Page 72 of Daring the Defender

“Not everyone is a rebel.”

Except I’m not sure that’s true. Shelby definitely has a rebellious streak. If not, she wouldn’t be here. “Where is everybody?” I ask, noting that other than the two of us and Ingrid Flockton, the house is quiet. “Upstairs?”

She turns and rests against the counter. “At the Teal House. I was invited but it was the four of them and,” her nose wrinkles, “I wasn’t in the mood to be a fifth wheel.”

I shrug off my coat and walk toward her. “So you came home and baked instead.”

“Maybe I took the opportunity of having an empty house to do something I enjoy.”

“Baking or taking care of people?”

She tosses the oven mitt on the counter. “Why can’t it be both?”

“You know,” I close the distance between us, “there are better ways to enjoy an empty house.”

“Yeah?” Her head tilts, exposing the long column of her neck. I don’t think the move is intentional, but I rarely think any of the sexy things Shelby does is. She’s got an instinctive way about her–one that makes my cock hard and drives my body wild.

Leaning into her, I lick a hot path along her throat, up to her ear. Her fingers curl into my side, tight in the T-shirt I’m wearing. Kissing her, I push my hands up her shirt, feeling the warmth of her belly, then the soft swell of her tits underneath one of those pretty little cotton bras. I trace her nipple through the cloth, her breath hitching when it pebbles into a tight peak.

“Fuck, I love your tits.” I pull down the front of the jersey and kiss the hard plane of her chest. “I’d take this shirt off, but I like you in it too much.”

Apparently she doesn’t feel the same about mine, because she pushes it over my head and drops it to the floor. She wastes no time getting her hands on me, feeling my chest and abdomen. She reaches for my button, but I gather them in mine, moving them away. “You touch me now, GG, I’ll come in my pants and ruin the night for both of us.” I kiss her again and tell her, “I’m going to give you your first kitchen orgasm.” I tug at the waistband of her leggings. “Right here on the counter.”

A car drives by outside, lights flashing up on the porch. She freezes. “Someone could come home.”

“They won’t.”

“Jefferson…”

“Is busy.” She knows he’s not coming home and neither are the others. But the fact we’re alone, with timeandspace, makes things different. I kiss her gently, then pull away, “Do you want to stop?”

My cock wants to punch me for asking.

“No,” she says quickly. “It just feels… weird. Like I’m doing something wrong.”

I lift an eyebrow. “Why?”

She swallows, hesitating, but I don’t let her off the hook. “It’s so open,” she finally admits. “Exposed. Like anyone could come in and they’d see us–me–and they’d think that–.”

She clams up.

I run my finger up and down her side. “What would they think?” She looks down, eyes averted. Lifting her chin with my fingers, I force her to face me. “What would they think, Shelby?” When she still doesn’t speak, I fill in the gaps for her. “That you’ve got desires and wants? That you like to feel good? That you like to make me feel good?” Her blue eyes widen with every truth bomb I toss. “That they may see you with your skin on fire, pussy drenched, crying out as you come. That they may see adifferent side of you, one that lets loose of that good girl attitude you hold onto so tight?”

“That’s very specific.”

“Well, I have very specific things I want to do to you.” I cup her cheek and run my thumb over her bottom lip. “But only if you want me to.”

I’m always going to give Shelby a choice. Always give her a part in any decision between us. That’s the one thing I can give her that no one else in her life ever has. But right now it’s taking everything in me not to rip off her leggings, spread her legs, and shove my face between her thighs.

“I want you,” she says, voice soft–shy. “But–”

Fuck, here comes the but. I’m moving too fast. I’m scaring her off. I’m not good enough. Or right for her, or a million other buts.

“But,” she says slowly, “I want something else too.”

“Anything you want, GG, and I’ll give it to you.”

I do not expect what she says next.