Page 58 of What Comes Around

Anger. Desire. Confusion.

A possessiveness I had no claim to.

I should have stepped away.

I didn’t.

And when she brushed against my arm like it meant nothing, it felt deliberate. Like she was testing me. Waiting to see what I would do.

So I reacted.

And when everything finally exploded in my office, it had nothing to do with Jonah.

It had everything to do with the fact that I had been losing control long before that email ever arrived.

And in that moment, control finally snapped.

I stood so abruptly the chair scraped across the floor. Ashley flinched but did not step away. She should have. Instead she remained where she was, boxed in between my body and the desk, close enough that I could feel the heat rising from her skin.

There was nothing polished left in me. Nothing controlled. Whatever mask I usually wore had cracked wide open. I could feel the hunger I had been holding back for months finally pushing to the surface.

I leaned closer, my voice low and rough from restraint I no longer cared to keep.

“We both know this is what you want. You pushed for this. So I’m going to take what you’re offering.”

Her eyes widened. That was the last clear thing I noticed before instinct took over.

I grabbed her and crushed my mouth to hers. The kiss was rough, messy, nothing like the controlled fantasies I had tried to bury. Shock, heat, weeks of tension that had been eating me alive. This was real. This was her.

My hands moved without restraint, gripping and pulling as I pressed between her thighs and pinned her against the desk.

“I’m going to take you,” I said against her mouth, my breath unsteady. “Tell me you want it.”

“I want it.”

The sound of it hit me like a match to gasoline. Every rule I had tried to follow, every line I had promised myself I would not cross, burned away in an instant.

She wanted it.

She wanted me.

And I was done pretending I could stop.

A low sound tore from my throat as I grabbed her blouse and ripped it open, silver buttons scattering across the floor.

She gasped but did not pull away. The heat in my chest surged even higher.

I tore down her bra and stared at the nipples that had been taunting me for weeks. Each one pierced with a small barbell.

Gold. Bright against her skin.

For a moment everything inside me went still. Shock. Hunger. Something darker.

My hands moved before my thoughts could catch up. I cupped her, feeling the warmth of her body beneath my palms, feeling the way she reacted even to the lightest pressure. My thumbs brushed over the metal and the sensitive skin around it. Her breath caught.

I tugged them, watching her face.

Her eyes widened, pupils dark. I saw the pulse in her throat jump faster and heard the shift in her breathing. She was just as affected as I was. The realization struck me hard and intoxicating.