Ensnared (The Accidental Billionaires #1)(47)

I gently flexed my feet and wiggled my toes. Eli had done an expert job.

“I’m definitely not an angel,” he argued. “And how do you know that I didn’t do it just so that I could touch you?”

My heart tripped. Eli hadn’t so much as made any personal comments in the last two weeks. He’d been way too concerned about making sure I did everything the doctor ordered.

But I was cleared now. I had some simple exercises I could do for the next several weeks to build my shoulder back up slowly, but I didn’t even need to go to physical therapy.

“You can touch me now,” I informed him in a tremulous voice. “I’m recovered.”

The sexual tension between me and Eli was always there, always present. As I started to feel better, the intensity had ramped right back up to where it used to be, maybe even more urgent.

Being close to him now without any physical contact was absolutely agonizing.

“I’m not compromising your recovery just to get laid,” he said roughly. “If you get too much activity too soon, it will put you back to where you were two weeks ago.”

I could still see the desire in Eli’s beautiful, stormy eyes, so I knew he was feeling the unbearable chemical attraction, too. “Then just kiss me,” I said, frustrated.

Eli put both of his hands on the chair, pinning me in as he leaned down close. “I think we both know where that would lead,” he said hoarsely. “I can’t touch you without wanting to fuck you until neither one of us can move.”

God, I wanted that, too. So badly that my body physically ached for him. “One kiss,” I requested.

His eyes turned a deeper gray, and they were smoldering with fire. “You know damn well I can’t say no.”

I probably did know it, but if Eli didn’t touch me in some way, I was going to go crazy.

He put his fingers under my chin, tilted my head up, and his mouth captured mine in less than a heartbeat.

The delicious heat and power of his embrace made me sigh against his lips.

I savored the intimacy as he thoroughly explored my mouth, the kiss so blazing hot that I felt like I was going to incinerate.

I desperately wanted to wrap my arms around his neck and grasp his coarse hair, keeping him close to me. But I was afraid it would cut short the closeness between us, and I wanted to relish every stroke of his tongue.

Eli didn’t just kiss; he claimed. His alpha-male tendencies didn’t make me uncomfortable anymore. In fact, sometimes I craved them because I wanted him with the same fierceness, and I got as locked up into the craziness of our desire as he did.

When he finally lifted his head, I bit back a protest. I didn’t want him to move away.

But he did.

Eli straightened and strode to the door.

“Get ready, Jade,” he said in a hoarse voice. “We have to leave in an hour.”

“I know,” I answered, still trying to catch my breath.

He snapped his fingers for Charlie to follow him. “Let’s go, buddy,” he said to the canine. “If I can’t see her naked, you’re not going to either.”

I laughed because I knew he was teasing in a moment filled with deprivation.

“I never said you couldn’t watch,” I said playfully.

His back was to me as he answered, “If I did, we’d never get to the fund-raiser.”

Man and dog both exited the room without another sound.





CHAPTER 19

ELI



I have to get some fucking control!

I slumped against the shower tile, the powerful jets from the shower pounding against my back. The proof that I’d just jacked off again and found release was circling the drain, and then disappearing like my orgasm had never happened.

And for the most part, it didn’t matter, because my dick didn’t feel better. I didn’t feel any damn better.

Getting myself off wasn’t helping anymore.

I wanted one thing, and one thing only.

Jade.

Goddammit!

My dick wasn’t settling for easy imitations anymore.

I grabbed a bottle of shampoo and roughly worked at soaping up my hair, irritated that I didn’t have enough discipline to keep my hands off her.

She was just cleared to go back to regular activity.

But that didn’t mean she could put a ton of stress on her shoulder. She was very limited as far as how much stress and how much weight she could handle. And it wasn’t much.

During her recovery, my lunatic desire had taken a break. I’d been too damn worried about making sure that she didn’t having any lasting effects from her fall.

The bruises, scrapes, and lacerations on her face were pretty much healed, but the accident itself was the subject of almost every one of my nightmares.

This shit has to stop!

I’d caused her fall because of my fear that something was going to happen to her, and I was no damn good for Jade. I’d caused her too much pain already, and I wasn’t willing to risk having it happen again because I couldn’t control my instincts when I was around her.

I was fucked up, and I knew it. And for reasons that had nothing to do with her.

I fucking hurt her! I could have killed her because of my insane desire to protect her.

I’d been convincing myself for two weeks that she was better off without me, and I was almost persuaded that I was right.