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“Why me, Alfie?”
“I don’t know. You don’t know why either, do you? But you feel it anyway, this pull between us.” It wasn’t a question. He knew I felt it. A hand reached up slowly, his fingertips hovering over my cheek, and my breath caught. I couldn’t let him touch me. “Fear is just a wave, O’Connell. You need to learn to ride it.”
He was going to touch me. His skin would sear mine, then his mouth would find me, I’d fall into him, and then I’d lose him. Then pain. So much pain. I couldn’t let him touch me. I jerked away. Anxiety bubbled up in my chest, and my throat felt tight. My head swam. He had to be some kind of higher power. No mortal man could affect me like this. I turned away, moving to the balcony’s edge, and rested my hands on the cool metal railing. I needed some distance. I needed to breathe.
I felt like I was falling.Falling.Is this what it was like? I wondered if my mum had fallen for my father this way. If she had, I wondered how she’d survived when he’d abandoned her.
I took in deep, collecting breaths that did nothing to calm me. The breeze blew the light material of my dress around my ankles and lifted a lock of hair over my shoulder. I shivered at the chill.
I was scared to step forward into the unknown, yet scared to step back to safe predictability.
The city lights twinkled before me. A carpet of stars, beckoning me to step off this balcony and tread along their electricity.
That cool breeze blew again but I embraced it this time, hoping it would seep into my skin and cool my blood. A harsh shiver wracked my body. I wrapped my arms around myself but that did little to warm me.
A warm hand snaked around my body and pressed firmly against my stomach. My grip tightened on the railing and I leaned my body over it as if I could escape his touch. But he had me trapped between the railing and his body, giving me no choice but to accept him. To ride the wave.
He drew me back against him, pressing his body flush with mine, enveloping me in his warmth so completely that the naughty spring wind couldn’t get to me at all.
I wanted to turn and bury my face in his chest but I couldn’t. Alfie Tell was too much of a risk for me to take. When I looked at him, I didn’t see a future. I just saw me, broken and devastated when he got bored of me and moved on, which he inevitably would. How could he not? How could I possibly keep up with him? We just weren’t cut from the same cloth.
I steeled myself, stiffening my body against him as I prepared to pull away. As if he could sense my last vestige of resistance, his arm around me tightened and he buried his face in my neck, planting a trail of kisses to my shoulder. His free hand encircledmy arm and I felt trapped, swallowed up.Seduced.He was seducing me and I was giving in. Slowly but surely I was losing the battle with myself. I was drowning in him. He was pulling me down, down further to the depths of depravity, and all I could see was my sanity vanishing like the sunlight beyond the water’s surface.
“Breathe,” he whispered. “You need to breathe, O’Connell.”
I took in a gasp of air. My body felt weak and I slumped against him, my grip on the rail loosening. As easily as that, my walls came tumbling down and Alfie Tell walked right in. The challenge was won, the rare beast had been caught. I couldn’t keep him out any longer and whatever damage he brought my way, I’d just have to suffer it.
I whimpered when he took my ear lobe between his teeth and tugged at it, demanding a spoken acquiescence from me. It wasn’t enough for him to know he’d won. He needed to hear it. Alfie Tell needed it all.
“Alright,” I whispered, my voice sounding so distant I wasn’t sure it was still mine. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe all my words were his now. His low growl of triumph told me he wasn’t at all surprised. He nipped my neck and I gasped.
I heard the far away sound of glasses clinking inside and someone calling the guests to attention. “I need to get back in there.” He pressed tighter against me in response, constricting around me until I panted.
“Fuck them. They can cut the ribbon without us.”
“They’ll be thanking us in their speech. I need to be there. As a representative.”
“Yourdatecan do it for you.” His hand travelled up my body to my throat, and he turned my face up to his. My eyes locked on his and in the night, with the moonlight over his shoulder, he was ethereal.
“He’s not my—” My words were cut off by his mouth. It was ecstasy. There was no other way to describe it.
He turned me, pulling me away from the danger of the railing and backing me up against the wall. He thrust himself up against me with crushing force, his erection pressing into me. I drank in the taste of him, sweet and strong. His scent was an aphrodisiac and I knew that no matter what happened between us, his cologne would haunt me for the rest of my life. He had imprinted on me, branded me, scarred me, and yet he’d done barely more than kiss me.
I was screwed. Completely and utterly screwed.
There was a round of applause inside as the ribbon was cut but I didn’t give a damn that I’d missed it. My core was aching desperately for him and I tightened my grip, pulling him closer.
“Alfie,” I moaned against his mouth.
“I know, baby.” He tugged at my dress, lifting it up to my waist, his hand drifting to my underwear. My stomach knotted suddenly.
“Wait!” I hissed, pushing his hand away. I couldn’t do this here, not with an audience inside and an unlocked door between us and them.
“Don’t.” His voice was urgent as I tried to break free of him. Strong hands encircled my wrists and pinned them above my head. The breeze blew by us again and we stilled in freeze frame. I gazed up at this man who was the epitome of aloof arrogance. Except for his eyes, where uncertainty shone like the moon in the dead of night. “Don’t run again.” It was a plea that tugged on my heart. I saw in his face the pain of rejection. I’d done that. I’d put those feelings there.
“I’m not.” My voice was broken, and hoarse with desire. “But I can’t do this here. All those people inside…”
He searched my face for a moment, then slowly released my wrists as if I was a wild horse that might bolt. “You’re right. We’re not doing it like this.”