Page 5 of Dirty Gambit

She kissed him.

It wasn’t easy. She had to use the desk as leverage to push herself up to his height, but she caught his lips with hers in the first kiss she’d ever given anyone freely. It was awkward and pitiful compared to what he must have been used to, but it was all she had when she finally pulled back a second later and forced herself to look at him.

Jaxon didn’t move. She wasn’t sure he was even breathing. His entire body was a rigid line of pure, masculine energy, a cobra coiled to attack. She could feel it in his vibration, in his restraint. Then, something shifted in him, something caved. She saw the collapse a split second before his mouth had claimed hers. It was so fast she had no time to prepare for it, no time to brace for it. It was like standing in the middle of the ocean, the current coming in fast. She felt it slam into her and drag her under.

The kiss blazed to life, becoming a living, breathing wave that lapped and consumed them. His arms went around her, lifting her and setting her on the desk. His narrow hips forced their way between her knees, widening them to fit his hard frame. Instinct had her legs winding and locking into place at his back. Her body sizzled with something she’d never felt before. It thrummed in places no man had ever ventured. The throb amplified with the unprompted thrust of his tongue into her mouth. The invasion was so unexpected, she cried out. Her fingers clawed into his hair, dragging him closer as she returned his hunger with her own.

It wasn’t until his fingers slipped between them and began unfastening the silver buttons on her vest that reality poked the first hole in the red haze of lust swirling around her. She hurriedly shoved against his shoulders, pushing him back despite every sense in her body begging for just a little longer.

“Wait.” Her breath came out in ragged pants. “Wait. Jaxon.”

His lips wrenched from hers with a brutal growl that reflected the heated hunger in his eyes when they bore down on her. “Too fast?”

She would have laughed if she could have mustered it. That kiss alone had lit a fire inside her she had no idea what to do with, except let him finish what he’d started. Only, to do so meant throwing away all the reasons she was actually there and just how much he would hate her afterwards.

“Lena?”

Gathering her wits, Lena shook her head. “No, I … I want this. I just…” Her gaze darted past him to the open door. No sign of Pablo. She willed herself, her body, to calm down enough so she could think. “Can we close the door?” The last thing she needed was someone stumbling upon them and putting a wrench in her plans.

Jaxon didn’t stop her when she wiggled out from beneath him and hurried on unsteady legs to the door. She lingered just long enough to peek into the dim corridor in search of her friend, knowing it was still too early. Part of her was relieved he hadn’t shown up yet while the other part wasn’t sure how much more of Jaxon Westwick she could handle.

With a sigh, she shut the door but didn’t lock it. Even if she had wanted to, he never gave her the chance. The moment they were shut up inside and the door was sealed behind them, he was on her, his hands and mouth ravenous beasts tearing into her. Lena could scarcely breathe, never mind think. It was taking a great deal not to give in, to not let him tear her clothes off and take her on his father’s desk. But she couldn’t allow that. She had to remain in control.

He pinned her against the door, capturing her hands when she anchored them in his soft hair. His long fingers threaded through hers and her arms were lifted over her head, restraining her.

“How old are you?” he gasped suddenly into the side of her face. “Lena? How old?”

She wanted to laugh. He was asking her thatnow?

“E … eighteen,” she choked. “I’ll be nineteen next month.”

He groaned, the single sound dripping with relief and satisfaction. “Is there a husband or boyfriend I might need to duel in the morning?”

This time she did laugh. “No.”

With a snarl more animal than man, he yanked her to him. His mouth lay claim to hers with a greedy latch. Keeping one hand securely around her wrists, he relinquished the other to make a slow trail down her body, pausing at her breasts. Lena hissed. Her back arched into his sweet torture.

Above her head, she was vaguely aware of her watch giving its warning beep. She knew it meant something, but he was ripping her top from her waistband and tugging open her vest. The man only had two hands, but they were everywhere, working at everything, dismantling her at every chance. Lena knew that if she didn’t stop him now — and quickly — she never would. Already she was at the point of no return, the point of absolute madness.

“I want to touch you,” she panted, not an ounce of the lie in her. She did want to touch him. She wanted to sink her nails and her teeth into him. “Let me. Please.”

The hands undoing the final button on her blouse slipped beneath the freed material and skimmed around the skin of her waist to circle across her back. The skin-on-skin contact rattled her down to her toes. Callused fingertips scratched her tender flesh, leaving goosebumps behind in their assault. She tried not to think how they would feel skimming other areas of her when she shoved him back.

The look of surprise on his face was fleeting before passion returned when she took ahold of his top and made quick work of his buttons. Hungrily devouring the miles of naked skin he’d exposed with slow laps of his eyes, he didn’t stop her until the last fasten was popped free of its hole. He shook the thing off and tossed it aside, revealing what she’d known all along was hiding beneath his clothes — raw, perfect beauty, unlike anything she’d ever seen outside of fitness magazines. Taut, flawless skin stretched over toned muscle and square abs and disappeared in a dramatic V into the waistband of his trousers. The only thing he was missing was a splash of ink to really drive her crazy.

“Jesus, how are you real?” she mumbled out loud.

Jaxon gave a dark, guttural laugh. “Come over here and find out.”

She weaved out of his reach when he made to hook her middle with an arm and snatched one of the chairs facing his father’s desk. She dropped it between them.

Jaxon raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth quirking. Without saying a word, he lowered himself into it. Lena cast a quick glance at the ornate clock on Richard’s desk. Pablo was late. Only by a minute, but it made her nervous.

Her gaze darted to the door.

“Something wrong?”

Dampening her lips, Lena shook her head. “Just … catching my breath.”

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