Seeing Linc's trim, muscled figure in his form-fitting grey suit, his devastatingly handsome, resistant-to-aging face with those dark, piercing onyx eyes has reminded me just how easily my body gives in to him.

His quiet, effective charm has reminded me why I ran. Why that summer really tough for me. Fighting this forbidden attraction to my middle-aged stepfather, who is forty-one while I am just twenty-one.

He is literally old enough to be my father. But yet he pulls me. And I am powerless once he pins me with those eyes. I am weak. My body surrenders without much resistance.

"Drop them on the desk," he says, his dark eyes still trained on me, his back to the woman frozen at the door glaring at me with such venom it scares me. I move further away.

I need to escape him. But I know it is futile. Linc would find me. This attraction between us feels inevitable now. There is a quiet countdown ringing like a third heartbeat between us.

Coming back was a mistake. Linc Tanner is not the kind of man one forgets. Or moves on from. I still feel the same way as I did three years ago, if not stronger. And now there is one less excuse as to why we shouldn't give in to this dark desire.

"Uhm, sir, it needs your signature so I can send it back to..."

"Charlotte, drop them on the damn desk!" Linc raised voice startles me and the woman, who quickly drops the files and hurries out. Linc doesn't turn away from me. He keeps his eyes on me, watching me like a hunter hunting his prey.

I try to swallow, but my mouth is dry. Naked hunger is present in the depth of those shimmery dark eyes, and I have to press my thighs together to gain some control over my senses. This is all shades of wrong. And yet so right. So necessary.

It is official, I have lost my damn mind.

How the hell are we going to sleep in the same house tonight without something forbidden happening between us? I can almost picture it, and it makes my pulse race faster.

I look at him, standing a few feet away from me. My eyes get drawn southwards to the visible bulge in his pants, and I look away quickly, but not before he catches me looking. Heat rises to my face, making me blush harder.

I feel my limbs tingling, and the sensation travels to a concentrated spot in my clit, making it throb and jump. I clench my thighs together tighter, biting on my lower lip as the morning sun splashes across his features, highlighting him like a greek god of vitality and eroticism.

"Um. I should go." I say when I reach the door. Where am I going? I have no idea but I know I have to get away from this office right now before I find myself climbing my stepfather like a tree right here in his office.

I know the naked hunger in his eyes reflects mine. I am just as aroused. Just as willing to be reckless. Caution was thrown to the wind as soon as I agreed to come back.

"Okay." His usually smooth baritone comes out cracked, he pauses and clears his throat, he starts walking towards me and my heart skips a beat, but then he turns to the left, towards his desk and I blink back my disappointment.

"Take a tour of the firm. Choose whatever department you want to intern at. Then we can go to dinner." His mouth is a set line as he settles at his desk like he wasn't just about to kiss me a moment ago.

"Dinner?" I croak, still visibly shaken up by what almost happened between us. I still feel the weight of his strong arm wound tightly around my waist. The possessiveness of his hold. The way his eyes narrowed in on my lips before he leaned in to me for the kiss. It all makes me feel heady.

"Yes. I made a reservation." He says looking up to meet my eyes, I hold his gaze.

"I don't feel up to that." I say, looking away first as his eyes bore into me. One day, I will win our spontaneous silent staring contests.

"What? Let me guess, you are not hungry?" He asks with a small chuckle. It brings flashbacks of that summer three years ago when I used to deny being hungry so I could stay away from him and my mother. Only to sneak back to the kitchen at midnight to raid the fridge for leftovers.

Linc caught me several times and the embarrassment still feels so heavy right now with the way he is watching me. Mischievous amusement shining in his eyes.

"Fuck off." I snap. I can't stand his teasing in moments like this. I hate that he knows me all too well.

"Now, now, Ames darling. I don't appreciate that tone." He says but his voice is still teasing and light. I can't believe we almost kissed just a moment ago and here he is, teasing. He confuses me. And somehow, that seems to be the allure. Other than the fact that he is my fucking stepfather.

"Whatever. I am not going out to dinner with you." I cross my arms over my chest, his eyes follow the motion and heat rises up my cheeks. A moment passes between us. An impasse.

"Okay, we will eat at home. I'll call my private chef." He says at last. I can't argue with that, so I just nod in passive agreement and push the door behind my back so I can escape the office. Escape his impossible charm.

♠︎♠︎♠︎

"So, which department are you going to intern at?" Linc says, wiping his mouth with a triangle shaped napkin. The table is being cleared by the chef's assistants, I nod my appreciation to them for a great home dining experience. Linc doesn't even acknowledge them.

"I don't know yet." I say because I truly don't. His firm is so large. So multifaceted. I have so many options but I have narrowed it down to either the creative designing or engineering departments since I have majored in both at college.

"Okay. Take your time." He says. I refuse to allow myself feel the impact of his smooth baritone as it washes over me across the dining table.

"Yeah." I should probably add my thanks but I don't. The staff finishes clearing out the table and they leave immediately, leaving us alone to our awkwardness. I swallow.

