Page 11 of The Pleasure Contract

It should have felt claustrophobic. But instead, Bristol thought it felt like an embrace.

Her eyes adjusted to the darker stretch of alley, away from the lighted stairs—and just in time, because Lachlan was moving toward her, a look on his face that made everything inside her go still.

He backed her across the width of the alley, smiling down at her when her back came up hard against the far wall.

“Careful,” he said, a hint of laughter in his voice.

But Bristol didn’t want to be careful. Or she couldn’t remember how.

Because the only thing she could seem to focus on was that wildfire heat that raced through her. It seemed to start in his bright blue gaze, then hum its way into her, making her flush all over. Making her bones ache.

Making her pussy melt.

And she had said, repeatedly, that she didn’t know why she’d gone to that absurd panel today. Or why on earth she’d come to this dinner. But suddenly, when his hands found the wall on either side of her head and he leaned in, it all became clear.

It was this.

His heat. The stark desire on his face and the lure of his mouth, hovering close. The sudden, greedy punch of a need so hot inside her, it almost hurt.

“Where would you like me to take you, Bristol?” he asked, his voice a low rumble in the dark.

An invitation.

Worse, a temptation.

Bristol had spent so many years catering to her mind. Following each and every thought or connection down whatever rabbit hole she found, disappearing into her research, and rarely bothering to come up for air. If she thought about her body at all, it was an afterthought. As far as she’d been concerned, for years, it was a machine she kept fueled so she could keep on thinking.

Yet right here, in the back alley behind a Manhattan restaurant, she was suddenly aware of every square inch of that body and she no longer felt much like a machine.

She was too aware of her skin. Her muscles. And all the places where she was nothing at all but throbbing, delirious need.

Maybe her sister had been right all along. She really did need to get out more.

Where would you like me to take you?he’d asked.

Her body was taking over and it had a whole host of ideas.

She tipped her head back, wondering how she could feel as if she was falling from a great height when she could feel the wall at her back. “Maybe I’ll be the one to take you, Lachlan. If you can handle that.”

“Don’t worry, Bristol,” he said, his voice a dark delight. “I can handle you.”

And if she already felt like she was falling, why not jump? She arched herself toward him, pushing up on her toes to find his mouth.

It felt like ignition.

A burst of a dark, intense heat. He met her with the same greed, his hard mouth claiming hers.

Claiming her.

Her heart thudded so hard she pressed herself closer to him, so if it burst straight out from her chest he could contain it.

If anything could contain it.

Because the way his palm, big and hard, gripped the back of her head to guide her mouth where he wanted it made her think it was already too late.

That heat only deepened as he tasted her, roaring into flame and fire.

His kiss was a wild thing, demanding and just this side of rough.