Page 37 of Peaches

He’s close enough now that his nose lightly grazes mine, eyes caught somewhere on my mouth or my jaw, but he stops.

“I can’t teach you somethin’ you already know,” he rasps. “You asking to be desirable is like asking how to fucking walk. You arealreadymasterful. Trust me.”

I close my eyes at the feel of him so close to me. “You think I’m desirable?” I ask through a shaky breath. Want scuttles up my spine as my stomach swoops.

A low sound escapes him, raw and grating. “Yeah, peaches,” he admits. “You could say that.” His eyes drop to my mouth and flare. “But you’re asking for the wrong things.”

I swallow down my nerves. “I am?”

He nods. “You shouldn’t be asking how to please a man. You should be asking how a man could pleaseyou.”

I nod once, mind going blank as I watch his pupils dilate, and I decide to take the bait. “How can you please me, Rhett?”

He groans and reaches a hand out, covering my throat. His thick fingers are warm as they flex around me, but the pressure is light. “You have no fuckingideahow much I want to please you.”

Something hot lurches in my stomach.

He takes another step into my space, forcing me to move backward against the hard, wooden wall, crowding me with that broad chest. When he lifts the tangle of rope in his hand, the end of it traces up my arm and I shiver. “Tell me to stop,” he murmurs.

I shake my head, defiant. But I don’t trust myself to speak.

He clicks his tongue. “You can’t possibly want this, peaches.”

“I do,” I argue, eyes tracing the curl of dark hair against his temple, leaning into the foreign feel of his hand wrapped around my neck.

His mouth bends into a grin that shines right into my chest. Our eyes lock, and I feel my breathing shift as my heart pounds. He simply looks at me.Studiesme. And it leaves me feeling so exposed I’m sure my clothes have caught fire and burned to ash.

“You want this?” he drawls in a voice like velvet, his smile turning wicked. “Now you’re going to get it. But not here . . . let me take you somewhere.”

It’s a threat that snakes around my consciousness, tangling with hope. When I nod, he leans in to brush a soft kiss to my cheek. And then he steps away, pulling his hands off my body.

The loss of him nearly sinks me to my knees.

I nod as I brace myself with a hand against the wall behind me, eager to go wherever he’ll take me. Eager to get more ofthis. My body feels hollow, void, without him. “Yes,” I sputter out. “Please.”

His eyes darken, the shadow of a sharp blade. He closes them briefly as if to steady himself. “Fuck,” he mumbles, and my heart gallops. When he looks at me again, there’s a promise in the way his eyes hold mine. One that I grip onto for dear life. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

RHETT

Olivia heads home to shower and change with a promise to be ready in an hour. Anticipation is a ravenous monster inside me, and my mind spins around the thought of her getting ready forme. I might have kept up a confident front in that barn with her, but the truth is that everything about her makes me feel wildly out of control.

I mean, goddamn, the woman flat out asked forsex.

It takes some convincing to get Wells to cover my shift tonight—he worked last night, and I know he wants to spend some alone time with his girl after Mom gets back home and can take the boys. But I think his general curiosity about whatever the fuck he thinks I’m doing with Olivia wins him over.

I try to make quick work of my own shower, scrubbing myself raw in my cabin to get the sweat and dirt off of me. I’m hard theentirefucking time, mentally creating and cataloging every single thing I want to do with her. Every position I want to see her in.

Knees spread wide on all fours, baring herself open for me so I can get a nice,longlook.

Hands bound high above her head, her loss of control so sweet.

The way her hair might skate across bare shoulders, chin tilted up as she kneels for me. Eager and hungry as I slide into her mouth to see the shape of me swell through the outside of her cheek.

I wonder,badly, if she’s just as stubborn and argumentative with the rest of her body as she is with that mouth. How hard I might be able to push her. If she’ll let me break her the way I want to, if her desires might match mine.

Careful, I warn myself. Olivia isn’t some random kinky woman I found in a bar.

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