chapter 18

Kane’s POV

“With pleasure.”

The words left my mouth before I could think twice. I watched the back of her neck flush bright pink as she froze.

“Hold still,” I whispered, slowly pulling the zipper upward while my thumb traced the line of her spine. “All done.”

She spun around so fast that her lips brushed mine, and everything came to a sudden halt, except for both our wildly beating hearts.

“I… I… sorry.” She jerked backward, her eyes widening in shock.

I should have stepped away. Instead, my eyes locked onto the very lips I had been aching to devour ever since that night. “Why do you keep running from me?”

“Because I don't want anything to do with you! And stop doing that!” she shot back. Her eyes darkened with a mixture of desire and anger that deeply amused me.

“Doing what?” I placed one hand against the counter, trapping her and blocking any thought of escape.

“Looking at me… like that…” she muttered.

She was fighting me. Fighting the sizzling desire between us. I could see it. Despite her best efforts to keep her breathing steady, her chest hitched, and her fingers curled tightly into her palms.

I leaned closer.

“Did you not come here hoping I'd follow you?” My mouth hovered just below her ear, and an involuntary shiver ran through her frame. “You clearly want me, and I want you. Why are you pretending?”

"After everything you said to me?" Her eyes flashed with disbelief. "After what you called me? You think I want your attention? I am not a fool!”

“I think,” I murmured, leaning in, “that you have been secretly stealing glances at me ever since you walked past me in the hall.” I brought my fingers up to trace the outline of her lips. “And I know your body remembers exactly who had you first.”

Her lips parted.

It was an involuntary reaction. I felt her give a gentle push against my chest, but I caught her hand, holding it firmly. I felt her shiver again, which she immediately tried to suppress, but I felt it nonetheless.

"You want to play hard to get," I whispered against her ear, my voice raspy and deep. "I love the chase."

"You are…" She exhaled slowly. "You are just so…"

"Tell me," I said.

"Insufferable," she snapped. "Delusional. Arrogant."

“Also," I added, "the only man you've been thinking about since that night."

I had completely lost my mind around her. Imagine me, Kane Ravello, standing in a staff changing room with a one-night stand, trying to coax her into making out like a teenager.

"That is not… true," she said weakly.

My lips brushed the curve of her ear, feeling the heat rising from her skin and the rapid flutter of her pulse at her throat. Her hand instinctively clutched the lapel of my jacket.

"Do you remember," I whispered quietly, "what this felt like?"

My hand moved, slow and deliberate, giving her every opportunity to walk away, but she moved close, as I traced her jawline.

I smiled against her skin.

"My hands," I murmured, pressing my lips to the side of her throat and ear, "here. And here."

"S… stop…" She struggled weakly, her eyes fluttering closed.

“Call my name," I commanded softly, before bringing my lips down hard on hers.

After a breathless minute, her cheeks were burning and her pupils dilated. "I don't…" She stopped, looking mortified. "I don't even know your name. And don't do that again."

A wave of satisfaction washed over me. "Kane," I muttered, the burning desire in my eyes no longer hidden. "My name is Kane."

She stared at me, and I leaned in again, going for a deeper kiss, when the bathroom door slammed open!

SLAM!

We jerked apart. She reacted instantly, pulling me sideways into the shadow of the furthest stall nook just as the door shut with equal force behind the intruders.

“What are you doing?” I started to demand.

“Shhh! Do you want to be seen here?” She pressed her hand firmly against my lips to quiet me.

The changing room went silent for a second, until it was filled with a woman's breathless moan.

“Adrian… God, I missed you so much…”

I went completely still.

“I need you. Right now. Please… fuck me. I have missed you… please.”

The words were accompanied by the sharp sound of a zipper being yanked down and a harsh intake of breath.

“No man can ever make me feel like you do.”

Every single muscle in my body turned to stone, disgust written all over my face.

How could I fail to recognize that shameless, desperate voice? I had heard it for five years, heard her having sexual intercourse with my stepbrother twice!

Claudia.

“Wow… easy, woman. We have time," Adrian's voice came, low and smug from the other side of the stall partition.

“We don't… my husband is somewhere in this building…”

“Don't talk about him." The amusement in Adrian's voice made my jaw clench so tight my teeth ached. "He won't even know you're here with me."

"Yeah." A soft, mock chuckle came from Claudia. "He probably thinks I'm with the ladies catching up on the latest gossip. Besides, you know how he is… all business, all the time. He won't notice even if I disappear for a week.” She paused before asking, “Does he know you're back?”

"No, I flew straight from the airport," Adrian said. "Came directly here to see my baby."

“Good. Then show me how much you missed me."

Her last words were drowned out by the heavy sound of bodies colliding forcefully against the wooden stall wall.

“Does he fuck you good like me?” Adrian grunted.

"Only you, baby," Claudia breathed. "Only you can make me feel this way…”

I didn't wait to hear another word. My legs moved on pure instinct toward the stall door. I was going to rip it open and confront them right then and there. No divorce papers, no legal proceedings. I would deal with the fallout later.

“Hey, what are you doing? Are you crazy?”

A small hand clamped around my wrist with surprising strength. I glanced back. It was my conquest.

Her touch snapped me back to reality. In a flash, I realized exactly what Claudia would do if I opened that stall door right now. She would look at me in a service changing room with a waitress whose uniform was half-unzipped and whose lips were swollen from my kisses, and she would smile.

She'd say, “You too, Kane?” and use it as a weapon to blackmail me in court.

I would never give her that satisfaction.

Never!

I stepped back, took one last look at Esmeralda’s flushed, rosy cheeks, turned on my heel, and walked out, slamming the main changing room door open behind me.