate haze that had invaded her brain, she had no idea if it was him or her. She didn’t care. The scent of him, the feel of him, the taste of him, the sounds of ragged breathing and low moans set a spark to her latent libido and sent it up in flames in a raging inferno that promised to consume them.

“You sure about this?” Cooper broke the kiss for a second, capturing her face in his hands, staring deep into her eyes.

“Shut up and kiss me,” she said, the blatant lust radiating from his too-blue gaze setting fire to any tiny residual doubt she may have harboured and sending it up in smoke.

“Your call, sweetheart.”

And he did exactly as she’d instructed, with one heck of a difference.

He didn’t hold back.

Their mouths clashed in a heated frenzy of lips and tongue, challenging, duelling, an erotic game where there were no losers, only winners.

Ariel sighed as his lips slid down her throat and she arched against him, bringing her into direct contact with his hard-on, his very impressive hard-on if the size of him against her belly was any indication.

“You’re beautiful,” he said, his lips ceasing their leisurely exploration as he swiftly unbuttoned her top and peeled it open, the anticipatory gleam in his eyes that of a guy opening the best present over.

The few times she’d had sex in the past, she’d hated the undressing part. Plagued by inadequacies growing up, they manifested at the oddest of times, like now, when she hoped her boobs weren’t a disappointment and he wouldn’t find her too skinny.

“Stunning,” he murmured, unclipping her bra with a deft flick of his fingers and staring at her breasts as if he’d found treasure, before capturing a nipple in his mouth.

“That feels so good.” She writhed beneath him, burning up from the inside, wishing their clothes would disappear.

“You feel so good.”

He set about proving it, drawing his tongue slowly across her chest, sucking one nipple then the other, feasting on her like he hadn’t eaten in a decade.

Ariel throbbed in so many places she didn’t know whether she should shock the living daylights out of Cooper and devour him now or prolong the sweet agony and let him continue to lavish her with more of the exquisite licking and sucking that was sending her into meltdown.

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