Beauty and the Barracuda by Nikki Winter

matter of fact, the whole reason why I haven’t been here is to not talk about my little stunt.”
    “Heh.”
    She hated that noise! And right now she hated the mouth it had come from.
    Nyssa pointed to the door. “Out.”
    Standing in one smooth motion that almost made him look ethereal, Sansone walked in a slow gait toward the door.
    Placing her hands against her desk, she tried to draw in an inhale that wasn’tjagged and listened to the sound of the door locking and closing. Oxygen was much easier to pull in when he wasn’t invading her space, stealing her sense. Control and rationality had kept her safe all this time but some way, somehow, he’d slipped past both and gotten under her skin in a way no one else ever had.
    He was insane but she loved him and his need for expensive hair products. Possibly more than she should’ve, but it wasn’t to be helped. Sansone made her feel like she wasn’t just another position-hungry bitch climbing the ladder—something James had told her—in anticipation of the day when she could find a boy toy and order him about. His looks aside, what was in his heart had attracted her. He was, in all honesty, a genuinely good man. One she could never have, because if they parted, it would kill her. He was steady; he was supposed to be safe. He was supposed to be the one she could trust herself around implicitly but somewhere along the way she’d lost that comfort.
    “I think you’ve forgotten exactly whom you’re dealing with, cara .”
    Nyssa jerked upwards and around, finding Sansone leaning against her door, his gaze acute. “When have I ever gone away that easy?” He stepped forward. “And when are you planning to stop avoiding me?”
    She chewed the inside of her cheek briefly. “Sunny—”
    “Quiet,” Sansone murmured, coming closer. “I stayed up for hours Friday night, questioning precisely what it was I should say to you, how I should handle the fact that I’d finally gotten the opportunity to taste the sweetest mouth I’ve ever known, and I decided to let it die. I decided to say nothing .”
    Tucking in her lips, she leaned back against her desk as he stood toe to toe with her.
    “Then I caught you creeping downstairs Saturday morning and thought to myself for all of five seconds, ‘Let her go. Call her later. Act like nothing happened.’” He lifted a hand as if to touch her but drew back and balled it into a fist before dropping it to his side. “But I couldn’t,” Sansone whispered. Angling himself, he pinned her in on either side with his hands, placing them on the desk. “I have the ability to do a lot of things but watching you walk away from me, even unknowingly, will never be one of my skills.”
    The scent of saffron and cardamom enveloped her, the heat of Sansone’s nearness making it nearly impossible to breathe. And when he looked at her as though he were about to lose the last bit of control either of them had, Nyssa’s pussy spasmed, the minute sensation causing her thighs to tense as he made it abundantly clear he wanted a lot more than just that kiss.
    “Tell me something, sweetness.” His voice had dropped to a low rumble that caused her nipples to bead and scrape against the lace of her bra with every ragged lungful of air. “Are you avoiding me because you regret the kiss itself, or because you regret not doing it sooner?”
    Nyssa shook her head and leaned back as far as she could, trying to push through the haze of desire clouding her determination not to ruin a friendship that meant way more to her than just a good fuck. “I’m avoiding you because that kiss was a—”
    “If the word mistake leaves your mouth, I am going to spank you, Nyssa.” Sansone growled, interrupting. “Now nod if you understand.”
    “Sunny—”
    He slapped the desk behind her and she snapped her mouth shut.
    “I. Said. Nod.”
    How sick was it that it felt as though the walls of her cunt would cave in on themselves just from that one aggressive