Page 21 of Hot & Bothered

He nodded slowly. “Yeah …”

“It’s a bit overwhelming the first time someone does a reading. Your brain goes in a million different directions, trying to sort out what you just heard and make sense of it. But it doesn’t all have to make sense. Not right now. Maybe not ever. I like to use these cards to help build hope and reaffirm certain thoughts, while others also tell me to let some thoughts go.”

He was still nodding.

“Did I spook you?” Unease twisted through her. This was supposed to be a relaxing, romantic evening, and she went and ruined it with her spiritualistic mumbo jumbo. Her heart deflated.

But when he lifted his head and smiled at her, she grew buoyant again. “Not at all. That was really … cool. I am a little overwhelmed, not going to lie. But it was also fun. It’s given me a lot to think about.”

“I swear I didn’t plant all those cards about love and romance and stuff.”

His raspy chuckle washed over her, softening the apprehension that spun wildly around in her belly her after The Knight of Cups. “I know you didn’t. And, honestly, that’s not what spooked me. I mean, I’m notspooked. But those aren’t the cards that have me thinking. It’s the ones about deception and paranoia.”

It was the one about the blast from his past—particularly a love from his past—and that damn Six of Cups, that had her reeling a little.

“I can’t help but think that maybe this all has something to do with that guy in the hoodie, you know? I’m almost certain that the guy on Christmas Eve at the elevator and the guy tonight are one of the same. I got a good look at him the first night, but not tonight. But their builds are similar, so are their heights.” He scratched his head. “Unless that’s the paranoia thing the cards are talking about.”

“Yeah, but they did say that if you are suspicious, there is reason to be. To watch your back and listen to your gut.”

“That’s true.”

She got up from the table and took their empty bowls from dessert to the dishwasher. “More wine?”

But the man had entered stealth-mode and managed to sneak up behind her in the kitchen. He caged her in against the counter, his front to her back. His lips found her neck, his big hands landed possessively on her hips. “I think I’m full of wine and food,” he said with a growl, scraping the shell of her ear with his teeth.

Spinning around so she could face him, she looped her arms over his broad shoulders and gazed into his blue-hazel eyes. The pupils were huge and his nostrils flared. “Oh yeah?”

“Mhmm.” Their lips collided, and she found herself being divested of her apron, her long-sleeve shirt and her pants. She was in nothing but a bra and her underwear in seconds, in her kitchen, and Jace was still completely dressed.

Hoisting her up, he plunked her butt on the counter and dropped to his knees, shouldering her legs apart and pulling her underwear to the side. His mouth found her center.

She tipped her head back until it knocked the cupboard behind her.

Sucking on her clit, he quickly brought her close to that sweet edge of oblivion. She pressed her pelvis forward and gripped the counter until her knuckles ached.

She wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing, but he was doing it well.

She’d always been someone who tried to visualize what the man between her legs did with his mouth, but right now, she couldn’t. It was like he was licking and sucking her clit at the same time.Don’t think. Just feel.

Sliding two fingers into her channel, Jace pumped and curled, pressing hard up on that tender spot that most men never bothered to find. She had anextra-sensitive G-spot and the moment anybody pressed on it, she was overcome with the insatiable urge to pee.

But she also knew that was just par for the course. She didn’tactuallyhave to pee.

This was mind over matter. She ignored that sensation and focused on the pleasure. Focused on the way his fingers hit that little almond-shaped button and how it made her leg twitch. How it made her lower belly pool with heat and desire and the way her nipples hardened to achy points in her bra.

She rode his face like his upper lip was a mechanical bull and she was determined to get the high score. But Jace didn’t seem to mind her growing enthusiasm—definitely lubricated by the wine, and the tarot cards—and he devoured her with increasing fervor.

She wanted to come.

Sheneededto come.

But she wanted him inside her.

After those tarot cards, after their evening together, she wanted nothing more than to feel his weight on top of her, and stare into his unique hazel-blue eyes as they came undone at the same time.

“You’re close,” he murmured against her clit, the buzzing of his words against her skin making fresh zaps of pleasure shoot through her. “Come, Peyton.”

“I want … I want you inside of me,” she whispered. “I want to come together.”

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