Page 31 of One Week With You
“You could say that.”
“Hmm. Care to elaborate?”
“It was those shoes you wore to the party last week. The red ones with the ribbon ties around the ankle.”
I fell silent, riveted to the way he rubbed at the silk. There was something so controlled about the movement that had my pulse racing, even though I wasn’t entirely sure why.
“I remember. Though I’m surprised you do too.”
“They were very memorable.” Rafe stepped right into my personal space, barely a breath between us. He looked down at me like I was his only focus, his eyes dark, hungry. “You know what else?”
“What?” I breathed out.
“Ever since I saw you wearing those heels, I’ve dreamed about tying your wrists with red silk. It has to be silk so it doesn’t mark your skin. And then I’d stretch you out on the bed and tie you down, so I had free rein to do whatever I wanted to your body.”
Oh.
My.
God.
My face heated to a thousand degrees.
I didn’t move. Didn’t blink. My breathing picked up a bit. “Rafe…”
“I’ve shocked you,” he said, then he took the end of that silky ribbon and ran it along the edge of my jawline and across my parted lips.
I clamped my mouth shut and closed my eyes. Counted to five. All the numbers in existence weren’t enough to dislodge the moment from my memory. “You don’t know what you’re saying right now. Go away before you say something else you’ll regret.”
“I rarely have regrets, Talia. But the ones I do have all seem to be linked with you.”
There was that horrible pinch in my chest again. I snatched the ribbon back and threw it into the box with more force than necessary. “What does that even mean?”
“Do you really want to know?” he asked. “Sometimes I’m not sure you’re ready for the answer. You ran away from me quick enough last week.”
“What did you expect?”
“I expected us to talk like adults.”
I couldn’t argue with that and yet… I shook my head, throwing my gaze to the ceiling. “It’s hard to talk to the person who rejected you. Tell me you understand that.”
Rafe’s lips pinched and his hands came up all clenched and splayed mid-air, like he wanted to reach for my head and shake some sense into me. “Oh my god, you drive me fucking crazy. I wasn’t rejecting you. Did you know how much I had to restrain myself that night? All I wanted to do was fuck you against that wall and make you mine. But we were too exposed. I was trying to protect you.”
Silence.
Pure adrenaline scorched my veins.
I’d replayed that night endlessly in the days since it happened. Retraced the sensation of his hands sliding up my thighs, wrenching my thong to one side so roughly, I’d been convinced he was going to rip the material and wouldn’t have cared if he did. I’d almost told him as much at the time, except all my words had frozen in my throat the moment our mouths met.
He’d stunned me then as much as he stunned me now. But there was nowhere to run this time. No party to hide behind.
It was me and Rafe and silence for miles.
I stepped closer. One single step.
Rafe’s eyes darkened with that potent mix of heat and intent, recognition. His nostrils flared as he took a few steadying breaths, like he was holding himself back. Hesitant at first, I rested my hand against his heart. His eyes closed the instant we touched, and it was that sign of sheer relief that soothed something in my mind and maybe my heart.
His groan caught in his throat as I reached for his neck and pulled his mouth down to mine. He gripped fiercely at my waist as our lips melted together and our tongues met in a slow, wet slide, and I was wrong earlier, so wrong, because I wouldn’t think about anything but this.
