Tanner grasps the back of my head, holding me in place, and the growl of pleasure that comes from the back of his throat makes me feel powerful on a whole other level. Pulling away, myeyes dance between his for a few seconds, drinking in his blown pupils, before I break the moment and lick the tip of his nose.
I fall back into my seat and clip on my seatbelt, looking straight ahead.
“I don’t know about you, but I could really eat some cake right about now.”
I can see him shake his head out of the corner of my eye with a light chuckle.
“So impatient.” The car rumbles to life again and we’re back on the road, the awkward conversation I started left for another day.
Yes, I’m all about the honesty and talking things through, but just bringing it up made me feel a little lighter. He’s aware of my feelings and can now have some time to dwell on them before responding emotionally. If he has any emotions…ha. I know he does, deep down, and they’re worth the effort digging to find them.
“Is it safe to leave that back there?” I’m purposefully avoiding all the death words.
“You mean the dead body burning in the incinerator?” He laughs at my dramatic eyeroll as I glare at him. “Yeah, it’s a work cabin. A colleague will be there later to finish the clean up.”
“Work cabin?” It hasn’t occurred to me until this very moment to ask what he does for a living. I know he used to serve, but that wouldn’t afford him the lifestyle he now has. “What is it you do, exactly?”
The trees are beginning to thicken around us again as another log cabin looms in the distance.
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you, and for now, I don’t hate being around you so I’d rather not.” Something about the way he says that sounds like he’s deadly serious, and with all the weapons, training, and his extensive knowledge, I’m inclined to believe him.
“Where are we now?” I thought we’d be going home.
“This cabin’s all mine. Not quite as fancy as the other one but it’s everything we need.” The car rolls to a stop in front of a beautiful log cabin, single-story like the other one, but this porch doesn’t wrap all the way around the building. The wood is darker, too, but I think I like it more this way.
“No more bullies from my past to murder this afternoon?” I’m not sure what’s funnier, Tanner’s brief glance of surprise or the tent in his pants.
I’m beginning to think I need a new profession because my thought process is all kinds of fucked.
“Wanna play a game?” He raises a brow and slowly unclips his seatbelt, followed by mine, and his tongue peeks out between his lips, licking them as if he’s ravenous.
“What kind of game?” It could literally be anything with this man.
“The kind that ends with your cum somewhere on my body…eventually.”
“Okay. My safe word is opera. How do I play?” I let my eyes flick down to the bulge in his pants and grin. It may be a little late to introduce a safe word, but Tanner has already pushed every one of my boundaries. I have a feeling he wants to find more and I don’t know my own limits yet.
“Noted. How about a game of hide and go seek?”
“So I go and hide, and you find me…?”
“No. I hide. You can stalk me for once.” He wags his brows as if that means something more, and with the information he seems to know about me, I’m pretty sure it does, but this sounds like too much fun to bring that up.
Nodding, I agree to whatever this is.
“Go inside the cabin, make a coffee, then come back out and find me.”
“I’m curious, though, what’s in this for you to be hiding from me?” I don’t wanna outright say that I thought it would be the other way around, but shouldn’t it?
“Oh, Sweet Bee, there won’t be a moment when I don’t have my eyes on you. It’ll be up to you to find me foryourreward, andmyreward will be watching you try to figure out where I am.”
I guess that makes sense. My body is already on board anyway; my nipples are trying to poke their way through my T-shirt and my vagina is tingling in anticipation.
“I’ll leave the coffee inside, seeing as it won’t take long to find you.” I wink, attempting to mirror his smirk as I climb out of my car and head toward the front door of the cabin.
When I look behind me, the way Tanner is leaning against my Firebird with his arms folded across his chest makes me want to forget the game and jump him now. Obviously, I restrain myself.
The door is unlocked so I walk straight inside, and what I find is not at all what I expected. It’s so homey in the decor; all bare wood, warm colors, inviting furniture, and a fireplace that begs to be lit, but what has my eyes widening the most is the cake sitting on the kitchen island beneath a clear case.
