“Only if you’re sure?” he asked. Transparency was important at times like… well… now when they’d just made something of a commitment to each other and were ready to seal that deal.
Instead of answering with words, she answered with her mouth and her hands, legs, her whole body.
He responded the same, and as her moans melded with his groans, he realized this wasn’t about releasing tension. This wasn’t about sex.
Not to him.
This was about them. About what she’d become to him.
He wanted her to open herself and give him those deep-down pieces of herself just like he’d unwittingly given to her sometime in the recent past. Because, damn, she’d become his world.
He kissed her body… everywhere. Took inventory. Licked and touched and lavished.
She seemed to do the same thing, and there were no words necessary between them.
The gentle caresses turned heated. Her wet center pressed against him. He met her fire with a passion of his own. Met her frenzied kisses with smooth strokes to her breasts, down along the swell of her abdomen, to the bundle of nerves between her legs.
She gasped as his fingers met precisely the right point, rubbing her there as she writhed beneath him.
The first orgasm came quick, but they hadn’t been able to finish before, and he wouldn’t disappoint. He owed her two.
She cracked the door to her heart for him, and he was going to make his point. Show her how good they could be together.
So, as she rode the orgasm down, he centered himself over her, stared down, and pressed inside.
There, he took his time, holding her gaze with his as his hand worked her sweet spot and he thrust gently.
The thin string of invisible connection pulled tight, and he wouldn’t release it. They had this. This chemistry. This depth. This… everything.
She came again, wrapping her legs around his waist. This time, he followed.
Then, as she drifted to sleep in his arms, he decided that this was their new pre-tour ritual.
A helluva lot more fun than a cup of tea, he could promise her that.
Chapter Nineteen
Courtney
Courtney wasn’t hiding anything.She just didn’t want Bax to hear this particular conversation. So she hid in the pirate ship to make the call.
“Is this for real?” Irina asked through the phone line.
“Very real.” As real as it came.
The silence that followed wasn’t assuring.
“You’re sure we wouldn’t be breaking any laws?” Irina asked. “Not that I’m opposed to breaking certain laws, but I like to know what I’m looking at going in.”
“We’ll just be careful with how we describe you. Like, you could describe a paper towel as a napkin. That’s not illegal, it’s just a different description.”
“I don’t think this is the same thing.”
Blah. Courtney needed her for this, because she didn’t care for any of the alternative options. “You’re only impersonating for my sanity’s sake. No one actually thinks you’re a professional. It’s the same thing you’d get to do on television. But this time in real life. It’s like immersive acting.”
“I literally went to school for performing, and I don’t think that’s a thing.”
“New genre. You’re a groundbreaker. Are you in?” Courtney asked, hoping like hell that Irina had a free moment to come play doctor with her. Otherwise, she’d have to hire an actual professional. But she didn’t need a professional. Didn’t want to take a professional away from other patients who actually could use their services.
