“Well?” he said, one brow spiked in cocky challenge.
Palette in one hand and brush in the other, Phil dropped to her knees. “What do you want me to paint?” she asked, the brush hovering just above his shoulder.
Jamal cocked his head to the side. “You know what? I’ve changed my mind.” He sat up and plucked the palette and brush from her hands. “It’s my turn to paint. Strip.”
She regarded him with a stern frown. “I told you I was not getting naked.”
“Strip,” he said again.
The force of that single word, combined with all the sexy implications that accompanied it, sent a rush of heat skittering across her skin.
Was she really going to do this?
Apparently so. Despite the apprehension that threaded through her bloodstream, Phil took off her shirt and unsnapped her shorts.
“That’s it,” Jamal encouraged her.
“I cannot believe I’m doing this,” she said as she lifted her hips and drew the shorts over them. Moments later she lay before him in her hot-pink bikini-cut cotton panties and matching bra.
“Am I wearing underwear?” he asked. “As sexy as that looks on you, you need to take off the rest.”
Goosebumps traveled up and down her arms, but Phil obeyed, reaching behind her back and unhooking the bra’s single eyehook. She hunched over slightly and let it fall from her chest, the soft cotton causing her overly stimulated skin to pebble as it slid down her arms.
She heard the deep breath Jamal sucked in. He nodded, his gaze centered on her breasts.
“The last piece,” he ordered her.
Phil lifted her hips again and pulled her panties down her legs, tossing them next to her bra. “You happy now?” she asked.
“You’ll know just how much in a minute,” he said.
Her eyes drifted to his lap, where the evidence of his happiness was gradually swelling.
He knelt next to her and said, “Lie back.”
Dipping the brush in the paint, he trailed a line of sky blue down the valley between her breasts. It traveled along her stomach, causing her belly to tremble involuntarily. Jamal circled the tip of the brush around her belly button before continuing down, stopping at the neatly trimmed thatch of hair.
He pulled his lower lip between his teeth as he seemed to contemplate his next move. He added more paint to the brush and returned to her upper body, looping the brush around the base of her right breast.
Her eyes fluttered closed as Jamal lowered his head and pulled her puckered nipple into his mouth. Phil let out a soft moan, her back arching at the contact to her sensitized skin.
He repeated the process on the other breast, drawing a circle around the base before dipping his head and laving her with his tongue. His teeth grazed her nipple, then he sucked it into his mouth, tugging with a delicious pull that shot straight to the spot between her legs.
“More,” she said. She felt his rumble of laughter vibrate across her skin.
“You just love issuing orders, don’t you?”
“What?” Phil asked, her forehead creasing in a quizzical frown.
“More. Harder. Deeper. You were like a drill sergeant last night.”
Her entire body flushed with embarrassment. “Did I really say those things?”
He nodded. “I think it’s sexy.”
She smiled up at him. “Well, get to work,” she told him.
Jamal set the brush and palette on the grass and climbed over her. Hovering above her on all fours, he returned his attention to her breasts, stroking the tips with his tongue. He brushed his lips down her right side, peppering her ribs with kisses, nipping her hip with a gentle love bite. He moved lower, capturing her knees and pushing them apart.
