Page 35 of Between the Lines

CHAPTER TWELVE

SHEWASGOINGto have sex with Theo again. Tonight. Soon. There was no question. After so long with numbness as her constant companion, she was overwhelmed with feeling—like steam building up in a pressure cooker, she needed to let some out before she exploded.

The orgasm that had just exploded through her body hadn’t relieved the pressure, not at all. As Theo rubbed his cock against the tender skin of her inner thighs, she wondered if she was going to survive this intact, or if her entire body would self-combust the second he slid inside her.

“Put your arms around me.” She did as he commanded, her heart melting a little as he scooped her up in his arms, fireman-style. He snagged a towel the size of a lake as he carried her from the shower to the foot of the bed. When he wrapped her in it, the hem of the plush fabric fell almost to the floor. Content for the moment, she watched as he crossed to the massive fireplace, picked up a remote and set a blazing fire to life with the press of a button.

“That’s quite the toy,” she commented when he returned to her, rubbing the towel over her hair and then lower. She closed her eyes against the sensation when he scrubbed the fabric over her sensitive nipples and then between her legs, the nubby fabric a tease.

“I like toys.” He didn’t bother to dry himself off, instead tossing the towel to the ground. She felt his gaze everywhere he looked at her just as much as if he was stroking her with his hands.

What was it going to be like, this time? In the first few years after he’d left, she had a few fumbling encounters, but she always stopped it short of penetration, because why would she go there if it did nothing for her? But now, all she could think about was the one time he’d been inside her, how it had been when he’d slid his arousal right into her very core.

“Please.” She didn’t want to wait even a minute longer. However stupid it was, it felt like all this time she’d been waiting for him to come back—him, the only person who could make her feel good. Her entire body was restless, riding an edge of need that was almost painful in its intensity.

“Please what, Jo?” Her gaze snapped to his when she heard the need in his voice, equal to her own. How was this happening? How were they here together again? “I need to hear you say it.”

Need, not want. That little distinction did something funny to her insides. She reached for him without meaning to, wrapping her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek to his heart.

“I want you,” she whispered, listening to the thunder of his pulse, knowing that hers matched. “I want all of you.”

“How do you want it?” His hands roamed over her back, tracing the lines of her shoulder blades, the curve of her spine.

She thought of all the filthy things she’d written about, the pictures she’d seen as she researched.

He was giving her a chance to ask for what she wanted. To explore.

Swallowing past the hard, sudden lump in her throat, she gently disentangled herself from his arms. Trying not to feel self-conscious about the fact that every inch of her naked body was on display, she knelt at the edge of the bed, angling herself away from him.

“I want it like this.” She was sure that her skin was on fire, but her voice was sure. “And I don’t want you to be gentle.”

The sound he made was nearly inhuman, and she felt herself grow impossibly slicker. “You can’t be real. I’m imagining this.”

“Not this time.” Not sure what to do, she leaned forward until her hands rested on the bed, so that she was on all fours. She knew he had a full view of every intimate part of her, and knew damn well that he was looking, but knowing that sent a little thrill through her. Made her feel powerful.

“You asked for it, baby.” She heard the rip of foil. Her pulse stuttered, then began to beat again, double time, as she closed her eyes and imagined him rolling the tube of latex over his cock. She nearly looked back over her shoulder, just for the visual of those sure fingers on his own erection.

Next time, she promised herself. This time she didn’t want to think, because then the little voice in her head would nag, reminding her of the heartbreak she was opening herself up to here. No, she just wanted to be taken, to have all thoughts shoved from her mind so that the only thing in her existence was Theo and what he was doing to her body.

“What is that?” Something soft danced over the skin of her lower back, and she gasped.

He didn’t answer, but a moment later something was placed over her eyes. He smoothed her hair back, then secured what she now knew to be the silk scarf at the back of her head.

“I don’t want that busy brain of yours thinking of anything but what I’m doing to you. Understood?” She nodded, her throat suddenly so dry that she couldn’t have spoken to save her life.

She didn’t have to speak. Like he said, all she had to do was feel. And that’s exactly what she did when he pressed the head of his cock to her aching entrance, alighting nerves that hadn’t been touched in a very, very long time.

She inhaled sharply when he pushed forward. Or rather, when he tried to. Her body was as tight as it had been when she was a virgin, and it wasn’t sure what to do with this intrusion, no matter how good it felt.

“How are you still so tight?” His hands gripped her hips as he stilled, only the head of his cock tucked inside her. “Am I hurting you?”

“Not hurting.” Dropping down to her forearms, she tilted her hips, changing the angle. He slid in another inch, and she gasped at the friction. “I just—I haven’t—”

“Jesus, Jo.” He stopped again, and she felt the tension in the hands that gripped her hips. “Tell me you’ve been with someone else.”

There was no shaming in his words, but she felt it all the same. “I didn’t—I’ve never wanted to.” And she hadn’t. Something was just different with her body, her brain.

If she didn’t love the person, she wasn’t interested in sex.

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