Page 80 of Simon Says

Simon teasingly lowered his brows. “Now, about this date.”

“Should I have said I don’t have sex?” All innocent, she touched his chest, stroked, then flattened her hand there and looked up at him with big, serious eyes. “I don’t, you know. Not since my divorce.” Moving carefully with her injuries, she turned on the couch to face him, and started stroking him again. “But now…”

Simon kept his smile contained. “Eventually, we will be intimate.”

Her hand stilled. “Yeah.”

“No objections?”

Her shoulders lifted. “I kind of figured that we’d end up there. That is, if I stay in town.”

“Stay.”

She nodded. “I think I will. Maybe. Iwantto. We’ll have to talk about it.”

She sounded very undecided. Simon caught her hand and tugged her toward him. As gentle as he could manage, he kissed her and whispered again,“Stay.”

Her gaze darted away from his. “Before we get to that, remember my little freak-out in the kitchen? Well, you might’ve figured out already that I can’t bear to be held down, or out of control.”

“Held down, as in beneath me when we make love?”

His plain speaking brought her wide eyes back to his. “Being”—she cleared her throat—“beneathyou would count as not in control. It’s not that I want to freak out. I don’t. I hate it. But sometimes it just happens.”

“Sometimes, meaning you’ve tried with other men?”

She snorted. “No. Meaning that in my Muay Thai practices, I could only go so far without panicking.”

A deep breath didn’t alleviate the tightness in Simon’s chest. “You practiced with Barber?”

“Yeah.”

“And he had you under him?”

“Well, duh.” She rolled her eyes over his venomous expression. “You know how training goes. Grappling isn’t really part of Muay Thai, but you practice moves, and then sometimes it’s actual sparring. Someone is in the guard, someone is mounted.”

Jealousy was a new emotion for Simon and he had a hard time getting it under wraps. “I could practice with you.”

“Wake up, Simon. You already saw in the kitchen how successful that’d be.” Shaking her head, she said, “No, I’m admitting defeat on that one. I don’t like it, and I don’t think I ever will.”

Simon thought about it, then shrugged. “I liked having you in my lap.” Hell, he could think of a dozen ways to have her where she’d think she was in control. “If we’d both been naked, that would have worked just fine for me.”

Color bloomed in Dakota’s face.

It was interest, not embarrassment.

Trailing his fingers down her cheek to her jaw, her throat to her shoulder, Simon caressed her. “Whatever it takes, Dakota.”

Agitated breaths drew his attention to her breasts. “Then why did you stop me?”

“You’re hurt.” Moving his hand lower, Simon skimmed down the outside of her left breast. “You had a bad scare today and you aren’t thinking clearly. I don’t want to take advantage of you. And there’s a lot more we have to talk about yet.”

At the mention of talking, she yawned. “The gabfest will have to wait. I really am getting tired.” She started to rise.

Simon gently held her in place. Reminding her of where they’d left off, he said, “You could change the last name, you know.”

Before he’d finished, she was shaking her head. “No. I took the name and I’ll damn well keep it.”

“Sort of like, you made your bed and now you intend to lie in it?”

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