‘Fucking hell, Ava.’ he pants through strangled breaths. ‘You make me crazy.’

He rolls his hips, pushing his erection into me, milking a small cry from my lips. I fist my hands in his hair, moaning in invitation. This is way past stoppable now. My body has gone into cruise control, the stop button lost somewhere in the land of lust. I feel his palms rest on the front of my thighs, my dress bunched in his fists and pulled up over my waist in one swift tug. His hips roll again and I whimper. I need more. Christ, I don’t know how I’ve resisted this. He bites my bottom lip and releases me, pulling his face away and looking me straight in the eyes. He rolls his hips again, grinding hard against my core. My head falls back on a deep moan, giving him open access to my throat, which he takes full advantage of, licking, sucking and lapping at the hollow. I could weep with pleasure. But then I hear voices coming from outside of the room and reality comes crashing down around me. What am I doing? I’m in the master suite of the penthouse, with my dress around my waist and Jesse at my throat. There are hundreds of people milling about down stairs. Someone could walk in at any moment. Someone will walk in at any moment.

‘Jesse,’ I pant, trying to get his attention. ‘Jesse, people are coming, you have to stop.’ I wriggle a little, causing his erection to hit me in just the right spot. I bang my head against the wall to try and halt the stab of pleasure it causes.

He groans, long and low. ‘I’m not letting you go, not now.’

‘We need to stop.’

‘No.’ he growls.

Oh, flipping heck. Anyone could walk through that door. ‘We’ll do this later.’ I try and pacify him. I need to get him off of me.

‘That leaves you too much time to change your mind.’ He nibbles my neck.

‘I won’t change my mind,’ I grip his jaw, pulling his face to mine so we’re nose to nose. I look him squarely in his sludgy pools of green. ‘I will not change my mind.’

He scans my eyes, looking for the reassurance he needs, but I couldn’t be any more resolute. I want this. Yes, I might have time to evaluate the situation, but right now, I’m certain I’ll see this through. He’s just way too tempting to resist, and God I’ve tried.

He kisses me hard on the lips and pulls away. ‘Sorry, I can’t risk it.’ He scoops me up into his arms and stalks towards the bathroom.

‘What? They’ll want to see in there too.’ He can’t be serious?

‘I’ll lock the door. No screaming.’ He looks at me on a small smirk.

I’m shocked, but I laugh. ‘You have no shame.’

‘No. My cock has been aching since last Friday, I finally have you in my arms and you’ve seen sense. I’m going nowhere and neither are you.’

Chapter 9

He kicks the door shut behind him, placing me between the sinks on the marble vanity unit before returning to lock the door. My dress is still bunched around my waist, my legs and knickers completely exposed.

I gaze around the vast room that I’m so familiar with, my eyes falling on the gigantic, cream, marble bath dominating the centre of the room. I smile, remembering the trauma of having to organise a crane to lift it in through the windows. It was a nightmare, but it does look spectacular. The double, open ended shower on the back wall is made up of a floor to ceiling sheeted glass and beige Travertine tiles, and the vanity unit that I’ve been placed on is cream, Italian marble, with two sunken sinks and large waterfall taps. A thick, gold framed, intricately carved mirror spans the entire width of the unit, and a chaise lounge sits at an angle in the window. It really is luxury embodied.

I hear the lock click into place, snapping me from admiring my work and pulling my eyes to the door, where Jesse is watching me closely. As he saunters towards me, he slowly starts unbuttoning his shirt. I watch him gain on me, his mouth lax, his eyes hooded. Anticipation has my stomach churning and my thighs clenching shut. This man is absolutely stunning.

With his final button unfastened, he stands before me with his shirt draped open. I can’t resist reaching up and running my finger down the centre of his hard, tanned chest. He looks down to follow my trail, placing his hands on either side of my hips, nudging his way between my thighs. As he looks at me, his lips tip at the edges and his eyes sparkle, the slight creases at the corner softening the usual intensiveness of them.

‘You can’t escape now.’ he teases.

‘I don’t want to.’

‘Good.’ he mouths, dragging my eyes to his lovely lips.

I trail my finger back up his chest, working my way past his throat until my finger rests on his bottom lip. He opens his mouth, biting my finger playfully. I smile, continuing upwards and running my hand through his hair.

‘I like your dress.’ He drags his eyes down my front.

I follow his stare to the bunched up material around my waist. ‘Thank you.’

‘It’s a bit restrictive.’ He tugs at a piece of material.

‘It is.’ I agree. The anticipation is killing me. Rip off the dress!

‘Shall we remove it?’ He cocks a brow at me, the corners of his mouth twitching.

I smile. ‘If you like,’

‘Or maybe, we leave it on?’ He breaks into a full on smile as he holds his hands up.

I melt all over the vanity unit.

He slides his hands around my back. ‘But then again, I have firsthand knowledge of what’s under this lovely dress,’ He reaches up, grasping the zipper, breathing into my ear as he does. ‘And it’s far superior to the dress.’ he whispers, pulling it down slowly, teasingly. I’m panting hard and desperate. ‘I think we’ll get rid of it.’ He lifts me off of the counter, placing me on my feet before pulling my dress away from my body and letting it drop to the floor. He kicks it to the side without taking his eyes off of me.

I frown at him. ‘I like that dress.’ I couldn’t give a toss about the dress. He could have ripped it off and cleaned the windows with it, for all I care.

‘I’ll buy you a new one.’ He shrugs as he places me back on the counter, resuming position between my thighs. He presses his body up against me and grabs my bum, pulling me in towards him so we’re locked tight together. He grinds his hips while staring at me.

The throb at my core is bordering on painful, and I’m at serious risk of falling apart if he continues with that alone. I want to tell him to hurry up; I’m struggling to control myself here.

Reaching behind me, he unclasps my bra, pulling the straps down my arms and flinging it behind him. I lean back on my hands, exposing my breasts to him.

Looking into my eyes, he lifts his hand and places it, palm down, under my throat. ‘I can feel your heart hammering.’ he says quietly. ‘You’re so affected by me.’

I’m not going to challenge him on that statement. He’s right, and I’m not even bothering to try and fight it anymore.

He glides his palm down between my breasts until it rests on my stomach, as he looks at me – all smoldering and delicious.

‘You’re too fucking beautiful, lady’ he grinds firmly. ‘I think I’ll keep you.’

I arch my back, thrusting my chest forward, and he smiles before lowering his mouth and taking my nipple deep, sucking hard. When he brings his hand up to massage my other breast, I moan, letting my head fall back against the mirror. Oh, good God. The man is a genius. His arousal is as hard as lead, pressing between my thighs, causing me to roll my hips to ease the throb on a long, drawn out moan. I don’t know what to do with myself. I want to soak up the pleasure because it’s so good, but the need to have him is getting the better of me, the pressure in my groin near exploding point. As if reading my mind, he skates his hand up the inside of my thigh, finding the edge of my knickers. One finger breaches the barrier, lightly brushing the tip of my clit.