“Good,” I breathe back.
“I’m serious.”His thumb traces my bottom lip.“We keep ending up like this anyway.”
I stare at him, my heart hammering.“So?”
“So maybe we stop pretending it’s not going to happen again.”
The implication hangs between us, heavy and electric.I should be scandalized, should push him away and tell him he’s mad.Instead, I hear myself asking, “Are you suggesting we become fuck buddies?”
“Don’t be crude,” he says with a smirk.“Friends with benefits.”
“We’re not friends,” I add quickly, even as my body melts against his.
Caleb grins, that wicked smile that makes my pulse race.“Fine.Enemies with benefits then.”
“You’re craz—” We’re side by side on the couch when Caleb moves, sudden and certain.His arm hooks around my waist, and in the next breath I’m on my back, pinned into the cushions with his body braced above mine.
“One minute you’re saying we should pretend to date.Then you say we should be friends with benefits.Make up your damn mind,” I purr.My hands press against his chest, but my fingers curl instead of pushing him off.
He leans down, his mouth brushing along my jaw, heat spilling down my skin, as he corrects me.“Enemieswith benefits.And I don’t see why we can’t be both.It’ll make the whole thing more believable, don’t you think?”he murmurs, lips grazing my throat.
“I’m not doing this with you,” I whisper, voice trembling.“This is not a good idea.”
“Why not?”His hand tugs the tie of my robe loose, the silk sliding open with ease.His palm cups me through lace, thumb circling lazily until my breath stutters.“We’re not attached.No one gets hurt.Just this.Just us.”
I shake my head, trying to cling to reason even as my back arches into his touch.“I don’t want—” The rest of the sentence breaks apart in a gasp when his mouth closes over my breast, hot and wet, sucking until a helpless sound escapes me.
“Don’t want what?”he rasps, his teeth grazing lightly before soothing the mark with his tongue.“Don’t want me touching you like this?Don’t want to feel how good it can be?”
My fingers twist in his hair, tugging, but instead of pulling him away, I hold him closer.“You’re trying to talk me into something I shouldn’t agree to.”
“And yet you’re trembling for me.”He lifts his head, eyes burning into mine as his thumb flicks over my nipple, coaxing another gasp from my lips.He kisses me hard, deep, relentless, swallowing my half formed protest.Between kisses, his words are rough, persuasive.“You want it, too.Admit it.”
I shake my head weakly, but my body betrays me, my thighs shifting beneath him, opening instinctively as his mouth trails back down, teasing, worshipping.
“I’ll prove it to you,” he murmurs against my skin, tugging the lace aside to bare me fully to his mouth.“You can fight me all you want, Eve.But you can’t lie to me.”
His tongue flicks over the hard peak of my breast, slow and deliberate, before he draws it fully into his mouth, sucking hard enough to make me arch.Heat flashes through me, sharp and overwhelming, and I can feel the damp ache starting between my thighs.My robe slips wider, silk pooling at my sides, leaving me almost bare beneath him.
Every stroke of his tongue is torture, wet heat contrasted with the scrape of his teeth, and when he clamps his mouth around me again, a broken moan tears out of me before I can stop it.
“Caleb—” I whimper, my nails digging into his shoulders as his hand cups and kneads the other breast, pinching my nipple until my body jerks.
“Say the word ‘no,’ and I’ll stop,” he says hoarsely, pulling back just long enough to let the cool air sting the damp trail he’s left behind.His mouth immediately moves to the other side, sealing hot around me, drawing harder, deeper.
My hips lift, desperate for friction, for anything to ease the need building in me, but he holds me down with the weight of his body, controlling every inch of me.I clutch at his hair, my breath ragged, my head tipping back into the cushions as sensation takes me over.Every nerve in my chest feels raw, alive, too much and not enough.My pulse hammers in my ears, drowning out the words I keep trying to form.
I want to refuse him.I want to shove him away.But my body has other ideas, responding with every gasp, every arch, every shameless sound breaking free as he laves, sucks, and teases me like he’s starving for me.
When he lifts his head again, my nipples are swollen, aching, wet from his mouth.His lips are slick, his jaw tense, eyes blazing down at me like he already knows he’s winning.“You can keep saying this isn’t a good idea,” he growls softly, his thumb brushing over the tight, damp peak he’s just abandoned, “but your body’s not listening.”
And he’s right.God help me, he’s right.
His hand leaves my breast, dragging lower, fingertips teasing down my ribs to the waistband of lace.I tense, my thighs clamping together, and his mouth curves in a smirk.
“You don’t get to be shy now, Princess.”His voice is rough, coaxing.“Not when you’re this wet for me.”
“I’m not—” My protest shatters into a gasp as he slides the lace aside and presses a finger into my folds, finding me slick.
