Page 19 of Ruck Me

And I wanted to do that for Aoife. But first, I needed her to understand what a goddamn privilege it was getting to lay my hands on her tight little body. Anyone who said otherwise could fuck rightoff.

“I’m going to say this once and I hope I never have to repeat myself again, okay?” She nodded, a small notching of her head. “Any guy who doesn’t enjoy touching a beautiful girl like you is an asshole, do you understand? Being able to kiss those pretty pink lips of yours? I’m the lucky one, Aoife.” I skated my hands across her shoulders until I had her neck cradled in my palms. Looping my fingers behind her head, I pulled Aoife to me, my eyes locked on hers. “I’m so goddamn lucky to be able to do this.” I dropped my lips to her mouth and then trailed kisses down her jaw to her neck. “You taste like heaven—” I licked a path to her pulse “—and I don’t want to be anywhere else rightnow.”

“Eoin,” she panted.

I sucked on her skin and tongued it as she shivered against me. Kissing my way back to her lips, I paused. “Tell me what you want Aoife. All you have to do is say the words.”

“T-t-touch me, please,” she begged on a shattered moan. “Please, just touchme.”

I forced my lips from her skin. If I didn’t put some space between us I might keep on kissing her all damn night and while I was sure neither of us would have complained, she’d finally worked up the courage to tell me what she wanted and I wasn’t about to blowthis.

“Where do you want me to touch you?” I asked, one hand on her hip while the other stroked its way down to her belly and then back up. Aoife hitched in a breath when I reached her sternum and I let out a knowing chuckle.

“Here?” I swept a single finger across the expanse of her ribcage and she arched into my touch. “Or maybe here instead,” I said, teasing the outer edge of her breast. When I skimmed over the soft swell of her curves, she quit breathing altogether. “Is this where you want me to touchyou?”

Aoife’s eyes were big and wide, the black of her pupils bleeding into the aquamarine of her irises. She looked like a doe caught in the headlights, but I knew she wasn’t frightened. No, she was turned on like she’d never been turned on before.

And I had done that to her. Knowing I was the one who’d put that look on her face, the one who’d made her heart race? It felt damn good. No, it felt better than good. I felt like a motherfuckingking.

“Yes. No,” she sputtered and licked her lips. “I need your hands on me. Touch me, please.”

I was an explorer about to discover the most exquisite peaks and hidden valleys. A conqueror of unchartered lands. With my hand anchored against her hip, I eased my thumb under the bottom of her sweater and swept it across her warm, soft skin and she shivered. “I’m touching you, but I think maybe that’s not what you meant either.”

Aoife’s eyes dropped closed and her head fell back. I only had my thumb on her naked flesh—one little finger—but her response was possibly the hottest fucking thing I’d ever seen. None of the women I’d been with had ever looked this goddamned beautiful when they’d come, much less when I’d simply laid my hands on their bareskin.

Slowly, I eased Aoife’s sweater up her torso and my palms spanned the width of her ribcage. I’d always known she was tiny, but sitting here like this, with my hands wrapped around her middle, I became aware of how fragile she wastoo.

“Eoin?” she asked hesitantly.

“You’re tiny,” I mused, rubbing my thumb in circles over her skin, raising goosebumps along her torso.

Aoife let out an indignant huff. “I’m not tiny,” she argued. “I’mjust …”

“Tiny,” I remarked.

“Petite,” she countered, her eyes flashing.

I grinned and leaned forward, my lips hovering over hers. “My fierce, little pink-haired sprite,” I teased, dropping a kiss on the tip of her nose, then moving to her cheek, before finally seeking out her lips. Pulling away, I leaned back against the leather seat but kept my hands on her. “You know, my granny says you must be from the fairies.”

She groaned and winced. “I know. She toldme.”

“When?”

Aoife looked to the roof of car with a frown. “Last month.”

I tried not to laugh, really I did, but she looked so fucking adorable right now. “Come here,” I said, pulling her to me, desperate to kiss that frown off her beautifulface.

But talking about my granny while I was intent on defiling Aoife shook something loose inside of me. Not guilt, exactly. More like … responsibility. In more ways than one, she wasn’t like other girls and I couldn’t treat this like any other random hookup. She was special to me. She wasn’t just a part of my past; I wanted her to be a part of my future, too. I wanted us to stay friends when we moved on from whatever this was. When we were old and gray I wanted my grandkids to say to hers, “Do you remember the time your granny chased us down the street in her pink convertible?”

With a sigh, I pulled away with a final, gentle tug on her bottom lip. “Let me get youhome.”

“Home?” she asked, looking at me with hazy, lust filledeyes.

“Yeah,” I answered, running my hand through my hair. “I’d love to sit here kissing you all night, but eventually I’m going to want to take off your clothes and when that happens, I want to be able to see you, to enjoy it. So I’m going to take you home and we’ll figure out another time to hangout.”

“Is that what we’re calling this then? Just hangingout?”

“What would you callit?”

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