“Yes, well…” She cleared her throat, lowering the gaze that had held him hostage, and lifted the glass to her lips. After a tentative sip, she hummed in contentment, and the sound went straight to his cock. “Don’t let me have more than this.”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
She cocked her eyebrow at the term. “Whatever I say, huh? So if I told you to leave, you would?”
“Is that what you want?”
For long moments, she just stared at him, making him say a prayer to every deity in the universe that she wouldn’t ask him to go. Except, that should’ve beenexactlywhat he was praying for. If he were thinking with the head that wasn’t eager to get out of his pants, he’d be begging for her to tell him to get the fuck out.
The whole plan was to stay away from Rory unless absolutely necessary. Hadn’t he just decided that? That it was something he needed to do for the future of his legacy? Pursuing this thing between them would only fuck up his plans, and he knew it.
Trouble was, he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
“You just made me a lovely drink, and it’d be rude to kick you out after that,” she said. “Are you callin’ me rude?”
He exhaled—in relief or defeat, he wasn’t sure—and shook his head. “I value my life too much to do such a thing.”
“Good. I hope you aren’t hungry, ’cause I was plannin’ on a liquid dinner tonight.”
Barking out a laugh, he rested his hip against the counter next to her. “Got it. No cookin’, just drinkin’. What other big plans did you have?”
“I need to finish that—” she gestured to a bright blue paperback on the corner of her counter “—for book club next week. And, if I wanted to get really wild, I figured I could take it in the bathtub with me.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “By all means, don’t let me keep you. Feel free to holler if you need help washin’ your back.”
“You,” she said with narrowed eyes and a pointed finger shoved in his chest, “are incorrigible. I’m pretty sure you say half the things you do just to get a rise out of me.”
He grinned, unable to stop himself. He could’ve let the statement go unacknowledged. Could’ve switched topics, or asked her about the book club pick, or done a hundred different things other than poking the beast. The beast that was currently sitting on his chest and the only thing keeping a tenuous hold on his self-restraint.
Leaning forward, he didn’t stop until his jaw brushed her cheek, his lips resting against the shell of her ear. He felt her breath hitch against him, and his cock hardened within the confines of his jeans. “Oh, I do, princess. I figure it’s only fair since you always get a rise out of me.”
The last thingRory needed around Nash were lowered inhibitions. Thanks to the two drinks she’d had, she’d practically decimated them. And now, the nearly imperceptible shred of them currently inhabiting her body was the only thing keeping her dignity intact.
Without those inhibitions? She didn’t even want to contemplate what she might do. For once in her life, she was fumbling around all thiswant. True, she wasn’t a virgin, but she had close to no experience with sexual tension.
While she’d fooled around with a couple boys in high school, Sean had been her first and only. When he’d asked her out freshman year of college, she’d agreed because he was pleasant enough to look at, but mostly because he was intelligent and focused on his future. He was well mannered and came from a good, upstanding family. He possessed all the traits she’d wanted in a husband.
Except there’d never been a spark. Never any kind of heat between them. Their kisses had been bland, their sex life boring at best. She’d never told another soul that—not even Sarah Beth. She’d spent so much time wondering if that was all there was. If she was really doomed to a life that consisted solely of three minutes of weekly missionary sex and a partner who wasn’t concerned in the least about her pleasure.
But whatever this was between her and Nash was undeniable. Her entire body had lit up from the inside at his kiss. The tension was so large, so forceful, sopresent,it was almost like an entity unto itself, filling up the space around them.
“You want me to turn this off?” he asked, making her jump.
They were both sitting on the couch, despite there being no good reason for him to still be there. Initially, she’d suggested he not drive so soon after those drinks—never mind the fact that he was two hundred pounds of solid muscle and probably wasn’t feeling even the slightest bit tingly. The way he’d looked at her when she’d told him as much suggested he’d seen through her whole facade. Instead of calling her on it, he’d settled in and turned on some godforsaken horror show.
“No, why?” She shot him a quick glance, then glued her eyes back to the book she’d been pretending to read.
“Because you haven’t turned a page in twenty minutes.”
Having no desire at all to cop to the real reason for her distraction, she huffed and gestured to the TV. “Well, it’s difficult to concentrate on my book and the poor character dealing with the death of her momma with all the eerie music and screamin’ going on.”
“Any time you want me to draw you that bath to get some peace and quiet, you just let me know.”
When he said things like that, it got her mind spinning to places it had no business going. Made her think about what it’d be like to have someone like Nash in her life, drawing baths for her, scrubbing her back…climbing right into the tub because he was so hungry to have her, he just couldn’t help himself. What would that be like? To be the object of his desire? To have him so starved for her that he couldn’t even wait long enough to dry her off before taking her rough and fast and hard?
Her mouth went dry, and heat pooled between her thighs. Desperate to stop her imagination from running away any more, she said, “How about I turn on some nice HGTV for us to watch instead of this nonsense?”
“The Haunting of Hill Houseisn’t nonsense. It’s a remake of a classic, and it’s fucking awesome.” Nash proceeded to explain the plot in great detail, all the while she attempted to stifle the lust currently burning her up from the inside.
