Chapter 82: HIM INSIDE ME

LAURA

He said it straight. No performance around it.

Those words stunned me to my bones, especially how smoothly they’d left his mouth.

So he was actually capable of apologizing? And he’d known all along, that he wronged me that day?

I mean…he’d fucked me and turned up as the freaking CEO. Then he had the temerity to still demand my body but under his rules…never even bothered to find out what actually happened when I was accused at his company.

All of that had hurt even more than the accusation itself. But that was a conversation for another day. Or maybe…tonight?

I stood there staring at him for a long moment, conflicting emotions flaring in my chest. Then, without a word, I turned away from him and stepped into the elevator. Maybe not tonight. Emotions were running high and if we rode on those waves…we might end up regretting it.

He did not get in after me, thankfully. I wasn’t sure if I could handle his proximity after that sincere apology.

As the doors began to close, I looked into his eyes, heart racing. “Goodnight, Tristan.”

His eyes darkened as they watched my face, until the doors shut together. Then a long, shaky breath escaped my being, and I collapsed against the wall.

What the heck was that? God. I’d always wanted an apology, but I never thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it.

So, what happens now?

Was I supposed to just forget my resentment and move on? I mean…that had been one thing I always used to assure myself of staying in touch with Tristan.

I never thought he’d apologize, so I wasn’t prepared for the aftermath.

That was why it’d been awkward as fuck.

“Fuck.” I ran my fingers over my face, trying to get a grip. Maybe when I saw him at dinner, I could say I was really exhausted and didn’t quite know how to react. Was that even a good enough excuse?

The elevator dinged open on my floor and I stumbled out, all the way to my door. Just as I arrived at my door and retrieved my key card to let myself in, the elevator on the opposite end of the hallway dinged open, and Tristan walked out looking devastated as fuck.

That look on his face would have to be my fucking undoing.

What was he doing on this floor, anyway?

He walked out slowly, watching me carefully. Somehow…I expected him to come to me. But he didn’t.

He breezed past me and stopped at the door next to mine. Then he retrieved a key card from his pocket.

I blinked in surprise. That was his room?

Fucking universe.

He turned to me, catching the stricken look on my face. “You know, for what it’s worth, you’re the first woman to walk into my life and take five years of it away.” He paused, blue eyes roaming my face in affectionate hunger. “You ruined me, Laura. But what can I say? It’s beautiful, just as you are.”

He held my gaze for a few more seconds, and I felt like I would melt from it. Then he turned away and pressed his key card against the door.

I trembled from my head to my toes. It was what those words he just said did to me. How could he say them with such a straight face?

Why did I have to suffer too? Why did my heart have to race so hard? Why did my stomach flutter without control?

There was only one answer I could think of.

Because I wanted him so bad, it was difficult to breathe. It was difficult to think straight.

So my inhibitions hit the ground just as my purse did.

Fuck it.

His door had just bleeped open when I stormed across the space and grabbed Tristan without thinking.

I caught his arm, spun him as hard as I could manage, and as his face clouded over with surprise, I grabbed it and kissed him hard.

He kissed me back immediately, without stopping to think about how wrong this was. I had nursed a tiny bit of hope that he’d stop me.

Instead, Tristan’s tongue dove into my mouth and struck my tongue, and everything else disappeared. It was just him and I. His tongue and mine. His lips against mine. His strong arms wrapped around my back and pulled me flush against him. He soaked up every moan and sigh of pleasure that escaped from my mouth, running those beautiful hands everywhere on my body.

The kiss soon transitioned to hot and demanding. Messy. Everything I’d felt in the past five years got tangled up in the kiss.

The way he held me, hard and demanding, told me he had been caught up in the same time warp too.

God.

As we tumbled into the room, a hot mess, Tristan ravaged me with the urgency of a man that’s starved for years. He tore his lips away from mine and left fervent bites and kisses along the paths of my neck.

Equally starving and very much wanting more, I dove my fingers into his hair and offered up my neck. I was too stuck high in ecstasy to stop for a moment and think about the stark reality of what was happening. And he didn’t seem to mind either.

My breath caught in my throat as he dragged his hands over my breasts in the cutoff shirt. Fuck. It felt so good. Then he slipped his hand under the shirt and cupped my bare breast, and hot tremors of pleasure raced through my tendons.

“God, Laura,” he drawled like a drunk man, sniffing my skin, “you smell so fucking good. I’ve missed this.” Then his tongue darted out and lapped against my skin, making me clench my thighs hard in need.

Fuck. I was so wet and aching between my legs now that I wanted him there. I wanted him to feel how wet I was for him. So I squirmed against him, and I felt his hard erection pressing into my lower abdomen.

I was so enraptured by it that I got taken aback with shocks of pleasure when Tristan’s warm mouth closed over a nipple.

God. He was fast. And he was good with that tongue.

I moaned and arched my back into his hands as he swirled the tip of his tongue in circles on my nipple. It felt so good, building hot pressure in my lower abdomen.

“God, Tristan…please.”

“Please what, Laura?” He demanded in a ragged voice, looking up at me with those hot blue eyes.

I held his gaze for a long moment, aching and burning, needing him to continue touching me, hoping he’d get the hint and just carry on.

“What do you want, Laura?”

What did I want? Maybe one last dance? I really wanted to feel him inside me, so badly.

He grabbed my breast and flicked his thumb against my nipple, sending jolts of electricity through me. “Tell me what you want.”

Heart racing hard, I ran my tongue across my bottom lip. “I want you to fuck me, Tristan.”

Well, that came out a bit crasser than planned. But it was indeed what I wanted.

And he looked every bit ready to give it to me.