Free Sweetened With a Kiss by Lexxi Callahan Page B

believe it when she was with him, especially when her heart looked for every possible excuse not to believe it.

    STI occupied the top three floors of Sellers Tower in the New Orleans business district. Stefan’s office was spartan, to say the least. He had a desk, with a big chair behind it and a couple of chairs in front of it. There was nothing on the walls. No other furniture.
    “Come here often?” she asked.
    “Not if I can help it.”
    “Well,” she looked around. “Lizzie is better at this than me, but I think you have room in here to put a treadmill or elliptical machine if you want. You could mount a small flat screen there.” She stopped. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
    He smiled. “Because you’re a genius.”
    She smiled back. She understood him much better than he realized. “You don’t want to be up here because you feel trapped. You just need to make the space yours. I know you don’t really like to run on a treadmill but it would be better than...”
    Her words trailed off into the heat of the sudden kiss that caught her completely off guard. So much so that she wound her arms around him without thinking and kissed him back. All those little curling sizzles she had been feeling suddenly flared hot all through her. She moved closer as his fingers curved around the nape of her neck. And it just seemed to go on forever. Especially since when he tried to lift his head to end it, her arms tightened around him and pulled him back down to her.
    He shuddered, then went completely still. His fingers closed around her wrists to pull her arms back down. She actually cried out in protest when he broke away from her and stepped back, his chest heaving as he tried to drag air into his lungs.
    And she really just couldn’t help herself. The harsh words flew out of her mouth before she could stop them. “Will you stop trying to protect me!”
    He laughed, sounding almost strangled. “Protect you?  That’s a joke. You need protection from me, Jen. I have no business being around you.” That last bit came out so savagely that she shrank back. “I can’t keep my hands off you for fifteen minutes in a row.”
    “But I don’t want you to keep your hands off me,” she said softly.
    He stared at her, his eyes wild. “Don’t say things like that to me, I’m warning you.” He turned his back on her and headed towards the desk.
    “What? Things like I’m not a little girl?” she flung at him and he stopped in mid-stride but didn’t turn around. “Or, that I’m not a fragile butterfly that you’re going to crush? Or that I know what it’s like to feel trapped in a glass box?”
    He still stood there, tension coiling him tighter and tighter. And she was doing that to him, twisting him into knots.  She’d had no idea she could do that to him and the knowledge was heady.  It made her reckless, so she just couldn’t help herself when she pushed harder.  She wanted to grind that protective instinct into the dust and she might never get another chance.  So she went for it. “Or maybe, that I can still feel your hands and your mouth on me and I like it so much I’m burning up. And it hurts like hell when you stop touching me.”
    And then he was coming for her. She fought a smile. Fear and excitement swirling up inside of her. She actually laughed out loud when he slammed into her and walked her back up against the wall. Stefan unbound. Finally.
    He unleashed himself on her full force, crushing her mouth, effortlessly lifting her off her feet. He caught one of her legs and pulled it up around his waist and Jen forgot how to breathe. He pushed against her until she was in no doubt how much he wanted her, while, the entire time, his mouth devoured hers. She loved it and she wanted more. If she lived a hundred years she would never get enough of him.
    And maybe because it raged so hot so fast, he suddenly eased off the kiss, but he didn’t move her. She moved her hips just so and loved his