Page 30 of 40 and (Tired of) Faking It
Sliding a hand to the back of her neck, beneath the soft edges of her curls, he gripped her nape and tugged her closer. Their bodies met in all the right places.
Lily gasped. Her hand dropped from her face, and wide eyes jerked up to meet his.
Leaning close enough that their lips almost touched, he whispered, “Sweetheart, let me tell you something. I have plenty of experience. I know whether a woman is responsive or not. And you’re definitely responsive. Maybe you haven’t realized it because the men you’ve dealt with before were the ones doing something wrong, not you.” He stroked a thumb along the racing pulse at the side of her neck, enjoying the rush of her excitement, the tension starting low in his belly and hardening his cock between them. “You’re not bad in bed, Lily. All it takes is the right touch to make sex good.”
Her breath caressed his mouth, filling his nose with the scent of strawberries and spice. She licked along her bottom lip. A moment’s hesitation, then, “Like yours?”
“Definitely like mine.” He dug his fingers up into her hair, the curls a wild tangle after their exertion on the dance floor. He loved them, and when he gave the slightest tug, her eyelids slid to half-mast as if they were too heavy to keep open. “You just have to know what you’re doing.” He brushed his lips along hers. “And I definitely do.”
A hard swallow from Lily. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that, I think.”
He smiled. “Maybe you can do more than see it. I’d be happy to show you.”
He’d told the entire town that they were sleeping together, and now here he was, offering to make that reality. His cock throbbed, pressing into Lily’s softness, begging unashamedly for her to say yes.
“That would be a very bad idea,” she said.
“Or a good one.” He splayed a hand at the base of her spine, giving her his heat, holding her against his stiff arousal. “Lily, I’m only here for a short time. Once the resort is complete, I’ll be moving on to other projects. But I want you; I think you know that by now. Yes, we’ve got business together, and I’d never let sex get in the way of that. But I’m available; you’re available; we’re both adults.” He nipped her bottom lip. “A good time never hurt anything.”
“A good time has hurt plenty of things,” she said, but she didn’t shy away. Finally a sigh escaped her. “Honestly, JD, I’m tired of worrying about that. Tired of worrying about the right thing to do. Tired of…well, a lot of things.”
Her spine stiffened beneath his palm, and he tensed, unsure of what her answer would be.
He shouldn’t have worried. Lily’s answer was as simple and sweet and straightforward as the woman herself. She raised her head, met his eyes, clear in the moonlight, and spoke only one word:
“Yes.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lily insisted on driving her own car. No matter how much she wanted this, no matter how much she didn’t want to lose the closeness with JD and risk him changing his mind before they got to the mansion, she couldn’t let go of the practical and remember today was Thursday, not Friday. She had work tomorrow. And she had no intention of feeding the gossip already swirling about them by showing up late to work.
The outside lights were on at the mansion, shining all the way to the gate as she drove through. JD led the way, and he was out of his car before she’d even taken the key from the ignition. The door was open, and urgent hands were pulling her from the car. That urgency was the most reassuring thing she’d ever felt. She wasn’t naive, nor was she a virgin. She knew she was pretty—that had never been the source of her uncertainties—and she knew she and JD had great physical chemistry. But she’d been aroused, excited with lovers before, and somehow her performance had always fallen short. She didn’t want to fall short with JD.
JD pulled her straight from the car into his arms. Being held close to his tall, strong body, held by his sure hands, felt so good, like coming home and exploding fireworks all at once. He fit just right against her, wide shoulders that blocked everything else out, a solid chest that curved and valleyed in all the right places, arms that were steel bands enclosing her. His hands gripped her body, refusing to allow even an inch of air between them, and against her belly, his erection was a hard rod screaming his need. She wanted to see it, wanted to touch it, wanted him in her mouth and inside her with an urgency that seemed to match his own.
And all of that was besides his mouth.
The second their bodies touched, his lips met hers. Opened. His stubble rasped her sensitive skin; his tongue pushed inside without waiting. He tasted of Guinness and spicy barbecue sauce, lighting up her taste buds far more than the wings had done. She pushed her tongue against his, meeting him moment for moment. Devouring him like he was devouring her. Consuming him and wishing she could absorb him through every cell of her body.
One particular part of her definitely wanted to absorb him.
JD broke off the kiss. “Come on.”
That hoarse tone, the hard grasp of his hand, the quick steps up to the door, all of it added flames to the fire already burning inside her. She knew the house was massive, knew there had to be multiple bedrooms, but she certainly hoped his was close.
Whether it was or not, JD wasn’t waiting. The door slammed closed behind them, and he hustled her through a dark foyer, down a hall, and into a dim living area and straight to a couch. “I can’t wait,” he said, hands urgent as they tore her shirt from the waistband of her pants.
“Neither can I.”
Was that her voice? That husky, rasping, barely there sound? Was this really her, shakily unbuttoning a man’s shirt as he unzipped her jeans? She spared one more thought for the anxiety that had consumed her, the worry over whether or not her “performance” would be up to JD standards, and then the very idea of performing fell away as she let the hunger take over.
“Kick off your shoes.” JD was already toeing his off, unbuttoning his pants. She gladly kicked her wedges from her feet and, taking a deep breath, grasped the hem of her shirt and began a slow slide up her body.
JD froze, hands still on his zipper.
The fire in those stunning blue eyes… God, what it did to her. Her breasts were tight, the nipples hard as rocks. The silkiness of her shirt against her skin was almost more than she could bear as it rose up to her bra, then over the twin mounds and up to her face. Her last glimpse of JD showed his eyes blazing, zeroed in on the black lace bra she wore, before she whipped the shirt over her head.
JD’s fingers shook as the reached for the front clasp of her bra. “May I?”
