Unbreakable (City Lights, #2)(91)

“And this…”

Now both her hands were on my shoulders, and I felt her lips touch that scar, feather light, in a gentle kiss. I suppressed a moan, grateful the swirling water concealed me below the waist.

“What are we doing, Alex?” I breathed, and felt her glide away, to her half of the sauna.

“Sitting in the hot tub, enjoying the summer night,” she said. “And your birthday. Happy Birthday, Cory.”

“You said that already.” I turned, wondered if she was drunk, even though her eyes were as sharp and clear. “You also said we had to be careful.”

“I remember.” She sipped her beer. “We’re doing a terrible job of being careful.”

“Yeah,” I said. “The hot tub was a bad idea. You in that bikini was a very bad idea.”

She took another sip, a thoughtful expression on her face. “So let’s not.”

“Let’s not what?”

“Let’s not be careful.”

Alex set her beer on the edge of the sauna. She faced me from her half of the roiling water, her eyes locked on mine, unflinching, but when she spoke there was the smallest quaver in her voice.

“Tell me what do.”

“Tell you…?” I laughed to cover the pleasant shiver that skimmed along my skin, for my body knew what she was saying before my mind could comprehend. “What do you mean?”

“Tell me what you want.”

“Is this some kind of game?”

“Maybe.”

“Alex…”

“I know and I don’t care. Not tonight. Tonight I want you to tell me what you want. What you like.” She cocked her head at me, doubt creeping into her voice. “You don’t want to?”

Of course I did. My body was begging for hers. But the voice of caution told me—screamed at me—to be careful. We’d already given in to the attraction that connected us like a live wire, but Alex had contained it, chalked it up to the trauma of the bank. But now…There was no uncertainty in her eyes. There was only want. And a challenge.

I called her bluff.

“Take off your top.”

I watched, transfixed, as Alex immediately reached to untie the string bikini behind her back. Then she reached under her hair, her eyes never leaving mine. No hesitation. The top of the suit fell away, her naked breasts concealed just below the surface of the water.

She wasn’t bluffing.

“Show me,” I said, my voice thick.

Alex rose up from the steam and my breath caught at the sight. Her beautiful breasts, full and round, her nipples growing hard right before my eyes in the cool air. Dear god. Beneath the water, I was hard as iron. “Come here.”

She obeyed, smoothly closing the distance between us until she was mere inches away. I longed to touch her everywhere, but instead I held her face in my hands, traced the line of her lips with my thumb.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

Her sky blue eyes grew cloudy with desire though they never wavered from mine.

“I’m tired of being the one who asks. I’m tired of feeling humiliated for asking. I’m tired of never knowing what he wants, if he wants me.” She put her hands on either side of my chest, trailing her fingers up, along the slope of muscle between neck and shoulder.

“I’m tired of feeling alone in my bed even when he’s a foot away. I’m tired of wanting fire and feeling cold nothing instead.” She moved closer, pressed herself against me, her knees resting on either side of the bench I sat on beneath the swirling water. Her fingers curled into my hair at the base of my neck. Her lips were so close, brushing mine as they moved.

“Do you want me?”

“You know I do.”

“I want to be wanted. So tell me, Cory. Tell me what you want me to do…and I’ll do it.”

Desire raced through my veins, carried on the currents of my blood, pumped by a heart that crashed against my chest. I knew what it was to ask, to wonder. In the past, even when Georgia initiated sex, she’d frequently become annoyed or impatient, and more often than not it all boiled down to just getting it over with. Like Alex, I wasn’t used to being desired and if that warning voice in my mind would just shut up, I’d give in right now. But what happens after?

“An affair,” I breathed. “That’s what this means.”

“Yes.”

“Once…the bank…You might chalk it up to fear or shock. But twice…”

She nodded. “I know. Tomorrow it may hurt, but not now. Not now.” She leaned in, kissed my earlobe then whispered hotly in my ear, “Tonight…I’m yours.”

Tomorrow it may hurt. That was the goddamn truth. Tomorrow Alex was going to be wracked with guilt and turn a cold shoulder to me, maybe even kick me out of her house for ruining her future with her incredibly rich and successful fiancé, and then where would I be? More than hurt. It was going to f*cking wreck me and I knew it.

But that’s tomorrow, I thought recklessly. Tonight, she’s mine…

I grasped the back of her head with one hand, making a fist in her hair. “Kiss me,” I commanded. “Kiss me like there’s no one else.”

Her mouth was hot and wet, with none of the chaste softness of the hospital kiss. Her lips parted for me readily, eagerly, and my tongue stroked hers, dueled with hers, a battle of lust that I knew would end only when I’d had her completely. But the old alarms were not so easily silenced.