Chapter 140: Hungrily

Tom almost leaned into the kiss.

For a brief second, he did. His mouth answered hers, pressure meeting pressure, enough to taste the wine and the intention behind it. Then the thought cut through hard;

’He would not be sexually used for optics.’

He stopped and pulled away.

The separation was abrupt enough that Sienna’s eyes opened at once, confusion and embarrassment flashing across her face. The public dining room suddenly felt sharper around them. Her eyes widened as if she had just realized that she had sat beside him, had kissed him and he had rejected it in open air.

Tom exhaled, steadying his voice. "I don’t know what that was about, but we should face what we came here for."

Sienna swallowed hard. Her throat moved again before she found words, and when she spoke, her voice was lower than before. "Am I someone you hate so much now that you can’t even bear to kiss me?"

Tom looked at her in silence for a second. The question tried to drag the moment into emotion. He did not let it.

"Why are you making a big deal out of something that wasn’t even real?" he asked. "I can reject my body being used for optics, can’t I?" His jaw tightened and he shook his head. "I won’t allow my body to be used for public performance."

There was anger in the words, controlled but unmistakable.

Sienna’s teeth pressed together. Pride made the next truth hard to push out. She gritted through it and muttered, almost too low, "What if I said it wasn’t for the camera?"

Tom did not catch it clearly. He was already rising from the seat.

"We’re done eating. We should go. I’m sure the cameras captured more than enough." he said.

Sienna’s fingers closed hard around her bag. She stood and followed him, but every step she took was tight with the humiliation of having been the one to lean in first and was pushed away.

~~~~~~~~~

The drive back to the house was quiet on her side.

Tom sat with his phone in hand, messaging Bree about the club setup. The interior decorator had sent sample directions, and he went through them one after another, asking Bree for her opinion on layout, lighting, and private-room structure. His attention stayed on the screen with utmost focus, as if the restaurant kiss had already been filed away as an unsuccessful public performance.

Sienna kept glancing at him.

Each time she did, he was still on the phone. Still occupied. Still not offering her the soft recovery she half wanted and half hated herself for wanting. The silence pressed harder because he did not fill it.

When the driver finally pulled into the property and parked, Tom was still reading through a message. Sienna turned slightly toward the front.

"You can step down," she told the driver quietly.

The man obeyed and left them in the back of the car.

Only after a split second did Tom realize they had arrived. He lowered the phone, already reaching for the door, when Sienna’s voice stopped him.

"Am I so unbearable to you that you had to pretend to be on your phone all through the drive?"

Tom let out a dry chuckle at the conclusion and turned his head to face her fully. "Not everything is about you, Sienna."

The line was sharp.

Sienna swallowed, and instead of answering it, she leaned in and kissed him again. Her body had concluded that was the best response.

However, this one was shorter, almost testing. She drew back after a split second, her eyes locked on his, her breath already unstable. "Have you now confirmed that it wasn’t for public performance?"

Tom was dumbfounded for a second.

The meaning hit all at once. She wanted him. Before he could arrange a clean response, Sienna kissed him again.

This time Tom’s body reacted before he could think clearly. He kissed her back hard.

There was no careful testing left in it. He grabbed the side of her neck like a man who had gone too long without this thing and crushed his mouth to hers with open hunger. Sienna made a broken sound against his lips and reciprocated just as hungrily, her fingers fistng into his tuxedo jacket as if she needed the contact more than she wanted to admit. The kiss turned hot and fast inside the parked car, all breath and pressure and months of ugly distance collapsing into one reckless point.

Tom’s body couldn’t be stopped at this moment. He had missed sex, and the truth of that moved through him faster than pride. His hands went to her breasts over the black gown, squeezing through the fitted fabric. Sienna gasped into his mouth, but instead of pulling away she held him tighter, her back arching into the touch as her own composure began to tear.

Her body was acting just as wildly as his. One of her hands slid down, fumbling over the front of his trousers until she found the hardness of his cock. She pressed against it, rubbed through the cloth, then found the zipper and pulled it down with shaking determination.

Tom felt the moment she got her hand inside and lost another layer of control. He squeezed her breasts harder, his mouth still claiming hers, while Sienna’s fingers wrapped around him inside the open trousers. The car suddenly felt too small, too heated, too far past the point of polite recovery.

He broke the kiss only long enough to make her lean back against the door, shifting over her as the confined space forced them closer. His breathing was rough.

"Here?" he asked.

Sienna nodded immediately, her eyes were dark, her lips already swollen from the kiss. There was no elegant speech left in her. Just agreement.

Tom shoved the lower part of her gown up. His hand found her panties and the wetness there told him everything her pride had refused to say out loud. She was soaked.

He pulled the fabric aside, then dragged the panties down properly in a movement that was rushed and hungry, no patience left for slow undressing. Sienna’s thighs shifted to help him without being asked.

He was adjusting over her, one hand already moving to free his cock completely, the need in his body sharp enough to drown out thought...

Then the moment got scattered by his phone. It started ringing and the sound cut through the car like a blade.

Both of them froze hard, stunned, panting, mouths still close enough to share breath. The phone had been forgotten on the seat beside Sienna’s thigh. The screen light cut upward between their bodies and Tom could see the caller’s ID.

Josie...

Tom stared at the name, his chest rising and falling too fast, at the same time, the bracelet link flared open across his vision.

```

[BRACELET LINK — JOSIE HALE]

Arousal: 100%

Body Response: Fully wet

Resistance: Collapsing

Note: Target in peak sexual disturbance

```

"Why should it have to be now?" Tom gritted inwardly.