Page 80 of Tortured Tones

“Let me touch you.” His breath brushed across my mouth. “Let me kiss you.”

“Fuck . . .”

He slid his hand around my waist and edged closer. “I hate you for messing with my head. Making me want you. Making me hard. And making me want to throw you on the bed and make you come so hard they hear you in Manhattan.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

His lips hovered half an inch from mine. “Say yes.”

I was a lost cause.

Resistance was useless.

“Yes.”

I grabbed the front of his jacket and pulled him into my room. The heavy door fell shut behind us. In the soft darkness, he pinned me against the closet doors. His fierce gaze held me hostage.

“I don’t know what it is about you, Ava, but you drive me wild.”

I peeled his jacket from his arms, dropped it on the floor.

But then he cupped my face and kissed me.

The world stopped.

Humming rang in my ears.

My heartbeat hammered inside my head.

Oh, God!

He moaned against my mouth, turned his head to the other side, and deepened the kiss. Parting my lips, his tongue teased mine, tasting, taunting, and torturing me. Each kiss spun my head. Each touch scorched my skin. Each taste made me hungry for more.

He cradled the back of my head, drawing me closer, and enveloped me in his embrace. His hard-on dug into my abdomen, building my want for him even more. His loaded licks, sensual sucks, and naughty nips shot euphoric pulses through my entire body and pooled low and hot in my core. Wow! If I got nothing else out of tonight, being kissed by Cole Tanner would provide me with a lifetime of blissful dreams.

I yanked off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt. “Your charming smile finally worked.”

This was crazy. So much was at stake. But something about this defied sense and sensibility. If seduction was an art, Cole was the grand master. He could paint me with brushes of his fingertips, swipes of his tongue and kneads of his hands. Each day he chipped away at my resolve. But I was too broken and damaged to be molded into something new. I wasn’t delusional. I knew what he was like. He may have made a crack in the steel cage around my heart, but there was no way I’d let him in. Someone like him would destroy it in a millisecond. It had taken me too long to rebuild my life after Luther had shattered me. There was no way I could go through something like that again. Was it wrong to want to forget my problems for a while? God. I hoped not.

“My smile had nothing to do with it.” Cole kissed his way up the side of my neck and nipped my earlobe. His fiery breath sent goose bumps shivering down my arm and jolted through my chest. “Everything about you has gotten to me, Ava. Your fucking sexy eyebrows. Your ass when you run. Your hot legs...and the way you are with my kid. You’re the temptress here. Not me.” He kissed me like every touch burned him, but with every raw moan, he craved more. He pushed me against the closet, slid his hand down my hip and fumbled with the bottom of my minidress. “Can I touch you?”

Between my legs ached in anticipation and with an agony I’d never felt before.

I wanted him to bury himself inside me but leave me alone. Stay but run away. This was ludicrous, pure madness, but I was addicted. I slid my trembling fingertips down his bare chest, over his rigid abs, and traced the shapely V near his hip. I ached to touch every inch of his body, feel him flush against me. The fire in my veins seared my skin. I slipped my hand around his naked waist, drew him forward, and crushed my lips against his. “Yes.

He groaned. The raspy rumble in his throat reverberated through me, throbbing in my core. If he didn’t fucking touch me, I’d have to touch myself.

“Ava?” He slowly slipped his hand underneath my dress. As he placed his other hand against the closet door beside my head, he met my gaze with darkened eyes. Nothing but want and desire swirled in their depths. For me. Maybe this was just sex. I wasn’t naïve. But it still felt incredible to be here with him. Slowly, softly, he brushed his hand across the front of my panties. “Is this okay?”

The breath rushed from my lungs. Fuck. They were already damp. “Uh-huh.”

“Turned on, are we?”

“So are you,” I murmured against his mouth. His erection digging into me had been impossible to ignore. “The thing is, what are you going to do about it?”

“This.” He swept his tongue along the seam of my lips, then dipped his finger under the edge of my panties. He teased the front of my pussy, tickling and torturing me. Then he eased into my arousal, stroking me up and down. “Mmm.” He drove into my opening. “Good to see you’re not as cold on the inside as you are on the outside.”

“I’ll give you frostbite another day.” Biting my lip to contain my grin, I closed my eyes. My head fell back against the door. My hips pulsed against his touch. I wanted more...of him. “Oh, wow. That’s so good. Can I touch you?”

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