Page 133 of Burning Ember

I look around to see a sparse room with a few pieces of furniture, a couch, one end table, and a lamp. The far side of the great room appears to open into a kitchen.

“You just bought this?”

“Yeah, while I was gone. This is one of the homes my company built. The buyers’ deal fell through. I had my secretary draw up the papers and asked her to have our designer furnish it by today.”

“Did she?”

He scans our surroundings. When his eyes meet mine again, there’s a playful gleam in them and a smirk on his mouth. “Yeah. Looks like she did.”

I try to get down and he grunts in disapproval. “Uh huh. Hold on.” He turns and carries me up the stairs.

Pushing his limits again, I start kissing my way up his neck and Mav groans. When I bite his jaw he grates out, “Fuck. You’re killin’ me.” We pass room after room, until he finds the one he’s looking for. When we enter what looks to be the master suite, he rasps, “Thank fuck.”

I twist to see that yes, there is a bed and it’s massive. It’s also black and gold, much like the man carrying me. It has a low footboard and a nice headboard, and on each side of it are end tables with lamps, both lit and giving off a soft glow.

Finally, he sets me down on my feet, but only so he can forcibly back me up. His body is literally a wall of muscle herding me to where he wants me to go. Eventually the back of my knees hit the bed, they buckle, and I fall to my butt on the mattress.

Mav remains standing. He starts to undress by first shrugging out of his cut, and then he reaches up behind him to peel his shirt off.

Lust pulses through every part of me. I love looking at him. Especially like this. The sight of his abs has my core muscles throbbing, and his pecs and tattoos have me licking my lips.

I’m taken off guard a second later when he falls to one knee in front of me. His position puts us at eye level. Reaching out, I trail my fingers over his chest. “Do you remember that day when you made Rigor bring me to your office? The day I was looking at the pictures on your wall?” I see that he does, and go on. “I was terrified of you. I knew you hated me, but—”

He opens his mouth and I place a finger over his lips. “That was also the day I was convinced you weren’t all bad. In those pictures, I saw a different side of you.” I press my hand to his chest. “And I couldn’t help but wonder if he was still in there somewhere. Now I see he is.”

My fingers travel up and around his neck. I lean forward, tilting our heads, we work in sync and our mouths come together. The languid kiss snatches away another bad memory of him and replaces it with the way he makes sweet love to my mouth, and how he seizes another little piece of my heart.

As the kiss slows, Mav presses his hand to my chest and lays me back. One foot at a time, he removes my sandals. His hands circle my ankles and his fingers slide leisurely up my calves. Dipping his head, he places soft kisses on my knee, first one and then the other. The ticklish pleasure has me flinching to pull away and at the same time practically begging for more.

Who would’ve thought having a man kissing your knees could feel so good? I didn’t, but the way he does it, so affectionately, so endearing, sends a rush of warmth through my chest.

“I told you that day to get on your knees and get ’em dirty.”

How could I ever forget?

Let’s break in those soft knees of yours . . . Show me you can do more with that mouth of yours than piss me the hell off . . . suck my cock like you like it. Lick it like it’s a goddamn lollipop . . . the best fuckin’ thing you ever tasted.”

“I remember.”

Coming back up to look me in the eyes, he massages my knees. “I’ll take care of you whatever way you need me to. Whether you do the same for me. You never have to get on these knees again, Doll. Not unless you want to.”

Snaking his arm behind me, he begins to unbutton my shirt. After it falls away to the bed—like he’s done many times before—he sweeps my hair away from my eyes, and his knuckle lightly trails over my cheek. It keeps going down my neck and over my shoulder.

“Your skin is beautiful.”

“It’s covered in freckles.”

“Which I find fuckin’ beautiful. It was the first thing I noticed about you.” The intensity of his eyes leaves me with no doubt of the truthfulness of his words. “Your eyes were the second. They fuckin’ gutted me every time you looked at me. But I was so fucked up, Doll. I wouldn’t let myself feel what I wanted to feel for you.”

Without waiting for me to reply, he starts kissing a path up my thighs, shifting from one to the other and getting closer to my sex. His hands work on the button and zipper of my shorts. Slowly, he pulls them down my legs and throws them on the floor. His heated eyes fall on pink lace.

“Fuck. Are these for me?” His hand covers the top of them and his thumb strums over my clit.

I moan. I’m already so sensitive. I bite my lip and press up against his finger, seeking more of the throbbing sensation pulsing through me.

I had other underwear laid out. Safer underwear. Underwear I thought would keep me from being half-naked around him. But at the last second, I changed my mind. Maybe I knew this is exactly where I wanted to be tonight. With him. In his bed. With his eyes devouring every inch of my skin.

“Yes or no, baby?”