Page 73 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
“Twelve gauge,” she said, grabbing her scissors and closing the drawer. “Predictable. Now, tug your shirt down at the hem and be still. It’s not easy to do this one-handed.”
She opened the scissors and started cutting upward. She caught sight of ripped abs and then hard pecs as she cut the front open. My goodness, this was now all hers.
He jangled where they were cuffed. “We still have the sleeves—”
“I know.” She slid the remnants of his shirt to the left where they weren’t cuffed. “Just shrug out of it, and then I’ll cut the shoulder off the other arm.”
Oh, my, my.Her insides tightened as his bare chest appeared. Biting her lip, she had to look away to concentrate on her task. With one last snip, his shirt fell to the floor like discarded rags. He was taking the scissors from her hand before she could look up.
“Let’s see if I can cut you out of this yoga top,” he said, his brows clenching together. “Don’t distract me.”
She pursed her lip to keep from laughing. Not distract him? They were about to have sex handcuffed together. “I didn’t imagine our first time would involve cutting each other out of our clothing. Kinky.”
“Behave, because I don’t want my hand to slip when I start seeing all that soft, gorgeous skin of yours.” He gave a strong, powerful exhale. “Maybe a story will distract me. You should know I wasn’t lying. I really do hate being handcuffed. When I was a hotshot rookie, I solved the case of a ranking officer. I thought he’d thank me. He handcuffed me to his cousin’s garbage truck for about four blocks. I had no choice but to ride along as he cruised beside me, explaining to me respect for rank and police hierarchy.”
She didn’t dare laugh. “Law enforcement ‘teasing’ was a bit of a shock to me when I landed at Quantico. Teachers aren’t so brutal.”
“I imagine,” he agreed, cutting in one clean, focused line. “You’re the girl next door. Not your typical hard jaw, tight-assed Fed.”
She didn’t bite the hook since most police officers felt that way about the FBI. “When I arrived for training, they thought I was there to fix the Xerox machine,” she told him, remembering how mortified she’d been after she realized the mix-up. “They laughed at me and shared a look that screamedshe won’t last.”
“I bet you ran them into the ground like you did me, right?” he asked, snipping the straps to her yoga top.
“You bet I did. Set a Quantico record, even.”
He smoothed the material against her skin, making no move to remove it from her as he opened the drawer and set the scissors inside before closing it firmly.
“Good girl,” he said, tipping up her chin. “I’m sorry I insulted you earlier. I was totally out of line.”
She met his gaze. “I appreciate you saying that. So are we through with all that now?”
He slid his free hand around her waist and pulled her close to him, his hard chest teasing the edges of her yoga top open where he’d cut it. “Yes. Maybe this is a good time to start over. Hi, I’m Robbie O’Connor.”
“Lily Meadows.” A whisper of a smile flirted with her lips. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, it really is,” he said in a dark, low rumble. “Meeting you was exactly what I needed, despite everything else going on. And just to be clear…I don’t want you to go easy on me. About anything. Running me down on the beach—”
“Or making you flop face down after we have sex?” she asked, playfully waggling her brows.
He lowered his head slowly, his hand already tugging away her mangled yoga top and throwing it aside, bringing them skin-to-delicious-skin at last. “Let’s see if I can surprise you.”
With that, she rose up to meet his descending mouth and gave a purrlike sound as he sucked on her bottom lip. Tangling her fingers in his thick black hair, she pressed their mouths more firmly together, punching up the smoldering heat between them. A needy feeling rose within her, and turning, she pressed him back on the bed, straddling his lap, maintaining their connection. He groaned, opening his mouth, inviting her tongue to dance with his own. God, yes, was all she thought.
His hand ran up and down the length of her back, igniting fires along her sensitized skin. She was fighting for air as she continued to kiss him, unwilling to give up that hot, all-consuming connection. Feeling her heart pounding in her chest, she changed the angle of their kiss, taking it deeper. He gripped her hip in response, rocking into her. Their anguished moans rolled out. That was the only sign she needed to push off his lap, press him down on the bed, and tug on his pants.
“Now who’s in a hurry?” he asked, baring his teeth as he helped her with his zipper.
“You know I excel at speed,” she shot back with a playful smirk. “Besides, why wait for what I want?”
He lifted his hips to help her, given they were both effectively one-handed. She slid his pants down, and before she could blink, she was flat on her back beside him. He rose up off the bed, stripped the rest of his clothes off, and then tugged her leg so her hips ended up at the edge of the bed.
“I can handle your impatience,” he said, falling to his knees and arranging their cuffed hands beside her knee, tickling the underside of it. “But you’re going to have to let me play a little.”
His free hand slid up the inside of her thigh, shattering her already rapid breathing. “I’m totally fine with that. Play away.”
“Oh, I plan to, don’t worry.” He tugged down her yoga pants, and she lifted her hips to aid him, wanting to feel his heat, his mouth, his body on her.
“Promises, promises,” she breathed as he slicked the pants off her ankles, leaving her completely bare before him.
