His implication raced through her blood. She squeezed her thighs together to control herself and took a tiny step back. “And what exactly do you want to say?”
His grin grew, and he stepped toward her, eliminating the space she’d just put between them. “I think you know.”
She was nearly trembling with want—no,need. The ache to touch him spread like fever, shooting out into her limbs and lighting her core on fire. “Chuck,” she said, barely above a whisper. The air inside the pantry quickly grew hot, becoming more exhale than oxygen as they breathed each other in and out.
He moved even closer. As close as possible without actuallytouching her. “Please, Liv. I’m losing my mind. I’m going to die if I can’t touch you.”
“I think you’re being a little dramatic.”
“Maybe, but tell me you don’t feel it too.”
Oh, she felt it. She felt every goddamned bit of it screaming through her blood. She wet her lips and backed up again, only to be met with a wall of shelves. She sucked in a sharp breath and steadied a can of beans she’d bumped with her elbow.
“Just once,” Chuck said, his voice liquid hot and pouring over her. “To break this tension. Please.”
Say yes, say yes, say yes, her body screamed at her. But her brain fought its way through the cloud of lust.
“Chuck, did you forget the rules? They docked usten thousand dollarsfor that kiss. How much do you think they’ll take away if we have sex?”
His eyes flashed with a blazing heat. “Whatever it is, it would be worth it. But anyway, they won’t know.”
“How? There are cameras everywhere.”
“Why do you think we’re in the pantry right now?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am. I scoped out every square foot of this house looking for blind spots for this exact reason.”
She slowly blinked and remembered his odd behavior pacing out distances and looking up at the ceiling.Thiswas what he’d been doing. Her lips were sluggish and heavy when she spoke, her voice hardly more than a breath. “Wh-where are they?”
A purely wicked grin lifted his mouth again. “It’s either here, the bedroom closet, the bathrooms, or the laundry room, which would require some impressive flexibility, which I know from experience that you aren’t capable of.”
Olivia’s mouth was hanging open. Her bearings were a scattered mess on the floor, so there was no sense in trying to gather them. He was obviously being serious, and despite herself, she humored him. “You mean to tell me the only places we can do it in this house are glorified closets or cold tile floors?”
He smiled again, and she wanted to lick his lips. “I would have sex with you literally anywhere, Olivia Martin.”
She was suddenly a radiant, bursting star. The pinnacle of his desires, this man who stood a breath away from her and was ready to do anything she wanted. She felt like a goddess come to life. All she had to do was say the word, and they’d cross a point of no return.
“You are such a bad influence.”
“Sorry, not sorry,” he said, and put a hand on her hip. Her skin instantly ignited beneath his palm, even through her dress. To be in his presence and not touch him was truly torture; she’d never realized how much until right now. The urge to touch him back burned her from head to toe, crackling out into her fingertips and fuzzing her thoughts. Her will to resist was quickly waning, even with everything at stake.
“Chuck, we arenothaving sex in this pantry.”
“Why not?” He put his other hand on her neck, curling his fingers around her nape.
“Because…” she tried, but the word came out feeble and half there.
He hungrily outlined her lips with his eyes, wetting his own, and moved closer. His breath spilled over her skin and sent a tingle all the way to her toes. By the look in his eye, she could tell he knew her resistance was only for show, and she wanted it as bad as he did. All he had to do was look at her like that, and she was a goner. This little waltz was simply a formality.
“Because…” she whispered again, and could not find an end to her sentence.
Chuck smiled in the remaining space between them, knowing he’d won.
“Ohfuck,” Olivia said, and pressed her mouth to his in surrender.
Her body came alive with ten thousand volts of electricity. Her nipples pinched. She moaned into his mouth, finding painfully sweet relief. Her low belly grew hot and heavy with a delicious ache. Like he knew she needed it, he grabbed her hips to move his thigh between her legs.