Page 148 of Just This Once

“What does the four represent?” I asked, reaching down to wipe my thumb over the I and the V.

Hope gave a husky, elusive chuckle and ran her fingers down my chest until she wrapped her palm around my dick. “Maybe I’ll tell you someday.”

I looked up at her and lifted my eyebrows. Then I smiled darkly and tackled her onto her back, causing her to scream out a surprised laugh. There, I pinned her to the mattress with mybody and held her hands against the pillows as I looked into her eyes.

“Tell me now,” I commanded as I shifted my hips just enough to fit my growing erection between her legs.

Her gaze flooded with arousal, but she bit her lip and resisted, shaking her head to refuse me, even as her hips lifted to grind back against me, her pussy growing slippery and wet against my cock.

“Not yet,” she rasped.

“Trouble,” I warned. “Tell me what the four means, or I won’t give you the rest of this.” And I started to nudge myself inside her only to pause and resist giving her any more than just the tip.

“Parker,” she panted in yearning as she tried to arch her body to take more of me, but I pulled back, denying her.

“Tell me.”

She shook her head stubbornly, refusing to spill her secret. Perspiration gathered on her brow and upper lip, her chest heaved with every breath, and she was so turned on it was dripping down my dick, but she still wouldn’t talk. She loved this type of foreplay just as much as I did.

Shaking my head and tsking with mock disappointment, I pulled all the way out of her, and her eyes widened in alarm. “No, wait. Wait.”

“Then talk,” I whispered, making sure my breath tickled the side of her throat just under her ear like I knew she liked.

She shuddered and swallowed loudly before wetting her lips. “It’s—” Her gaze shifted to me as if worried.

“Yes?” I pressed, reaching down to drift the backs of my fingers over her clit.

“Oh God,” she groaned, arching into my hand. “It’s—it’s to commemorate number four of—of?—”

I started to push my erection back into her slowly, and she moaned in need, her inner muscles clamping around me greedily.

I paused with all the willpower I possessed, suffering under the same torment she was but determined to get my answer.

She whimpered, and I asked, “To commemorate number four ofwhat?”

Thrashing her head in an attempt to resist, Hope met my gaze, and she melted. “What do you think?” she rasped. “It’s for number four on the bucket list.”

Me.

The tattoo was about me.

That suddenly negated the fact that I hadn’t been there when she’d gotten it. I’d still been involved. And my chest heaved as it filled with a crazy pressure that made me experience more emotions in one moment than I could honestly contain.

“Jesus God, woman,” I muttered, shaking my head. “What’re you doing to me?”

Plastering my mouth to hers, I surged deep inside her.

She gasped and started to shudder, constricting around my length, but I just kept pumping mercilessly into her, not letting her off the bed for hours.

It wasmid-Saturday afternoon before I stirred next to a placid, quiet Hope and turned on my side to face her. “I want to take you somewhere.”

Her eyebrows arched as if interested, but she kept playing with my hair, looking perfectly content as she was. “Where?” she asked.

I shook my head and felt my gaze dance with pleasure as I murmured, “It’s a surprise.”

She started to smile, and I knew she liked the sound of that. But a second later, her eyes flickered with concern, and she winced. “I really need to check in with Alec sometime today so he doesn’t worry.”

I shrugged. “So call him. Or text. Whatever.”

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