Living in Secret: Living In..., Book 3 by Jackie Ashenden

before because now he’d started, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop.
    But he had to stop. He had a proposal to put to her and if he wanted her agreement, he had to keep something back.
    Connor lifted his head, breaking the kiss.
    Victoria was looking up at him, a deep flush staining her smooth olive skin, her lips wet and full. Her eyes were hazy with desire, and for a second he just wanted to keep looking at her like this, wanted to imprint on his memory the image of Victoria, hot for him.
    Then there was a movement behind her and he remembered suddenly it wasn’t just the two of them in the room.
    “Move for me, sweetheart,” Raphael said softly, an edge of roughness in his voice.
    Victoria blinked as if she too, had forgotten he was there.
    Connor let her go, straightening and stepping back to give them some space.
    A distant part of himself was appalled at his own behavior. That he’d encouraged another man to fuck his wife and had given him instructions on how to do it into the bargain, was not in any way normal behavior for him. In fact, it was just the kind of behavior he’d always loathed and been disgusted by. Yet he’d given in to his darker self and done it anyway.
    He should be disgusted at himself. But he wasn’t. In fact, he was hard, aching to sink his cock into her, make her scream the way she’d screamed just now.
    As Victoria slid from Raphael’s lap, smoothing down her dress with shaking hands, he toyed briefly with the idea of getting her to relieve that ache immediately. Putting her on her knees, getting her to suck him off maybe.
    But no, he’d decided he was going to hold back, wasn’t he? And after all, he had the control now and he wanted to keep it.
    Raphael had moved to the bar, leaning over it to get rid of the condom in the trash while Victoria stood near the armchair, still smoothing non-existent wrinkles from her dress. She didn’t look at Connor, the expression on her face utterly impassive. But he could take a guess at what she was feeling anyway. Embarrassed, unsure. Awkward. And understandably. It wasn’t like either of them had done anything like this before.
    As Raphael turned from the bar and walked over to where Victoria stood, Connor tensed. “You can’t kiss her,” he said harshly, unable to help himself. “Only I get to do that.”
    The other man didn’t take offense. He reached out and took Victoria’s hand instead, raising an eyebrow at Connor. “This okay?” There was no challenge in the words, only a simple question.
    The tension inside him loosened. Clearly the guy understood what was happening here and was fine with it. He nodded and Raphael raised Victoria’s hand to his lips in an old-fashioned courtly gesture. She lifted her chin in response, her mouth relaxing into an almost-smile. Raphael released her. “Thank you,” he said and then glanced at Connor, including him too. There was a complicated expression on his face, one Connor couldn’t interpret, but he thought he saw respect in it and something like a warning.
    He didn’t reply, only gave the other man another curt nod, and remained silent as Raphael turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.
    The silence lengthened, became heavy with the weight of what had just happened.
    Victoria bent to grab the purse she’d put down beside her chair and straightened. The passionate woman he’d kissed before was gone, to be replaced by the cool, reserved lawyer. “Well?” Her voice was crisp and brittle. “Since I screwed someone in front of you, does this mean I get my divorce?”
    And abruptly the anger was back, coiling inside him like a snake. He was still hard, he was still hungry and she was looking at him as if nothing at all had changed.
    “No,” he said. “It means you get to listen to my proposal.”
    “I hardly think that’s—”
    “Shut up and listen.”
    Fire glinted in her eyes, but she didn’t speak. Good choice.
    He closed the distance between them, wanting