Page 48 of One Bed

Bea decided she could meet him halfway. ‘Nice try, but no.’ She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘But the pillows are going back up.’

‘Aw, come on, Bea,’ he cajoled, but she saw the understanding in his expression, acceptance in his eyes. ‘I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.’ He glanced at her laptop and gestured to the lounger. ‘Would I bug you if I sat here, drank a cup of coffee and read my book?’

No, of course not.Ofcourseshe could work when the man who made her ovaries spin, her skin pebble, and her lady parts thrum sat just a yard from her, looking hot and sexy and oh-so-beddable.

Well, she could try.

‘Sure, ifyoumakemea cup of coffee. Milk and one sugar.’ She dropped her legs and picked up her glasses, sliding them onto her nose. She’d give work an hour, and then she’d go up to the house and bug Cass and Nadia, or hang out with her godma and the Two Jacks.

Nothing surprised her more when Gib stopped next to her and bent down to drop a kiss on her head. ‘Iamsorry for this morning. Sexy glasses, by the way.’

Bea pushed away the urge to run after him and take him to bed.

Bad Bea.Keep your arse on this chair and put your fingers to the keyboard. Get to work. You can’t, as the great Nora Roberts – or was it Jodi Picoult? – said, edit a blank page.

* * *

The next morning, Bea woke up to the dings of a couple of text messages. Swimming out of sleep, she reached for her phone, but couldn’t move because a muscled arm was wrapped around her waist, holding her to a hard body. Her butt was nestled against Gib’s groin and, judging by his massive erection, he was happy to have her there.

What happened to the pillows? She’d rebuilt her Great Wall Of Pillows last night and Gib, to his credit, didn’t say anything about the soft barrier when he slid into bed. He’d just lifted an eyebrow, sighed and pulled back the covers.

She’d noticed he wore a pair of thin, exercise shorts and a loose T-shirt. And seeing him covered up made her sad. A body like his should stay naked.

Right, she wasn’t going there…

‘Who the hell is texting incessantly so early?’ Gib muttered, nestling his face into her neck. His stubble tickled her skin as he dropped an open-mouth kiss in the space where her jaw met her neck. His hand moved up her torso and clasped her left breast, his thumb brushing her nipple. Oh, man, that felt amazing…

‘Judging by the sun, it’s later than you think,’ Bea told him, wiggling her butt into his hard dick. She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. His eyes were still closed, and he had a small smile on his face. Looking relaxed and turned on suited him.

‘What happened to my pillows, Caddell?’ she asked, aiming for annoyance and missing it by a mile.

He lifted his head and squinted at the bed. ‘Huh, no idea. I must’ve tossed them off while I was asleep. Sleepy me was looking for sleepy you.’

‘Cute.’

Her phone dinged again, and she rolled away from him to reach it. He kept his hand on her, sneaking under the hem of her shirt to stroke her stomach, sliding his fingers under the band of her sleeping shorts. She looked at her phone, and the words danced in front of her. How was she supposed to make sense of Cass’s messages when he was touching her like that?

‘Cass needs me to run into Fira to pick up a few hundred things for the party,’ she told Gib, who was on his side, looking at her.

‘Mmm, later.’ He plucked her phone out of her hand and tossed it towards the bedside table, and she heard it crash into the bedside lamp. ‘Right now, I have other plans for you.’

She smiled slowly. ‘And those would be?’

‘I’d very much like to make you scream, with my mouth and with my cock,’ he stated, his drawl more pronounced. ‘You up for that?’

In his eyes, in his urgent touch, Bea knew he was asking if she was ready, if she wanted him as much as he wanted her. She did. So much. Unable to find the words – strange, because words were her stock-in-trade – she simply nodded.

‘I kinda need you to say it, Bea.’

She lifted his hand off her stomach and placed it on her breast. ‘Make me scream, Gib. But if you don’t have condoms, I might just lose it, right now.’

‘I’ve got you covered, Bea-baby,’ Gib murmured, his eyes glinting with satisfaction. Should she ask him not to call her that? Wasn’t it the same as calling her a ‘girl’ as opposed to a woman? Why was she thinking about this, right now? She liked hearing Bea-baby coming from his mouth, it made her feel sexy, wanted, and a little cherished.Stop thinking, dammit!

He pulled away and Bea immediately missed his heat, his hands on her body, his mouth on her skin. Gib didn’t drop her eyes from hers as he reached behind him to grab his T-shirt and pull it up and over his head. His chest was tanned, his nipples were flat discs and a light, soft triangle of hair veered into a trail over the hard muscles of his stomach. He was hard, fit and supremely masculine. He made her feel feminine and when he looked at her like that, like she was the last piece of chocolate cake on the planet, her knees softened and the moisture in her mouth dried up.

She’d never felt this way before, needy, lovely, desperate and excited. She had more chance of pushing the earth off its axis than walking away from him now. Oh, a part of her, the sensible, rational part of her, knew this was a mistake, that she was entering too deep waters, but she didn’t care. He made her feel alive, more alive than she had in five years. It was a precious gift…

Bea placed her hand on his chest, her fingers drifting through the light hair on his pecs. So hard, so warm. She pushed her nose into his skin, inhaling his woodsy, sexy scent, part deodorant, part hot-man, and sighed. She was doing this, there was no backtracking now.

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