Free Bound to You by Shawntelle Madison Page A

hair. Pelléas looked at her longingly and I wanted to look away. As hard as I tried to ignore Xavier, his hand still rested on his knee, ever so close to mine.
    His head drifted toward me, yet he didn’t touch me. “It’s amazing how Debussy showed how much Pelléas longed for Mélisande. Even though she could never be his.”
    My heart sped up and the truth hit me hard.
    She could never be his.
    He continued, “As a woman married to his brother, she haunted him in a way, her very presence bringing out a side of him he thought he could contain.” Finally, he brushed the back of his hand against my knee. I sucked in a breath. Next came a firm squeeze along my mid-thigh.
Pure. Bliss.
Just one touch had me trembling. “Passion. Longing.”
    I tried to watch the play, but my gaze kept drifting to my clenched hands in my lap. The large hand on my thigh. Waiting was something I did so well, so why was my resolve crumbling so quickly?
    Then his hand wandered up my thigh, dipping briefly near my sex, until he gripped my left wrist. The need to respond to him was intense. But the very idea of giving in made me freeze. Only once did I dare to look at him—he continued to watch the show intently—while my breath quickened. His thumb circled my palm. Sparks danced along my skin from his slow, yet deliberate touch.
    I closed my eyes and told myself to tell him to let go of my hand.
    Don’t do this again, Soph.
    But there was no escaping him and I let it happen. He was closer now, his breath warming my cheek. “I’m going to kiss you, Sophie,” he declared firmly.
    But instead of kissing my lips, he drew me onto his lap. The fullness of my dress didn’t deter him. The music continued to play. He kissed the place where my wrist began. Right above my pulse point. Like a leopard sampling his prey, he ran his lips, then his tongue over the most sensitive parts of the skin along my hand.
    All the while, he whispered to me, his voice thick. “I control myself in all things, Miss Ashton.” The grip on my wrist tightened until I hissed.
So good.
Damn him.
    “But your beautiful eyes make me want to do things to you that I shouldn’t…” Watching him do this to me was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen in my life. “Things that I told myself I wouldn’t do with an employee.”
    I was breathless by the time he looked at me again. Our lips were mere inches apart. I could practically taste the alcohol he’d sampled. Settled in his lap with my head tilted toward his, our bodies were too close to prevent the inevitable from happening. He captured my lips and I unclenched my fists. My reservations floated away along with the tension in my limbs.
    In contrast to Mélisande softly singing, every part of Xavier was hard. His body unyielding, his lips firm and hungry against mine. His tongue darted into my mouth and I moaned. I sagged against him, opening my lips further to invite more. Our tongues danced, dueling until he pulled back with a violent tremble.
    He was as breathless as I was. The subtle upward thrust of his hips made my thighs clench with need. “There are so many things I could do to you…” He drew in a deep breath.
    “Like what?” I tried to rise from his lap, but his arms locked around me.
    My protest waited on my lips, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak. While the final act played, he couldn’t see a thing. His lips rested against my cheek. Long enough for me to memorize their shape. For the stubble along his chin to tickle me.
    Again and again I told myself to get up, that I was letting myself fall into a game that would leave me wounded. But Sato had never treated me like this. Not in public, anyway. Sato’s passions played out in private, away from the prying eyes of others.
    By the time the final fifth act ended, I resigned myself to getting up. As easy as that idea came, once the lights turned back on, the stark reality of what had happened made it hard for me to look at him. This was my employer