Page 71 of Untether

‘I’m not feeling fragile at all,’ I tell him.I wasn’t until you showed up, anyway.I pull myself up straighter in my chair, wishing I was wearing my professional armour instead of head-to-toe Sweaty Betty for my casual research day. This is my turf, dammit, and I’m a grown woman who refuses to let men’s behaviour influence her emotions or reactions on a daily basis, in a vast public arena.

So I refuse to let Cal come in here and make me feel shitty, even if he means to do the opposite.

I take a deep breath before I continue, pulling my hand away. ‘Look,’ I say to the beautiful man sitting across from me. ‘First, I had an incredible time. I think that was pretty obvious. Second, I signed up for this. I railroaded you into letting me come to the party.’

I pause as I select my next words. ‘You run a sex club. I’d be stupidly naive not to understand that that’s the kind of kink you get up to when you’re there with more experienced women. Right? I didn’t want you going easy on me. I wanted you to do the exact stuff you would have done if I hadn’t been there. I told you, I didn’t want to cramp your style. So you got in the zone, and it turns out I loved everything we did, so we’re all good.’

He glares at me. ‘Jesus Christ, Aida. I thought we went through this last night. Is this your way of saying you think I fucked you like that because I was up for behaving like a thug and you were the person I was stuck with for the night?’

I’m silent, because that’s exactly what I think. He’s as good as admitted it.I didn’t do that for you—I did it for me.His words make me feel like I was collateral damage, some anonymous woman to be used and fucked. And while that got me off in the moment, it’s not exactly comforting now. I’m vaguely aware of running my tongue over my lower lip as I sit and stare at him.

He groans and closes his eyes for a second. ‘Fuck’s sake. When you do that… Look, baby. I thought I’d spelt it out last night, but clearly I need to repeat myself, which is fine, because I’ll say it as many times as I need to.’ He tugs his chair forward until we’re knee to knee at the corner of the table.

‘I was out of control last nightbecause of you. I was selfish and fucked you way harder than I should’vebecause of you. Not because I was in a wild mood and I’d signed up to fuck you. Not even remotely. It was because you turned up, and you looked so fucking ravishing, and yeah, I was in the zone.

‘But I wanted you so badly I had tunnel vision, and I took and took and took, and you were a fucking champ. I never wanted another woman last night—not for a second. All I could think about was pushing you as hard as I could physically get away with, and that was really wrong of me. I didn’t make it about you, and I should have. But honestly? If I could drag you back in there right now and push you even harder, then I’d do it again in a fucking flash, because you drive me nuts in the best possible way. Are you with me?’

I gaze at him, momentarily speechless. My stomach is a butterfly net; my sore pussy is clenching at his words. At the heat in those gorgeous dark eyes of his. At the intensity of his expression, because my sweet, light-hearted Cal has vanished, and feral, all-consuming Cal is back.

And this version of him pulls me under into a swirling vortex of want and need every time.

He leans forward and gets my jaw in a strong grip. ‘I said,are you with me?’

I nod as much as I can in his vice. My breath is coming hard. ‘Yes.’

‘About fucking time,’ he says, and he crashes his lips to mine.

45

CAL

This woman will be the death of me.

I can’t kiss her properly like this. I release her jaw after a moment and pull us both to our feet before I walk us over to the side of the room. Her head hits the wall, and I slap a palm next to it, taking a second to enjoy the surprise on her face before I dive back in.

I slide my mouth against hers. When she responds, I waste no time licking at her lips until she opens for me. My hungry tongue is in there immediately, entangling with hers. I have her pressed to the wall with my hips. She’s not going anywhere, and it seems she’s getting the message, because one of her hands comes up to my shoulder and the other is in my hair, clawing at it.

That’s more like it. I drag my thumb down her neck and encircle it lightly with my fingers as I use all my tongue skills to show her exactly who’s boss. Her face might have been plastered all over the reception area when I came in—queen of the BBC’s Hall of Fame—but right now she’s in my arms, pliant as a doll, and last night she answered only to me.

Damn right.

As I kiss her, she makes these breathy little noises that go straight to my cock, and I grind harder against her. Just reminding her what she’s missing every minute I’m not inside her.

Why is every single thing this woman does so fucking sexy? Aside from the fact that she’s beautiful and smart and sophisticated and well educated and articulate as fuck, that is. She’s a bombshell, a siren, whose intoxicating looks have nothing on her ability to silence the most powerful men in the world.

I find it so incredibly hot that she gives me the time of day, never mind shutting up and letting me effectively gag her with a single order.

Shut the fuck up. Fucking take it.

I meant what I said last night. The basic little blondes pawing at me did nothing for me. But when Aida Russell looks at you with awe and desire in those huge black eyes, you’re a goner.

And when she tells you to show her how much you want her, you get on your fucking knees and you serve her.

I don’t think I could have been clearer how much I needed her last night. For someone so sharp, she has a short fucking memory when it comes to the stuff that counts, and it tells me the killer confidence she brings on screen doesn’t necessarily find its way into the bedroom. Not unless she’s riding high on sex hormones, that is.

We’ll need to do something about that.

I kiss her for a little longer, both to ram my point home and because she’s fucking delicious. When I come up for air and pull my face away, I plant my other palm on the wall, effectively caging her in.

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