Page 49 of Bad Boy for Hire
“Complimentary. Considerate. You’re making me sound like a hotel.”
“Oh, no!” She laughed. “I don’t mean it that way.”
He wove his fingers at her back, keeping his head tilted to take in more of her. The moonlight streaming through the skylight gave her face a dewy glow. It was like he’d been bedded by an ethereal goddess.
“What I meant to say…” She rolled her eyes to the skylight while she thought, then snapped her gaze to him. “I meant to say that you are hard in all the right places. From your biceps to your pecs to your abs to your cock.”
A particular part of his anatomy gave a peppy jerk. He was ready to go again.
This woman.
She gave him the most innocent look he’d ever seen. “I would never say that about a hotel.”
He rolled them so that she was beneath him, gave her a deep kiss she wouldn’t soon forget, and then told her, “I’m coming back in ten seconds. And then we’ll see about that fifth orgasm.”
“Fifth?” she called as he hustled for the door. “You counted?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Now get ready.”
“Seven,” Xavier repeated for the third time. “Damn, I’m good.”
His head was on his pillow but turned to the side to face her, a cocky glint in his eyes.
“Yes, yes. You are a sex god.” She hugged her pillow and rolled toward him. “Is that what you’re waiting to hear?
“I already knew that. But yeah, it’s nice to hear.” He gave her a fast kiss, his lips grazing her teeth since she was laughing. He moved the pillow, scooped her close to him, and rested one hand on the swell of her hip. Her skin warmed everywhere she touched him. Her attention wandered down their naked bodies, taking in the contrast of curves and edges. Light and dark. Where they met and where they fit. A beautiful sight…
After a few silent moments of absently running her fingernails through his chest hair, her mind wandered to tonight. Earlier with their friends and then to their unexpected guest.
“Your brother seems nice,” she heard herself say.
“That was an abrupt subject change.”
“I was remembering kissing you in the living room and being interrupted. I have a still frame in my mind of Lynx eating Froot Loops, a drip of milk sliding down his chin. I think we startled him.”
“He broke into my house and stole my comic book collection. And you think he’s nice? I find him annoying.”
“Being annoyed is a sign of familial love.”
He raised an eyebrow in disbelief, which also made him look sexy and cunning. And now she was considering climbing on top of him again. She briefly shut her eyes to gather her senses. Had she ever been this sexually attracted to anyone?
Never. Xavier had outperformed everyone in her past.
“Considering my family dynamics, annoyance is a sign of unconditional familial love.” Something she hadn’t experienced since her mother passed.
He fell quiet, his hand on her hip sliding up and down and leaving goosebumps in its wake. When she didn’t say more, he prompted her with, “You can talk about it. I don’t mind.”
“There’s not much to tell.” She shrugged one shoulder, not wanting to burden him. The only friend she’d talked to at length about her family was Lisa, but that was because Lisa was as committed to finding the truth as a pig was a truffle. Since that was a direct quote from her, May was okay with the comparison.
But the longer Xavier watched her, earnestly, openly, the more she wanted to share. He was a great listener—a skill that must have come with being a bartender. And he wasn’t judgmental. He also didn’t overreact, as he’d proved when he came with her to the wedding.
With her next breath, she relented.
“My mom worked at a salon. One day, as she was leaving work, a car blew through a stop sign and hit her on the crosswalk outside of the salon.”
He winced, on cue.
“Dad and I rushed out of our respective workplaces and met at the ICU. By the time I arrived, he was in the waiting room wearing an empty-eyed stare.”
