Toby’s gaze flickered. “Why would you say that?”
“Because it’s true.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah. No one ever told you that before?”
He snorted. “That would be a hard nope.”
“Well, they should’ve.” I reluctantly opened my arms and let him sit up. Candles still lit the room with a soft glow, and the bottles of oil were open on the bedside table. His gaze fell on them, and a shiver passed through him so soft that perhaps even he didn’t notice.
I noticed. And it took every ounce of restraint I possessed not to tug him back to me and revisit every pleasure point I’d discovered in his strong, supple body. Tobywasbeautiful. He was also sexy as hell, more so because he had no fucking idea.
We got up. Toby took a shower while I washed my hands of fragrant oils and pondered the contents of my fridge. Anticipating Toby’s arrival had killed my appetite, but he was here now, whistling in the bathroom he’d built for me, and my contentment with his presence remained.
I pulled chicken, chillies, ginger, and garlic from the fridge and rice noodles and soy sauce from my near-empty cupboards. Toby reappeared as I was poking at the resulting stir fry in the pan. He came up behind me and peered over my shoulder. “What’s that?”
“Chicken. Want some? Don’t worry, there’s nothing green in there.”
“What are the red bits?”
“Chilli.”
“Is it going to blow my head off? I don’t think I can handle that twice in one night.”
“There’s all kinds of things I can tell you about the connection between chilli and sex hormones, if that helps.” I turned the heat off the stove and turned around. Toby was a heartbeat behind me, dressed in the sweatpants that hung low on his hips, his T-shirt draped over his shoulder. I couldn’t help myself. I took the T-shirt away and folded it on the counter. As long as he was shirtless, I needed to see every inch of him. “Or you could just eat it and see what happens.”
I was joking... mostly. There was nothing more appealing than a pit stop, then getting him naked again, but sharing dinner with him had its appeal too. Toby was good company, and I liked him. I liked him a lot. And I dug the way his gaze was darting between the sizzling pan on the stove and the T-shirt I’d confiscated. The way it swung back to me and his dark eyes scanned every inch of my bare torso, as if my chest could make the decision for him.
Giving him space, I turned away and tipped the spicy chicken noodles into two bowls. If he didn’t stay, I’d eat it for breakfast too. Who said I didn’t know how to live?
I found forks in a drawer and wondered if Toby had put them there, like I did every time I discovered something new in the cottage. Every wall, door, windowpane. Every inch of painted wood. Even the bed. It was all Toby, and I liked that almost as much as I liked him.
“Um...” Toby came up behind me again, closer this time, and his bare chest hit my back. “If I stay for dinner, does that mean I get to start my next lesson early?”
“Maybe. What do you want to learn?”
“How to touch you and make you come like you did me. Do you think I’ll ever be able to do that?”
It was beyond me how he didn’t know that when he’d come in my hand I’d been milliseconds away from doing the same. Only the faint fear in his gaze had held me back, the panic of someone losing control in a way they never had before. I’d wanted to be present when he came back down. In case the fear had remained.
It hadn’t, but I had no regrets. Just a boner that hadn’t gone away.
I leaned back against Toby and arched my neck so he could kiss me there the way I had him. His lips hit my skin, and he found the sweetest spot with no guidance. I shivered, food instantly forgotten. “I don’t think you have much to learn about how to do this. And you listen. Great sex is all about the listening, so I don’t think you could be bad at it if you tried.”
Toby made a sound I couldn’t quite decipher, but with his tongue grazing my throat, it was hard to think clearly. So I didn’t. I let him trace a path along my jaw until he found my lips. Then I fell down the rabbit hole of the sweet kisses we’d shared from the start, except this time, Toby didn’t hesitate. He knew what he wanted and how to take it from me.
He kissed me hard and turned me around, pressing me against the stove. The dials dug into my back, but I didn’t care. Barely felt them as he slid his hands down my body, taking my trousers with him low enough to free my aching dick. He didn’t touch it. But he didn’t need to. His own arousal tented his sweats, and the friction was unreal.
A harsh moan escaped me. I thrust against him, any control I possessed fast slipping away, but I didn’t want to blow my load in the kitchen. I wanted him for real. “Come on.” I let my trousers fall to the floor and stepped out of them. “Let’s go back to bed.”
Naked, I took his hand and led him back to my bedroom. The bed was still rumpled from our first encounter, and the sight of it made my blood run hotter. I crawled onto it and lay back, beckoning Toby to follow.
He scrambled after me and let me pull him on top. He kissed me breathless, then drew back, uncertainty marring his sweet face. “Can I touch you?”
“If you want.”
“Doyouwant me to?”
