Page 14 of His Favorite Mistake

“No, let him play.” Peyton laughed and grabbed my arm. “You’re right. It doesn’t suit me. It’s also hot as hell.”

“I didn’t say that. Everything suits you. You make my throat hurt, just looking at you.”

Her hand came up toherthroat, and she stroked it as a wrinkle formed between her light brows. “That sounds bad.”

“Try feeling it.” I threaded my fingers through her fine pin-straight hair and let my gaze drift down her body. “Anything else fake that I should know about?”

Frowning, she stepped back. Maybe this was it. I’d gone too far, been a little too honest, and now she would call for a limo and sail out of my life as abruptly as she’d entered it.

Except I wouldn’t be able to forget. I’d sit down at his computer and be forced to download some pop shit I normally wouldn’t listen to if someone paid me, just to hear her voice in my head in reality rather than conjuring up a memory.

She reached back and unzipped her dress, letting it pool around her incredible boots. Then she flicked her fingers over the front clasp of her modest polka dot bra, causing that to fall away too.

Once she’d shed the panties I’d already savored thoroughly, she stood before me in all her blond glory, blushing in a way that told me she didn’t put herself on display like this very often.

“All real from here on out,” she whispered.

“That so?” I looked my fill, waiting for her to squirm and try to cover herself. But she stood tall and proud, shoulders back. My thumb circled one shell pink nipple until it beaded.

“These too?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

There was no part of her gorgeous body that hadn’t been granted by nature. She had no visible piercings beyond her ears, no tattoos. Even the groomed tuft of blond curls between her legs showed that she didn’t always gravitate toward artifice.

“Very real.” She gave him a tremulous smile. “If I’d bought them, I’d have gone a little bigger.”

“Why? You got a problem with perfection?”

Her sharp intake of breath came even before I dipped his head to take the nipple I’d stroked into my mouth. I tugged hard with my teeth, enjoying her gasp of surprise and the clutch of her fingers in my hair.

Hell, I frigginglovedhow she pulled my hair.

“You’re a sweet talker. I wouldn’t have guessed.”

Laughter rumbled through my chest. “There’s no part of me that’s sweet. You’ll discover that soon enough.” I nipped her breast and she cried out, the sound breaking across my skin like waves at the shore.

I hadn’t surfed in years, but I felt precariously balanced right now, riding a line I’d deliberately not crossed in so long.

And if Ididcross it, I definitely shouldn’t cross it with someone who smelled like some fancy Parisian perfume and had skin so pale she’d wear any mark I gave her for weeks.

That wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

Her fingers clenched that much harder in my hair. “What does that mean?”

I debated painting a rosy picture for her, or better yet, sidestepping the question altogether. Then I remembered her search for reality, and what I craved was as real as it got. “Should I tell you or should I show you?”

“Show,” she replied breathlessly. “Definitely show.”

Shaking my head, I lifted her wrist and grazed the soft skin there with my teeth. “Are you always so lax with your safety?”

“Am I not…safe with you?”

“I won’t hurt you—unless you ask me to.” I let her absorb that while I studied the maze of veins under her near translucent skin.

Any makeup at all beyond mascara and lipstick would make her look garish. She had such a delicate beauty. In my grip, her arm felt fragile. But she wasn’t. I could tell that just from the defiant tilt of her chin.

“But I’ll push you, and I’ll test you, and I won’t allow you to take the easy way out.”

“Okay.”

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