Page 5 of The Celtic Resolution
My heart skitters in my chest and I smile coyly. “You think I’m beautiful? Bold ,considering you don’t know what I look like.”
“Your presence is more than enough to assure me,” he replies smoothly. “Besides, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I knowexactlywhat I see.” His dark eyes, two pools of honey-brown, turn to dark ink as he slowly looks down my bodyand takes in the figure-hugging dress covered in hand-placed feathers. “And I am not wrong.”
“Then you should take the glass as thanks for such a sweet compliment.” I’ve never considered myself a woman swayed with honeyed words since they usually come with expectation, but something about this man interests me. Maybe it’s how smooth his voice is in contrast to how rugged his beard looks, or how his suit doesn’t quite sit on his shoulders with the tailored perfection of every other man in this room. Heat warms my cheeks when his eyes dart back up to mine and he picks up the glass of champagne from the tray, allowing the poor waiter to escape into the crowd.
“I have the perfect solution,” he says, stepping so close to me that the warmth radiating from him sends goosebumps skittering up my bare arm. “Let us share it.”
3
BRUNO
“Share?” Piercing green eyes glitter at me from behind that sleek peach and blue mask. Her voice, sharp with a clear Irish accent, has soft undertones that send exciting shivers down my spine, and it takes all my control not to just take her by the hand and get a taste of those full, luscious red lips.
“Share,” I repeat. “Unless you don’t trust me.”
Her head lazily tilts to the left. “Do I trust the masked stranger? You ask such bold questions.”
“Well, it’s a night for taking risks, isn’t it? Why else would the most dangerous people in the city wear masks and dance like old friends?”
She blinks, her dark lashes briefly kissing the edge of her eye mask, and smiles. “Indeed. So, how do you propose we share?”
“Ladies first.” Maintaining eye contact, I offer the glass to her lips but leave it hovering an inch away so she has to lean forward if she wants to drink. Her ruby red lips part an inch and her eyes dart down to the glass, then back up to me.
“What a gentleman.” The woman leans forward and presses her lower lip to the edge of the glass. Just as I start to tilt it,her warm hand closes around my wrist and she applies slight pressure, a hint or perhaps a warning that while she’s allowing me to do this, she’s in control.
Not that I mind.
Her eyes sparkle like gemstones, reflecting the golden light above, and each glittering sparkle rises like a secret I can’t quite hear. I’m utterly transfixed as her lips part slightly wider and the first trickle of the champagne pours into her mouth. I tip the glass until I’m sure she has a mouthful, then I ease it away. Her lips close and her eyelashes flutter slightly as she swallows.
Not a word is spoken as I lift the glass, now stained with a red crescent from her lips, to my own mouth and drink a mouthful. Her hand remains on my wrist the entire time. The flute glasses don’t hold much so the next mouthful is hers. We move much the same with only the odd blink breaking the intense eye contact we’re maintaining.
I should look away so I don’t intimidate her, but there’s something about the intensity of her eyes that draws me in. Maybe it’s the mask adding to the allure or the secrecy that she could be anyone in the world and yet she’s right here, playing my game of sharing a drink. With the second mouthful, her fingers flex briefly against my wrist as she swallows and glances away down at my suit. Then she looks back into my eyes and smirks briefly. My second mouthful is as smooth as the first and only a small amount remains.
For her.
Her lips press against the glass and she parts them wider this time. I tip the glass further and allow the last of the champagne to pour into her mouth. As I pull the glass away and she closes her mouth, a single droplet of champagne catches on the edge of her mouth and slowly rolls half an inch down her chin.
My heart skips a beat as that single droplet rolls down peachy pale skin that I find myself hungering for a taste of. I don’t knowif it’s the lack of human contact over these past years or a lack of feminine presence that has me so enamored of this stranger, but I’m jealous of that droplet.
She slowly drags her pink tongue over her lower lip as if chasing the droplet, but she’s just shy of reaching it, so I lift my other hand and delicately cup her jaw. Our eyes meet once more while my thumb glides across her chin, catching the droplet and caressing the swell of her lower lip at the same time.
“See?” I say, fighting to keep the excited tremble out of my words as she curls her lower lip into her mouth. “It tastes sweeter shared.”
We barely make it to the nearby closet before our lips crash against one another and the glass slips from my grasp, shattering somewhere on the floor where we once stood. It’s scarcely a thought as we stumble into the closet, entwined in one another’s arms. She kicks the door closed behind us then shoves me up against the wall with a gasp. Her fingers are like claws pressing through my shirt and her mouth is as soft and as sweet as I imagined. Sweeter, in fact, with the lingering taste of champagne clinging to her tongue. It’s almost pitch black in here, not that I care, and something solid collides with my shin as I grasp her by the waist and switch our positions. A plastic bucket clatters to my left. A collection of bottles clink and clatter against one another when my elbow hits a set of shelves in my eagerness to rid myself of my suit jacket.
Her hands are at my belt, tugging and wrestling with the leather while her breath ghosts over my cheek in short, sharp pants, betraying her eagerness. We don’t speak. The same fire clearly burns in both our veins.
She gasps when I help her undo my belt and open my pants, then my mouth is back on hers, swallowing down her soft moan of desire. My blood runs hot, igniting a long, quiet desire in my soul to fuck and hear the hungry sounds of pleasure from abeautiful woman. The bodice of her dress is firm and unforgiving under my wandering hands, and she arches into me as I stroke down, down, down to the silky fabric of her skirt. Her hands meet mine and together, we drag her skirt up to her waist. As soon as she gathers the material in one hand, I dip low enough to grab her strong thighs and lift her up the wall.
Her legs latch around my waist, drawing me closer. I use my bulk to keep her up against the wall as blood races south, and I’m harder than I’ve been in years. Every fiber of my being aches to be close to her, to be inside her, to hear her moans and whimpers and cries as I fuck her until she can’t walk. Her dress and the masks deny me most of what I ache for, so I settle for claiming her lips in a deep, hungry kiss.
Energy matches energy. Each bite of her lip is matched by her long nails piercing into the back of my neck and the thick meat of my shoulder. Each graze of my nails down her thighs is met by her thrusting her tongue deep into my mouth and pulling hard on my hair with her other hand. She claws at me, drawing me closer and closer while simultaneously pushing me away. My heart pounds in my ears, my blood races around my body, igniting the fires of desire from my chest to my core, and my cock throbs in time to my racing heart.
I kiss her hard, shoving her into the wall and keeping her there while fumbling one hand on my boxers to free myself. The heat of her pussy brushes against the back of my wrist and I can’t hide my smirk. Just a touch is enough to show me how utterly soaked she is already, and with how she pulls my hair, she’s an impatient woman.
I claim her full lips in another kiss as I jerk her panties to the side and thrust my cock deep into her silken heat. Her loud moan echoes in my mouth as I refuse to let it escape, and she tightens her grip on my shoulder and my hair. Two thrusts and I’m buried fully inside her silken heat. Her hot walls are almosttoo much to bear as they tremble and clench around my cock. It takes all my restraint not to come right there and then.
She tightens her legs around my waist and digs her heels into the small of my back, then slides one hand to cup my cheek and caress my jaw.
