Page 45 of The Love Wager

I narrow my gaze as she tosses a box of condoms at me. They hit my chest as she tosses something else, and I barely register what it is before it hits the blanket between us.

Lube.

“What the fuck? I’m going to kill him!” I growl, snatching the basket from her. Or trying because she keeps her menacing little hands on either side of it, tugging it back toward her.

“Oh, come on! This might be fun!” She abruptly lets the basket go, and I wobble at the loss before tossing the basket to my right side.

I turn back, seeing her unboxing something, looking over her shoulder, a rueful grin on her beautiful face.

“What is that?” I ask, knowing that if condoms and lube were the appetizer, whatever it is, can’t be anything wholesome.

I hear a faint buzzing, and I smack my hand over my face. “I’m really going to kill him.”

“He had our best interests at heart. Look at this thing! Ten speeds!” She flails the vibrator around in the air, and I’m distinctly reminded of how we were having such a raw and emotional moment a bit ago, and now there’s a sex toy in her hand.

She clicks it off and places it between us on the blanket. I can feel its presence like a weight on my chest as I look over the multi-colored vibrator as she runs her manicured fingertip over its length. “So, where were we? What were we discussing?”

Her less-than-innocent eyes flick up to mine, looking even greener in the dim light surrounding us as she bites her lower lip playfully.

“I don’t remember,” I answer honestly, because all I can think about is her.

There’s no more deadline floating around in my brain, nor the harrowing feeling of her slipping out of my life. The only thing I can think about isher.

“Hm. Me either.” Her wicked grin is followed by her laying down on the blanket, her eyes searching the sky for something as I run mine the length of her body.

The dress she’d worn for the rehearsal pales compared to the one I witnessed her in earlier when I happened to walk past the dress shop, but I don’t want to bring that up again after how I behaved.

I lay on the blanket, positioning onto my side to look at her. The hefty presence of the vibrator between us still lingers, and every few seconds, I look down at it.

“You ever wonder if we’re living in a shoebox, and the stars are our breathing holes?” she mutters as I palm the cold vibrator in hand and shift closer to her.

“No. What sane person would wonder about that?” I tease, dropping my face into her neck and nuzzling my beard against it to serve as a distraction.

“Hey! I resent that. I’m perfectly sane.”

I laugh into her throat the moment she whimpers. My tongue eases along the column, finding her racing pulse point and taunting it with a few swirling circles. “You are the furthest from sane I think I’ve ever met, red.”

She exhales, and it’s shaky. It does something to my insides, curling them into a ball of need I can barely stand.

With her distracted, I’ve been clicking through the settings on the vibrator, finding the setting that’s high in vibrations right before the ones that start vibrating in pulsing waves. I can’t imagine anyone likes those.

With it on and humming, I touch the tip to the inside of her left ankle. She has one leg cocked up and one straight, giving me great access to the very center of her that I’d love to dive inside and explore.

Being outside, touching her, has a primal feeling gnawing at my stomach, and my cock is aching behind my slacks.

“Brooks,” she whimpers as she arches and tries to hurry my movement with the toy along.

“Ah, ah, ah, I’m going to savor you tonight, red. Worship you beneath the stars and leave you with lingering memories so vivid you’ll never forget how you deserve to be treated.”

She hisses through her teeth as the vibrator eases along the inside of her knee, one direction in its heading. Her head lifts off the blanket, her greedy eyes watching as it disappears beneath the hem of her dress.

“You look beautiful tonight, Indie,” I breathe against her cheek, finding it just as hard to breathe in her presence as the first time I saw her sliding across my bar.

I know this was all supposed to be for show—a way for us to get ahead financially and get through the hardships. The thing is, I don’t know if there was ever a way to do this with her without falling. I was doomed to fail from the start.

However, it’s only at this moment that I’m realizing it.

“What if someone comes down here?” She arches and wiggles as I work the vibrator beneath her panties, helping me with subtle movements that tell me she wants this as much as I do.

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