Page 55 of Limits
‘Bloody hell,’ he muttered.
‘Uh … Pav, are you okay?’ Millie asked, flicking her band once.
‘I should feed you,’ he told her.
‘Why … ?’
‘Because I’ve just dragged you back here. You haven’t eaten supper and I can’t …’
Millie frowned again and gave the band another flick. The movement caught Pav’s eye and he zeroed in on her wrist.
‘What are you … ?’ He moved around the island to where Millie was sitting and stood in front of her to take her wrist in one of his hands. He used the other to smooth a finger over the rubber band. A wrinkle formed between his brows as he leaned forward to inspect the skin around the band more closely. She looked down and realised there were a series of faint red marks where it had snapped back onto her wrist. She pulled it away and shifted off the stool to step back, embarrassed.
‘It’s … um … to help relieve stress without …’ She shrugged and pulled her sleeves down lower on her arms, an instinctive reaction, even though her bruises had faded.
‘But … why are you stressed now?’ Pav asked.
Millie looked down and bit her lip. ‘You’re acting weird,’ she muttered. ‘You’re usually so relaxed and it’s like I’ve made you angry or something and I …’
‘I’m not angry with you, Millie,’ Pav said, his voice back to the gentle tone she was used to with him. Her fingers went back to the band but he moved forward to wrap his hands around her wrists, preventing her from flicking it. ‘I’m not … it’s just I …’ He paused and took a deep breath in through his nose. ‘Seeing you up there. Jesus. It was like an out-of-body experience. You’re always so … controlled, so …’
‘Cold, uptight,’ Millie supplied, knowing that was how people saw her.
‘No, baby, no,’ said Pav, his voice now even more gentle. ‘Never cold. Just a bit closed, maybe … remote. Then I walk into that bloody place, all ready as your knight in shining armour to rescue you from being scarred for life by Kira’s idea of a good time, and I see … I mean, bugger me: you on that pole, your hair flying out as you spun, your legs. I may never recover.’
Millie frowned at him, slowly shaking her head, and he made a low sound in the back of his throat, almost like a growl.
‘Do you have any idea just how beautiful you are?’ he murmured, both his hands going up either side of her head to still the shaking, and then into her hair as he pressed his mouth to hers. Her mind blanked as she kissed him back, barely noticing as he backed her out of the kitchen and towards his bedroom door.
It was only when her calves hit his bed and she nearly toppled backwards that she realised where she was and pulled her mouth from his. She watched as awareness slowly came back to his somewhat drugged expression, and he blinked before dropping his hands to his sides. His bedroom was small but the bed was huge, taking up most of the space. The walls were a surprising dusky orange colour and she noticed multiple certificates covering a large area above the bed. ‘Shit,’ Pav muttered, pacing away from her and pushing his hands into his hair again. Millie felt her hand go to her mouth and her fingers trace her lips. ‘Okay, okay. Let’s calm things down. Take a breath. We can order some food in and …’
‘Why?’ Millie asked, her hand dropping back down and her head cocking to the side as she felt her brow wrinkle with confusion.
‘Because …’ Pav cleared his throat and she noticed him visibly swallow as he looked over at her. ‘Millie, I don’t think it’s a good idea to do anything in my bedroom when I’m worked up like this. Maybe we could choose a day when I haven’t watched you pole dance in hot pants. We could go on a day trip to a sewage factory, or to visit my yia-yia; you could actually wear some trousers. Then we could think about …’
‘You won’t hurt me,’ Millie told him, her brow clearing as comprehension dawned.
‘Millie, I wouldn’t mean to, but –’
‘Shh.’ Millie surprised herself. She wasn’t normally the type of person to shush somebody. But Pav was wrong. It didn’t matter how ‘worked up’ he was, he would never hurt her. And the fact that it washerthat had actually worked him up was giving her some rare and much needed confidence. He wanted her. She could see it in every move he’d made since he’d picked her up from the club. She could feel it in the air between them. ‘I don’t want to go to a sewage factory. I want you.’
‘Millie –’
‘I … I want you,’ she said as she walked across the room to where he was standing. She put her hands on his biceps and could feel the tension in the muscles under her fingertips as he strained to hold himself back. He was actually shaking. ‘Please,’ she whispered.
It was as soon as that word left her lips that she could see him snap. She watched his eyes flash as his arms shot forward to her body, pulling her into him and lifting her up so that her legs were around his hips. And then he was carrying her back to the bed. This time when they went down it was Millie pulling him by the neck of his shirt. He hovered over her for a moment as his dark eyes stared into hers. She reached up, one of her hands going into his hair, the other to the back of his neck, then she raised her head off the bed to bring her mouth to his. About halfway she lost her nerve and stopped, her lips hovering a fraction of an inch from his, feeling his hot breath on her face. His whole body was tense, a muscle frantically ticking in his jaw. A few seconds passed before he made a low, tortured noise in the back of his throat and his lips moved to hers.
Whatever plans he’d had to put this off, make her supper, do what he considered was the right thing, were quite obviously obliterated, and his kisses pushed her head back into the bed. She let out a small moan as her body took more of his weight, and he used the opportunity for his tongue to sweep into her mouth. A thrill shot through her. Nobody had ever kissed her like this, like they wanted to consume her, like they were desperate for her. She’d always thought that intimacy would be frightening. Having never been on the receiving end of much physical affection in her life, she thought she would find it intimidating and invasive, but instead she felt powerful and on some sort of high. His smell, the feel of his hard body, the way he moved over her that made her instinctively rock against him: it was so all consuming that the embarrassment, the fear, never had a chance to rise to the surface. He pulled away slightly, breathing hard, his eyes glittering and black.
‘I have to …’ His voice came out hoarse and he broke off to swallow before continuing, ‘I have to see you, baby. Please?’
Both his hands went to the hem of her T-shirt. She took a deep breath, then nodded once. That was all the encouragement he needed to pull it up and over her head, leaving her lying on the bed in just her bra. Before she could lose her nerve, or look at his face, her hands went to the waistband of her leggings and she pulled them down and off, then lay back again, holding her breath.
El had chosen all of this stuff for her. The set she had on now was ultra-feminine, light blue with lace edging. All Millie’s underwear was pretty frivolous in contrast to her conservative dress code. She let El go as nuts as wanted as she never thought anyone would be seeing it.
Pav had levered away from her slightly to allow for her leggings to come off. When she risked a look at him to gauge his reaction, she saw that his eyes had gone wide as he swept them along the length of her body.
‘Bloody hell,’ he whispered, almost reverently, which made Millie feel powerful again even as she felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment. She reached out to him and tried to undo one of his shirt buttons, but her fingers failed her and her cheeks heated even more as she fumbled.
