Page 45 of The Charmer's Gambit
Oh. My. God.
That felt amazing. My head fell forward against his abdomen, eliciting one of those alluring chuckles from him. I couldn’t bring myself to care. All my tension seemed to melt away as he continued his ministrations along my shoulders and down my arms. He paused every now and then to add more lotion, but by the time he was finished, I felt like Jelly.
He swept my hair over my shoulder and traced my upper back. “Lie down on your stomach for me.”
I groaned because that required moving. My forehead had created the perfect pillow against his six pack, and I planned to stay here forever. It wasn’t the softest pillow, but I rather enjoyed the heat radiating from him.
His fingers brushed my jaw before gently taking hold of my chin. He tilted my head, forcing me to look up at him. My mouth went numb at the fierce emotion emanating from his gaze. Tension sizzled in the air between us, burning a path straight to my center. I couldn’t look away. His expression hypnotized me, leaving me powerless to his will. My hands went to his shoulders when he grabbed my hips and lifted me. His movements wereeffortless as he repositioned me in the center of the mattress, with one of his knees between my legs on the bed. “Roll over, darlin’.”
Right. He wanted me on my stomach.
He shifted as I moved, and straddled my thighs. His finger traced a line down my spine, over my tank top, and stopped at the hem. When his thumb slipped beneath the fabric, I shivered. I expected him to try to remove it, but instead, both hands slid under my shirt and began massaging my lower back.
“Oh . . .” I couldn’t hide the moan as he worked magic over muscles I hadn’t realized were sore. All those hours outside had affected me more than I expected. Pruning was an exercise my daily runs had not prepared me for, not to mention I hadn’t been on one of those daily runs in a few weeks thanks to the long office hours. I pressed my face into the pillow and used it to muffle my groan.
“Mmm, I think that might be my new favorite sound.” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder as he moved his palms higher. I didn’t even care that my tank top was sliding up with his hands. As long as he continued touching me like that, he could strip me bare. I never wanted this to end.
“Your hands are magical.” The words slipped out of their own volition. Whatever. His ego couldn’t get much bigger anyway.
He nuzzled the back of my neck. “I think you’ll find my mouth to be just as pleasant.” His hot breath against my sensitive skin scattered goose bumps down my arms. Excitement and exhaustion fought for purpose inside of me. On the one hand, I’d never been more comfortable in my life. But, on the other, I’d never been this turned on before. My condition worsened when he tugged the straps of my tank top down, exposing my upper back. The fabric felt heavier than I remembered it being, and I had the sudden urge to rip it over my head.
But Will had other ideas. He pulled the bottom back to its rightful place before pressing the heel of his hand into my shoulder blade. I squirmed beneath him, unable to handle the conflicting sensations rallying inside me anymore. Heat pooled between my legs as the tension unfurled along my spine. It was a delicious mix that left me shaking. If this was his version of foreplay, I approved.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
Hot. On edge. Needy.None of those answers sufficed, and neither did the one that escaped my lips: “Good.” Oh, I could do better than that. “Amazing.” Still not enough. “I’m never leaving.”
He returned my straps to my shoulders with a chuckle. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like, darlin’.”
When I felt his thighs tense, like he was about to leave, I rolled beneath him. He stared down at me in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected me to be able to move that fast. Well, that made two of us. But my body required me to act. I felt like I was going to explode. He set me on fire in a way I never thought possible, and Ineededhim to extinguish the flame. There was only one way to do that.
I went to my elbows, eyes locked on his. “Kiss me.” When he didn’t immediately react, I cocked an eyebrow. “Isn’t this what you’ve wanted? Me willing and begging in your bed?”
He brushed his thumb over my lips and tracked the movement with his eyes. “Is this you begging?”
“Is that what you want?” Because I wasn’t above it at this point. The man had me all sorts of hot and bothered. It took considerable effort not to shift my hips upward and seek the friction I so badly needed. “Please, Will.” I tried to grab his shoulder and found my wrist caught in his big hand. He lowered it to the pillow beside my head as he stretched himself out lazilyover me. When his arousal settled between my thighs, I nearly wept with joy.
“You’re not ready for me yet, Rachel.” The words against my ear did not match the actions going on below.
“Oh, I’m more than ready.” I rotated my hips upward to show him what I meant and sighed when his hard length touched the place where I needed him most. I already knew from our interlude on the balcony that the man was well endowed, but to feel him throbbing so intimately against me really drove the point home.
That’s going to be inside me. . .
“No, darlin’.” He placed an open-mouthed kiss against my pulse. “We’re going to do this right.”
“Safely.” I agreed. “Condoms.” Ryan never allowed them, but I always wanted to use them. I shoved the memory away with an inner grimace and refocused on the moment. “You have one, right?” Because I didn’t pack one.
He chuckled against my neck. “I do, but you’re not listening.” His free hand went to my hip, stopping me from rotating them upward again. “We’re not having sex tonight.”
What? “Are you serious?” Wasn’t that his end goal? To get me in his bed?
“Very.”
His lack of an elaboration had me freezing beneath him. “I don’t understand.” This game of hot and cold needed to end. He either wanted me or not.
“You’re not ready,” he said, repeating his words from a few minutes ago. I’d mistaken them to mean something else entirely. This time I understood what he meant, and it sent a wave of rage through my system. I’d fought off male advances for almost two years, and now that I’d finally given in to one I actually wanted, he was rejecting me. BecausehethoughtIwasn’t ready. Fuck. That.
“Who the hell are you to decide what I want?” I tried to shove at his shoulders, but he caught my hands with an ease that further infuriated me. When he pushed both of them into the pillows on either side of my head, I lost it. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! You had your chance, Will.NowI’m not ready.” I knew on a mature level that my reaction wasn’t rational, that it was born of him rejecting me, but I couldn’t help it. “Get the fu—”
