Destroyed. Jackie Ashenden

       CHAPTER FIVE

      Summer

      I COULDN’T THINK. I could barely even breathe.

      I’d always been proud of my brain since it was about the only thing about me that made me special. But right now, with Tiger lying right on top of me, it was like I’d lost several thousand brain cells and the stupid thing was refusing to work.

      He was just so...hot. And...big. And he was everywhere, his bare chest right in front of me, his wide shoulders blocking out the rest of the room, his long, lean, muscular body pressed the whole length of mine.

      And his gaze looking down at me, drowning me in gold.

      I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I didn’t know what to do with my entire self.

      It had happened so fast. One minute I was feeling half disappointed, half relieved that he’d pulled me up off my knees, and maybe a little angry at myself, too, since I hadn’t managed to distract him, which meant that now he was going to make me tell him my real reason for being here. Then the next minute there had been a knocking at the door and I’d heard Keep’s voice.

      I’d thought Tiger would turn me in.

      But he hadn’t. He’d come across to the bed and told me to get in, and since I hadn’t exactly had a lot of choice, I’d kicked off my shoes and done so. The next thing I knew, he’d ripped off his T-shirt and had climbed in, too, lying on top of me, bracing himself on his elbows so he wasn’t resting his whole weight on me.

      I’d never been in bed with anyone before, let alone the man who’d been lurking in my head ever since I was seventeen. The man who was now half-naked, his hard, sculpted chest and powerful shoulders on show. And somehow it didn’t matter that he wasn’t resting entirely on me, I felt flattened by him anyway. By the sheer intensity of his physical presence. By his closeness. By the heat of his body and the scent of his bare skin.

      My brain shut down then, simply unable to function with Tiger being so near. And then Keep was in the room and finally I realised why Tiger had told me to get into bed and why he was lying on top of me.

      He was hiding me from Keep.

      The thought was brief and bright and then it disappeared, and I forgot completely that Keep was even in the room. Because somehow my skirt had got rucked up around my waist, my bare thighs brushing against the denim of Tiger’s jeans. His hips were resting between my legs, forcing them apart, and there was something big and thick and hard pressing against the front of my panties.

      And once I’d become conscious of that, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. There was something about the pressure of him right there that made me go hot all over. That made my thighs tremble and my breathing catch. I tried to hold myself rigid, to pull away from where he was touching me, but it was impossible.

      He was everywhere. His heat and his dark, spicy scent and all that smooth tanned skin right in front of me. The fascinating tattoo of all the spirals and circles that was on his upper arm went up and over his shoulder, too, spreading halfway across his broad chest. I had to turn my head away to stop from staring at it, my fingers itching to touch it.

      But not looking at him didn’t do anything to stop the aching awareness of him. The feeling of his long, hot body over mine, pressing down on me, overwhelming me.

      He was still overwhelming me.

      Keep had gone, yet Tiger was still lying on top of me, braced on his elbows on either side of my head, looking down at me. I could feel myself getting hotter and hotter, and I didn’t want to meet his gaze. I didn’t want him to see what he was doing to me, how completely overcome I was about this whole situation.