Free Fused (Lost in Oblivion #4.5) by Cari Quinn, Taryn Elliott Page A

to me.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “I think you got your timeline screwed up. Who showed up in my office and nearly pulled me across the desk?”
    “Me. It was fucking me, and you aren’t going to forget either.” He slid his hand up her back into her hair, unable to resist gripping a handful to tug her head back. Her lips parted and her tongue slicked out between them, wet and pink, and his cock reared against his zipper with enough force to make him grit his teeth. “You’re mine, and that night I let you know it.”
    “I don’t belong to anyone but myself.”
    “Then why are you quivering? Why are you wet in every place, even the ones I can’t see? Especially the ones I can’t see.” He leaned in and spoke so close to her mouth that he could see the flutter of her eyelashes. “You hate that I’m telling the truth. But guess what? It’s a two-way street. You own me just as much.”
    Shock wound its way through her expression, darkening her summer blue eyes. And he let go of her hair.
    Again, he had to let her go, and it hurt just as much the second time.
    “You have every right to tell me to fuck off. Every right to see whomever you want. But I’ll never stop trying to convince you to give me another chance to figure this thing out.” He slid his hand across the counter and covered hers where it trembled. “You know why?”
    Resolutely, she stared off in the distance at something only she could see. “I know my boy is about to come back, and I don’t want to have to throw you out while he watches.”
    “I’ve said my piece.” Most of it anyway, and he’d have to find a way to be okay with that. He couldn’t convince her that he wasn’t just messing around with her, not when he knew something had happened and she seemed utterly unwilling to communicate with him. “And at least I’ve fed you today, so I’ve accomplished something.”
    Instead of setting down the rest of the bagel as he was sure she would do, she popped another piece in her mouth. Once she’d chewed and swallowed, she went back for the rest. Bite by bite, she demolished the bagel, and he stood and watched like a seagull starved for crumbs.
    “All done,” she said finally, whisking parmesan off her fingers.
    “Not by a fucking long shot.”
    He went to the door, more buoyed by their conversation than he would have expected, especially considering how it had started. But she missed him too. There were shadows under her eyes, and she quaked the moment he touched her. She couldn’t fake that reaction.
    Eventually she’d stop lying to herself. Then perhaps she’d stop lying to him.
    “You’re not going to forget either, Li.” He opened the door. “When you’re ready to remember where we were when we left New York, I’ll be happy to help remind you.”
    Before she could speak, he closed her apartment door behind him.

6
    “ Y ou haven’t put through the preliminary paperwork to sign Ms. McIntire yet, Lila. Is there a problem?”
    Only Donovan Lewis would expect preliminary paperwork sent through for a new artist within a week of the show where she’d made her debut. This, however, was a special case. As predicted, YouTube clips of the concert in question had multiplied like pregnancies after a snowstorm. Molly was already a burgeoning sensation, and her boss wanted her locked down quick on the label.
    Donovan didn’t accept excuses, so she didn’t bother offering any. “No. I just haven’t made it happen yet.”
    But I will. Somehow.
    Severe sexual temptation and emotional heartbreak as reasons for the delay would earn her a raised eyebrow at best. At worst, he’d remind her she’d agreed to put all of that aside.
    Her job was what mattered. The only thing that mattered, other than her parents and Michael, who was camped out on her couch playing X-box. He’d spent Friday night in the guest bedroom, then they’d hung out a bit on Saturday after the Nick debacle to try to make up for lost time. He’d stayed over