Page 126 of Love on the Byline

His gaze burned into hers as lust twisted his features,leaving him looking slightly dazed. “Yes...” he rasped. “But... I need...totouch you.”

Blake sat up, folding her legs under her, and reached behindto unclasp her bra. Ollie’s hot, hooded gaze was like a caress against her bareskin.

“Gorgeous,” he whispered.

She felt self-conscious and sexy all at once, his honestappreciation an aphrodisiac.

“Touch me,” she replied with a whisper.

He sat up, moving slowly as if he were afraid she’d run away.She wasn’t going anywhere.

He cupped one hand over her breast, grazing the nipple withhis thumbs and she heard herself whimper.

“I never... I wasn’t...” He paused, searching for words, andseemed frustrated when he didn’t find just the right ones. “I didn’t plan this.You,” he said. “I was thinking about how we got here, running into you, Bran.”

“You’re thinking about Bran right now?” she teased.

Chuckling, he briefly closed his eyes. “No, trust me. Rightnow, I’m only thinking about what you’d taste like if I were to spread you outhere and...” He ran a questing finger down her sternum.

It was her turn to shiver.

“Lie down,” came the soft command, and she obeyed, movingthe prickly condom square away from her sensitive back.

Ollie knelt between her legs, using his hands to gentlyspread her thighs further apart. He hooked his thumbs beneath the elastic ather hips and pulled.

She lifted to assist him, and then she was bare in everyway.

“There was a pool party at Alpha Q the spring of my senioryear, do you remember?” he asked, tracing a finger from her neck, down betweenher breasts, and south.

“Party?” She could barely remember her own name, much less agathering that happened over five years ago.

“I got there late, and the first thing I saw when I walkedaround the back of the house was you in a bikini. Light blue withruffles...here...and here.”

He drew a finger across her chest and another across herwaist.

She had a vague recollection of it, of a hot day in the sunand cold drinks with friends.

“I remember someone walking up to me but I couldn’t tell youwho it was or what they said,” Ollie continued as his gaze traveled over her.“All I could see was you. And I wanted you so suddenly, and so urgently, that Iwalked away. Went straight to the bathroom and had to get off.”

She froze, shocked by his confession. “Really?”

“I was so embarrassed,” he said, his cheeks reddening evenmore. “I’m still embarrassed. I was so hung up on you, Blake. You made mestupid.”

“You hid it well.”

“Too well,” he said, seeming to come back to the present.“But I would gladly do it all the same if it meant I could be here with youlike this. Right now.”

He shifted, and she found herself pulled forward on the bed,her legs splayed wide. He looked hungrily down between her legs as if he’d beenpresented with a lavish feast, his breathing becoming louder and deeper.

She gasped when he dragged a gentle finger through herfolds. And then again when he touched her clit.

“Beautiful,” he said, shaking his head as if he couldn’tquite comprehend it.

Blake arched, the pleasure shocking in its intensity.

“I’ve thought about this the most,” Ollie continued, hisvoice like whiskey, smooth and warm as he lowered his head to where she neededhim the most. “About your hands in my hair and your legs over my shoulders as Isucked the honey right out of your body.”

“Oliver,” she cried out. She’d completely underestimatedthis man. This was Ollie, her nerdy, factoid-spouting friend from college whowould recite Pablo Neruda by heart, who would give the shirt off his back toanyone who needed it, and run a five-mile loop every morning at oh-dark-thirtywithout fail. But he was also Oliver. The guy who’d danced with her amongst thestars and taken care of her when she wasn’t feeling well. The guy who fed herand listened to her and made her feel things she hadn’t thought possible.

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