“I would like to kiss you one last time, Evelyn.”
Roman watched the way her breath hitched and the fire that flared in her eyes before she took another step back from him. It was just for a moment before she started trembling again.
It gave him hope.
“That’s all I need from you. And then when my project is done, I’ll go back to London and you’ll do whatever makes you happy.”
“You can’t ask me for that,” Evelyn said as she looked around the car park.
It felt like she was going to run at any moment.
“I have lain awake so many nights thinking of how things went wrong,” he admitted, not daring to close the distance between them. “I know it was my fault. And I know you will never come back to me. I will let you go but I just want… I need to feel your lips on mine.”
“You’re blackmailing me,” Evelyn said. Her voice was trembling as she looked anywhere but at him. “You’re asking for something you know you can’t have just so you can keep things like this. You’re still trying to control me.”
He did like control. But she’d had it from the moment she welcomed him between her legs.
“I’m asking for closure,” he said. “I’m not proud of what I did to you and I want to put it right. But I need closure, Evelyn. I need that so I can move on.”
“You’ve already moved on. I really doubt your girlfriend would appreciate hearing about you kissing other women.”
Ah. So she’d kept up with the gossip.
“Don’t believe everything you read in the gossip pages, Evelyn. I haven’t seen Vivian since the night I went to her father’s house. And that was strictly business, by the way.”
He didn’t mention anything about why she had been there to see it in the first place. His insecurities were what had got him into this mess.
Evelyn chuckled and looked up at him.
“Right,” she said, though she clearly didn’t believe it. “Anyway, you want me to trust that if I kiss you right now the next time I see you will be to sign some papers that will get you out of my life for good?”
She said it so casually as if she didn’t care that she was stomping on his heart.
“You have my word. I won’t look for you again after tonight. My lawyers will be in touch directly.”
“The cost of my freedom is one kiss,” she stated, going on about her freedom again as if she still felt trapped by him.
He had known when he’d come out tonight that he would have to convince her but he hadn’t expected that it would hurt so much.
He stayed quiet and let her figure things out by herself. And the moment she decided, he knew he had won because she huffed and her shoulder slumped.
It said a lot about his desperation that he could easily push away the fact that she’d had to think about this so hard and then only agreed under duress.
“Okay,” she whispered.
He licked his lips as her gaze came up to meet his. And the fucktonne of emotions that he had been holding back hit him so hard he had to take a deep breath to steady himself.
He was going to touch her again.
Maybe she could see it in his eyes because at that moment she looked at him like she used to. Her cheeks had already been flushed from the cold but now he was sure it was because of her anticipation. Her lips parted and he could see her breath in the air.
His Evelyn. She was still there. She still wanted him.
He could hear his heart pounding loudly as he finally moved towards her, keeping his steps slow and sure until there was no space between them. He would savour this because fuck knew when he would get to do it again.
His hand was shaky when he raised it to her hair tie and released her silky hair. He was standing so close he could smell the hint of strawberry from her hair products. The same stuff she’d left in his bathroom.
She still hadn’t looked away from him, and in that moment he wasn’t the bastard he knew he was. He was the king of her world, and she was his queen.
He brought his head down and watched her tilt her face to his. Her warm breath was on his face, her lips only a hair’s breadth from his.
And then her lips touched his.
And he came back to life.
Nothing else mattered except this. That first touch of her lips after so long. The softness of those full lips against his. The rush through his body as he trailed her lips with his tongue.
And that soft moan when she granted his silent plea and finally opened up to him. Like a starving man, he greedily explored her mouth, taking everything. His arm wrapped around her, holding her closer as his other hand grabbed onto her hair.
This.
This was the reason he lived. To feel this.
To hear those moans.
To feel her hands as they pulled him closer.
To please this woman for the rest of his life.
He could feel his raging hard-on as she rubbed against him, and he knew she would be soaking wet if he lowered his hand down her jeans.
He backed her up against something and lifted her leg onto his waist so he had more access. But it still wasn’t enough.
The need to breathe forced him to release her lips but he didn’t break the contact as he trailed his lips down her cheek to her neck.
“Evelyn,” he whispered as he pressed himself between her legs.
He needed more. A kiss would never be enough.
A piercing sound cut through the foggy, horny mess in his mind and Evelyn tensed in his arms.
She pushed him away and looked around. It was the car they were leaning on that was going off, destroying his chances of getting anything more from her.
Her lips were swollen as she looked up at him in horror. As if kissing him was the end of the world. It was enough to douse some of the fire in his body as he released her and stepped back.
Evelyn brought a shaky hand to her lips, and her eyes filled with unshed tears before she turned from him and ran out of the car park.
She ran. From him.
He felt his stomach bottom out as he watched her disappear around a corner.
He couldn’t get his breathing or his thoughts under control, so he stood there like a dick for fuck knew how long.
“Hey! Get the fuck away from my car!”
The car alarm finally cut off, and the owner was striding across the lot like he meant business.
He turned from him without apologising and walked towards his car. Phillip came out to open the door for him, and when he got in, his driver closed it and walked over to another car parked not too far from them.
He watched the interaction even though he couldn’t hear the conversation. Had that been enough?
When Phillip came back in, he looked back at him and gave him a nod.
“It’s done,” Phillip said.
He sat back and let out a breath. Whether it had been enough or not, all he could do now was wait.