a P

stared

rd lines of his chest and stomach. His hair was damp, pushed back from a face that looked carved from something expensive and c

ammed again

e out thinner than I wanted

cheekbone, then lower, taking in the wrinkled clothes I had fallen asleep in, the way I had push

"How did you

e was low, rough around the edges, the kind of vo

he said. "I was told

ll beside it-narrow, almost hidden, the kind that joined two VIP rooms when someone paid enough.

words tasting useless even as I spoke

ped on the nightstand, then back to my face

're

my cheek without thinking and fe

noth

d I hated how my eyes followed the line of muscle disappearing b

ook like noth

e clean scent of hotel soap on his skin, something dark an

n," I said, but the words

at I would have to tip my head back to keep meetin

did that to

ntle, and somehow more dangerou

esn't

tters

n to tell him anything. Yet the way he looked at me-steady, unblinking, as if he had al

trust," I said fi

y. Instead I sat frozen as his fingers brushed the edge of the bruise, the tou

ain," he said, as if i

rt and sharp. "You

ow en

low in my stomach tightened. I should have told him to stop. I should have stood up and walked out of the room. In

oking at me lik

e wh

e deciding

, not quite a sm

s on the mattress and his hand had slid from my cheek into my hair. He didn't yank. He sim

to stop,"

mouth. No so

isse

e room. I made a small sound against his mouth and felt him answer it with a low noise of his own. His free hand settled at my waist, fing

head, my lips felt swollen.

angers kiss you," he s

e one who

he one who di

clothes. My hands, traitorous, rose to his shoulders. The muscles under my palms were solid, still warm from the shower. He made a s

f me, why my body was answering him so quickly-but every time I tried to form one, his mouth distracted me again. He kissed the

," he murmured

kno

it f

hair down the side of my throat, resting l

spered. "It

ould see the sharp cut of his hipbone, the dark trail of hair disap

," he said again,

idn

ed underneath, palm spanning my waist, thumb brushing the underside of my breast. I arched into the touch without meaning to

hotel to escape one man and had somehow ended up under another

eady get