Page 56 of Wicked Beautiful (Wicked Games 1)
“Stay here,” he orders, pointing to the sofa.
I don’t answer.
“Victoria.”
“Your audience awaits, Mr. Maxwell.”
His face darkens at my cool tone. He stands, pulling me to my feet with him. He winds an arm around my waist and lifts my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Stay. Here.”
“OK.”
He considers me in silence. “Was that a lie?”
“Probably.”
He curses under his breath. Downstairs, the mayor makes a terrible joke about his wife’s cooking.
“It sounds dire down there, Parker. You really ought to get a move on. We don’t want to kill your political career before it’s even begun.”
“I can’t believe you’re smiling when you say that.”
I push him away. “Believe it or don’t. Not my problem.”
He makes a sound of exasperation and turns to go. At the door he turns back and looks at me. “Will you be here when I get back?”
My smile widens. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?”
He stares at me long and hard, his eyes burning. In a husky voice he says, “If you’re not, you’ll only spend the rest of the night thinking about what I was going to do to you next.”
Then he lifts his hand to his mouth and sucks on the fingers that were just inside me.
He spins on his heel and is gone.
SEVENTEEN
~ Parker ~
“Ah! Here he is! Call off the search party. The guest of honor has appeared!”
The mayor beams at me as I stride through the crowd, buttoning my jacket and trying to appear like a sane, responsible adult with political aspirations and not the single-celled organism Victoria Price has reduced me to.
At this moment, I’m a giant walking cock. Nothing more. Everything I am is between my legs.
I have no idea how I’m going to get up in front of this crowd and string a coherent sentence together. I can still taste her. I can still feel her body beneath me. I can still hear those erotic, enticing moans working from her throat as I sank my greedy fingers into her slick heat.
Jesus. The way she responded to me. The way I responded to her. Our chemistry is thermonuclear. I’m lucky I don’t have an enormous sticky spot on the front of my slacks right now.
“Thank you, David,” I say graciously. “I’m afraid I took a wrong turn on the way to the men’s room.”
The gathered crowd chuckles. The mayor looks relieved. I smile widely, accept the mic he’s holding out to me, and turn to the crowd. “I’ll keep this brief so everyone can get back to their cocktails.” Cock. Oh, for the love of God. “Most of you know me. Some of you don’t, and I hope to remedy that this evening. New York has been my home for the last six years, and of all the places I’ve lived in the world, I can honestly say this is where I feel most connected. This is where I feel most…”
Victoria appears at the top of the stairs. She’s looking right at me. She’s wearing a Cheshire Cat grin. She licks her lips, tosses her hair over her shoulder, and begins to descend the staircase. Her gorgeous bare legs gleam in the light, courtesy of the most perfect hip-high slit ever created in the history of dressmaking.
“Alive.”
The word is spoken before I have time to think. Looking amused, Victoria arches a brow and then shakes her head, her smile turned acerbic.
Is she mocking me?
