Page 38 of Drive To Survive

I nodded. “Much.” I walked over to the sink. My toothbrush and toothpaste were sitting on the counter.

“Thanks for bringing my things.”

He wandered over and propped his shoulder up against the doorjamb. “You’re welcome.”

I squeezed toothpaste onto my brush, conscious of Nico standing close enough that I could feel the heat from his body. My abdomen twisted, and I squished my thighs together, hoping to relieve the growing ache between my legs. Clearly, a nasty run-in with a flu virus hadn’t diminished my desire for the man standing to my left.

“I’ll finish changing your sheets, and then we’ll get you back into bed,” Nico said, his tone deep and husky. A faint tinge of red touched his normally tanned cheeks, and his eyes wandered over my bare shoulders and flicked past the hint of cleavage peeking out from the top of the towel. His feet shuffled closer as if he couldn’t stop them following their own path.

I ran my tongue over my lips, and his eyes went there. He swallowed, muttered, “Fuck it,” and pulled me into his arms. My toothbrush clattered into the sink.

Unlike the first time he kissed me, where he’d been rough and demanding, this time his lips were gentle, exploratory, treating me as if I might break. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, the stretch loosening the towel. I felt it shift, and then it dropped to the floor, leaving me naked and pressed up against a virile, highly aroused man.

As fast as he’d come on to me, he let me go. He raked a hand through his hair and kept his eyes averted. “Shit, sorry.”

I bent down and retrieved the towel, wrapping it around me again. “For what?”

He shook his head. “You’re sick, and here I am taking advantage.”

“I’m feeling a lot better after that kiss,” I said, grinning. “That’s healing medicine right there.”

His gaze snapped to mine, and his dimple appeared as his lips curved at the edges. “I still shouldn’t have done it.”

I raised my eyes to the ceiling. “I won’t break from one little kiss, Nico.”

“You’re not well,” he replied doggedly. “I’ll finish changing the sheets and then leave you to rest.”

I ground my teeth together. I didn’t want to rest. I wanted him to finish what he’d started.

That determined set to his jaw sent a clear message I wouldn’t get my wish.

The following afternoon, Nico and I strolled down the path that ran parallel to the beach. I tilted my face up to the sun, soaking up the warmth. “God, it feels good to be outside. I almost feel normal.”

“Just make sure to tell me if you get tired,” Nico said. “We won’t go far.”

“Yes, Mother,” I said.

He grinned down at me. “Are you taking the piss?”

“Maybe.” I nibbled on my lip and gazed at him wistfully. Since Nico had kissed me in his bathroom yesterday morning, he’d avoided any kind of close contact, and it was driving me crazy. We’d both given up any pretense that we weren’t hugely attracted to one another, but he insisted on keeping up this stupid distance between us in some misplaced act of chivalry.

I didn’t want chivalry. I wanted raw, hungry, rough. It was right there, simmering beneath the surface. All I had to do was find a way to take the lid off and boom! He’d explode, and I’d bask in the fallout.

Time to up the flirting.

“Stop,” he groaned, his eyes on my mouth. “I’m trying really fucking hard here.”

“Don’t bother on my account.” I fluttered my eyelashes in an overexaggerated fashion. “Although, I like the idea of you trying hard.”

He drew in a ragged breath and looked at me with hooded eyes. “Fuck, Everly. What’re you trying to do to me?”

“Seduce you,” I baldly stated, the time for playing around well and truly over. “Then again, if you’re not interested…” I nibbled on my thumbnail.

A growl erupted from his chest, possessive and manly. He encased me in a ring of steel, his arms locked around my waist, his mouth on mine. A couple of guys cycling past wolf-whistled, but I didn’t care. Goosebumps pebbled my arms. God, this man had so many kinds of kisses. Heated and angry, soft and gentle, sexy and spine-tingling. I couldn’t pick my favorite. I wanted them all.

He tore his mouth from mine, his lips tracing a path down my neck.

“Let’s go back to your place,” I begged. I wanted to climb him like a ladder with one destination: ecstasy.

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