Page 113

“You Googled me?”

Her fork freezes millimeters from her lips, eyes darting to me before she promptly chomps on the raspberry and shifts herself away from me.

“Verity.” I reach out and grip her chin, angling her back. “Don’t be shy.”

Her breath hitches, heat turning her eyes as dark as the ocean.

Fuck me.

“How many times have you looked me up?”

“J-just the once.” Her voice stutters on the lie.

“Really?” I slide my hand along her jaw until my fingers curl around the back of her neck, my thumb caressing her cheek as I keep her focused only on me. “Tell me, how many hours have you spent thinking about me? How much of your day is taken up with your mind wandering to memories of my hands on your skin? Because for me, a second doesn’t go by without thoughts of you.”

“I—” She swallows thickly. “I can’t even think when I’m around you.”

She whispers her breathy confession, pulse pounding under my fingers. The corner of my lip quirks up, my cock stirring at her hazy expression. I angle my head down, keeping my grip on her neck as our breaths dance closer and closer.

“I’m obsessed with you, and I want you more than I’ve wanted anything in my entire life.”

Her small hand lands on my thigh, searching for stability as she fights to not succumb to my touch. But her attempt at creating distance is a failure because I can feel the heat of her fingers through the fabric of my pants, and it shoots right to my heavy cock.

“Be careful where you touch, angel.”

My warning seems to melt the last of her icy hesitation as her fingers tighten on my thigh.

Fuck.

I groan at the sensation, desperate for more of her. The last few weeks have been pure torture. Nights of beating myself off to thoughts of her, but none of them are as satisfying as the knowledge of what it would be like if it were her hands wrapped around my dick instead of my own. That night after the ballet was the closest to pleasure I’d come, the smell of her arousal still heavy on my fingers as I pumped myself and came all over my chest.

I match her, my free hand coming down on her leg and teasing the skin just below the hem of her short dress, like I had earlier in the car.

“Cullen,” she warns, just as she had before.

“Don’t play with fire unless you’re prepared to get burned.”

This time, I’m a lot quicker as my fingers dip under the fabric and skim the inside of her thigh. The feel of her heat so close has my lungs constricting with the need to touch her, to feel her slick want for me.

“We aren’t alone.”

I graze my lips along her collarbone, murmuring, “I paid them enough to look the other way.”

“Cullen.”

“Didn’t you say later?”

“I meant at your place.”

“Oh?” I smile against her soft skin. “You were planning on coming home with me tonight? What an assumption.”

“I—” Her thighs squeeze together as I trace the pad of my middle finger against the damp fabric of her underwear. Her other hand suddenly grips the center of my shirt, straining the fabric against my shoulders with the force of her desperation. “Shit.”

Her curse sends a wave of thick desire through my blood. Carnal pleasure pulses within me at the way I have her unraveling so wholly under my touch.

“Come on, Verity. Don’t you want me to make you feel good? Don’t you want me to take away that ache?”

She whimpers, thighs releasing their tension so I can slide my fingers down her cunt.