His finger led the way to her jaw, tracing the line there, then her throat. He paused like that, directly over her pulse, and smiled for the first time. She let out her breath and tilted her head back to rest against the tub, content to let him take the lead for now. She was surprised by her passivity.
In her experience, she was the one who took charge. It felt safer that way, leading where she wanted and pulling back when it dove into places she didn’t. A trickle of uncertainty pulled at her. She felt in the dark without being able to see his eyes and test his emotions through their cool blue or the darker shade they turned when he was turned on beyond all measure.
“Truth or dare?” she whispered.
His fingers continued to move over herneck and the tops of her shoulders, lightly skimming, teasing, but staying well above her breasts or anywhere else her skin ached to feel him.
“Truth,” he said.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking this is a very bad idea,” he murmured. He dropped his hand away from her collarbone. Instantly, a chill replaced it. Disappointment came crashing down, and she felt her face fall. He lifted a hand and took off his glasses.
Finally, she could see his eyes. Any lingering doubt or disappointment faded. They were dark, velvety blue, looking back at her with an intensity that made her breath skitter to a stop. “And we’re going to do it anyway.”
“I thought you were going to say you changed your mind,” she said, her breath coming back in shallow pants, “Or you didn’t want me.”
He slid his palm around her neck and tilted her head back to meet his eyes. “I want you more than I want my next breath. I want to sink my teeth into you, and taste you, and leave my mark on your skin. I want to fuck you until you scream my name into my pillow, and then I want to fuck you again, so you feel me for days.”
A flush rose up her chest to her neck and cheeks and she felt dizzy with heat and need. “You want me to feel you for days?” she asked faintly.
“I wantyou,” he corrected her. “Whatever way I can have you.”
His words sent a shiver through her, whether from desire or fear at the intensity in his voice.
She sat up with an instinct to leave. For the first time, she felt real fear with him. Men like Theo were used to getting what they wanted.
She had watched him work ruthlessly for months now,sacrificing sleep and anything else that came between him and his goals. To be the object of that much intensity scared her.
When he looked at her like that, there was no flimsy bravado or persona she could hide behind. It was only her, in all her truest, messiest, most vulnerable self.
He must have read the fear on her face because he smiled knowingly, as if he saw right through every one of her pretenses.
“Your turn. Truth or dare?" he countered.
"Dare," she said. “Always.”
“Show me what you have on under the water.”
She took a deep breath, feeling the fear recede as she stepped back onto firmer ground. Amber looked down at the bubbles concealing her up to her throat. “What makes you think I have anything on?” she teased, raising an eyebrow.
She braced her arms and lifted herself onto the side edge of the tub. Water streamed down her naked body, dripping off her breasts, catching on her nipples to bead there, down her stomach, dripping between her thighs.
She leaned back on her arms and watched with pleasure as his eyes widened and his nostrils flared as his gaze roamed over her body. She’d never felt sexier in her life. The imbalance of it, with Theo fully dressed and her bare, shot through her like a drug, deliciously improper.
"Spread your legs.”
“Is that another dare?" she asked. Slowly, she opened her legs, exposing herself fully to him.
She was bare and slippery with need. His jaw clenched, and he yanked his tie undone. He made quick work of his buttons while she watched.
Lazily, she touched herself, a teasing, light stroke of her fingers on her bare mound. She dipped her fingers between her slick folds, spreading moisture to her clit before circling lightly there. The little bud was hard and aching, almost too sensitive totouch or she’d come before even feeling his beautiful, hard body against hers. Lust, bold and heavy, consumed her.
He swore and tore the rest of his shirt off, and then yanked his plain white cotton undershirt over his head with one hand, leaving his chest beautifully bare. Six squares of muscle lined his stomach, perfectly symmetrical, with two larger squares next to each other above, lightly covered in dark hair.
Theo’s body was a lean, powerful, sculpted testament to good nutrition and regular exercise. Not something she ever aspired to herself, but she was thrilled to enjoy the benefits of all that hard muscle naked against her.
She wanted to feel him inside her.
