She was dizzy and disoriented by the time he stopped in front of a red metal door. He inserted a key into the lock- no new school punch codes or retina scanning for him- and held the door open.
Colette realized he wasn’t going to let her back out so she walked past him, into the place that was distinctly his.
It might not have been a high-rise penthouse overlooking the city, but the condo was still huge. Open, with massive, raw wood beams overhead spanning the length of the ceiling, the walls bare red brick. The floors were ancient hardwood, beat up and left the way it probably always had been. Little touches here and there spoke to the newness of the remodel- industrial looking lights hanging from the ceiling by long black chains, stainless steel countertops in the kitchen, sleek, edgy black furniture in the area that was obviously the living room, since it boasted floor to ceiling windows that were probably fourteen feet tall at least, and overlooked a huge deck complete with blossoming greenery and overflowing planter boxes.
“Wow,” she exhaled under her breath.
She spun around, taking it all in, wishing she could hate it. Her eyes landed on the metal stairs that gave way to a wrought iron railing that overlooked half of the main floor. It was obviously the loft and thinking about Blaze sleeping up there brought back the shivery heat she’d been fighting all day in a hard rush.
“Do you like it?” Blaze’s deep, commanding voice came from behind her, and she whirled.
The heat crawled up her neckline and rushed into her cheeks before she could stop it. He should look ridiculous, in his blood and dirt stained t-shirt, his arms bandaged like that, his jeans dirty and worn. He didn’t. He didn’t look ridiculous at all. She thought about how good he’d tasted earlier, in her mouth, how her fingers felt exploring his body, the silk of his muscle and the crisp edges of his hairs, the striated veins that ran just below the surface, a life-giving river. She thought about sinking her nails into his delicious bottom while she was on her knees and how she’d wanted to turn him around and lick him there too. Something innocent, along his rock-hard cheek, before she bit him, just to see if her teeth would actually sink into his flesh or if he truly was a living, breathing statue.
God, she was pathetic.
Completely inappropriate. Blaze was her boss for eff sakes.
“I- it’s alright,” she rasped breathlessly, when Blaze cocked a brow. He studied her intently, like he could read her thoughts, and that only made the heat in her face that much worse. “I mean, yeah, it’s nice.”
“Thanks for the backward compliment. I think.” Blaze’s voice rattled around in her chest, the flames of his tone devouring and curling around all her sensitive organs.
Like her heart, for one.
“You chose the place. You obviously thought it was alright. You don’t need my approval.”
“Right.” Blaze nodded solemnly, and she had the impression he was mocking her, even though his face was back to being shuttered off, giving nothing away and his voice was completely flat. “How about that tea I promised you?”
“Do you really have tea? Here I thought that was a ploy just to get me here so that you could try and serve up something else?”
Blaze stiffened. “Oh? What would that be?”
You. And she was stupid enough to let him drag her there. Okay, he hadn’t dragged her at all. It was the promise that he’d made, about burning that contract, that got her in the front door. Liar, liar, pants on fire. Her pants were definitely not on fire. Soaked, maybe, but fire- well, maybe. It did feel an awful lot like there were flames licking up her legs.
“Nothing,” she hissed. “I want to watch you make this tea. Make sure that you’re doing it right.”
“Make sure I don’t slip anything nefarious into your drink?”
“Something like that,” she snorted.
Blaze stalked off towards the kitchen. All she had to do was pivot from her spot in the middle of the huge living room, since the place was all wide open, to watch him walk behind the clean lines of the industrial looking countertops. The cupboards were a flat black construction along the bottom, with huge, raw wooden shelves lining the walls. It was industrial looking and was a perfect match for the rest of the place.
Blaze moved deftly in the kitchen, getting down two mugs and taking a kettle out from the bottom cupboard. He filled it at the huge stainless sink and plugged it into the wall. He surprised her by getting out a box of tea, the kind of thing that he probably got for Christmas from his mom or something. It looked like one of those expensive, gifty type samplers.