Page 74 of The Art of Taking Second Chances

I felt myself turning to stone. My heart stopped for a second, then plummeted. One tear had already slipped out of my eye when his mouth turned up into a crooked smile. He leaned in and said, “Damn, Tara, that was way too easy!”

I swiftly wiped away the tear and pushed him to the couch. My dress rode up my thighs as I climbed on his lap and clutched his t-shirt in both my fists. “If you ever do that again, I’ll bite your dick off,” I growled against his lips.

Of course, he didn’t flinch at the threat. “That’s tough talk from a tear-shedder,” he said. But the tenderness in his eyes belied the smirk on his lips.

I sat back and waited. “Well?”

“Well?”

“I’m not going to kiss you. It’s your turn.”

As I shimmied my shoulders and leaned in, his eyes drifted to the generous cleavage peeking out of my neckline. He leaned in and brought his mouth upon mine.

The kiss, slow, deliberate, and intentional, was nothing I had expected. I was prepared for fireworks and pyrotechnics, I got cotton and clouds. His plush lips were soft, his body firm against my melting flesh. “I’ve missed you so much,” he said every time we broke for breath. His mouth moved gently across my jaw and neck, placing soft kisses where I had expected scratches and teeth marks.

“Oh, Sameer,” I cried breathlessly, and felt him harden against my thigh.

He wrapped his hands around my waist and showered tender kisses all over my face. Pausing at my left cheek, he regarded the scar cutting across my eyebrow. He traced it with the lightest touch of his finger, then kissed it as if he was afraid it still hurt. My heart squeezed. I could handle the fire and brimstone, but this tenderness was uncharted waters.

“Sameer, are you being gentle because of what I told you?”

He smiled and nuzzled his head in my neck. I kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, “Because I still don’t do tender.”

He looked up with heartfelt laughter below teary eyes. I wiped them with my palms and dropped two gentle kisses on his eyelids. He straightened himself against the couch and sniffed.

“In that case…” As his breath shifted, the air became charged. The warmth from a moment ago turned to raging heat when he kissed me again. This kiss was different, and I knew how to respond. I brought my arms around his neck and kissed him back, lips, tongue, and teeth. The next instant, he lifted me and pressed me against the wall.

He clutched my earlobe between his teeth. Gone were the soft lips. His stubble scorched my skin. His hands found the zipper on my dress.

“Wait!” I cried, and he stopped. “Just one question before we do this.”

He nodded.

“Do you still have that Selfia in your office?”

He threw his head back in a silvery laugh. “No, I unloaded it on some other chump and made a tidy profit doing it.”

“Alright, I’m all yours.”

He swung me around, pushing my stomach against the wall, and slid down my zipper in a flash. Torturously sweet kisses landed on my neck and back as goosebumps rippled across my skin. Turning me around to face him, he flicked the dress off my shoulders. It slipped down without protest to pool around my feet, leaving me wearing nothing but a thin, white-lace bra and matching panties.

“Damn!”

“This is a coincidence, I promise! It’s the only white pair I brought here,” I said earnestly as he yanked off the clip holding my hair up. It tumbled down my back.

“A perfect coincidence,” his needy voice rasped in my ear as he took his hands to my bottom, setting it on fire. He grabbed the soft flesh popping out of the cheeky panties, before planting two surprisingly well-placed spanks, sending shivers up my body.

“I’m so going to enjoy digging my teeth into them,” he said. I wrapped my hand around him and grazed along his sculpted back, then traveled from his butt to the front of his jeans. He jumped slightly as I pushed my greedy fingers into the waistband.

“Mmm, is that what you want?”

I moaned. “So bad.”

“Yeah?” He pulled my hands out. “But you’ll have to wait. There’s something else we need to do first.”

I moaned as his kisses turned into bites, his grip loosened, and I pushed my hands into his luxurious hair. But he was on to me. “What’s cooking in that brain of yours, babe?”

I returned my hands to his jeans while attempting a quick descent to my knees. But he was faster. In a flash, he pulled me up and pinned me to the wall with my hands above my head. When he nudged his leg between my thighs, I bent into a squat to rub my core against him. With a loud moan, I pushed my breasts into his chest, my palm rubbing the front of his thick denim. “I can’t wait any longer.”

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