‘Do you want to get out of here?’ he asked, and I loved the way there was still a flicker of doubt in his eyes. As though he couldn’t quite believe the fire that was burning him up was incinerating me too.
‘Oh, yes.’ My reply sounded almost like a plea.
‘Then let’s go.’ He looped an arm around my bare shoulders and scooped up his jacket that had fallen to the ground, in the way I hoped my own clothes were about to do before too much longer.
It was emptier now inside the library. Quite a few people must have already left, and the evening was clearly winding up. However, a few tables, occupied by diehard party animals, were still going strong, and ours was one of them. There were several new bottles of champagne in ice buckets, and everyone looked just a little more tipsy than they had the last time I’d seen them.
‘Rhys. There you are. We’ve been looking all over for you,’ exclaimed Charlie. If he had been engaged in a manhunt, it was a very relaxed one, because Charlie appeared well ensconced on his seat, with one arm thrown companionably over Helen’s shoulder. ‘We were just deciding where to go on to next.’
‘Not us, thanks,’ Rhys said smoothly, reaching across and retrieving my bag and wrap from the chair. ‘Ellie has work in the morning.’
That was news to me, but I did a very good job of not showing my surprise.
I addressed the table with what was meant to be a regretful smile. ‘Sorry, everyone, but Saturday is one of my busiest days ofthe week. But I hope you all enjoy the rest of the night. It’s been great meeting you, and congratulations again on the win.’
Rhys had his arm firmly planted around my waist and was gently steering us away from the table when Charlie got to his feet with a visible sway. He rounded the table to envelop us both in a champagne-infused embrace.
‘Look, if you want to join us after you’ve dropped Ellie off, we’ll probably wind up at that place on Baldock Street that we used to go to back in the day.’
Before Rhys could politely refuse, Helen’s voice cut across the table.
‘Don’t be an idiot, Charlie.’ She swept her eyes over us, and I felt like a bug on a microscope slide. ‘They’ve got other plans.’ The men at the table might not have noticed that my hair was now freed from its clips, or that my lips were pinker and more swollen than they’d been before, but Helen hadn’t missed a thing.
‘Do you think they all know why we didn’t want to join them?’ I asked Rhys as we began our descent of the sweeping staircase back to the foyer.
He reached for my hand and folded it within his. ‘I don’t know, and I don’t care.’ He shot me a smile that made me glad he had a firm hold of me because the stairs were steep and when he looked at me the way he was doing right now, my equilibrium disappeared. It’s MIA along with your good sense. I had to hand it to my conscience; it wasn’t going down without a fight.
Rhys must have messaged the cab that we were ready to be picked up, because I could see the vehicle already idling by the kerb through the building’s double glass doors.
I slid onto the back seat and realised I was in trouble when my fingers were incapable of fastening the seat belt. After two abortive attempts, Rhys leant closer and took the buckle from my hand.
‘I’ve got it,’ he said, his face intoxicatingly close as he bent to slide the metal fastener home. The fire within me hadn’t been extinguished, just tamped down, and when he looked up at me through his long black lashes, I blinked back at him through eyes heavy with desire.
I’d have happily tipped the driver extra to go faster, but he must have been in a hurry to get home too, for he somehow managed to shave fifteen minutes off our journey time.
‘Are we still doing two drop-offs?’ he asked, his eyes going to the rearview mirror as he waited for our reply.
Rhys looked at me for a long moment and I loved how he was allowing me to take the reins. If I wanted to change my mind and derail the rest of the night, he was willing to let me. Except that was the last thing I wanted to do.
I shook my head. ‘No, just one stop,’ I said as we swung into my road.
The main door was a challenge. I was stone-cold sober, yet it took several attempts to insert the Yale key into the lock. Hopefully my inability to open locked doors was only a temporary glitch, because that could be a real hindrance in my line of work.
We shut the street door behind us with a soft click, and it was as though a spring had been released. Rhys reached blindly for me, and all the restraint we’d had to put in place in the taxi was suddenly set free. My arms wrapped around his neck as we half fell back against the door. His mouth was on mine, hungrily making up for every single minute we’d been separated since the balcony. Mid-kiss he reached up to find my hands, removing them from his shoulders and lifting them up above my head, gently pinioning me against my own front door.
I thrust my hips towards him and gasped at just how hard and ready he was. There were still three flights of stairs to climb beforewe reached the privacy of my flat, and I was beginning to doubt either of us was capable of holding out until we got there.
Rhys lowered his head and gently bit the sensitive skin at the juncture of my neck and shoulder, and I arched my throat to give him further access. There wasn’t going to be any holding back once we hit the mattress of my king-size bed. We were standing in the path of a tsunami of emotions, and neither of us was making even a token effort at getting out of the way.
‘Upstairs,’ I murmured into his mouth. He raised his head, his eyes clouded with lust, and nodded. Lust. It’s just lust. I repeated the words like a mantra as he took my hand and we climbed the steps to my flat. It felt important that one of us kept in mind that we were simply obeying a carnal impulse that had the ability to override good sense.
Once the fire is put out, we’ll be able to think clearly, I told myself, my hands already roving over him as Rhys took my flat key from my hands and unlocked the door.
I don’t remember how my shoes came off, but they began a trail of discarded clothing that led from the door and into the hallway. Rhys’s tie was already loosened and it fell by my stilettos, quickly followed by his jacket. I pulled impatiently on his shirt, freeing it from the waistband of his black trousers as his mouth ravaged mine. I could feel the faint and delicious rasp of stubble on his cheek. Tomorrow there’d be a rash wherever he’d grazed me, and as his hands ran over my body, I didn’t think my face would be the only area affected.
‘Which way?’ he asked.
I nodded in the direction of my bedroom door and then gasped as he lifted me off the ground, his hands firmly planted on my bottom. Thankful for the deep split in my dress, I brought my legs up, locking them tightly around his hips. We moved like a single entity as he strode into my bedroom. The room was bathed in moonlight, with the tree outside my window casting intriguing shadows on the walls. Our silhouettes joined them in an X-rated shadow-play.