Skylar smiled at him, then raised the keycard she was still holding. “Thanks, Rex.” She pressed the edge of the card at the base of Rex’s throat but kept her eyes on Julian, who’d immediately stiffened. She then dragged the card down the man’s chest, stopping just above the waistband of his trousers, obviously using enough pressure that Rex groaned in pleasure.
Technically, she wasn’t touching him.
But Julian didn’t seem to care about that distinction.
His entire body had stiffened, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
Then he shook his head again. Slightly. Controlled.
Final warning, he mouthed silently.
51
Julian told himself to be patient.
This was her game, not his.
But when the card in her hand paused above Asshole’s belt, it took everything Julian had to not lose it.
Couldn’t she see his possessiveness? Couldn’t she see every muscle in his body was as tight as a bow’s string? Couldn’t she hear his ragged exhale?
Of course she could.
And despite that fact, maybe even because of it, she was fucking turned on.
It was that realization that gave him the strength to restrain himself, shake his head, and mouth, “Final warning.”
Thankfully, she’d gotten the message and immediately withdrawn her touch from Rex.
Thank God.
He’d expected jealousy. He’d already felt it in the bar in spades when she’d been flirting with Asshole. But since her “threesome game,” whenever she got anywhere near the other man, what Julian felt was so much more than jealousy.
It was desperation. It was hope. It was need. It was joy. It was torture.
It was going from I can let her go toI can’t.
It was the disorientation of being in one place one moment and then, as Margaux had put it, being on the other side.
It waslove.
He goddamn loved Skylar McKenzie.
It was the only explanation for how he couldn’t get her out of his head. And for how when he saw her today, he instantly felt . . .saved.
Saved from a lifetime of emptiness, loneliness, meaninglessness.
Because it didn’t matter how much money he had. How successful he was. How important his work was. None of it meant a thing without Skylar.
And there was nothing, no rope, no shackle, no tie nor cuff, that could keep him away from her now.
“You,” he barked to Rex. “Sit in that chair and do not fucking move,” he said, pointing to the armchair in the corner of the room. Then he turned to Skylar. “And you . . . ” He smirked at Skylar, then crooked his finger several times, beckoning her forward. “Come here.”
Skylar didn’t even hesitate.
Not when he kissed her in front of Rex, his mouth eating hers, his hands wandering her body.
And not when he stripped himself then her, baring her body not just to Julian’s eyes but to Rex’s. When his possessiveness almost got the better of him, he told himself it was good that Asshole got one more look at what he was never going to see ever again. It would no doubt haunt him for the rest of his life.