“Of course, boss,” Micah said, releasing Kara into Conor’s waiting arms. “You can pick up where I left off.” He bowed over Kara’s hand, turning it face up and placing a soft kiss on her pulse, which stuttered. “Have fun.”
And then he was gone and Conor was behind her, swaying her back and forth, a proprietary hand on her hip. She was sure he had a warning look on his face, based on the way all the men in the room glanced at them, then away, then at them again.
“You like this, tempting girl? Being the sexiest woman in this room? A party full of A-list starlets and supermodels, and no one can keep their eyes off you.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t ripped their eyeballs out their sockets for looking,” she commented, a little breathless at both the compliment and the feeling of his hands on her.
He spun her around to face him. His dark, fathomless eyes pried into hers.
“I want to,” he admitted. “But I also can’t blame them. You’re the most beautiful woman here.”
She laughed. “That’s not even close to true.”
He shook his head. “It is to me.”
Unsure how to respond, she leaned her head against his chest as he guided her around the room.
“Where’d you learn to dance?” she asked him.
“My mom. After my dad died, she would say one of the things she missed most was going dancing with him, and I hated how sad she was, so I learned.”
“So you could dance with her.”
“So I could dance with her.”
Kara looked up at him. She hadn’t seen his eyes that soft or sad since they’d first met, and he’d talked about how his dad was his hero, the reason he’d joined up, and the person he wanted to live up to. Did he think about that at all anymore? Did it hurt, to see how far he’d come from the man she’d once known, or thought she’d known?
You gave us back the light we’d lost.
Could he be that man again?
Did he even want to be? Did she want him to be?
“Conor…”
He dipped her low, then swung her back up into his arms.
“Then again, I never danced with my mother like this.”
“I’d hope not,” Kara laughed.
He changed the subject. “Do you know how much I want you? Every second, of every day, I think about being inside you, being with you.” He put his mouth to her ear. “I know you worry that all I want is your pussy, but I don’t just want the pussy. What I want is the woman.” He bit her earlobe, making her gasp, and her pussy practically quaked, it was so empty. “And you want us right back, don’t you, needy girl?”
Oh, god.
He was right. She was needy. She needed to—
“Someone else wants a turn,” Conor said, and she was being passed into Luke’s solid arms.
Kara craned her neck back to look at Luke. The sadness in his eyes was a gut punch.
She inhaled and schooled her tone. “You two seem like you’re getting along better.”
“I guess I should thank you for that,” he said. “Apparently thinking someone he cares about might die makes Conor less of an asshole.”
Before she could protest, he turned her in a circle. “I don’t want to argue about this anymore, sweetheart. I just want to move past this.”
“Can you?” she asked. “Why do you seem so sad, if it’s not about me shooting you?”