Page 44 of Cruel Hearts

The doorbell rang.

Excitement swelled through my insides, and I placed the mug back on the coffee table. Maxwell had returned.

“Bring him inside,” said Mr. Burgh with a growl.

“Alright.” I suppressed a smile and stood. With as much restraint as my thrumming heart would allow, I strolled back to the door and flung it open.

Orlando stood at the doorstep with his hands behind his back. He grinned down at me with a dazzling smile. “May I come inside?”

Maybe it was the mischief twinkling in his hazel eyes or the festive blond curls, but without even meaning to, I stepped aside to let him in.

After stamping the snow off his boots, Orlando stepped inside and closed the front door.

“Why are you here?” My gaze dropped down to his arms, which he still held behind his back.

“I brought you something.”

I smiled back. “Oh yeah?”

He raised a sprig of mistletoe. “I thought you could use a Christmas kiss.”

“Why?”

“After the terrible time you’ve had, one of us needs to make amends.”

“And you’re going to prove this with your lips and tongue?”

“Maxwell’s jewelry didn’t work, did it?”

I didn’t reply. Those diamonds were mine, and I wasn’t going to fling them in anyone’s face to make a point.

“Everyone knows you’re not like the other girls.” He stepped toward me, encasing my senses in his leathery scent. “Baubles and trinkets won’t fill your heart.” The way he said those last few words made me think he was looking to fill me somewhere else.

Ignoring the tightening of my nipples, I said, “One shitty, little kiss?”

“I intend to do more than kiss you.”

“Not without my say-so.”

Another step brought him so close, I swore he could hear the fluttering of my heart and smell the dampness slicking my folds. Something about Orlando’s presence distracted me from hating the knights. He’d probably sprayed himself with pheromones designed to beguile a girl because the pulse between my legs thrummed par-rup-a-pum-pum.

“Lilah,” he said in a low voice that made my core tingle. “May this humble suitor offer you a Christmas kiss?”

I tilted my head up. “What do they say? A suitor’s for life, not just for Christmas?”

Orlando’s large hand cupped the side of my face. He brought his head down and pressed his soft, full lips on mine. Pleasure sparked from my lips, down to my nipples. Before it could reach my pussy, he broke the kiss.

“All that buildup and that’s what I get?” I scowled up into his smirking face.

“Want more?”

Raising a shoulder, I said, “You know me.”

Orlando chuckled and leaned down for a do-over. His lips caressed mine, more gently than he’d ever kissed me at the back of his limo or on the dance floor of Wank. If I was the type to read into things, I would have thought the kiss a gentle apology. The hand cupping my cheek slid around to the back of my head, and his other arm rested on the small of my back holding our bodies together.

His tongue slipped between my lips with languid strokes that flooded my senses in pleasure. With a soft moan, I wrapped both arms around his neck and trapped him in a head-lock. Orlando groaned and deepened the kiss.

A little voice in the back of my head screamed at me to stop. Orlando was the enemy. One of the quartet of bastards who had gotten me arrested and half-mauled by dogs.