My heart thuds, but I don’t make the move. He looks at me through hooded eyes, stopping with his lips hovering over mine for a fraction of a second.
Then he cants his head and takes my mouth in a kiss.
The touch sends an electric shockwave through me. I haven’t been kissed since my parents’ death two years ago, and my body, starved, betrays me, angling closer for more contact. He wraps my ponytail around his fist and holds my head so I can’t run.
He doesn’t ask for permission, but he doesn’t exactly dominate either. It’s the confident kiss of a man who knows what he’s doing and takes what he wants. His tongue traces my mouth and probes at the opening. With a soft gasp, I part my lips and taste the scotch and something else that makes me so hot it almost hurts.
My knees shake, and I wrap my arms around his neck for support. His hand burns through my thin shirt, and I arch into him.
The kiss goes on and on. He’s sampling every inch of my lips…my tongue…like he was born with the right. My senses are saturated with him. His decadent taste. His delicious scent. His strong, hard body. His hands on me—
Pleasure laps at me like waves, dragging me further and further under. I’m drowning in him, but I don’t want to come up for air. I want to sink deeper until I forget everything but this.
The emptiness between my legs throbs. I moan softly at the sweet ache. He rumbles against my mouth as though he knows exactly what I’m feeling. His thick, hard cock presses against my belly, and the syrupy heat intensifies in my core.
“Fuck, you’re hot,” he whispers. “Why you would deny yourself this is beyond me.”
Because you won’t even call me by my name.
The small voice of sanity cuts through the sexual haze like a scalpel. I shove him away from me with all my strength. It isn’t really enough to make him back off, but he pulls away anyway.
“No,” I say.
He drops his gaze to my beaded nipples and raises it to my eyes. “That’s what women say when they aren’t wet.” The heated expression on his starkly handsome face says he knows I’m soaking right now.
“Or when they’ve come to their senses.” I retreat and pick up my purse and put it between us like a shield. “If you really need to get laid, why don’t you get someone who’s interested?”
A corner of his lips tilts as he stalks toward me. “I already have. Your mouth says no, but your body says yes.” He pulls me to him, purse and all.
My heart beats frantically, blood roaring in my head. A finger glides along my slick folds, sending electric frissons of want through me.
Elliot licks his wet finger. “Sweet. Just as I suspected.”
I’m so hot I feel like I’m about to combust. I should be totally outraged, furious that he put a finger down there, but instead I want him to do it again. What is wrong with me? I haven’t even been drinking. I have no excuse.
“You’re a smart girl,” he purrs in my ear. “You’ll figure out what you really need. Meanwhile, think about it…”
Letting me go, he looks at my moist, tingling lips, and I can feel the need pulsing through the sensitive flesh. My legs are shaking so hard I don’t know how I’m standing upright.
He pulls out a business card, folds it lengthwise in half, and sticks it into my bra. “Call me when you’ve thought enough.”
Chapter Ten
Annabelle
“You’re really late,” says Nonny, looking up from a textbook when I finally get back home. She’s on her belly on the floor, ankles crossed in the air. Her hair’s damp from a shower. The oversized yellow nightshirt and blue cropped pants are relatively new—something I bought from Target before I got laid off. The sight of them makes me feel slightly better…even though they aren’t really proof that I’m doing a good job of taking care of my sister.
“Sorry. Really bad traffic, and I made a wrong turn on top of that.” The lie slips out surprisingly easily. But what can I say? I can’t tell her the truth. “Did you eat dinner?”
“Uh-huh. I had some of the leftovers.” She rolls over and sits up. “So how was it?”
“How was what?”
“Your first day at work. Duh.”
“Oh. Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. Actually pretty easy. No irate diners to deal with,” I say, looking through the fridge for something to eat. Nonny left me a portion of casserole from yesterday, which I decide to nuke.
“Really? Okay, well…cool.” She waits until I pull out my dinner before continuing, “I’m going to study hard and go to a kickass college and make lots of money.”
I raise an eyebrow. What is this about?
“Good for you,” I say finally. “But you should find something you’re really passionate about, not just something that can give you a lot of money.”
“What I’m passionate about is a big paycheck.”
I laugh through a tinge of apprehension. “Seriously?”
“Totally. If we had money, we wouldn’t have to live like this, and you wouldn’t have to take janitor jobs.”
A sudden lump fills my throat. I go over and give her an extra-tight hug. “Nonny, I’m so sorry.”
She hugs me back. “You’re doing your share, so I have to do mine, right? I’m going to help you finish college.”
“Don’t feel like you owe me.” I look at her. My lower jaw quivers, but I put on a smile. “I’m doing this because I love you. It’s you and me against the world now.”
“But if you didn’t have me, you’d be happier. Like Caroline. You could go out and have fun and stuff.”
“I’m happy exactly where I am. And if I lost you I don’t know what I’d do.”
Nonny looks skeptical.
I cock my head. “Did Caroline say something?”
She doesn’t answer.
God, that meddling bitch. I can’t believe this. “Don’t listen to her. She’s not worth it.” I put my hands around her arms. “Just worry about yourself. Not me.”
My poor little sister. She’s growing up too fast, maturing too soon. When I was her age, my biggest worry was how I was going to get away with skipping school and sneaking into parties with the older kids.
Nonny nods. As I pull away to go finish my dinner, her shirt slips, showing a bit of shoulder. She drags it back up fast, but not before I see something that looks suspiciously like a bruise.
“What’s that?” I take the shirt and pull it over. I was wrong about the discoloration being a bruise. It’s a bite mark. “Did you get bitten?”
Nonny’s voice is sharp, her motion jerky as she yanks the shirt out of my grasp. “It’s nothing.”
“We have to go to the hospital and get it checked.”
“It happened yesterday, and I’m fine. No need to waste the money.”
“It happened yesterday?”
She doesn’t look at me. “Just a stupid fight. It’s nothing.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because it’s not important! I yanked on her earrings, and she backed off. She’s dumb anyway.”
“Is she from the Evil Squad?”