No waiting for him to make the first move.
Not the slightest trace of uncertainty as she pressed her body against his and pushed his lips apart with her demanding little tongue.
And fuck if that didn’t shoot molten fire into his veins.
Outside the closed door of the office, the drone of conversation and soft music carried from the exhibit hall several yards away. Low light from the gallery filtered through the shuttered blinds of the window behind the desk. A bark of laughter sounded from just outside as a small group of party guests walked the promenade that led to the museum lobby.
He and Jordana were secluded enough in the private office, but there was no escaping the knowledge that the risk of discovery lurked just beyond its four walls.
She didn’t seem to mind.
Hell, she seemed to revel in the risk. As she kissed him, he felt her hands at the collar of his shirt. His mind was slipping, getting pulled under the more powerful force of his need.
He only vaguely registered that his shirt was open, his chest bared to her gaze, to her touch. When she dragged her mouth down along his throat to the glyphs that rode his pectorals, he wrenched up off the desk on a lust-filled groan.
“Shh,” she admonished him with a playful smile and a daring glimmer in her eyes. Her pretty pink tongue followed the arc and flourish of his dermaglyphs, making them flush with darkening colors. “I’ve been wanting to do this all night.”
Ah, Christ. Nathan watched, entranced, hard as granite, as she licked and suckled him, each wet kiss igniting a dangerous fire in his veins. She drew his nipple into her mouth, grazing the tight peak with her teeth.
Her touch shouldn’t have been so welcome, so easily accepted. It didn’t fit into the way he lived his life. It went against everything he’d been taught. Defied the years of training and hard lessons that still haunted his dreams, all too often left him soaked in cold sweat, stomach pitching with nausea for what he’d witnessed. What he’d been made to do.>She wanted him now, again … always, she was certain.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she murmured, wishing he’d touch her again. “But I don’t want to cause problems for you with the Order.”
“Any problems there are mine to deal with.” That devastating smile faded as he sent a dark glance around the gathering. When his eyes came back to her, they glittered as bright as embers. “And there was no way in hell I was going to let you wear this dress for anyone but me. Even if I had to put on a monkey suit and try to play nice with the natives.”
“It’s a very nice monkey suit,” she said, melting under his possessive stare. “Oddly enough, seeing you in it only makes me want to sneak away somewhere and tear it off you.”
Nathan’s answering growl vibrated all the way to her bones. “Don’t tempt me, female.”
Oh, but she wanted to tempt him. She wanted to be the one in control, the one making him crazy with pleasure and need, until she was certain she owned his body the same way he had mastered hers.
She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to be naked with him again, feel him crashing into her, filling her.
The urge swamped her, feral and fierce.
“Keep looking at me like that and watch this civilized facade turn to ash right where we stand.”
Jordana grinned. “Is that a promise?”
Another growl, this one darker, accompanied by a flash of his fangs. “What do you think?”
She gazed up at him for a long moment, surprised by the current of interest that lit up her veins. She felt daring with him, fearless. Too aroused by him to let inhibition put any limits on what they could share together.
“I think we should definitely explore the idea,” she said, but it was a knowing tease when she was already late for the podium. She gestured vaguely behind her. “I have a little speech to give right now. It shouldn’t take very long.” Jordana stepped in closer to him, putting her lips almost against his ear. “So, whatever wicked thoughts you have, hold them until I get back.”
At his rumble of interest, she drew back, out of his reach. Then she slowly pivoted to give him time to watch her stroll away from him.
She didn’t have to glance back to check if he was watching her, but she did anyway.
Oh, yes, he was watching.
His smoldering eyes threw off a palpable heat, desire so intense it nearly burned everything in its path. And all of it trained on her.
Jordana tossed him a flirty smile, then headed for the dais at the front of the crowded exhibit hall.
20
EVERY BLOOD VESSEL IN HIS BODY SEEMED TO HAVE MIGRATED south as Nathan watched Jordana walk away from him to take her place at the raised podium. His ear was still warm from her whispered suggestion—a suggestion he had every intention of holding her to as soon as she finished greeting her event’s guests.