Page 99 of How to Get Even

He pulled down her cardigan and bra and took her breast into his mouth, knowing that he should stop, knowing that they could be caught any minute. She moaned and he quickly clamped a hand over her mouth, without stopping. He teased her nipple with his tongue and palmed her breast with his hand and she was like fire twisting in his hold. He felt her press against the hand that covered her mouth, but not trying to escape, and the tug of desire that passed through his body tightened his skin and heightened his senses.

‘Is anyone here?’ they both heard Maurice call out.

Chase’s gaze flew to Bella’s, her eyes wide with panic, her body trembling beneath his touch.

‘They must have left,’ Ali responded from the other side of the screen wall and a streak of wicked heat shot right through him.

Bella’s breast still exposed, he blew across the skin, slick from his tongue. She shivered, her eyes fluttering, her body unfurling once again. Her eyes flared like sparklers, and she shook her head in warning, but it was too late. The idea had already taken hold and Chase was helpless to stop it. With one had still over her mouth, he used the other to flick the top button of her jeans and draw the zip down, his fingers slipping into her panties and into the cross-hatch of curls between her legs.

‘Chase usually says goodbye,’ Maurice said, confusion clear in his tone.

He circled her clit once, marvelling at how wet and ready she was. Bella pressed against his hand again, shifting as if unsure whether to pull away or to open for him, but he’d learned to read her body in the last few days, the flicker of her pulse, the near plea in her storm-grey eyes; she wanted this as much as he did.

He bent his head to her ear and whispered, ‘Tell me to stop.’

‘Maybe they had an off-site meeting,’ Ali mused.

And after what felt like an eternity, she shook her head. She didn’t want to him stop.Thank God. He thrust two fingers into her wet heat and she rolled her head back against the wall, whimpering against his hand, her nipple taut and pink, enough to tempt him to take it into his mouth. He crooked his fingers as he thumbed her clit and drew on her nipple and she nearly collapsed beneath him.

‘That must be it,’ Maurice said uncertainly. But their steps retreated, the lights flickered off before the door closed and the lock turned firmly.

The gallery was cast in shadows, lit vaguely by the lights out on the street, but the darkness hid them from the view of any passerby. Bella let out a shuddered breath that was half laugh, half relief and Chase smiled, before crooking his fingers and watching her entire body respond. She was so physical like this – so restrained during the day and he wondered what it had cost her to do that. To separate the two so powerful parts of her so distinctly.

‘Condom,’ she whispered to him and he laughed.

‘You’ve got a one-track mind, Carmichael, and I like it,’ he whispered back, reaching into his pocket.

Bella shimmied out of her jeans as Chase rolled the condom over his length. They came back together in a clash of tongues that teased and teeth that nipped and hands that grasped. He lifted her up and wrapped her legs around his waist as he pressed her carefully back against the wall. And when he positioned himself at her entrance, she rolled her hips and he buried himself deep. His curse melded with her moan and they ceased being separate. Together, they moved, the pleasure just as shocking, just as new as it had been that first time.

She rolled her hips and he flexed deep within her and when he ground into her, and reached that spot that no one had ever found, together they were thrust into a starburst so bright it blinded them both.

21

In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack; the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of manoeuvres.

THE ART OF WAR, SUN TZU

Bella waited for the guilt to start. The shame at her wanton behaviour. But it didn’t. And she was beginning to suspect that she wouldn’t. At some point in the night, Chase had pulled her to his side, cradling her hand against his chest, and possessively claiming her thigh that was draped across his body.

She relished how much he wanted her, enjoyed how much she wantedthis.And she marvelled at who she was with him, exploring wants and desires she’d never have before admitted. Or even behaving in ways she’d have never allowed herself to. Arguing with him, being loud, not just in bed, but in the office, on the street. She didn’t care what people thought and…

Oh.

She didn’t care what people thought.

‘You’re doing it again,’ he groaned as his body began to move beneath hers, his hand sweeping up and down her thigh as if trying to soothe her.

‘Doing what?’

‘Thinking. Shhhh. You’re too loud with it.’

She smiled into his side, and he groaned again and pulled her over him. He growled into her neck and bit her playfully and she giggled from it.

‘No, you can’t make me,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I won’t do it.’

‘Won’t do what?’ she asked.

‘No more sex!’ he exclaimed, holding her to him with strong hands around her middle. ‘I can’t take it any more. All you want to do is fuck me senseless.’ She squealed at his language and he laughed, but carried on. ‘You only want me for my body. Admit it,’ he said, digging dextrous fingers into her ticklish ribs.

---