Free Cross-Checked by Lily Harlem Page A

was soft and gentle but with the promise of sin. Lots of sin. Good, hot sin.
    Summoning my willpower, I broke the kiss and looked out the window. Rockefeller Center whizzed past. I had to stick to my plan. If I let him bury himself in me, as he’d so eloquently described it, then I’d be nothing more than a one-night stand. I had to keep him hanging on for more. Give him some but not all. Trouble was, the more time I spent with him, the more I felt my soul was connecting with his. Not giving in and throwing myself at him like a willing victim was going to be hard. Really hard.
    Stick to the plan, Carly , I repeated in my head like a mantra as he wound his fingers with mine and drew my knuckles to his mouth. His hot breath washed over my hand, slipped up my arm and settled deep in my chest.
    Stick to the damn plan.
     

Chapter Five
     
    I handed the cab driver a twenty and alighted outside the Waldorf. The doorman tipped his top hat as we pushed through the rotating doors into the creamy light of the foyer.
    I didn’t pause to admire the opulent decor.
    Instead my heels rapped on the marble floor as we strutted past reception. We paced by several deep lounging chairs and a table overflowing with pink orchids. Brick placed his hand in the small of my back and guided me toward the elevators. “Your room or mine?” he asked.
    “Yours.” I had what I needed in my purse.
    He gave me the most indecent smile I’d ever received. Triumph, lust and cheekiness mixed with softness, patience and desire. My heart fluttered and my skin pricked. He thought he was in control. That he had me where he wanted me. Well, I was just about to show him he’d met his match. Or rather, I was going to do my best to show him he’d met his match.
    He pressed number eight.
    We stood in silence and waited for the elevator to reach ground level.
    The doors pinged open. An elderly gentleman with a newspaper under his arm wandered out.
    We stepped in.
    The second the door whooshed shut, his body slammed into mine. I staggered backward and found myself pinned against the smoky mirrored walls. I gasped in surprise but it was lost in his frantic kiss. My purse fell to the floor. Unbalanced, I reached up for his shoulders and hung on to solid muscles as I teetered on my heels.
    His hands roamed my hips and waist. “You’re driving me crazy,” he murmured as he stooped to spread kisses down my neck. “Like, really, actually crazy. You’re all I can think about, you’re all I want.”
    I let out a whimper of lust and curled my fingers into him. I didn’t know how I was going to stay standing, I was so dizzy with desire.
    His mouth was at the hollow of my throat, licking and kissing and sucking. His hands smoothed under my top, up over my stomach. My flesh trembled. What plan? He carried on determinedly over my ribs until he cupped my softly curved flesh.
    I moaned in delight at feeling his hands on my breasts for the first time. So big and strong and hot. So hot.
    Trapped between the wall and his huge body, I arched for more. I wanted him to touch me all over.
    “God, you feel amazing.” He nipped and kissed my collarbone. Then my top was up, up around my neck, the material bunched and shoved out of his way in one deft flick of his wrists.
    I was vaguely aware of the elevator pinging up the floors. But the noise was muffled beneath our desperate breaths.
    He pulled back to gaze at my chest. “Ah, you look so pretty too, even better than you described. Small but so utterly perfect.”
    “Brick…” I murmured and caught his face in my palms. “We have to stop…”
    “Yeah,” he said, looking at my breasts the way a poor man would look at a winning lottery ticket. “In just a min—”
    He leaned forward and, quick as a flash, suckled my right nipple into his mouth. I gasped. Oh god, it felt so good. Just like he’d promised, he was taking in my nipple and the small, swollen portion of flesh surrounding it. Suckling and teasing with his