He caught my hand and stroked his thumb along my skin, then let it go. Tingles spread from where he’d touched me, up my arm and down my spine.
“Remember to take notes,” he said in a low voice.
The banter. Those moments he touched me like he couldn’t make himself stop. I’d take all this with me after the wedding. Grinning, I sank into the corner of his couch and tackled the cocktail menus from the tasting bar I had emailed to myself. I started a new email to myself with thoughts and ideas to send to Wynter. Once I was tired of typing, I picked up my paperback.Most of my job was on a screen, and I treasured getting lost in a paperback.
Shortly after I started reading, Tenor went into the kitchen. He brought me a rocks glass with a finger of bourbon.
I smiled my thanks. “Bourbon and romance novels?”
He held up his glass. “Bourbon and Warhammer.”
I grinned and took a drink. Mm. Copper Summit Gold. He was spoiling me with the best. I would not settle for less again.
I’d read through a good chunk of the book when he took my phone off the end table. Surprised but intrigued, I didn’t stop him as he stood back and snapped a picture. Then he kneeled next to me and showed me the image. I looked relaxed. Happy. He gently took the book out of my hands.
“Time to live up to your end of the bargain.”
“Well, there’s this human woman—” My smile caught. Oh no. The story was super steamy. The love interests had gotten physical within three chapters. It hadn’t even been intimacy. That was still developing. They’d just been down and dirty. How much had Tenor been joking about wanting to swap stories? “And she meets this space marine,” I continued weakly. “He rescues her actually, um, by buying her from an intergalactic sex auction. Only he has to, like, actually use her as his sex slave to get them both out safely.”
He arched a brow. “Naturally. And what does that entail?”
How far was he going to take this? And why was it so easy for me to push at his limits? I had to hold back. “It’s not like your painting. I can’t show you.”
“I highly doubt that.” He gently lifted the book from my hands and paged through it. His gaze darkened and a muscle in his jaw jumped.
I knew what he was reading. I wanted to sink through the couch.
“‘Sit on my face,’” he began. “‘Put that pussy where I want it the most.’”
My heart thudded. Those words in his deep voice were so much more than what had run through my head when I read them. I was going to burn through the couch. From embarrassment or desire? Yet I didn’t grab the book from him.More, please.
He wasn’t scoffing, but I’d heard all the arguments. I could head them off before he brought up the first one. “I know, I know. It’s not realistic.”
He frowned at me. “How do you mean?”
“Sit on his face? He’d get smothered in real life.”
“That’s the point.”
I opened my mouth. Shut it again. He sounded so certain. “How would you breathe?”
He held my gaze for a moment, then dropped his attention back to the page. “I believe the characters make it through. ‘That’s right. Come hard for me, like a good little wench.’”
“It’s a pet name. Just between the two of them.” I managed to sound normal. My brain was flashing back to last weekend.Now ride your hand and pretend your thumb is my tongue, licking your clit in tight circles.
I squashed a whimper. I was warm and achy. Needy. He was kneeling close to me and reading a sex scene. Out loud.
“That doesn’t explain why you think sitting on his face is unrealistic,” he said.
“Come on,” I scoffed. “He’d suffocate.”
“Guys are willing to take the risk.”
“No, they’re not.” I didn’t have much experience in this area, but what I did have conflicted with the book. “Guys get impatient enough when the girl’s on top and taking too much time. If she’s sitting on him?” I gave him a flat look. I was dying inside, butmy certainty was strong. “He’d shove her off before she’s even close.”
Tenor’s gaze narrowed. Then he deliberately slipped my bookmark off the end table and saved the spot I was at. He put the book to the side. “That most certainly should not be the case. Ever.”
A nervous laugh left me and I shrank into the corner of the couch. “Sure.”
