Page 79 of Love Without Control

“I don’t know,” Dane replied in an equally dry tone. “I don’t enjoy staring at other men’s dicks. Unlike someone I know.” That last pointed comment was accompanied by an impish grin and a wiggle of his dark eyebrows.

“Dane,” I gasped, feeling heat rush to my cheeks, though somehow his blatant teasing made what we did in bed earlier seem a little less awkward. He wasn’t being weird about it, instead acting like his normal, teasing self.

“What?” he asked with a casual shrug. “Ain’t no shame in loving my penis. It’s probably my best feature.”

I snorted loudly. “You are so ridiculous,” I told him, reaching for the final present wrapped in purple.

We’d followed one of my family’s traditions when it came to wrapping paper. When we were growing up, Auburn, Monty, and I each had a designated color for our Christmas morning gifts. Dane and I had done the same, going to the store and picking out paper for each other. His was a masculine red and green plaid, and mine was purple with silver ornaments in a scatter-print.

Ripping off the paper from the small box, I gasped when I pulled off the lid. “Dane,” I breathed, one of my hands going to my throat.

“Do you… like it?”

“It’s gorgeous.” The paper-thin platinum chain was delicate, the tiny facets of each link reflecting the light. But what held my attention was the charm. About the size of a nickel, the turtle’s curved back was encrusted with green gems.

Dane scooted around to sit beside me, resting one hand on the floor behind my butt while using the pinky of the other to point at various jewels as he spoke.

“While these are all emeralds, you can see they have different hues and vibrancies. The green ones are classic emeralds. The ones with yellowish and bluish tints have iron and chromium in different amounts. And these…” he pointed out two that had a red undertone. “These have more vanadium and iron. They’re called pigeon’s blood emeralds and are pretty rare.”

I looked up, catching his brown eyes with my blue ones. “How do you know all that? Are you secretly a gemologist?”

He scraped his teeth across his bottom lip. “I know how you like knowledge, so I had the jeweler print out all the properties of the emeralds I chose. The card is at the bottom of the box.”

“Wait.” I shook my head. “You had this custom made for me?” My heart pitter-patted in my chest.

He looked mildly embarrassed. “Yeah. Technically, the ones that aren’t the bright green color are considered impure, so they’re not perfect.” A tear slipped down my face, and Dane’s expression turned into one of panic. “I’ll get him to change them all to just regular emeralds. It’s not a big—”

I stopped the rest of his sentence.

With my lips.

On his lips.

Chapter 26

Assoonasourmouths touched, I was hauled onto Dane’s lap, my knees on either side of his hips. His hands went to the nape of my neck, and a second later, I felt a gentle weight against my chest and realized he’d fastened the turtle necklace onto me.

“Thank you.” When I murmured against his mouth, he took the opportunity to breach my lips with his hot tongue.And dear god!

Dane tasted of cinnamon and sweet icing as he took control of the kiss, his tongue making a thorough exploration of my mouth before twisting around mine. He lifted my arms to encircle his neck before banding one of his around my waist to hold me tight against his hard body. His other hand cupped the back of my head, tilting it slightly so he could deepen the kiss.

A groan escaped from me, and he answered it with one of his own as he continued to taste me with long, aggressive twirls of his tongue. My hips made an experimental rock over Dane’s lap, feeling the hardness growing in his sweatpants.

Well hello there, swift recovery time.I’d just made him come about an hour ago, and the man already had a burgeoning erection.

“Fuck, do you know how long I’ve waited for this?” Dane growled, going back in to nibble on my bottom lip before soothing it with the tip of his tongue. “Do you have any idea how many times I had to hold myself back from kissing you, Eden?”

“I’ve thought about it too,” I admitted as he kissed down my chin and over my neck, finding a fleshy spot on the right side that had my sex seeking out his rigid cock again. Wetness flooded my panties as I grinded down onto him.

“Please tell me you’ve changed your mind, that you’ll let me feast on your sweet pussy. Right now.” His tongue swirled mesmerizing little circles up the side of my neck, and I canted my head to give him better access.

“Yes,” I panted, clutching his long, soft hair between my fingers.

Way to go, Eden. You held out for an entire hour. Way to be strong.I couldn’t help but smile at that snarky voice inside my head. Dane made it almost impossible to resist him, from the way he literally ate at my mouth to the way his dirty words dripped like honey from his perfect lips.

He wasted no time in stripping my sweatshirt off, his hands gripping my rib cage as his eyes scored my body with their heat. “My god, Eden. I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful.”

I imagined what he saw when he looked at me… specifically my tiny boobs. Surely he’d been with more voluptuous women.

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