Page 100 of Take What You Want

“What do you think you’re doing?” I whisper, voice shaky.

He steps forward, and I step back. I’m all too aware of the fact that we’re both practically naked as his eyes drink in my body.

“We have unfinished business, and I can’t hide this.” He gestures to his shorts and a whimper almost escapes. “Do you know how torturous it is to be around you all day in that skimpy little thing and not be able to rip it off of you? To try to hide what you do to me?” He palms himself over the wet material that clings to every inch of him, not hiding a single thing.

I bite my lip to keep from moaning. “It’s not like you’re making it easy on me either.” His body is just as distracting as his annoyingly beautiful face.

His muscles ripple, and I can’t even manage a laugh at the cheesy move. The air in the bathroom is vacuumed out as we stand on opposite sides of the small space. There’s less than two feet separating us and although alarm bells are going off in my head to keep that space, I want nothing more than to close it.

“I think I’ve been more than clear, Jane, and I know you’re a smart woman. But I’ll spell it out for you as many times as it takes for you to finally hear it.” He steps closer and my back hits the wall. There’s nowhere else for me to go.

And I don’t want there to be. I want to be right here.

“I want you,” he says, desperation and longing filling his voice and tickling my heart. “I want you so fucking badly I can’t think straight.” He presses his palms against the wall near my head and leans down to whisper in my ear, “My patience is running thin.”

My chest heaves and brushes against his. The damp material of my suit is cold against my blazing skin, and I shiver.

“Are you going to lie and try to deny that you don’t want me, too? Because your body told me a different story that night in the alley.” His fingers skim the straps on my shoulders and trace a teasing line around the side of my breast.

“No,” I breathe out. I’m tired of lying. Tired of denying.

“No?”

I shake my head and look at him through my lashes.

A devilish grin crosses his lips. “Then are you going to let me have you?”

“No,” I whisper.

“No?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to beg, Jane?” His voice is rich and smooth and sends a tingle down my spine. “Do you want to see me on my knees for you? Cause I’ll do it, baby. I’ll do anything to have you again.”

The steadiness of my voice surprises me as I say, “Are you all talk, pretty boy?”

Smirking, he sinks to his knees, his eyes aflame and holding mine captive the entire way down. Heat pools in my stomach as desire runs rampant throughout every inch of my body as I takein the sight of him on his knees before me. His powerful hands slide up my legs to steady himself. Or maybe he’s steadying me, because my own knees feel like they could buckle any moment.

“Do I look like I’m all talk?”

I swallow and manage to strangle out a small, “I guess not.”

He hums. “Do you think I’m all talk when I tell you I’m going to remove these now?” He fingers the ties on my bikini bottoms and looks up.

“I don’t know, but I think I’m going to find out.”

“Damn right,” he rasps. And with that, he takes one of the strings between his teeth and pulls. The knot loosens until it completely falls apart. I gasp, hands holding onto his shoulders, as he moves to my other hip. He kisses my stomach along the way, repeating the motion on the other side until my bottoms have nothing left to hold them up and they fall between us.

Instinct has me trying to cover myself, but Nikolai is quicker. He grabs my wrists and pins them to the wall.

“Not in front of me,” he scolds, looking up at me.

I squirm and avert my gaze. This is the most I’ve been exposed with anyone in a long time and even though it’s Nikolai, my insecurities creep up my neck and pull my chin down.

“Hey,” he says, gently grabbing my jaw. “Chin up, remember?”

His words send me freefalling to the past, all those years ago in his bedroom, where he told me the same thing our first time together. The reminder has my eyes turning misty, and a glow burns in my chest in gratitude that I was able to experience this with Nikolai then and get to do the same now.

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