Page 51 of Floored

The sheep was tossed off the bed, and I heard her chuckle under her breath.

"Poor little sheep," she whispered.

"He'll fucking survive." I buried my nose in her hair and inhaled deeply. Her back curved sinuously, and that arse pushed back against me.

I used my other hand to push her hair out of the way, dropping kisses against her neck when I heard her whisper my name. Pausing, I made sure it wasn't an entreaty to stop, and that was when she turned, eyes drowsy with sleep and cheeks flushed with desire. Immediately, she cupped my face, sliding her hands up into my hair.

"I was dreaming about this," she murmured, and the husky tone of her voice had me shifting my hips restlessly.

"Were you now?"

"Mm-hmm." She licked her lips. "You woke me up like this. Differently, but like this."

I tilted her chin up with my thumb and ducked my head down so I could nibble along the line of her neck. Her fingernails dug into my scalp.

"Different how, love?" I spoke into her skin.

"W-with your hands." She arched her back again when the edge of my teeth found her jaw. "You'd taken off my pants without waking me."

"Trousers," I corrected with a grin. Her fingers tightened in my hair, and I hissed at the bite of pain. I sucked on her neck, hard, and she let out a surprised gasp.

"If you mark me, Jude …" she warned.

I lifted my head and met her gaze. "You'll what?"

Lia's lips curled in a devious smile. "Return the favor."

Given the way she'd yanked on my hair and the length of her nails, I didn't doubt it. I ducked my head again, sucking the soft lobe of her ear into my mouth. She whimpered. "Would you mark up my back? My arse? Would you use those lovely nails and stake your claim?"

"Yes," Lia gasped. "You'd love that, wouldn't you?"

I licked up the side of her cheek, and her thighs split around my legs, making room instantly.

In answer, I gripped her chin and took her mouth in a ferocious kiss. Our tongues tangled instantly, my head tilting so I could deepen it further. The familiarity of kissing her was a stark contrast to our first night, where the novelty of her was what made it so bloody sexy. And in that familiarity, I found a haven that I hadn't anticipated, a distraction when I'd least expected it. My hands dug into the flesh of her arse underneath her leggings, and I had to keep myself from tearing at her clothes.

Enjoy the small moments, I reminded myself, regardless of what came next.

We kissed like that, hands gripping over our clothes in a way that I hadn't in years. She held me so tightly, her arms around my neck and fingers in my hair. Lia sucked my tongue into her mouth, and I fought the urge to grip her hands and anchor them above her head, sink myself into her like I had before, just to see if I'd imagined how good it had been.

"What else happened in this dream of yours, my naughty girl?" I whispered, pulling my mouth away from hers, keeping just out of reach when she tried to kiss me again.

Her hand slipped up the back of my shirt, and the tips of those nails dug into my flesh, making me grin. Her eyes glinted, and as the sleep cleared from them, I saw a question emerge even before she voiced it.

"Are we making a new rule?" she whispered. The doubt was tempered by the fact she couldn't keep from touching me. From my back, her hand inched around, where she used that wicked fingertip to trace the squares of my abdomen just above the button to my trousers. "Because I wouldn't mind knowing what we're doing here."

I knew what she was asking.

But quite badly, I realized I didn't want to lose the ease of this relationship we'd stumbled into by way of a weak condom and her spotty memory at taking a few pills. Without those two things, I might never have seen Lia again, and at the moment, with her lithe body laid out like an offering, that felt like a fucking tragedy.

So I chose the wider path, the one more easily trod.

I glanced down meaningfully. "You are roughly three centimeters away from making me very happy, it seems. And I"—my hand did some sneaking of my own, up the line of her soft stomach and to the warm, overflowing cups of her lace bra—"am about to conduct an experiment."

Her lips curled up. "What experiment is that?"

"Size checks are now mandatory, I'm afraid." I gently lifted the hem of her shirt and placed a kiss above her belly button. She hissed when I tugged the cups down and continued my delicious journey.

"C-careful," she whispered. "They're tender."

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