The soft light of the overhead chandelier is cast directly on my face and I feel like he is watching me closely. His eyes, those dreamy but predatory eyes watches my every move.

I could literally feel like he was looking at me to expose me, to expose my deepest secrets, secrets I would kill to have them concealed, but with Linc, just one move from him, his mouth on me and his hand in-between my legs, my entire being will open up to him on it's own accord, and when his fire burns me, my secrets will be revealed.

Linc had the house restructured, and so it doesn't hold much sentiment for me. I was slightly shocked when I first got in, but now it has ebbed. The mansion is like a luxurious minimalist hotel. Oddly, I felt comfortable and at ease. But I know I can't stay here for too long. I simply can't.

"Um, so, about the apartment you would rent for me. How is that coming along?" I say, enunciating my words carefully. I see a tic in his jaw, and I swallow.

I remember the way he asked me why I didn't want to stay with him as he held me in his arms earlier in his office. The naked vulnerability in his eyes. The way he was looking at me, it scares me, hypnotize me and locks me in.

"You just told me a few hours ago." He says, interlacing his svelte fingers on the table as he leans forward, cocking his head to the side. I can't read the expression on his face, whether it is annoyance or amusement.

"Yeah. But it is something that you can sort out in a really short time. Aren't you like a billionaire or something?" That was why Mom was besotted with him. Linc Tanner has been in Forbes.

His architectural firm has worked on top multi-billion dollar projects across the country. He is dark and mysterious and a hot forty-one-year-old.

"Yes, I am a billionaire." He says, his smooth lips turning up with a cocky smirk.

"You are avoiding my question." The house has gone quiet. All the bright lighting has been switched for dimmer ones. I am sure all the staff have left. It is just us now.

Coming to this realization opens me up to my forbidden thoughts about being alone with Linc. Wild things that had invaded my dreams for so long, just me and him alone in the house, starring at eachother, reaching out to eachother, eating out eachother.

"What if I simply don't want to get you an apartment? What if I don't want you to stay away from me? Why the hell would you be staying in some apartment when I have a mansion here you can stay in?" His smirk is gone, and he is pinning me to the spot with his dark eyes. My pulse starts racing. My mouth goes dry.

"That is not what you promised!" I yell, getting out of my seat.

What the heck does he mean he doesn't want me to stay away from him?

"Ames, Ames darling. Sit down." He says, his voice is oddly calm and controlled. It only makes me angrier, and I flip my middle finger at him as I turn around to walk away.

I don't hear him walking up to me till he grabs my wrist and spins me around to face him. The motion pulls my body too close, so we are inches away from each other. Twice in just one day, my breath escapes me in an audible gasp. He relaxes his grip on my hand but not the intensity in the dark depths of his gold-flecked onyx eyes.

"Why the hell are you so stubborn? It is killing me keeping my hands to myself already, and you have to go and push me." He hisses under his breath at me, but I hear him clearly because we are very close. The expansive kitchen peels away from my vision. The house. The soft lights.

Everything. All I can see is Linc, and up close, he is stunning. He's dangerous, he overwhelms me, he could literally set me on fire with thst forbidden mouth of his.

I don't have any power when he is this close. My knees go weak.

I forget my anger.

My rage transforms into mouthwatering need in an instant. My body betrays me when it comes to my stepfather.

My pussy tingle, my nipples harden at his touch, sinful forbidden feeling surge from my inside, threatening to tear into a loud moan of primal hunger and pleasure for him.

"I can't stay here with you." I say quietly, my voice trembling. His hand holding my wrist is like a brand on my skin.

Am I making a big deal of this accommodation thing? The house is huge. We can steer clear of each other for the duration of the three months.

The firm is huge too. I can spend my internship there, and we will never run into each other. Nobody even has to know about our connection if I keep quiet about it.

But the way my body involuntarily leans towards him, the way my belly erupts with liquid fire every time he looks down at my lips, I just know. I couldn't possibly stay here alone with him without giving in and doing something I would surely regret.

Oh, but how magical would it be between us? How explosive would it been to taste the forbidden fruit that's my stepfather.

"Why?" He asks, his face a closed-off mask, his smooth lips set in a tight line. Our faces are just inches apart from each other, my back is pressing against the hard edge of the polished wood of the dinner table, but I don't register the discomfort.

There are too many sensations to be felt standing this close to Linc Tanner, that pain is temporary.

"What do you mean, 'why?'" I throw back at him, breathing as regularly as I can, but my breaths come out choppy and raspy. I need to move away from him.

"Because I don't understand it, Ames." He snaps, his grip on my wrist tightens. I wince, and then he looks at his hand like he didn’t realize he has been holding onto me all this while. He lets me go.

"Okay, but why won't you let me go?" I pull my chin up at him, our lips barely inches apart now. I meant it as a defiant move, but one look from him and I regret it, but I don't back down.

One look at my lips I shake.

One look at my face accessing me, I'm soaked.

"This is why." Linc covers the distance between us, and my world erupts in bright scattered lights as he claims my mouth.