“Why did you come here?” I whisper.

A liaison, most likely. A plan to meet up with one of the women at the gala. So why haven’t they come? “I was looking for you,” he murmurs.

“Why?” It feels like opening Pandora’s box.

“To do this.” That’s all he says before he leans down. His mouth is an inch away from mine. He hovers there, letting his breath warm my lips, breathing me in.

He brushes against me. It’s a tease, that faint touch. My nerve endings come alight. He kisses the way he talks—playful, laid back. I relax into his embrace. He licks the seam of my lips, and my breath catches. I push up on my toes, surging closer.

Easy, I think. It’s easy to be with him. Maybe that’s what safe feels like.

He nips my bottom lip, and I whimper.

A shiver captures me, head to toe. He pulls back. His eyes are deeper now, forest green, a place of mystery and magic.

This isn’t insouciance. Or nonchalance.

It’s something darker.

He tightens a fist in my hair, turning me around so I face the wall, holding me against his hard chest. It took so long to do my hair for tonight. Hours of shampoo and conditioner and blow drying. Making the curls just right. They’re nothing but a handle for him now. Something stark and blatantly sexual.

I feel submissive this way. Trapped. My sex clenches beneath my evening gown.

“What are you doing?” I ask, breathless.

“Tasting,” he murmurs, dragging kisses along my neck, biting the juncture to my shoulder. “I just want a taste. I won’t hurt you. You aren’t scared, are you?”

I’m alone in a room with a man—a strong, virile man. One who isn’t afraid to shove someone against a wall. He’s holding me in such a way that I can’t defend myself. “Yes,” I whisper.

An unsteady laugh. “That shouldn’t turn me on so much.”

A large hand passes over my breasts, as if he’s an explorer, a marauder, mapping the terrain that he plans to claim as his own. He reaches beneath the neckline, and I gasp as his fingers rub across my nipples. I strain—whether to lean into his touch or get away, I don’t know. It only manages to wind my hair tighter in his grasp. The sharp pull brings tears to my eyes.

“So that’s what you’ve been hiding,” he says, pinching my nipple until I gasp. “Acting demure and innocent when you have these beautiful breasts aching for attention.”