Force of Forever (All In #0.5)

Buttons. Fabric. A handful of doors. Very few things stood in their way now. The ride was seven minutes in hell.

Matt thanked God out loud as they pulled in front of his building. He was on the sidewalk almost before Célia had come to a full stop, Pia right behind. Célia popped the boot so he could grab their luggage, which he’d almost forgotten about.

He leaned into the passenger window. “Thank you, Célia, for your cooperation and commentary, as always.”

She huffed.

“Yes, thank you. Your city is beautiful.”

Herau revoirto Pia was much more polite.

They didn’t linger. Matt ushered Pia through the stately courtyard he spent no time in. Past the heavy doors and inside the marble lobby, Matt barely slowed to nod at the concierge, who narrowed her eyes as they passed. Madame Bescond was notoriously overinvolved in everything in the building. The news that he’d been seen hustling through the halls with a barefoot beauty would spread to every floor by morning.

Matt hit the button for the lift at least a dozen times. Next to him, Pia giggled. “We have all night, Matt.”

“Exactly. I’ve had all night to imagine these next few hours. I can’t be patient anymore. You said you might combust if you didn’t kiss me? Fuck, I’m almost pure ash at this point, Pia.” He turned his gaze to her stunned face. He knew his eyes were wild. His hands shook. His cock was straining to escape his slacks. “I need to taste your skin. I need you wrapped around me. I need you screaming.”

His voice broke on the word, he wanted that outcome so badly.

Pia’s chest rose and fell in sharp movements. Her lips were pressed together to keep from—what? The lift doors opened and they both fell inside. Matt dropped their luggage and hit the button for the top floor. Then his hands were on her legs, moving up her thighs. Her mouth dominated his as he backed her into the corner. He moaned as her nails grazed his scalp. His fingers slid right past her panties and onto the bare flesh of her bum.

He squeezed, reveling in the give of her body. Her legs wrapped around his hips as he lifted her up, but he couldn’t take the heat of her against his cock. Even through his slacks, her wet, hot core was too much.

He dropped her feet unceremoniously back to the ground and shoved a hand through his mussed hair. “Come the fuck on,” he growled at the door.

“What have you done to me?” she murmured, already glassy eyed.

“The same thing you’ve done to me.”

She nudged him with her shoulder, pulling his glare away from the still-closed lift door. “We’re going to be great together, aren’t we?”

Matt smiled then. Pia wasn’t just lust-crazed. She looked excited to be sharing this moment with him, sharing herself. He exhaled, striving once again to be present in her company. “Pia, we’re going to be fucking fantastic together.”

8

Cinders flickered across Pia’s skin.

Everywhere Matt had touched her burned. Even breathing burned.

Pia was hyperaware of his warm palm on hers as he dragged her out of the elevator that had finally arrived at his floor. She snapped her bag up in her free hand as they went. He looked to be digging a key out of his. Her feet sunk into the plush carpet that lined the hallway since she’d forgotten her shoes in his car.

The interior of Matt’s apartment was no less opulent, full of parquet floors and soaring ceilings. Corridors branched off in two directions from the open living room where they stood. Pia didn’t care where they led or what those rooms held. There was only one room she cared to see right then.

But Matt seemed to have lost some of his desperation.

His movements as he stowed their luggage away became positively languid and gave Pia a chance to familiarize herself with the room. It was warm, and her skin was finally losing its lingering chill. A brilliantly lit city was visible through the windows that spilled from ceiling to floor. He had a terrace she bet never got used. She slipped out of his jacket and folded it over a nearby chair.

But then her eyes lit on Matt again, and her curious perusal of his space, his life, stopped. Even her heart stopped.

His grin looked predatory. Mussed hair and muscles outlined through his shirt made Matt look dangerous and very, very sexy. He leaned against the couch casually, as if they hadn’t just rushed through the city in a harried haze of lust.

“I like you here, Pia. With me. This space looks better with you in it.”

“I’m sure your apartment was plenty beautiful before tonight.”

He shook his head. “I wonder if you understand what I see when I look at you. What I feel. Though I’m not sure I even understand it.”

“How could I?” she managed to reply. She’d begun to burn again. His eyes were the match and her body the tinder.