I didn't even see it coming.
One moment I was determined not to look at him, not to breathe him in. The next, his hand slid along my jaw, firm and certain. Before I could even snap at him, or even think, his mouth had already crashed on mine.
Heat jolted through me so hard, it almost buckled my knees. His kiss was nothing like the hesitant one Dario had stolen out of me before. No. This one was fierce, claiming, hungry in a way that made my breath catch and my thoughts scatter like leaves in a storm.
I should've pushed him away. I should've kicked at him. Screamed.
But instead, my body betrayed me.
My lips parted for him without permission. My fingers curled into the fabric of his suit, dragging him closer, clinging to him like he had become the only solid thing in the room. And god, the way he kissed...it was like he was trying to burn all my layers, thread by fucking thread. He tasted like heat and danger, and every mistake I swore I'd never make again.
For a moment, I let myself want him. Succumb to his attention.
Then he broke the kiss to breathe, his breath warm against my lips. And that tiny, shaky exhale was all it took for reality to slam into me. I've kissed him back. Fuck. I nearly lost myself in him.
I've never felt more disgusted at myself. Appalled. This is not me.
My eyes flew open and I shoved him. Hard. Both palms flat against his chest.
He stumbled back a step.
Even when my lips were still tingling. His were still marked by me, swollen. I teared my gaze away, my heart feeling like it was trying to rip its way out of my chest.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I demanded. The sharpness in my voice barely hiding the tremor I hoped he hadn't noticed.
He didn't look angry. Not did he even look surprised.
He simply dragged his thumb slowly across his lower lip, his eyes locked on mine, dark and entirely too satisfied.
"You kissed me back," he said quietly. Almost lazily. Like he knew exactly what that admission would do to me.
My pulse spiked, and I swallowed. "It meant nothing."
His mouth tilted in a slow, knowing smile that made something inside me clench tight. Like he was peeling back every flimsy lie I tried to hide behind.
"Say it again," he murmured, stepping closer to me with the casual confidence of someone who knew exactly how dangerous he was to me, shrinking the space I've forced between us. His presence filling my air like heat off of a fire.
"Say it meant nothing," he continued, his voice velvet-dark. "Try not to tremble this time."
My breath hitched. Damn him.
I straightened my spine, lifted my chin in, defiant, but he saw right through it. Of course he did.
"I'm not shaking," I snapped.
He hummed, low and amused, before closing the last of the distance between us.
HIs chest brushed mine in the barest of contacts. Enough to make my pulse roar. Though not enough to justify the way my breath stuttered.
"Liar," he said softly.
His hand lifted, slow enough to give me time to move, but fast enough that I couldn't. His fingers hovered near my cheek again, not touching, as it drifted slowly down to my shoulders, fingering the strap of my dress.
"If you didn't want me," he whispered, pulling the strap down slowly over my shoulder, "you would've pushed me away the moment I touched you. Instead?" He leaned in, his lips grazing the edge of my jaw. "You opened for me."
A shiver shot through my so sharp, I almost cursed. And I hated it that he could see it. The way his smile deepened as the thin strap slipped down my skin, slow enough to feel like a question, deliberate enough to feel like a promise.
I sucked in a breath, sharp and useless.
"This doesn't mean anything," I managed, though my voice barely held itself together.
He hummed as if I've told him a secret instead of a warning.
"Good," he said softly. "Then it won't cost you anything to give in."
He trailed his fingers along the bare curve of my shoulder, featherlight, almost reverent.
"Just one night, where you don't need to pretend," he murmured. "I know you want this."
"I don't want you," I lied.
He chuckled, low and dangerous as his thumb brushed the inside of my elbow, gentle.
"You want answers," he said. "You want to know why I feel familiar. Why you kissed me back. Why your pulse is a storm right now."
My breath hitched.
He lowered his head, his lips brushing the tender place where my bare shoulder met my throat. It shattered every coherent thought in my skull, as I let my instinct take over me. My fingers sliding to his hair, dark and soft, gripping the back of his head as my lips parted in a soft, silent gasp.
His tongue traced the line of my neck, slow and devastating, dragging upward in a way that turned my bones to water. My knees almost buckled. And he noticed. Of course he noticed.
"No consequences," he breathed against my skin, each word sinking lower into me. "No names. No bloodlines. Just us."
He lifted his head, his nose brushing mine. His breath, warm and sweet from the wine.
"For one night," he said, his voice rough and edged with something dangerously close to hunger, "let yourself have me."
His fingers slid up my jaw, forcing my face up to meet his scorching gaze. His green eyes locked onto mine, dark and unrelenting. Leaving me with nowhere to hide, when I finally crashed my lips on his. The air between us crackled, heavy with desire.
It was savage, raw and claiming, as we give in to our hunger.
He pressed me hard against the wall, his body a relentless weight that left no space between us. The coldness of the wall pressing hard into my back as his hands roamed my body with a desperate hunger, gripping the fabric of my dress and bunching it upward without hesitation.
I wrapped my legs around him instinctively, clutching him like a lifeline. My breath hitched as his mouth devoured mine. Every touch, every movement, fueled by a fierce need. A hunger that consumed us both, reckless and urgent.
"You're mine now," he murmured, his voice low and commanding as his hands moved to unbuckle his pants.
I placed my hands firmly on his shoulders, my breath catching as our lips collided again. Deep and searing. Then without hesitation, did he finally entered me. Sending sharp, electrifying fire shooting through my body.
My back arched while my hands held onto him, pressing hard against the cold wall while he thrusted in and out of me. Every inch of me surrendering to the hunger that consumed us both. Raw and urgent.
There was no holding back.
There was only the fierce, primal rush of desire, tangled with something deeper, and yet unmistakably tender. In that moment, we were lost to the fire blazing between us. Two souls caught in a wild, relentless embrace.