“Why all the questions, Willow?” His soft voice held an undercurrent of steel.
“Just… wondering… I guess.”
“Was there anything else?” he drawled with a lift of his brows.
Buying time, I wet my lips. I certainly didn’t imagine his gaze dropping to watch the movement, nor did I miss the darkening of his eyes.
“What did I do to make you hate me?” I blurted out.
His beautiful eyes flared, then narrowed. “You think Ihateyou?”
“What else would you call it? You act like I killed your puppy or like I’m diseased.”
“Far from it,” he muttered, and my eyes snapped to lock onto his.
I took a hesitant step toward him. His chin lifted a barely perceptible bit, and I gathered the nerve to ask what I’d been wanting to for what seemed like forever.
“So if you came in and I was naked in your bed?” I boldly asked, then wondered where that came from.
The pulse in his neck sped up, visible from several feet away.
He crossed his arms over his chest and worked his jaw before his shoulders relaxed. Then he leaned toward me, resting his elbows on his knees and placing his chin on his steepled fingers.
“Then you better be prepared to be fucked.”
My heart rate galloped as I processed his softly spoken reply.
An ache throbbed between my thighs and my panties felt wet.
His nostrils flared as if he could smell it.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as my trembling fingers reached for the buttons of the blouse I’d thrown on for the ride home.
“What are you doing, Willow?” he whispered. With his answer to my question, he should’ve been prepared for my reaction.
Holding his gaze, I unfastened them one by one. For courage, I channeled the persona I used to get my terrified ass on the stage. When they were all free, I shrugged it over my shoulders, leaving it to slide to the floor.
“Willow,” the warning in his voice lost its power when it cracked.
My boots and jeans were next. He didn’t move an inch, other than his lips parting and his breaths growing ragged. It was as if he was carved from stone. When I stood before him in my pale pink bra and panties, his chest seemed to be rising and falling faster.
Gaze locked on his, I reached back and freed the clasp. The straps fell off and it followed the rest of my clothes. He sucked in a hissed breath and my nipples peaked.
“Willow… don’t,” he choked as I padded to his queen-sized bed pushed against the wall to allow for maximum space in the room. I could feel his heated gaze on my ass when I reached the edge of the mattress. As I hooked my thumbs in the sides of my panties, I cast a heated glance over my shoulder.
His tongue wet his lips as I pushed the silky fabric down and stepped out of them.
When my knee hit the comforter, exposing my swollen pussy to him, he groaned.
Inside, I grinned triumphantly. Then, I crawled to the center before I turned to sit with my knees bent and my legs spread. I rested back on my hands and pushed my chest out.
“I’m tired of waiting for you. Now what was it you said would happen if I was naked in your bed?”
For a few seconds, I was afraid I may have made a fool of myself. Then, in a blink, he launched out of the chair and his knees were between my legs. One hand rested next to my hips, the other wrapped around the front of my neck and squeezed lightly. It positioned his mouth inches from my face. A primal wildness glittered in his stormy eyes.
His lips crashed to mine, and I groaned at the explosive effect that had on me. Something seemed to coil around me. Like an invisible vine that whispered over my skin as it spun around us.
Teeth and tongues clashing, I arched my back, my body seeking the contact of his. He kissed me with enough pressure to tell me he wanted me flat on the bed. Our lips stayed connected as I looped my arms over his shoulders and brought him down with me.