Page 32 of Under Control

He’s still here.

He scanned the dinner tables, and Danica knew that he was looking for her.Her.But she didn’t want to face him…or anyone. He wasn’t going to like what she was planning next.

Shuffling down a hallway adjacent to the reception hall, she heard Andriy’s voice around the corner and panicked.Terrible timing.She immediately opened a door beside her and ducked into a small, dark room. As she tried to breathe, to make sense of it all, tears sprang to her eyes.

I have to get out of here.

Clearly, Petrov had strategized this. She had been announced to the entire organization as Andriy’s fiancée at the wedding. There was no backing out now, not without consequences.

Laying her palms against the cool dark wall for stability, she heard Andriy’s voice getting closer and closer in the hall and fear crept up her throat. That same creeping feeling ran up and down her limbs, and she darted her gaze around for an exit. There was none. She held her breath, praying.

Oh my God.

As Andriy’s voice began to get farther and farther away, she exhaled in relief. Now, she had to make a move…no looking back.

Before she could escape, however, the door cracked open and a tall figure marched into the space. Flinching backward, she heard his angered voice.

“I told you not to leave my sight,” Carrick growled, stepping into the room, letting the door close behind him. “Why are you in here?”

He stationed his muscular frame in front of her, and, in the shadows, she could see the intensity of his eyes. He was ferociously angry.

“I thought you’d left,” she let out. “Where did you go?”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I-I just need air,” she whispered, backing up against the wall and grasping at the drywall behind her. “I couldn’t breathe in there.”

Carrick landed a strong hand on the drywall beside her head, and he loomed over her, breathing down on her. He obviously didn’t believe her.

“You are up to something, aren’t you?”

“Does it matter?” she cried out.

“It matters to me.”

“Why do you care?”

He grabbed her jaw, roughly raising her chin to him. He wanted her to look at him—look him right in the face. Scowling and with his gaze on fire, Carrick dropped his head the final inches between them and he found her lips.

He worked her lips open, quick and determined, and danced his tongue in to play with hers. He was sending a message as much as he was tasting her, feeling her for the first time, like she’d always been his. Holding her slender frame in his thick arms, she let herself fall into him, letting herself once again believe that it was real.

There was a groan in his throat as she let him kiss her. The deeper his kiss, the more she realized how bad she wanted him to doeverythingto her. He brought her tighter against his hard chest. As he ran his hands farther down her back, the coarseness of his palms filled her with sensation.

Reveling in the best kiss of her life, she felt his fire, his passion. Moaning and taking his rough handling, Danica experienced deep arousal in her core and a wetness pooling at the entrance to her untouched pussy. He dropped his hand down her throat, holding it firmly like a threat. The way he kissed her was like a promise. He seemingly wasn’t going to rest until he had her complete attention and surrender. He appeared obsessed with her, needed her. And she was surely going to be in a damn lot of trouble if she didn’t start listening to him.

Maybe he is really someone I can trust? Maybe I should just tell him everything—all my dark secrets?

He teased a moan from her that seemed to only heighten his response, and he kissed her that much more intensely. Never before had she felt so turned on, so needy for him. He grabbed her waist, holding her tight, her breasts pressed against him as she panted from his kiss. He pulled back just enough to squeeze and tease each one, working his fingers underneath her bra until he felt her nipple.

His touch was wild and out of control—and she responded in the same way. The roughness of his hands juxtaposed with the softness of his lips made for a delicious mix. Just as he started grinding his body against hers, his arousal seeming to be out of control, she cried out his name.

Then, as if hearing his name awoke him, he changed. He pulled away fast, and focus came back into his eyes, as though he’d just realized what he had done.

“Shit.”

He stepped back from her, releasing her. As she slid down the wall and fought to straighten her clothing, even in the shadows, she could see the regret flashing over his face.

“I’m sorry,” he said, causing a deep slice of pain to crack through her chest.

---