Page 54 of Where There's Smoke

Less than an arm’s length from me, he stopped. He reached across the distance and cupped my face in both hands. I closed my eyes, the warm touch sending me right back to that moment in my foyer.

“My God, Jesse.” That smoke-sharpened voice made my breath catch. He pulled me closer, and even though I knew it was coming, I wasn’t prepared when his lips met mine. I’d been craving his kiss so damned badly, but even now, as I wrapped my arms around him and parted my lips for his gently demanding tongue, I wasn’t ready. He overwhelmed me. The reality that he was kissing me overwhelmed me. Especially because here, now, we didn’t have to stop.

He broke the kiss but immediately descended on my neck. His stubbled chin gently abraded just above my collar, and his lips teased erogenous nerve endings to life all along the front of my throat, the underside of my jaw, that insanely sensitive spot just below my ear.

“I figured this was the best place for us to get any privacy,” he murmured, letting his lips brush my skin as he spoke. “Because…” He raised his head, and my knees almost dropped out from under me when we made eye contact. His voice, low and gravelly and so deliciously desperate, liquefied my spine as he whispered, “I want to fuck you. Tonight. Now.”

“Please,” was all I could say.

He slid his fingers into my hair and kissed me hard. “We’d better get into the bedroom then, or I’m going to end up putting you over the back of the couch.”

We didn’t waste any time getting from the entryway to the bedroom. I’d never been in his house before but didn’t bother with even a second’s worth of curiosity about the place or his taste in décor; that could wait. I couldn’t. He could have had John Casey propaganda plastered all over his walls and I just didn’t give a damn.

As soon as we were in the bedroom, Anthony wrapped his arms around me and kissed me again. Dragging his fingers through my hair and over my clothes, he took a step back. Then another. Toward the bed, I guessed, and cool water suddenly flooded my veins.

Breaking the kiss, I glanced over his shoulder at the bed. Perfectly made, every corner in place with military precision, just waiting for us to dishevel itlike we would our clothes and my sanity. Nerves knotted in my stomach, and I chewed my lip.

I silently cursed the heat in my cheeks that no doubt meant I was turning red. “I’ve…”

“Jesse?” He touched my chin and gently turned my head until we were eye to eye. “Is something wrong?”

“I’ve, um…” I swallowed. “I’ve never done this. With a man.” I shook my head. “I mean, I’ve had sex with men, but I…”

“You’ve never been on the bottom?”

“No, I haven’t.”

His hand slid along my jaw and into my hair. “Do you want to be?”

I shivered. “More than you know.”

It was Anthony’s turn to shiver, something he didn’t quite mask with a smoky groan and a tightening embrace. He kissed me and whispered, “Just tell me if you want to stop.”

“I will.”

“We’ll take it slow.” He kissed me again, just letting his lips linger against mine for a long moment. “I won’t hurt you, Jesse. I promise.”

Another shiver pushed me against him. “What if I want you to hurt me?”

He grinned just before growling into a deep, hungry kiss, and if his grasp on my hair was any indication, he was more than willing to hurt me if I wanted him to.

Clothes fell away, landing wherever. We sank into bed together, running hands and fingertips over hot skin, brushing lips and flicking tongues over the rest.

Anthony pushed me onto my back, and as soon as he started trailing kisses down the center of my chest, I knew where he was headed. As if I wasn’t already hard as hell, every inch he gained toward my cock threatened to make me come justthinkingabout him sucking me off.

“Don’t you dare come yet.” His voice vibrated against my abs. “You’re not coming until I fuck you.”

I sucked in a breath and tried like hell not to come. “I won’t,” I whispered.

“You’d better not,” he said with a playful lilt. “Or else I’ll just have to start over from the beginning.”

“Oh fuck…” I closed my eyes and squirmed, whimpering as his lips inched closer to my cock. I fully expected him to tease me, to taunt me with his breath and nearness and voice, but then he flicked his tongue just below the head of my cock, and I almost fucking lost it.

“Holyshit.” I grabbed the edge of the bed as my spine lifted off the mattress.

Anthony laughed softly, probably well aware that I could feel his breath on my very sensitive skin. “What’s wrong? I’ve barely done a thing.”

“I know, I’m just…” I moistened my lips. Took a deep breath. “Really, really turned on.”

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