“Well, I wasn’t expecting dinner and a show, but by all means, continue.” Jaxsen’s gaze lingered over him appreciatively. She bit her lip, slowly pulling it from her teeth with exaggerated motion.
Emerson was frozen with indecision. He was already half naked, the top half at least, and if he walked much farther into the room, his loosened breeches would take care of the second half of him.
“Don’t be shy,” she teased.
His thoughts finally caught up with him, and he ran his fingers through his hair. “You first.”
Her gaze met his, a flicker of curiosity mingled with a quickly shuttered interest before her expression took on a decidedly unimpressed mien. “Eh, too much work. All the buttons.” She rose from the bed where she’d been sitting and slowly turned to give him a view of her back, and indeed, the line of buttons that lined the length of her spine.
Emerson could think of several ways to eliminate the problem they presented with quick precision, leaving most of those little pearl spheres scattered across his floor.
“Pity, that,” he answered, then reached down to retie his breeches, his cock tight against the fabric, his body begging to be released rather than restrained.
But restraint was the name of the game for the moment.
And he’d be lying if it didn’t build up a bit more of the delightful anticipation that made everything even better when realized.
And itwouldbe realized, some day.
If he had his say, someday soon.
“I must say I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this silent,” Jaxsen commented, coming to stand near him, her gloved hand tracing along his collarbone before trailing down from his shoulder to his arm and then withdrawing.
“And here I thought one couldn’t see silence, rather more of a hearing sense. Don’t you think? he teased, but it was forced. The sensations burning through him were anything but amusing. Her touch had left a blaze of fire on his skin, reminding him exactly where her gloved fingers had touched. Her brow arched, as if his words didn’t offer any significant information.
“You’ve been doing physical labor,” she commented and studied him, not in the earlier manner, but with more a clinical execution to her gaze.
“Oh? And how do you come to that conclusion?” he asked, his body still fevered from her touch, however brief.
Damn, he wanted to kiss her.
And he was lying to himself that it would only stop at a kiss.
“Your muscles… they are tightened with excess blood flow.” She nodded to his arms. “It’s all but obvious. The question is what you were doing.”
“You’re the great Jaxsen. Can’t you figure out such a simple mystery?” He baited her, unable to resist.
She glared, but her gaze flickered back to his torso and then traced the lines of his shoulders, arms, and forearms before resting on his hands. She reached out and grasped his right hand, pulling it closer for inspection. “Don’t you know not to believe every fairy tale you hear?”
”What about legends? Should I believe those?” he asked, his tone nearly breathless. What was it about this woman that turned all his composure to the consistency of pudding?
She met his gaze with a sarcastic grin. “I’m hardly a legend.”
“Says the legend,” he remarked, grinning in response. Her fingers trailed over his knuckles, swollen but clean from marks because he’d wrapped them. But would she catch on to that?
Probably.
Jaxsen tipped her head, and a tiny quirk of her lips gave away her amusement. “You worked up quite a sweat.”
“I didn’t think ladies mentioned such things.”
A baleful glare answered his words. “I thought we established I wasn’t exactly a lady.”
“Ah, yes.” He nodded then murmured near her ear. “The gagging of men to make the sex better. I remember now.” He made snapping sound with his teeth as he nudged her lobe with his nose, as if to prove he was not gagged at the moment.
She gave a slight shiver. Perhaps she wasn’t as unaffected as she pretended.
“Boxing.” She breathed and took a step back, her gaze shifting from a hazy lack of focus to a sharper expression. “You’ve been boxing.”
