I slide my hands down the sides of his torso, feeling his taut muscles beneath the thin layer of cotton between us. He moans into my mouth, rolling his hips as he presses his erection against me.
My fingers twitch with the urge to reach between us and grip him. I want to feel him in my hand. I want to feel the length and girth of his hard cock.
He presses his leg between mine, using it to push me farther into the apartment. At some point, we spin around, so I’m theone guiding him. With the open concept, we make it into the living room with minimal damage to anything in my home.
We reach the couch. Matteo spins me back around, his arms snaking around my lower back as he eases me down onto the couch. He follows me, hovering above as he stares down at me.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful.” His voice is hoarse, thick with need and my heart skips a beat, my stomach fluttering with his words. His mouth crashes back into mine, stealing the air from my lungs as he kisses me deeply. Our tongues meet, dancing together as our lips move.
I’m so wrapped up in him, so lost in the moment. If I had a choice, I don’t think I’d ever come up for air again.
Matteo Ford can never be anything more than this to me, and I know that. I knew that when we came up with our arrangement.
He’s simply fulfilling his end of the agreement and I’m doing it for the plot. This is only research. It’s burning inspiration.
It’s just a deal.
He kisses me until my lungs are screaming for oxygen. His mouth leaves mine, both of us sucking in deep breaths as we struggle to fill our lungs with something other than each other.
“Jade.” Matteo breathes my name as if it’s the only word his brain can formulate. “Sunny, baby, we gotta stop.”
Sunny, baby.
I don’t let myself get caught up on the words that fall from his swollen lips. I stare up at him, my hands still linked together around the back of his neck. “Says who?”
“Do you want me to fuck you?”
Every single syllable vibrates through my body. He grinds his hips against mine, his hard cock pressing between my legs. I think I might fucking explode.
“Yes.”
His eyes slowly search mine. His face is flush and his chest rises and falls with every shallow, ragged breath that slips from him. “Not tonight.”
My stomach sinks and embarrassment heats my neck. “Why not?”
What did I do wrong?
His throat bobs. “I don’t want you to regret it.”
Words fail me for a second as I’m caught off guard. “Wha?—”
He shakes his head. “We’re caught up in the moment. You know what I want, obviously,” he murmurs, his cock throbbing against me. “I need you to make the decision with a clear head.”
I stare at him for a moment. My eyebrows cinch together. What the hell is he talking about? He’s supposed to be a fuck boy. This kind of thing is supposed to be exactly what he likes.
“You want me to take some time and think about whether or not I actually want to sleep with you before I do it?”
“Yes,” he says without hesitation, dipping his chin. “If we fuck, there’s no going back to just this, Sunny. You’re under my skin. You’re in my fucking head. I’ve had a taste of you and once I get to devour you, I can’t promise it won’t change things between us.”
My throat constricts. “Change things in what way?”
A smirk tugs on his lips. “In the way that I can’t be around you without wanting to be inside you.”
“What if the sex sucks?”
The smirk slowly fades from his face. His eyes burrow holes into my soul. “I’m afraid of the opposite.”
“We never said we couldn’t be friends with benefits, you know,” I remind him, pushing my fingers through his hair along the nape of his neck. “It doesn’t come with strings.”
