Keeping my eyes off her during dinner turned out to be a challenge. The way she moaned when she took a bite of the lamb ragout I made for her would’ve brought me to my knees if I hadn’t been sitting. What would she say if I admit I spent all week perfecting that dish, simply because I know it’s her favorite?
“If I hadn’t watched you cook most of this food, I’d never have believed you made it,” she says as she places her fork down, satisfaction flickering through her beautiful eyes. “It’s kind of unfair, you know? Men who look like you shouldn’t know how to cook too.”
My eyes widen, and my heart skips a beat as I throw her a shy smile. “Men who look like me?”
Celeste’s smile drops when she realizes what she just said, and her face flushes beautifully. “I… I… I mean…”
I chuckle. “I’m glad you find me somewhat attractive, at least. That bodes well for my nefarious plans.”
She raises a brow, amused. “I see you’re still solidly settled in your villain role. You do realize you can’t be a true villain if you don’t tell me about your plans in detail, ideally while you pet some kind of feline.”
I bite back a laugh and resist the urge to make a joke about stroking her pussy. Instead, I lean in, my elbow on the table and my fist underneath my jaw. “Is that so, my sweet Celestial? In that case, you should probably know that I intend to ask if you’d like dessert, but I know you’ll say no, because you don’t like sweets. So instead, I’ll offer you a sweet dessert wine, and I’ll suggest that we go for a walk.”
She leans in too, her face so close to mine that I could easily reach out and kiss her. It’s been years since she was so relaxed around me. Perhaps it’s the wine, but there’s something magical about tonight. “Zane,” she says, tutting. “That doesn’t sound particularly nefarious. You’re losing your touch.”
I pour the dessert wine I mentioned and hand her a glass. “Let’s find out, shall we?”
I offer her my hand, and for a moment, I think she’ll reject me, but then her hand slides into mine and she rises from her seat. “This is delicious,” she murmurs after taking a sip of the Moscato I selected. I grin as I try my luck and entwine our fingers.
She has no idea how fast my heart is beating when I lead her out the backdoor, nor does she realize just how much I love the feel of her hand in mine. For as long as I can remember, she’s made me feel unlike myself, and with each year that passes, it just gets worse.
She gasps when we walk through the glass hallway that connects my house and my mother’s observatory. “Where are you taking me?”
I turn to face her and tighten my grip on her hand, walking backward as I pull her along, my eyes on hers. “You don’t recognize it? I’ll just have to remind you.”
Her lips part and her gaze heats. “I meant — why are you taking me to your greenhouse?”
I grin at her as I keep walking backward, my fingers laced with hers. “It’s not a greenhouse — my mother would be so mad to hear you call it that if she were around.” Her expression softens at the mention of my mother, and her gaze roams over my face in a way that instantly makes me feel vulnerable. “My father built this for her, and she planted almost everything in there herself. Everything she didn’t plant, I did. They’re botanical gardens inside an observatory, and yeah, it does include a greenhouse too, but it’s a bit more than that. It isn’t a place I share with anyone else — not even my siblings come in here.”
She looks so disarmed, something akin to understanding crossing her face. “You’ve never mentioned your parents before,” she says, her voice soft.
My smile slips, and I face forward to hide my expression from her. Celeste was already deeply entrenched in my life when my parents died, and she has no idea, but it was my rivalry with her that made breathing a little easier on days that felt suffocating. She gave me something to focus on, something that wasn’t the loss of my parents and the tough transition to living with my grandmother. It’s been years, but it still hurts to think of them, and weakness isn’t what I want to show her tonight. We both fall silent as I lead her deeper into the gardens, right back to the spot where I kissed her for the very first time.
“I can’t figure you out,” she whispers once we’re standing in the same rose garden that I carried her to five years ago. “Is this real, Zane? I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I hate feeling that way. If this is some sort of ploy, I beg of you—”
“It’s not,” I cut her off, a hint of desperation making its way into my voice. “It’s not some sort of scheme, Celeste. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want anything from you, but I don’t have any malicious intent. Is it so hard to believe that I couldn’t forget about the only girl that’s ever challenged me to be better? That I’d want to make amends once I realized how much you’d come to mean to me throughout the years, how much I’d hurt you? I get that I was nothing but a source of torment for you, Celeste… but for me… some days, you were the only reason I kept going. You’re the reason I never gave up, even on days I wanted to.”
