for Alec. He withdrew and hooked his fingers around the waistband of my panties, yanking them down. As he freed my legs from them, I gasped. I was naked beneath him. He’d pushed my skirt clear to my waist so it was nothing more than a belt.
Panic seized me when he climbed off and slid down my body, resting on his elbows and curling his hands around my thighs. He held me open so he could feast on me. I slammed a hand over my mouth and moaned through my fingers as his tongue made contact. The soft brush of his tongue on my sensitized skin was a focused burst of pleasure.
He did it again.
“Alec!” I arched my back, slamming my head against the floor. I fisted the sides of my skirt in my hands, needing to hold on to something. I squeezed and twisted the fabric so tight I worried it would rip. There was a bang as I collapsed my back against the wood and gasped, spinning further out of control. His tongue was madness. It was heat-soaked bliss. Feather-light strokes followed by firm, aggressive ones, sending me into a spiral.
I was a slave to him and his wicked mouth.
The hands wrapped around my thighs tightened. I was squirming uncontrollably, and he locked me in place, so he could continue to lash his tongue, fluttering it just above my entrance. The moans poured from me almost as furiously as his tongue moved.
“Collaborate with me,” he demanded in between his devastating strokes.
“What?” I tried to scoot backward from his mouth, but his hold was inescapable.
“Let’s work on something together.”
“I can’t think,” I panted, “when you’re doing that.”
“I figured. Just say yes.” He licked a long path through my valley and I jerked from the amazing sensation. “We could do a piece that speaks about our bad reputations.”
The mention of his standing in the art community made it more difficult to ignore the warnings in my head. Alec was a stranger and I was letting him kiss me in a place I’d only allowed a few men before. Shockingly intimate for a man I knew nothing about. No, it was worse than that. Alec was supposed to be my enemy.
Yet, the only war I felt was internal. The desire to do more with him and find my release, battled against logic.
“I work alone,” I said, clipped. What he was doing felt so impossibly good.
“Me, too.” He rolled the pad of his thumb over the bundle of nerves at my center. “But look at how well we’re getting along right now.”
“I don’t . . . Oh, God,” I groaned. He sucked hard, making me shudder. How could I defend myself like this? He was doing it on purpose. “I don’t like being manipulated.”
He lifted his head and his smug look made my stomach bottom out. “Oh, yeah? You’ve never been manipulative to get what you want?”
I would have sworn his expression said he knew he was talking to the queen of manipulation. I stared up at the skylight overhead, unable to say anything. I was sure even if I lied and said no, he’d know. He used my silence and distraction to move in for the kill.
He sank two fingers deep inside me and latched his mouth on my clitoris. I cried out in surprise and pleasure, and the sound echoed in the room. Fire seared across every nerve ending in my body, begging for more. Screaming for release.
“Say yes, Jessica,” he murmured. “I own you no matter what answer you give me.”
It was terribly true. If I said no, it didn’t matter. He had my damaged sculpture and Maritza as a witness to what I’d done. So I could refuse him, destroy my career for the second time, and possibly go back to prison. Or I could say yes, risk my future, and go with the unknown man who pulsed his fingers inside me at a dangerous and wonderful pace.
“Why do you do it?” I had to know. “Why do you take from other artists?”
He froze, and the muscle along his jaw flexed. He was clenching his teeth, and his eyes clouded over. “I don’t do that anymore.” He thrust his fingers so hard, it stole my breath, and it felt