Page 36 of Forbidden Until Midnight

Did she not know? Did she not realise how amazing she was?

‘You are capable of so much more than being a housewife,’ he said. He knew that. He didn’t even need to read Mads’s updates to know that. Eleanor had become a highly valued member of his London office, having graduated with a first in her degree despite all the odds. She was wasting her potential and he couldn’t stand it.

‘There is nothing wrong with making a home,’ she cried, her own anger painting her cheeks pink, the flashes in her eyes now exploding like fireworks.

‘Of course not,’ he wholeheartedly agreed. ‘But you don’t want that. You want more.’

She spun away from him in frustration, her fists clenched and her growl of frustration audible.

He felt some sympathy. After all, this was exactly how she made him feel.

‘Why is it always like this?’ she asked, still facing away from him.

‘Haven’t you figured that out yet, Princess?’ he said before he could stop himself.

She turned, looking up at him, hoping for an answer. He would probably come to regret it, but he just couldn’t fight it any more.

‘It’s foreplay,’ he explained.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she dismissed, but the blush on her cheeks told him she knew.

‘Some people like sweet nothings and pretty gifts. It appears you like something altogether different,’ he said, as if observing the weather, while his mind already imagined a future where he could finally get his hands on her, when all this frustration and need was spent and he was free.

‘I’m leaving,’ she said.

‘You can try,’ he offered, having already seen how this would go down. It was inevitable really. Almost as if it were too late.

‘What’s that supposed to mean? I can leave if I want.’

‘You can, but you don’t want to,’ he said, leaning forward, his lips just above her ear. ‘This is the most fun you’ve had all year.’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ she replied, staring ahead at his chest, but making no attempt to move away from the press of his body.

‘Sorry, sweetheart. You made me promise not to lie to you,’ he taunted, half cruel, half driven out of his mind with lust.

Her swift inhale pushed her chest against the neckline, and pushed him even closer towards the precipice.

‘Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me I mean nothing to you. Tell me you haven’t thought about this, like I have, every night foryears.’

‘I... I...’ The word ‘can’t’ had barely left Eleanor’s mouth when his lips crashed against hers.

The sudden shocking reality of what she had fantasised about for years stole her breath. He didn’t wait, he wasn’t patient, he just expected her to keep up—as if absolutely no time had passed between the kiss they’d shared two years before and now.

He walked them back to the far wall, her hands raising of their own volition to grab the lapels of his dinner jacket, her fingers slipping on the silk before fastening more securely around the material and, before she knew it,shehad taken the lead,shewas the one pulling him into her,shewas the one drawing them further back until they couldn’t go any further.

Her back slammed against the wall at the same time as Santo’s hand swept to the back of her head, cushioning any possible blow. But then, sneakily, he used that same movement to his advantage and angled her to him so that he could tease her lips open.

To compare this to their earlier kiss was almost laughable. Oh, God, she all butdissolvedinto him. The heady moment his tongue met hers was enough to stop time and steal a heartbeat. He was a thief, taking what she didn’t know she wanted to offer. Her heart thundered in her chest, and all she could think was that it wasn’t enough. That it would never be enough.

He trailed his fingers down the arch of her neck to her collarbone, while his other hand fastened her to him at the waist. As he held, she pulled, and she wanted more. Her hands flew to thread through his hair, to encourage him to take more, to show her more, to give her more.

Breathless, heated, heart racing and aching in places and ways that could never be appeased by any other man, pleading, begging words fell from her lips, incomprehensible wants, pressed into his kiss. Each one met by an answering growl of agreement, or encouragement, she couldn’t tell any more.

His hand moved torturously along the side of her body, down her ribcage, skirting around the edge of her breast, sending a shiver of goosebumps across her skin, dropping to her backside, making her gasp, and finally to her thigh, where he reached for her leg. Hooking it over his hip, he pressed against her body powerfully, once, twice and the third time she could no longer deny what he was doing.

The mimicry of what she wanted more desperately than her next breath clogged her throat, thickened her blood and made her nearly blind with want. Again and again, she felt the press of his erection through the impossible barrier of their clothes, the large, hot, insistent ridge of his arousalfinallyproving beyond all reasonable doubt that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

Her hands grasped his waist, not to stop him but to hold him, to delight in his need of her, to commit it to memory and to know what could have been. She teased herself with the feel of him, coming shockingly close to orgasm, which was enough to bring the sharp stab of sanity crashing down into her heart. She pulled back from the kiss, the breath panting in and out of her chest mixing with his hard inhalation and fast exhalation.

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