Page 103 of Meant for Mayhem

But she was a half-second too slow—I had already tugged my hoodie the rest of the way off to make sure I hadn’t hurt her. I don’t know what I expected to find, but my wife standing in the middle of the room wet and naked wasn’t it.

Shannon’s hands flew up instinctively, one arm crossing over her chest, the other dropping lower while her towel puddled at her feet.

It was too late.

I’d already seen everything.

She stood there, skin glowing under the bedside lamp. Her long black hair clung to her pale shoulders and back in wet strands, water still tracing slow paths down her skin. Her body was beautifully real with soft hips, a gentle waist, and skin so fair it looked almost luminous. Dark grey eyes met mine, wide and uncertain, with no makeup to hide behind.

I brushed a hand over my mouth, stunned silent as my gaze moved over her. The rose tattoos on her arms were vivid against all that pale skin—delicate blooms I’d only glimpsed at the edges before. There were more I’d never seen, curling along her collarbone and disappearing onto her back. And her nipples… small gold bars peaked through her fingers and caught the light with every quick breath she took.

But I couldn’t look past where her wedding ring glinted, still right where it belonged.

“Shannon…” The word came out rough. I swallowed, trying to steady myself, but my body was already reacting. My cock stirred, thickening the longer I stood there.

But I couldn’t look away, not when my wife was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

21

I grabbed the towel on the floor, holding it in front of my body. But it was too little, too late.

“I told you not to look,” I whispered as I rushed by him toward the pile of clothes I meant to take with me into the bathroom.

Mikko was still in the doorway, stuck where I’d left him. It took a moment for his attention to follow me, and even then, my words didn’t seem to register. He kept right on looking.

“Sorry.” His voice was rough, blue eyes heavy lidded as they lingered on my chest, even with the towel back over me.

“You don’t sound sorry.”

“That’s because I’m not.”

I huffed a laugh.

Embarrassment should have gotten the better of me, but the way his gaze traveled every inch of my body, his throat working to swallow… none of that left me feeling ashamed. Heat pooled low in my belly beneath his attention, especially when I noticed how affected he was.

Like earlier this week, the thick outline of his cock strained against his pants, making it perfectly clear where his mind was. My eyes dropped, my throat going dry as I remembered what had happened after—standing outside his closed door, listening to him moan my name.

I tried and failed to swallow, breaths coming quickly the longer we stood there, silently taking each other in.

The adrenaline from the game still clung to us both—I could feel it in the air between us, that electric buzz of victory mixed with something far more dangerous. My heart hammered against my ribs, my skin tingling like it had after every game.

But this was different. More.

Mikko dragged a hand through his hair, exhaling sharply. “Tell me what to do, Shannon. Do you want me to leave? Turn around? Go downstairs?”

That question had my eyes snapping up, jealousy flaring to life at the thought of him with the women I’d seen waiting in the lobby. “Don’t you dare leave. Don’t even think about going downstairs.”

Fire lit behind his eyes, his hand falling to his side. “I told you I have no interest in anyone but you, wife. And I don’t say things I don’t mean.”

“What about when you said my name?” I said, the words tumbling out before I realized what I’d admitted to. But I couldn’t stop, not when my body felt like a live wire and my mind was lost to thoughts I had no business thinking about my temporary husband. “What did that mean?”

Mikko stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind him. “You heard me?”

I nodded, pulse so loud in my ears everything seemed elevated.

He took a step closer, not quite crowding me, but close enough I could barely breathe without inhaling the clean, crisp scent he always had. “You already know the answer, then. Whose name it was I said when I came all over my hand? Whose body I imagined?”

He tucked a finger into the top of the towel, running it through the valley between my breasts before dropping his hand back down.