Wild Temptation (11 page)

I sigh heavily, wondering when I can get out of here. Do I really have to do lunch? Can’t I just, I don’t know…go home and veg on the couch with a big bag of Cheetos or something?

“She’s really had enough,” I hear Aaron mutter.

“Of me or the flowers?” Tyler responds with a chuckle.

“Both.”

“She just can’t get over us. That’s the problem, mate.”

And with that, I snap.

“Excuse me a moment.” I turn on my heel and stalk to the back of the store. That asshole—I don’t know who the hell he thinks he is. Where does he get off making me look like a fool in front of my best friend and her fiancé?

She can’t get over us. Ha! What bullshit. I think the only person who needs to get over it is him, because he’s the one who keeps bringing it up. And the damn asshole can take me from turned on to pissed off in the space of twenty minutes. Hell, if I gave him sixty seconds, he could probably do it in that, too.

Of course, the idea that I could go and cool off alone is totally fucking absurd because I can hear the prick behind me.

Tyler grabs my arm and tugs me into what looks like an office. He closes the door behind us and spins me into him. “You really are a feisty little thing, aren’t you?”

“Fuck you, asshole.” I glare up at him, shaking his hand from my arm and stepping back.

“Damn, Liv. Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” he says with a smirk.

“Why? So it can go right over your egotistically enlarged head?”

“I might consider it for a moment. Actually, on second thought, you’re right. I won’t pay any attention.”

“You are the most arrogant, self-entitled, patronizing bastard I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting in my life,” I hiss anyway. “And before you mention the pleasure, because you inevitably will, you should know the displeasure far outweighs the measly amount of pleasure you’ve given me.”

Tyler’s eyes darken, and he closes in on me, grabbing the back of my head and pulling me into him. His fingers thread through my hair and tug my head back so I’m looking at him. “Measly bit of pleasure? Didn't seem so small when you were screaming my name and begging for more.”

“Clearly you’ve never watched When Harry Met Sally. That movie taught a woman everything she needs to know about faking it.”

He presses his lips to mine in a crash of teeth and a tangle of tongue. He grips my hip and forcefully pulls me toward him, his grasp on my hair never easing as he sweeps his tongue through my mouth. The zinging tension of earlier is back, except this time it’s worse and it’s swirling around us and holding us together. Holding his mouth against mine, our bodies flush together.

My anger swiftly changes to desire at the feel of his teeth nibbling my bottom lip, and a whimper involuntarily leaves me when he pulls away.

“I don’t believe for a second you fake it, Liv.” He ghosts his nose along my jawline. “I can feel the realness of your reaction in your body. I saw it earlier—I felt it earlier. My fingers barely brushed your gorgeous arse and you moved away as if I’d run them along your pussy. Your body responds to me whether you want it to or not, and it does it so clearly. So obviously.”

“My body is a liar,” I breathe when he lightly sucks on my earlobe.

“Much like you.” His words are spoken again my skin with a gentle brush of his lips.

“My dislike of you is no lie, Tyler.”

“Your body didn’t get the memo, babe. Your body likes me. A fucking lot.”

“My body is deluded.”

He kisses down my neck to my pulse point, where he pauses and sucks lightly. I swallow my gasp. He slides his hand around to my ass and cups it, his fingers flexing against the material of my jeans before he brings his mouth back to my ear.

“Your body is smarter than you think.”

“My body operates on base desire. I operate on common sense.” Something which appears to be evading me right this second.

“Evidently. Your body has been responding to me all day, while your mouth has been fighting me.” He kisses a slow, lazy path up my neck. “Why do you fight me, Liv? You should know it’s pointless. You should know that, if I wanted to slip my hand down the back of these jeans and slide my fingers inside your pussy, I would. And you know you wouldn’t stop it.”

Tyler’s breath is warm against my lips, and he releases his grip on my hair, instead dropping his hand to my neck and curving his fingers around it.

I feel the truth of his words. Despite how annoyed I am at him, how he riles me, he’s right. Our arguing is like an odd form of foreplay that affects us both.

But if he were to touch me now, I know I wouldn’t stop it. I would be powerless to—because all I want to do is the exact same thing. Slide my hand down the front of his jeans and wrap my fingers around his bulging erection. I want to feel the velvety skin beneath my fingertips while I stroke him, and I want to taste the saltiness of him on my tongue.

Because, apparently, my base desire is the reason my common sense has done a runner.

“I can see it,” he whispers, bringing his hand around to the front of my body, one finger crooked inside the waistband. “It’s written all over your face, babe. You deny it all you like, but you know you want me.”

He undoes the button and slips his hand down. He brushes across my clit through my panties, and I fist his shirt at his sides, my lips parting.

“That’s why you’re not stopping me.”

“This is wrong,” I protest lamely as he moves my panties to the side. “They’re out there, waiting for us…”

“And I’m about to make you come all over my fingers, so they can wait a little longer.”

The roughness of his voice combined with the pressure of him dipping two fingers inside me makes me gasp. I don’t even try to swallow this one. His thumb finds my clit and he rubs in slow circles, in time with the movement of his fingers.

My hips move against him until I’m riding his hand, the deep, curved strokes of his fingers inside me pushing me close to an orgasm I don’t want. If only out of principle. I don’t want to come and prove everything he said to be true.

