Page 62 of Claimed By my Father's Enemies
The small office is where I take calls I don't want overheard. One desk, two chairs, no windows. I hold the door for her to go through and I close it behind us.
She's still standing when I turn around. Hands at her sides. Her hair is all over the place, and there's a smear of soil on her forearm she doesn't seem to know about. She looks at me with the expression she had in the lobby and I can see she's working up to something, so I wait.
She starts talking.
No setup, no preamble. She tells me about being arrested and the reason why. She doesn't ease into any of it. The parts that don't reflect well on her, she tells those too, same tone, no softening.
I'm trying to track the actual story but I keep losing the thread because my attention keeps going to her face. To the way she's watching me for a reaction and keeping her voice level regardless.
She's the most beautiful thing I've seen in a very long time.
"I'm telling you this because I understand if you don't want MH Group associated with this mess." She stops. Starts again. "You're weeks away from opening this hotel. I can see how much care you've put into it. Associating your brand with something like this… it would be a nightmare." A small pause. "I totally understand if—"
I take a step toward her.
Her voice picks up speed. "I know this is a bad time to—"
Another step.
"I just thought you should hear it from me directly rather than—"
I reach her.
I look at her. I can’t fight this anymore.
I pull her in.
She goes still. Hands flat on my chest, a breath of space between us, and for a second neither of us moves. Then I kiss her.
The sound she makes is soft and surprised but she's kissing me back.
I take my time with it. My hand at the side of her face. The slow, unhurried back and forth of it. She's warm and she tastes like heat with something sweet underneath.
I pull back just enough to look at her and whisper.
"Sienna?"
She answers by pulling me back in for a kiss.
My hands find her waist and I lift her onto the desk. She makes a small sound at the shift, her hands grabbing my forearms. I step between her knees.
I run my palms down the outside of her thighs, just to feel the warmth there, and she presses forward into it. I kiss down the side of her neck. She tilts her head back and I press my mouth to the line of her throat, she exhales long and unsteady, her fingers coming up into my hair.
We get frantic. I'm not exactly sure when. One moment it's slow and deliberate, her mouth and mine, and the next her hands are at my collar and mine are at the hem of her shirt and neither of us is being careful. The movements are frenzied and urgent, her breath against my ear, my hands everywhere I can reach.
I pull back.
"I want you," I say. "Here. Now."
She reaches for my belt.
"Yes," she says, and pulls me back to her.
I lower myself to one knee. I pull her boot off, set it aside. Then I reach up, take her jeans and underwear by the waist together, and ease them down. They end up inside-out, tangled on the ankle of the leg that still has the boot. Neither of us pays any attention to it.
I press a kiss to the inside of her knee and feel her thigh tremble under my mouth. I kiss slowly up the inside of it and she makes a small impatient sound. I look up at her.
She's watching me, bottom lip caught between her teeth.
