Page 29 of Tease Me

Once he has an idea in his head…

He followed her, closing the door behind him. She spun around to face him, yet he didn't say anything. He didn't need to. She could read everything he wanted to say in his expression, in his heavy-lidded gaze. She backed farther into the club, her skin prickling with awareness.

"Come to my office," she murmured. Turning, she felt as if she were floating. Beau was a solid wall of heat at her back, and her body remembered what he felt like on top of her, what he felt likeinsideher. She walked into her office and stopped when Beau's warm fingers curled around the back of her neck. The heat intensified as he pressed himself against her, his pecks in line with her shoulder blades.

"I know you haven't forgotten how good we are together."

"Were, Beau."

His chest rose and fell. "We can have it again, Vee."

She shook her head. "I can't."

"Please."

Her eyes closed as she felt the last of her resolve crumble and dissolve. What if it was only one time? Surely what she felt was just an itch she needed scratched. "No, Beau."

With a soft curse, he spun her around, forcing their eyes to meet. "You're lying."

She jerked her chin up. "Don't."

"Don't what? Tell you how I feel? Tell you that I've missed you every single day since I lost you?"

"Yes," she hissed. "Don't say that. Don't tell me those things."

"Why not?" he shot back, taking a step toward her, forcing her to back up. "Because you feel the same way?"

Evangeline's back slammed into the wall of her office. "I don't."

"Liar."

His tone provoked her. If he wouldn't take her at her word, she would have to show him. "I'll prove it to you then," she snapped. Before he could respond, she kissed him, and in that moment, everything that had held her back, simply disappeared like fog being burned off with the heating sun. Everything about him was the same—from the way he slanted his mouth over hers as he deepened their kiss, to the way his fingers tangled into the hair at the base of her skull. He had always been possessive of her, and she had liked that side of him. She found herself trying to get closer to him, molding her body into the shape of his, trying to find the friction she so badly needed.

She moaned, which only made him tighten his arms. She felt every hard inch of him, her soul remembering everything about the way he made her feel to the way she had loved him. He had once consumed her whole world, and she'd gladly given it all to him, but that was before...

She broke the kiss and shoved him away. He was stunned; his expression was caught somewhere between lust and confusion as he stared at her. His chest heaved up and down, just as hers did. With a shaking hand, she rubbed her fingers over her lips.

"This was a mistake."

"It wasn't, Vee. Itisn't. Couldn't you feel it then? The electricity?"

Her lower body clenched at its mention. Stubbornly, she shook her head. His jaw tightened, and that was the only warning she got. He anchored his hand behind her neck again, drawing her mouth closer to his with a gentle pull. With his free hand, he began unbuttoning her shirt. She groaned when his fingers drifted across the lace of her bra, brushing over her nipples, which were nothing more than hard peaks of sensitivity. Arching her back, she forced him to cup her, sighing into his mouth when he began kneading her flesh.

Beau broke their kiss to pull off his own shirt, and Vee's breath shuddered from her lungs. His body was sculpted and honed to perfection. He had a phoenix tattoo spanning the breadth of his chest, stopping just under what would be the neckline of a shirt, and finishing down near his navel. She reached up, her fingertips touching the hot skin above his heart.

“Our tattoo,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

She looked up into his piercing eyes. "It’s beautiful," she murmured, suddenly distracted. "When did you get it?"

His hand on her cheek drew her eyes back to his face. "As soon as I could afford it." He kissed her again, more slowly this time. "I've always loved you, Vee. Now do you believe me?"

She'd never doubted it, but it didn't change things. He kissed her once more, and she let him. After today, she wouldn't let him touch her or kiss her again. A sharp pain lanced through her heart at the thought. She mourned the loss of him, even though she didn't really have him in the first place.

"Don't think about it," he whispered, lowering his head to her neck and placing kisses all along the column of her throat. When he bit down on her neck, she sucked in a hiss. "That's still your spot, huh?" he said with a low chuckle.

Her lust stoked, she reached out, running her fingers down his torso, feeling them undulate gently over the bulge of his abdominal muscles. He was perfect and, for a brief time, he had been hers.

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