We stumble up to his back entrance, giggling and clutching at each other. Our hands haven’t left each other’s bodies in some capacity since we started dancing, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Colby tonight, it’s that he’s a perfect gentleman. A frustratingly perfect gentleman. Though it’s probably a good thing he didn’t try to kiss me. I would have had to stop him. I can’t kiss the guy I’m planning to screw over.

A dim porch light illuminates the two keypads resting beside his door, the ones that Galina shielded her hand in front of to prevent me from getting a glimpse, but Colby doesn’t take such precautions. He punches in his entry code in full view and does the same with the alarm code. 0330. 0719. The numbers stick to my tongue like peanut butter and I repeat them over and over like a mantra until they’re engraved in my brain, a part of me now. I don’t need to snoop when he’s home. Now I can have full reign of searching his house as soon as he’s out.

That thought sends a little thrill through me.

Ever since the dance, there’s been an electric connection crackling between us, a spark that blazes through me, growing hotter and hotter. Neither of us dares to speak, as if words might put voice to what we shouldn’t be feeling. Or thinking. Or doing. There’s a spell in the air and we can’t risk breaking it.

Inside his house, the only light comes from beneath the cabinets in the kitchen. Sounds magnify in the darkness, turning my beating heart into the detonation of a bomb. My keys glint on the countertop where I’d left them earlier. Colby follows my gaze to where they rest.

“I can’t drive,” I whisper. There’s something about this moment that warrants secrecy. Discretion. “Not like this.” I press a palm to my swimming head, but I’m not sure it’s the alcohol making me dizzy.

“I know.” He stands so close, his breath sends my hair dancing. A thousand goose bumps pop along my skin.

“Could your driver take me home?” I force the words out despite every cell in my body screaming in protest. I need to leave. Before I do something stupid.

“No.” He steps even closer until my back hits the edge of the table. His arms press against either side of me, palms down on the surface, trapping me in his embrace. His lips graze against my ear, so balmy and close, my veins ache. “Stay.”

My hands come up and press against his chest but stop short of pushing him away. “I can’t.” Instead I trail my fingers down the defined pecs that he hides beneath those pesky things called shirts. “I—“

Colby brushes his lips against my ear in a tantalizing way that makes my breathing quicken. He sweeps his tongue along my jaw, releasing a jolt of desire that shocks through me with the force of a lightning bolt.

“We can’t.” I scramble for the back of his shirt, running my fingers along the hot skin of his lower back.

“I know.” His lips hover against mine, teasingly, driving me insane.

I arch upward as hot need bursts through me, making me shudder. Everything inside me cries out for his touch. “We shouldn’t,” I whisper again, more to remind myself than him. His only obstacle is that he’s my boss. Mine is that I plan to rob him blind. This is wrong, illicit, forbidden.

Forbidden.

The word pulls me up short. It should be a showstopper. Instead it only makes me moan with desire.

“You don’t sound convinced.” He tugs at the hem of my skirt, scooping the fabric up up up my leg. His fingers continue their trail, heading right toward the source of all heat in my body. The spot between my legs pulses with anticipation.

I press against him harder, closer. “Convince me.”

He plunges his lips against mine in a fierce kiss that leaves me breathless. His mouth is hot and hungry, kissing me with no abandon. A fluttering sensation shocks through me, making me gasp.

The kiss grows hot and fierce, our mouths moving in unison while our hands roam along the contours of each other’s bodies. His fingers press against me over my panties, rubbing and stroking and getting me hot and desperate until he backtracks.

“Don’t stop!” I gasp out.

“I’ll take that as you being convinced,” he whispers.

His palms slide along my legs, then my torso, before leaving a trail of tingles along my bare arms, and my eyes fall shut to savor the glorious sensation. His mouth descends to my neck, sucking and lighting up the nerve endings there with glorious strokes of his tongue. I gasp, gripping him tighter.

When he removes my clothes, he makes sure to dance his fingertips and tongue over every inch of skin he exposes. My nipples harden as he sucks each one into his mouth and forces out the gasp I’ve been trying to hold onto. My head falls back, eyelids descending shut while I lose myself in the incredible swirl of sensation radiating from the tip of his tongue. A deep groan rips from my lips as the throb at my core swells with insistence.

I scramble for his belt. Oh God, I need him now now now. I free him of his clothes and marvel at the free reign I have over his delicious stomach. My tongue blazes a trail along his defined abs, lapping up the salt of his skin like a culinary delicacy.

His fingers yank my panties down down down my legs and toss them somewhere that doesn’t matter. All that matters is they’re gone and his hands are that much closer to touching me. His finger slide inside me, digging and curving in a way that ramps ecstasy right at the very spot of his touch. I writhe against him, my hips following the revolution of his wrist. Pressure builds in intensity, and I squirm, stroking him with the same kind of gusto.

After a moment, when I’m nice and warmed up, he pulls out of me. He wraps an arm beneath me and lifts me onto the kitchen table. I scoot closer to the edge, my desperation for him making me impatient. My body screams for his, and I fumble for the condom I keep in my purse.

“You sure?” He plucks the square from my shaking fingers and slides it on.

“I’m sure this is a terrible idea, yes.”

“That’s well established.” He kisses me again, so hard and fierce I barely have time to catch my breath before he robs it again by entering me with a powerful thrust.

I wrap my legs around him to bring him deeper inside me. Pleasure sparkles through me at the intense pressure of his movements. He lets out a guttural cry that turns me to Jell-O, pliable at his touch. My hips embark on a desperate race to meet his thrusts, each one punting me off a cliff of desire. Pulses of bliss spiral outward until I’m gasping at the heady sensation building at my core.

His lips find mine in a searing kiss before we break apart, both of us struggling to catch our breath. My eyes slip closed, concentrating on the rush of pressure spinning and turning to a sharp point at the base of me. My fingernails dig into the skin of his back, and I cry out. His hips swivel in a motion that makes my head arch backward. Colby uses the opportunity to bury his face in my neck and sucks a scorching trail of kisses along the tender flesh of my shoulder.

Holy hell. I grit my teeth against the double attack of pleasure working in tandem to send me over the edge. Every atom in my body inflates with enough helium to burst like a balloon. The ache inside me swells to a crescendo with every new pulse of his hips. Oh God. The moan that slips past my lips is an omen, foreshadowing the burst that ricochets through me in beautiful, pulsating releases. A few moments later Colby gasps against my neck, his breath hot along my skin.

Both of us shudder together, clutching each other to hold on for dear life.

Fuck, that was good. But only because it was a fucking bad idea.