Maybe because he knew the spice was coming?
From the side of my eye, I noticed he was doing something with his face. It looked almost like a wince, but he wasn’t wincing… Maybe exercising his mouth muscles? He was lifting his cheeks to smile, but he wasn’t smiling either. His eyes crinkled when he did, and his nose scrunched.
“Aye,” I read. “Jack smiled at Grace—” I stopped reading, noticing he was doing it again.Oh my God.Was he…? He was. He was trying to smile! Or maybe getting a feel for it? I didn’t know whether to cry or hug him. I didn’t do either, because I didn’t want to freak him out, but it was extremely hard not to do both.
Come on, baby. Come on,my heart chanted.You can do it.
His eyes met mine. He was wondering why I’d stopped. I reached for the fizzy drink and took a hard gulp of it. It was flat and warm, but it helped wash my emotions down. I cleared my throat and started again. “Jack smiled at Grace, bending over and tipping his feather-plumed hat to her. ‘Ladies always come first—in society and in pleasure.’” I handed him the book. “Your turn.”
He scanned pages, taking his sweet time, until I almost asked him why he wasn’t reading. He took the bookmark and set it between the pages, then set the book down and stood.
“Wha—?” I hadn’t even gotten the entire word out before he left me alone under the oak tree. I wasn’t sure if I should follow him or not. Maybe he went to take a quick bathroom break? We’d drank a lot of the fizzy drink.
He came back holding a dagger-looking knife. He flung it at the tree when he was close enough, and it stuck in the branch not too far from me. I looked at it and then looked at him. He was pulling his T-shirt off by the collar. It messed up his hair when it went over his head. He flung it to the ground and got down on his knees before me.
“He crouched toward me like a feral cat about to devour me,” I breathed out as he did it.
He was reenacting the scene from the book.
What kind of lady would I be if I didn’tsomewhatput up a fight first? That was what Grace—the heroine—had thought and did until she gave in to the unbridled passion between them.
I scooted back some, but he crowded me. When I set my hand against his chest, I felt his heart pounding against my palm. “Careful,” I breathed out. “You’ve experienced danger before, but none like this.”
He looked at my lips and licked his. He moved toward me achingly slow, until our breaths were tangled, and I could barely stand the anticipation. I shivered when his lips finally reached mine and our tongues touched.
“Touch me, Maeve,” he said in between kisses.
I reached out, and my hands danced over his warm skin. It was slick from sweat. His muscles trembled at my touch.
My heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest.
I knew what happened next.
Still crowding over me, he reached up and took the knife from the tree. He lifted my chin, and I watched as he slid it down my throat, all the way down to my T-shirt. He hooked the knife in the fabric and sliced down. Then he sliced right through the hook of my bra.
He growled low in his throat when my breasts were exposed. A bead of sweat ran down my chin, and before it ran between my breasts, he leaned forward and licked it up with his tongue. He licked all the way up to my mouth, claiming it in a kiss that had me whimpering when he pulled away.
The point of the knife ran down my stomach until he got to my shorts. He cut straight through them, flinging them to the side after they fell away like nothing.
Freeing myself of the tattered shirt and bra, I got to my knees, looking up at him, reaching for the waistband of his jeans. His skin convulsed at my touch.
“You’ve always pleasured me first,” I whispered, letting the story between the pages exist on its own—and letting us write our own. “I’m going to do this for you.”
He became very still as I started to kiss and suck on his neck, my hands fluttering over his body. He tasted like salt and something entirely his. His scent rose in the humid air around us, and I breathed him in while my tongue searched and discovered every inch of his skin. He was making a noise deep in his throat. When I licked the deep V that his abs made, then came back up, close to his mouth but not making contact, he made a fist.
When I moved back down, he convulsed, breathing out when I undid the button of his jeans and slid the zipper down. He still seemed overdressed, so I pushed his jeans down and he stood, stepping out of them.
He wasn’t wearing boxers.
His erection sprang free, and before he could meet me on the ground again, I took his thighs in my hand and pushed him closer to me. When my mouth wrapped around him, he growled deep in his throat and buried his hands in my hair, trying to untangle the braid. Once he did, my hair fanned around me, and he looked down at the same time I looked up.
I moaned, and the vibration seemed to set him off. He started to move his hips.
Giving him this much pleasure…my breasts were aching, and it felt like the sensitive nub between my legs was swelling and beating like a hot pulse. I wasn’t sure if it was possible for me to shatter like this, but I felt close. So close.
He was grunting and moaning, getting louder and louder. And the more he lost control, the faster I moved. I was still learning how to do this, but…judging how wild it was making him, he was loving it. When I reached up and took a handful of his balls, he tilted his head back and made a noise so feral, I thought an animal was going to emerge from his chest.
It was like he was mindless, only inside his body. This was nothing but a primal need.
