Bound for Me (Be for Me #4)(50)

“Already done.”

“Really?” She laughed. “Impressive.”

“Not going to be the only impressive thing tonight.”

“Confident.”

“Last time I carried you up these stairs you were unconscious. I’ve been dreaming of carrying you up them again ever since.”

“But with me awake this time.”

“Awake and willing this time.” He agreed. “And this time I get to be the boss.”

“That wasn’t our agreement.”

“We’re renegotiating.” He placed her against the door, leaning against her as he punched in his security code.

“You’re using underhand tactics,” she kissed him as she murmured.

“Under skirt, actually.”

“Pull my panties away.”

“No. No skin. No wet. No cock. ’Til you agree.” His fingers circled, teasing, arousing, through the silk of her panties.

She licked her lips. “I can come anyway.”

“I know.” He smiled. “But it won’t be enough.”

He let her go and opened the door. Lifting her back into his arms and striding through to his bedroom.

“A bed. Savannah.” He placed her on it. “Who’d have thought?”

She lay back, looking up at him.

He braced an arm either side of her, bending to talk quickly, intensely. So serious. “I want you here all night. I want you naked. Giving me everything. Letting me do anything. Doing everything to me. Giving. Taking. I want the whole f*cking lot.”

So hot.

“I don’t think I can do that,” Savannah whispered.

“Yes you can,” he said. “You can for me.”

“Because you’re Connor Hughes, king of the mountain?”

“Because I’m the one guy who you can relax and let your guard with. I’ll take care of you.”

“I don’t want you to take care of me.”

“Only in this,” he rolled his eyes. “Let me tend to those needs, Sugar.”

Silent, she gazed up at him.

“Why are you holding back?” he asked. “I don’t want you to hold back. You’re holding back more now than that first night in the car. You were so free then.” He angled his head. Slowly slid one of her boots off. “I know you don’t want to ‘need’ any one. Or need any help. I know you’re mad that it was me who helped you that night.” He carefully removed her other boot and placed it on the floor. “But now you’re all wham, bam and get-me-out-of-here. What is it you’re scared of?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why do you restrict what we do to ten minutes in the car? You’re holding out on both of us. Why?”

She swallowed, tormented by his touches. By her own crazy inhibitions.

“Talk to me. I thought you were one of the few people I’ve met unafraid to say what they really think. Or are you all show, Savannah?”

She’d fallen silent. Because he’d nailed her.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” he said. “You’re scared. Not of me?”

She shook her head.

“Then of yourself.”

Wow. He was too smart for his own good.

“I don’t want to like it too much,” she mumbled.

His eyebrows shot up. “We’re supposed to like it too much. That’s the whole point.”

“I don’t want to want it more than anything.”

“I already do want it more than anything.”

“Liar,” she called him on it. “You wouldn’t walk away from your job. Your mountain. You wouldn’t change your life, not for this.”

His hands stilled and his eyes widened. “Would you?”

“No. Because I keep it in it’s place.” With wham and bam and ultimate efficiency. “I don’t want to get addicted,” she whispered with pure honesty. “I don’t want to throw everything else by the wayside because I’ve gotten too caught up in some one. Or some thing.”

Like her father had gotten addicted to his gambling. Like her mother had given up everything when she’d found her new younger lover.

They’d both lost sight of her, their daughter.

“So you’re saying no?” He paused, his fingers lifting from the sensual trail up her leg. He knew there was no way she was saying no.

Savannah closed her eyes a second to summon strength. “All right. Sex in a bed. Taking turns as boss. Seven nights.”

“Seven nights?”

“It’s my notice period. For Luca. It’s my notice period for you too.”

“You’re leaving Summerhill?”

“Yes.” She’d come, she’d seen. It was time to leave.

“Seven nights,” he echoed again.

Savannah held her breath, bracing for his reaction.

He smiled. A wicked, pleased smile.

Savannah smiled back, masking that needle of disappointment. She should have left the morning after she’d first screwed him. Should have known nothing good would come of something that had felt so fantastic.

“But it is not all going to be high-speed Savannah.” He lowered his mouth to hers. “We’re working our way up to slow.”