Shade couldn’t help his small huff of laughter as he drew her closer. “I’ll bet Jax loved that.” He’d worked on and off all week with the often grim-faced man, and Shade had gleaned some insight into Jax and Tess’s relationship. He let her live her life without interfering, but he was watchful, always alert, and she was the stitches holding him together, because whatever his wounds were, they were still raw and festering underneath.
“Oh yes.” Her agreement was pure irony. “His side-eye was something else.”
Shade leaned down to nuzzle her neck, and Tess’s head dropped back, inviting more.
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked, brushing his lips along the curve of her jaw. He wanted her to know that she could back out if she wanted to.
“What I’m doing?” She laughed softly, rubbing her leg up his until she had it practically hooked around his hip. His cock started to swell as desire lit up his blood.
“Not really,” she said. “But I know what I want.”
Something about the way she said that made Shade draw back. “Are you a virgin?”
Her eyebrows flew up. “No. Would that make a difference?”
“Yeah, it would,” Shade said. “It would change a lot about how I do this.”
“But it wouldn’t stop you?” she asked.
“Only you can stop me, baby.” He looked at her hard. “Remember that.”
Tess nodded. Her lips parted like she was begging for a kiss, but then she flushed a bit and ducked her head. “Maybe just go slowly at first. It’s been a while.”
A while?Shade took her hand and drew her toward his office. “How long?”
She didn’t answer until they were halfway down the stairs. “Seven years. Plus.”
He stopped, turning, and Tess nearly ran into him. He put a hand out to steady her, but she didn’t need it. She had the balance of a cat when she wasn’t falling over from blood loss.
“That’s a long time,” he said, although what he really wanted to do was ask,Why me?
“Well, I’m pretty sure virginity can’t spontaneously grow back.”
It was a joke, but he couldn’t laugh. He didn’t think it was funny that something about her life had kept a healthy, beautiful, adult woman completely celibate for years. Or that she’d chosen the worst possible person to trust.
Tess seemed to grow nervous in the pause left by his silence. “I’m fully vaccinated, and I have an ovulation suppression implant.”
Shade stared. He figured he’d had about as many sexual encounters as any thirty-two-year-old man who worked hard and had a lot on his mind, but he’d sure as hell never heard a woman blurt that out before.
“I have protection,” he said.
Tess shrugged. “I’m risk-free. But it’s your choice.”
He was risk-free, too, because he’d never done anything to make it otherwise. The thought of being inside Tess with nothing between them sent lust ripping through him. He practically shook, he wanted her so much.
Shade took her hand again and led her toward his living space. He wanted to devour her in any way he could, but she’d asked to go slowly. That didn’t mean he couldn’t get back some of the spontaneity they’d lost.
He threw open his door, and with a tug on her hand, he jerked Tess in to his body. She gasped, and he captured the sound with a kiss that turned so hot so fast that he knew she was right back to being the woman who’d shown up at his door and dropped her clothes.
As usual, she jumped in with both feet, licking, sucking, grinding, and driving him crazy. Wildness came so naturally to Tess that he never felt like he had to try to coax it out of her and hope she got on board, instead of running from him like he was a degenerate or a freak. She was so fucking sexy, and she didn’t even know it.
He grabbed her hips and lifted. She jumped, and then her legs were around his waist, the naked heat between her thighs pressed right up against him.
Shade groaned and kicked the door closed, cutting out the harsher light from the gym. The table in his hallway—the one he’d never seen any real use for before—suddenly seemed very well placed. Turning, he slid her onto it, leaning over her until she reclined on her back. They never once broke their mind-blowing kiss.
Tess arched up into him. Her knees rose, hugging his sides. She clutched his head, keeping him on top of her. Her total lack of restraint made him want to rip off her dress like a savage, but he managed to shimmy it down her long body instead. He backed up enough to get it off her and drop it on the floor.
Tess watched him, her chest rising and falling on quick breaths. Flushed cheeks. Parted lips. Bright-blue eyes that blew him away every time she looked at him. The rest of her was amazing, too. He couldn’t wait to know every inch.
