Page 105 of Bound By Fire
I roll my eyes and groan. “No, you are not. There is no need. You can watch me go in.” I keep my voice as even as I can. “There’s a security guard at reception. My apartment, incase you’ve forgotten, is now Fort Knox, thanks to all of your upgrades. I’ll be perfectly fine.”
“I’m walking you up,” he says it again, quieter this time. “We need to talk about what happened.”
“There is nothing to talk about.”
“Yes, there is.”
“I’m serious, Ridge. There’s nothing to discuss. It happened. It won’t happen again. The end. We can both move on. There’s no need to dissect it, or analyze it, or have a postmortem on it in my hallway. It happened, and we need to move on.”
“We very definitely need to talk about it.” He says it quietly, but I can hear the iron underneath it. “And I’d rather it not be in the car.”
“I’m telling you, there is nothing to talk about.” My voice is going up, so I drag it back down. “We will never speak of it again. We can pretend it never happened. You can finish your assignment. The Council never has to know. Nobody has to know. Please, be reasonable.”
I reach for the handle a second time.
“You need to be reasonable,” he says. “You’re kidding yourself.”
“About what, exactly?”
A hand threads into my hair at the base of my skull. He uses the pressure of his fingers to turn my face toward his. He’s right there, leaning across the console. His eyes on me. He doesn’t say a word.
He kisses me, softly.
A small, shocked sound jumps out of my throat at the warm press of his mouth, and then my whole body just gives in to it. My eyes close. My hand comes up between us and lands on his chest. I kiss him back.
For a few seconds, I forget every single thing I just said. There’s just his mouth on mine, his fingers in my hair, the heat of him through the front of his shirt.
He pulls back a fraction. I don’t open my eyes for a moment.
“There is no moving on or forgetting it happened,” he says against my mouth. “If I stay on this assignment, we will fuck again. We need to talk about it.”
That snaps me out of it.
I push his hand out of my hair and shove back into my seat.
“You did that on purpose.” My voice shakes. “You set a trap.” My eyes narrow on his. I grit my teeth.
“You walked right into it.” He doesn’t sound sorry. “Which wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t attracted to one another. It is what it is. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. I want to peel you out of that dress, part your thighs, and lick you out until you come on my tongue.”
I gasp because my clit does a happy dance. My channel tightens. My body wants him, but it can’t have him.
Asshole!
“Robyn, we need to talk.”
I glare at him.
He waits.
“Fine,” I bite out. “You’ve got five minutes. That’s all you’re getting. You will not kiss me again…not anywhere. We will talk, and then you will leave.”
“Noted.” He smiles at me before quickly turning serious.
I open the car door myself this time, and I don’t look at him as I climb out.
I open the door to the apartment block using my thumb, and he’s right behind me as I cross the lobby. The same security guard is at the desk. I lift my chin in greeting. He nods back, and his eyes flick to Ridge and then back to me. I keep walking.
The elevator dings open. We step inside, and the doors slide shut.
