Now she’s offering herself up like a gift, wrapped in a prom dress—a gift I’m dying to unwrap.Eyes locked on mine, she leans closer, her chest heaving against her tight bodice, pressing against mine.Goosebumps erupt on her arms as my fingers slide up and down them, and I swear she gasps when I delicately graze her shoulder and the daisies on her upper breast.Her fingers curl over my shirt, pulling me tighter against her, and I’m sure she can feel my excitement through her clothes, even the full skirt of her dress.Her hand trembles over my heart and holds it there, perhaps waiting for me to move it.I clasp it in mine instead, pressing it to my racing heart.
I’m breathless, but in the best way.“This feels… like a game we can’t win.”
“Play anyway.Be with me, Henry.”Her lips part in a breath that waves through a loose strand of her hair.
“One night.”I breathe against her lips.
“One night,” she returns, her fingers rising to the bristles on my cheekbones, and I swear I see starbursts in the dark green of her eyes, flickering like the sparkles on her dress, and I’m lost in them.
A heartbeat later, I’m lost in her lips, as I yank her against me.It’s been too long.Too fucking long since I’ve kissed this woman.Held her.Touched her.My pleasure centers have been hibernating, and I didn’t know it.Her hands glide over my chest, along my shoulders, and into my hair, dragging me closer.Her jewelry adds extra roughness to her movements, and it’s as if each touch awakens the skin beneath.
“I’ve wanted you all this time,” I mutter, biting her lip and flushed with all the things I want to do to her.“I don’t know if we can handle what’s about to happen.”
She inhales sharply against me, her smile widening with her already-swollen lips.“I’m ready.Be whatever you want to be.Rough, demanding, anything.I can take it.”
My lips curl.“How about I be Henry, and you be Venus, and we let this go wherever it takes us?”
She answers with a smiling kiss, latching onto my neck while I let my fingers dip into the seam along the top of her breasts, grazing a nipple.
She moans—a sound so sweet that I ache to hear it again and again.
I don’t know how we make it the thirty yards to my front door without tripping on the uneven cobblestones or stumbling off a curb.But soon, I’m fumbling for my keys and pushing us inside.With one arm fixed around her waist as she licks my neck, I lock the door with the other, pull the shades, and push her against the counter.I lift her onto the edge and take in her wanton smile.
She tugs at my shirt, pulling me between her legs.“Tell me what you want, Henry.Tell me all the things you’ve ever wanted.”
My fingers trace her collarbone and slip over the intricate daisies on her chest.“I want you out of this dress, as pretty as it is.”
She tugs on the zipper hidden under her arm, loosening the bodice and revealing her bare breasts beneath.My chest constricts, not for lack of air but for wanting her.I trace the tight softness of her toned arms, along the veins of the ferns and ivy imprinted there, to her shoulder, down the slope of her breast, across the field of intricate daisies, and to the tantalizing tip of her perfect pink nipple.
A stream ofalmostsfrom our younger days skitter through my thoughts—her in my bed, in the Jeep, her in a bikini at the beach, us racing to the outdoor shower at the fairy house, stripping as we went, because she’d upset a beehive and we were desperate to get them off of us.I recall us in our underwear in the stream of the outdoor shower, checking each other for remaining bees and stings, and peeking at the dark outline of her nipples through her wet bra.Even inthatnightmare, I wanted her.I’ve touched her breasts before, under her shirt, caught glimpses, but this is the first time I’veseenher, the first time I’ve ever felt free to explore her the way I want.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.”
“I’m all for you, Henry.”Her hands slip around my neck, dragging me to her mouth and kissing me so hard that my glasses crush against my eyes.
“I want to explore every inch of you.”I bite her bottom lip and cup her breasts.“With my hands.With my tongue.Inside you.”
She moans a breathy, “Yes, Henry,” as my hand snakes under the layers of her dress, trying to find her.The fabric pools between us, but I reach lace.I run my fingers over the thin fabric.
Wanton delight surges in me as her eyes and head roll back simultaneously at my touch.She is wet and warm and hyper-responsive, trembling against me, as if each contact sends a jolt of heat through her and into me, stoking the fire inside me.I am achingly hard, pressed uncomfortably against my jeans, but I don’t care.All I can think about is exploring her and making her come right here—she’s so close already.I run my finger along the edge of her panties and slip them to the side, my thumb tracing up her center to land on her clit.She moans again, spreading her legs wider to welcome me.
I tug the scarf from her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders, and grip the back of her head.With my thumb rubbing circles on her clit and fingers curled and dipping inside her, our gazes lock—me watching her ecstasy and her doing nothing to hide it.It is the sexiest, most intimate thing I’ve ever done.
“Come for me,” I tell her, “right here.On this counter.On my hand.”
She cries out, her fingernails digging into my shoulders as I push deeper into her.Her legs wrap around my backside, her boots hitting my thighs.“Yes, Henry,” she says, her eyes fixed on mine like she knows how much I want to see her face.My hand grips the back of her hair and tightens.
“Always say my name, Venus.No other name but mine ever again.”
“Ruin me, Henry,” she whispers against my lips.
Trembling, moaning, pulling, and pushing, but never breaking our intense but agonizing connection, she comes undone in my hand.
CHAPTER14
Venus
I come apartlike a dandelion in a stiff wind, scattered and in pieces.He cradles me as I come down, hand laced in my hair and pressing his forehead to mine as my breathing slows and the tremors lessen.
