Page 45 of Dark Secrets

“You make me feel safe.” It was the truth, foreign as it was. “I want you to kiss me, James.”

He hesitated for a fraction of a second before his mouth was on hers, his tongue teasing her lower lip while his arms circled her waist. He made that growling sound deep in his throat when she arched in his grip, her breasts dragging against his chest. She really did love that sound.

Uncrossable line or not, she wanted him, and she was tired of not letting herself have what she wanted. She’d been so careful for so long. Why couldn’t she be reckless just this once?

She tilted her head, sighing when he immediately trailed his lips over her jaw to her earlobe, tracing the shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue. Working her hands under his t-shirt, she skimmed her fingernails over the lean muscles of his back.

Pushing his shirt up his torso, she stilled when he leaned away. “James. I want to cross the line with you. Even if you want me to leave after.”

“Delaney, if we cross this line, I can guarantee that you leaving will be the last thing I want.”

She tugged his shirt all the way off and tossed it on the floor. Leaning in to press a kiss along his shoulder, she sighed when his fingers caressed the bare skin of her hips, dipping into the waistband of her leggings.

“Cross the line with me, James.”

Before she’d even fully formed the words, he lifted her up onto the edge of the pool table and stepped between her legs. His lips trailed hot kisses down the side of her neck while his hands worked her shirt up over her stomach and breasts. His mouth left her skin long enough to pull the shirt free and toss it on top of his own before he was touching her again.

He tasted her like a man starved, lips and tongue swirling from the base of her neck to her shoulder. He bent to press a kiss to the top of her breast while his fingers worked the catch of her bra, and she gasped. Immediately he slid his fingers away from her bra, and his touch slowed.

The sudden shift caught her off guard. Had he changed his mind and didn’t know how to extract himself? No. He was still touching her. This time he was kissing his way across her shoulder, his hands tracing gentle circles over her back. She wanted more from him, more heat, more fire, more urgency.

Griping his face in her hands, Delaney brought his mouth to hers, capturing it in a searing kiss and shivering at his guttural groan when she nipped at his lips and tongue. There it was, that rushing electricity she craved from him.

He palmed her breasts through the fabric of her bra, and she arched against his touch. She ached to feel his hand against her naked skin, but he made no move to undo her bra. Releasing his face, she reached behind her back and undid the clasp herself, quickly discarding the thin fabric.

He paused, his eyes raking down her body, and for the first time since giving into this impulse, she felt self-conscious. Like maybe she was as undesirable as she’d always been told, that sleeping with her really was a chore. James didn’t hesitate in dispelling that notion, taking one nipple in his mouth and swirling his tongue across it while reaching up to gently pinch and tug the other one.

She gasped again, and his touch immediately changed, softened. He pulled back a second time. She moved his hand back to her breast, and he squeezed it gently, rolling her nipple between his fingers. When he bent to take her nipple into his mouth again, she understood. He was trying to learn her, what she did and didn’t like or want. The idea that he even cared at all had tears pricking her eyes.

“James,” she whispered, and he stilled again. “That feels good. Don’t stop.”

She shuddered when he increased the pressure, using his teeth on her breast, dragging his palm against her swollen nipple. He skimmed his hands down her sides and over her hips, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of her leggings, waiting until she lifted her hips to work them down over her ass and off her legs.

She should feel exposed, but his gaze heated her, his eyes roaming every inch of her naked body, and she wondered how she didn’t catch on fire from the intensity of it.

James trailed his fingertips up the inside of her thigh, scratching lightly with his nails. “I want to taste you.”

“Yes. Please.” She sucked in a sharp breath when he immediately went to his knees. “Here?”

He glanced up at her, his eyes cloudy with lust, then back over his shoulder at the leather chairs behind them. “You’d rather the chair?”

“No. Yes. I mean…” She tried to gather her thoughts while he stared at her with those eyes, his fingers rubbing tight circles higher and higher up her thigh. “I don’t want to mess up the pool table.”

His grin was wicked. “The pool table can be cleaned. And I will enjoy knowing I had you on it.”

“Will you?” Her breath caught in the back of her throat.

“Mmm.” He spread her legs wide so she was forced to brace herself on her hands and kissed her thigh. “I promise you I will.”

He held her gaze while he extended his tongue and dragged it up her slit. She hissed when he flicked it against her clit once, twice, three times.

“James,” she groaned when he wrapped his lips around her clit and teased his fingers over her pussy.

“You’re better than I imagined.”

He slid one finger inside her, curling it up to drag against her g-spot, and she groaned. But he didn’t slow this time, didn’t stall. Instead he increased the pressure of his finger inside her and used his other hand to draw circles over her clit.

“How can I be better than you imagined?” She could barely get the words out as a second finger joined the first. “Nothing’s happened yet.”

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