Page 49 of All Autumn
~ Autumn ~
“Good. By the time I’m done with you, you’re going to need CPR.” I lifted my eyes to Connor’s. He was looking back at me, his eyelids hooded, his lips parted, and his hands were gripping the top of the sofa. I don’t know what had gotten into me tonight with this bossy thing. Maybe it was because it had been a long time since I’d been with a man, but I was feeling naughty. I also think that my friendship with Connor had a lot to do with it. I could be myself with him.
A wicked smile curved his lips. “Do your best.”
“Challenge accepted.” I tapped my fingers over his erection. “What little prize are you hiding from me?”
He snorted, a strangled-sounding snort. “Little? You wound me.”
“Mmm, maybe I should see for myself.” I was having fun teasing him, and he was obviously enjoying it. But like a man who couldn’t take any more, he glared at me with both fire and impatience. I wrapped my fingers around him over the cotton of his briefs, and he hissed a long breath.
“In sixty—or not even that long—seconds you’re going to be as naked as me,” he said, standing with me wrapped around him as if I weighed no more than his favorite blanket.
I yelped, slinging my arms around his neck at suddenly being lifted into the air.
“I’m taking over.” He stared hard at me, daring me to argue. “I’ve wanted you too long, waited too long for this to happen. You can play with me all you want later. Right now, though, my rules.” He slipped his hands under my bottom. “I’m going to touch you and taste you until you’re begging me to make you come. And Autumn?”
“Yes?” That came out in a whisper, and something like satisfaction flashed in his eyes. With my legs wrapped around his waist, he headed up the stairs. Because I was facing him, my gaze roamed over his face, taking in the dark stubble on his jaw, the way he looked at me out of those blue eyes, and then to his mouth, waiting for his next words.
“I might let you.”
“Might let me what?” Somewhere along the line, I’d lost the thread of our conversation.
“Let you come.”
“Oh,” I whispered. “That.”
He laughed. “Yeah,that, but it depends.” At my raised brow, he said, “On whether you’re a good girl and do everything I say.”
A fever started low in my stomach, spreading its warmth through my bloodstream, heating my body like never before. He didn’t talk as he carried me into his bedroom, but his eyes never left mine. I was aching for him, for whatever he was going to make me do.
He stopped at the edge of his bed, and with his gaze still intent on me, he let go and I slid down his body. “Should I—”
He put a finger on my lips, hushing me. So I waited.
“Take off your pants.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his gaze intent on me. “Take them off, Autumn,” he said when I just stood there.
This was a different Connor, one I’d never met. Excitement, the thrill of the unknown, raced up my spine. I unbuckled my belt, then lowered my zipper. His eyes tracked my every move as I let my pants slide down my legs. I stepped out of them and then waited for my next instructions.
“Blouse.”
That was all he said, just that one word, but it was the roughness in his voice that skittered through me, sending a shiver rippling under my skin. Holding his gaze, I started on the first button, taking my time. At the last button I paused, completing my task as slowly as possible, doing my best to torture him. When I let go, my blouse would fall open. Would he like what he saw?
Nerves hit. Connor, my friend, would be the first man to see my body in over a year. The boy whose tree house I’d invaded. The boy who liked to throw spitballs at me because it made me giggle.
“Let go of your blouse.”
My fingers refused to obey.
He studied me for a moment, then reached up and put his hand over mine.
“Let go. Let me see you.”
“What if…”
“What if?” he said.
“If you’re disappointed.”