She searches my face — for a trace of insincerity, no doubt. She won’t find it. “What do you want from me?” she asks, her voice breaking. “Is this retribution for asking you to forget anything ever happened between us? Is this all just a challenge to you? It feels like you’re trying to get me back into your bed just to see if you can.”
I look up at the glass ceiling and pull my hand out of hers. “I want it all,” I whisper, before looking back at her. Her breath hitches when I take a step closer, my touch gentle as I twirl one of her curls around my finger. “I’m going to lay my cards out on the table and pray you don’t eviscerate them, because Celeste… I want to wake up with you lying next to me, so I’m not left wondering if the best night of my life was just a drunken dream. You on my arm at every bullshit event we have to attend, and next to me at every acquisition meeting — or opposite me. So long as you’re in the room, I don’t care which side you’re on. I’ve always loved competing with you, after all.”
Her eyes widen in disbelief, but I don’t let that discourage me. “I want to take you on a date and show you what we could be like, you and me. I can’t have been the only one who felt it — not just that night, but all these years. This thing between us… I don’t know what it is, but I can tell you it certainly isn’t hatred. Don’t you want to find out what it is, what we could be? Has the thought truly never crossed your mind?”
“It would never work,” she murmurs. “Our families would never allow it.” It’s true — my grandmother hates her grandfather with a passion. She refuses to tell me what happened between them, but with each year that passes, her hatred for the Harrisons grows. More than once, she’s ordered me to destroy their company altogether. If not for Celeste, I would have.
I let Celeste’s hair slip through my fingers and cup her cheek, keeping her eyes on me. “What I’m not hearing is that you’ve never wondered, Celestial.” My thumb brushes over her lips, and she parts them, exhaling shakily. “Admit that you want me, too.”
My body brushes against hers, and I lean in, lowering my head to hers. “Tell me you haven’t wondered what it’d be like to kiss me now, as the adults we are. Tell me you haven’t thought of me and wanted more of what we did that night. Can you look me in the eye and lie to me?”
“Zane,” she whispers, my name a plea on her lips.
I dip my head, and my nose brushes against her. Her sharp intake of breath sends liquid desire running down my spine, and when she places her palm against my chest, my brain nearly ceases to function. “I’d like to find out whether you taste as sweet as you do in my memories, whether you can still take my cock as good as you did back then. Fuck, I want my name on your lips while I make you come harder and faster than I did on prom night. One chance to show you I’m no longer the inexperienced virgin I was back then. That’s what I want. Tell me you want that too.”
She tilts her head and leans in, her lips brushing against mine softly. “I’ve always hated you,” she whispers against my mouth. “I still do,” she says, right before grabbing the fabric of my t-shirt and clenching her fist around it to pull me closer.
I go willingly, my hand finding its way into her curls as my lips crash against hers. She moans, and I run my hand down her body as I fucking devour her, kissing her with unbridled desperation, and she returns my desire tenfold. Celeste moans when I suck her bottom lip in between my teeth and bite down softly. “Do you hate the way I kiss you? The way you’re kissing me back?”
She wraps her arms around my neck before rising to her tiptoes and pressing her body flush against mine. “I hate every second of it,” she lies as she tangles her fingers into my hair, gripping tightly as she pulls my mouth back to hers.
I lift her into my arms, and her legs wrap around my waist seconds before I push her against one of the Roman pillars in the observatory, pulling back just long enough to see where I’m going. “Then you’ll really hate the feel of my cock against you, Celestial,” I whisper, my hips rolling against her in a way that draws the sexiest little moan from her throat. “Still so fucking perfect for me,” I murmur before recapturing her lips, my touch softer now in an attempt to savor the moment.
“What are we doing?” Celeste asks in between kisses, her voice pained.
I pull back to look at her, my forehead dropping to hers. We’re both panting and holding on to each other like we’re scared this moment will disappear. Standing here with her, in the same place as five years ago… it makes me feel vulnerable, like I’m laying my soul bare for her. It’s the least she deserves.
Celeste untangles her hands from my hair and places them on my shoulders instead, almost like she’s trying to determine whether she should push me away. “This is a bad idea.”
I grin at her, unable to deny it. “The worst,” I whisper back, before leaning in to kiss her slowly, tenderly. She sighs when I pull away, the longing in her eyes mirroring my own. “Just tell me you’ll go on a date with me. We don’t have to overthink it, Celestial. Just give me one chance to show you what it could be like between us.”
“Just one?”
I nod. “Just one.”
