I know he heard it. I sense it from his stillness. I clench my teeth together, my breath coming in short gusts. I wait, anticipation tingling over my skin, knotting in my stomach. I want him to touch me. I want it so much.
He doesn’t move.
This is what I get for rejecting him. This is what I get for rejecting a good man—someone who has integrity and honor. Who won’t make a move on a woman who’s said no. Even when that woman is in his bed, wearing skimpy pajamas, and dying for him to take her to the bone zone.
At this point, my eyes sting with tears. Because Marekisthat kind of man. And I pull in a shaky little breath that again I know he hears.
“What’s wrong?” His fingers move on my stomach. “Are you still scared?”
“No.” I need to be honest. I roll over to face him. In the shadows I study the shape of his jaw, the curve of his mouth. “I’m…” Oh, God.
He waits, eyebrows lowering.
“I want you.” The words rush out of me.
His eyes flicker but other than that he doesn’t react. “What do you mean, Nikki?”
“You know what I mean!”
“I’m not sure I do. And I want it to be crystal clear.”
“I’m horny,” I say. “I’m in bed with a hot guy and I want to have sex. And…” I pull in a breath. “I think it will help me. It’ll take my mind off… the stuff I keep thinking about.”
His eyes move over my face. “Nikki.” My name comes out in a croak. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Yeah. I already know that. I don’t care. Thank you, hormones. “Why not? We did it before. And it was good.”
His mouth flattens and his eyes narrow. He looks like he’s being tortured on a slowly tightening rack. Like he wants to fuck me despite thinking it’s a bad idea.
I slide close and press my breasts against his chest and run my hand over his shoulder. He’s wearing a T-shirt and boxers. I press my lips to his throat in a long, open-mouthed kiss.
“Jesus,” he groans. “Don’t do this to me.”
“Would it be that bad?” I kiss him again. “We have amazing chemistry.”
He makes a rough noise. I think he agrees.
I lick his throat. “We can do this. Please. Make me feel good.” I shift up and kiss his mouth.
I’m flipped onto my back in a heartbeat with him moving over me. Excitement flutters in my belly. He throws a leg across me and straddles me, stares intensely down at me as his fingers work open the buttons of my pajama top. My nipples tighten and liquid heat surges between my legs.
He slowly opens the shirt, his eyes hot, his lips parted, revealing me to him. “Christ.”
He sets his palm on my abdomen then leisurely glides it up between my breasts and back down. Both hands caress my waist and slide up my sides and around my boobs, not touching me where I need to be touched, amping up my need. And then he does, cupping me, gently squeezing, catching my nipples between thumbs and forefingers. I watch his face as he does this, the way his eyes are dark, his mouth soft. He bends down to kiss my chest, feathering kisses across my collarbone, gliding his tongue down to the nipple plumped up by his hand. When he closes his lips around the tender tip, I shudder hard and reach for his hair, twisting my fingers into it.
He sucks and nibbles on each nipple then lifts his head and gazes down into my eyes. It’s like we’re moving in slow motion as he lowers his head, his eyelids falling, and he kisses me.
Oh, God. It’s been so long since I felt his mouth on mine. Since I tasted him like this. So many times I’ve thought about it and relived it and longed for it again. I open to him eagerly, hungrily, our tongues sliding together in long, deep, consuming kisses.
“Nikki.” He whispers my name then straightens and shifts back on his heels. His cock is pushing at the front of his boxers, enormous with need, his massive thighs expanded in that position. He hooks his fingers into the elastic waistband of my shorts and gently pulls them down. I bend my knees up and back to help him get them over my ankles and feet and then his big hands are on my inner thighs, pressing me open, and he stares again at me, there, a blatant, weighty stare.
I’m so exposed, literally naked and laid out in front of him… and yet I feel safe.
“Nikki.” His voice is a rasp. “What do you want?”
I gaze back at him. I just told him what I want. “I want you.”
He closes his eyes briefly, then stretches out on the bed with his mouth near my center and studies me more. “You’re so beautiful.” Then he kisses me, tender, suckling kisses over my labia and the junctions of my thighs and my sensitive mound. I’m aching, throbbing. He licks me, rubs his tongue over my clit and every nerve ending in my body jumps.