“Don’t fight it, Liv. I don’t care if we’re in here for five seconds or for five minutes. Neither one of us is leaving this room until you’ve come, and my fingers definitely aren’t leaving your gorgeous pussy until you have.” He brushes his lips across mine, his tongue flicking out at the seam of my mouth. “And believe me, I could stand here and wait for you to come all night.”

It’s there, right there, a tight ball of need and lust and desire just ready to unravel throughout my body.

“The longer you wait, the worse it’ll be, and you and I both know you can’t make a sound.” He covers my mouth with his to swallow the moan that escapes me. “Like that.” He pushes hard on my clit. “You definitely can’t do that, or I might as well push you against this wall and fuck you because that’s what everyone will be thinking we’re doing anyway.”

My body clenches at those words, at the mere thought of having him inside me again. I crave it like I crave the orgasm I’m denying myself.

Crave.

Want.

Need.

Like I can’t fight anymore, like my mind gives in to the intense ache in my core, the ball unravels. Pleasure rushes through my body, right through to my fingertips and down to my toes. My legs shake, and it’s only Tyler’s arm snaking around my body that keeps me standing.

It’s a rush, a whirlwind… A crazy realization that I might not be able to keep him away after all.

Tyler pulls his hand out of my jeans and pulls me close to him. “You didn’t make a sound. Good girl.”

“I can’t fucking believe you just did that,” I say shakily. I pull back from him and smack my hand against my forehead. “What the hell, Tyler? What the hell, Liv?” I finish to myself.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

His dark eyes follow me as I walk to the door, burning into me. Branding me, almost.

“It was nothing you didn’t want to happen.”

“I did not want that to happen.” I yank open the door.

“Did you ever say no?”

I look over my shoulder, slowly bringing my eyes up to meet his. “You are dangerous, Tyler Stone, and I don’t do danger.”

“On the contrary,” he says, walking up behind me and brushing his fingers down my cheek. “I think you do. I think you crave danger and the risk that goes with it. It’s in your eyes, babe. You’re wild.”

“You know nothing about me, so please don’t stand there and pretend you do. And even if you are right and I am wild, what makes you think you can handle me?” I quirk my eyebrows and turn away from him, leaving him laughing quietly to himself.

He’s hot on my heels when we return to the front of the store and find Dayton mulling over two different types of flowers. Tyler trails a fingertip from my shoulder blades to the top of my butt, making me shiver, and I catch his smirk as he steps to the side.

“Liv. Are you okay?”

I snap back to reality, tearing my eyes away from him and resting them on my best friend. “Y’know, I’m not feeling great. I’m going to head home and chill before work.” I hug her briefly. “And make sure you go for the light pink for me. We do still have to get my dress, and you know I’m not hot with fuchsia.”

She laughs as I wave goodbye to Aaron, ignoring Tyler completely.

“Tyler!” Dayton snaps as I step outside. “What did you do this time?”

“Nothing she didn’t give back in bloody spades,” he says briskly.

My eyes meet his briefly, and I flag down a cab and get in with him still watching me.

I think over what he said as we drive. He’s right—I know he is—and it bugs the shit out of me. We’ve never had a real conversation that hasn’t ended either physically or with me walking away because he’s pissed me off. The fact he can see right through me unnerves me.

I am so safe, so careful, not to push my own buttons. I take every precaution so that I’m not tipped into the addictive part of my brain. So that I don’t end up in a downward spiral when everything inevitably goes wrong and recreate my past mistake.

But he tears it all apart. With his constant appearing from nowhere, his smooth touches, and his blunt dirty talk, he rips into my safety wall and tugs at my addiction. With his unexplainable knowledge of my body and what I need, he unravels me.

Because he’s so fucking right.

I do crave danger. I love the thrill of a risk. I adore the wild abandon that comes with them both, the freeing feeling of having no restraints, even if just for a minute.

I knew the second I laid eyes on Tyler Stone that he was a risk—he was a dangerous risk. He has all the makings of the perfect person for me to get addicted to. And my body, however stupidly, craves him. It wants him and it needs him and it desires every little thing he can give to me. Every ounce of pleasure, it wants it. If offered, my body will accept it and be consumed by it before I’ve had a chance to argue against it.

My body doesn’t know addiction. It doesn’t understand the dangerous pull. But it wants it.

Crave.

Want.

Need.

The three things I can’t feel… The three things that are dangerous to me… The three things Tyler embodies.

The three things I feel myself being swamped with in a way I’m not so sure I can fight anymore.

M
y feet pound against the sidewalk as I jog toward Stone Advertising Headquarters for my meeting with my agent. The wind is biting but welcome. Each breeze smacks me in the face as I run into it as if it can knock sense into me.

I fight against the urge to take a deep breath as I round the corner and the imposing building comes into view. Since Aaron moved here to be with Dayton, the Seattle office has taken over the New York one as the lead one. It’s always crazy busy with people constantly running in and out, dashing to elevators, and speaking into cellphones.

Again, I find myself thankful for the chill outside. It means I’m not sweaty as I work my way through the busy lobby in my yoga pants and new Nikes.

I take the elevator to the third floor, and the receptionist smiles at me.

“Take a seat, Miss Warren. I’ll let Sheila know you’re here.”

“Thanks.” That girl has an incredible memory. I swear I’ve never heard her call anyone by anything other than their name.