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Declan cocks his head at me, and something new flickers in his eyes. Pure blue heat.
My mouth dries as he turns back around and leans in, closing the gap I tried to put between us for this discussion.
“So if I ask you a question, you’ll be honest with me?” His voice is little more than a rumble, but he’s so close to me that it might as well have been a shout.
“Yes,” I say faintly, my heart threatening to pound right out of my chest.
Does he know how good he smells? I would stop in the middle of an intersection if I thought I smelled his cologne, full of heady promise and comforting security.
“Do you ever think about that night in San Francisco?” he asks softly, his lips actually brushing the shell of my ear.
I shudder helplessly. Out of all the possible outcomes I’ve imagined for this launch party, this one would clock in as the most farfetched. Declan and me alone on a balcony, reminiscing on a night of absolute carnality.
It makes my clit throb—being so close to him and being prompted to remember that night from the one who started it all.
I can’t trust my voice right now, so I bite my lip and nod, a tiny movement that has enormous consequences.
“Say it,” he whispers. “I need to hear it.”
Every single one of my muscles are trembling, at war with the simultaneous need to flee and fling myself at Declan all at once. I’m so turned on it’s hard to think.
“Yes,” I manage. “I do think about it.”
His pupils widen at my admission, darkening his gaze. He looks hungry. Like he’s going to devour whatever is closest to him.
God help me, but I hope it’s me.
“I think about that night too,” he says almost casually, but his demeanor isn’t fooling anyone. The energy is very nearly crackling between us. It feels like the smallest thing will set off something that neither of us will be able to control.
“I think about how you couldn’t stop coming,” he continues, and I actually pant out a tiny moan before I can rein it in. “And I try to remember how many times you did. I think I have the count wrong though. And I think that, to satisfy my curiosity, I might have to try it again. Make you keep careful track. And see how many more times you have in you.”
My chest is visibly heaving. My fingers twitch because I want to grab him. To hold on to him for dear life. Because those words alone have pushed me nearly beyond my limits. I’m incredibly turned on—more turned on than I have been since that night we shared. I want him to take me, launch party be damned. It’s his company. Declan can do and take whatever he damn well pleases.
He raises a hand, and I tilt my face toward it as if drawn by a magnet—but then the balcony door bangs open, accompanied by a shrill tittering of laughter from a group of women who have been vying for Declan’s attention all night.
I go cold. What am I thinking? How could I have been so ready to throw everything away? It’s not like the balcony is private at all. Anyone could see us. Could see me being an idiot, swept away by a bunch of big talk from Declan.
From my boss.
If I’ve gone cold, Declan has gone subzero. There’s now at least six feet between us, like an invisible door has slammed down. His face is completely closed too, like he never even uttered that delicious filth to me.
Like nothing ever happened between us at all.
“I think you’ve had a long enough break, don’t you?” he asks pointedly, watching the group of women who are being completely obvious as they gawk and simper at him. “Don’t you think you ought to get back to the party you’re supposed to be working?”
I should be stung. I should be furious. He’s the one who approached me. Who pushed the boundaries he himself so carefully and coldly established.
But I have boundaries too. And this whole thing—thinking that there might be a spark between us, that I might still be attracted to him—is a mistake.
“Of course,” I say as breezily as I can, sweeping away from him without a backward glance. I’m halfway back into the party when I hear the women shriek with laughter, Declan’s deep laugh joining with them.
My stomach churns, as much as I try to ignore it and the surge of feelings lighting every nerve ending on fire.
For a second out there, I thought there was really something special in Declan.
He’s let me down though. Yet again. And he’s going to keep letting me down. I shouldn’t even feel bad because it all comes back to a simple formula.
Once a dick, always a dick.
