Austin’s kiss starts tender and sweet, and I try not to make too much of it. He’s just pretending, and I let myself fall for the lie because I want him so goddamn much it hurts.
When his kiss invades me harder, a rush of raw lust hits every part of my body. And when he pulls away, I can hear the urgent plea in my voice.
“Yes, please, yes.”
The way he studies me makes me realize why the clock hasn’t started.
“Sorry,” I say, then ask meekly, “Should we settle up first?”
His smile is warm, widening across his face to a sweet sexiness that relaxes everything inside me. “Keep your money. I’m more interested in a trade. I’m pretty sure I can cure you without it.”
“What do you want to trade?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asks, looking up and down my body with a sexy half smile on his gorgeous face. When I shake my head, he answers with a laugh. “Pie.”
Confused, I giggle. “Um, that’s not exactly a trade.”
“No, not this pie,” he says, tracing a faint line against my aching crotch. “One that you bake.”
And just like that, the question is on my lips. “What’s your pleasure?” My brow tightens, but relaxes as soon as his kiss lands there.
“Surprise me.”
“Sure. A pie for a pie,” I say, breathy and hard when his stubble slides lightly down the side of my cheek. I turn, anticipating a kiss that doesn’t happen.
“Good,” he says. “I’m going to start with one question.”
I lick my lips and sigh. “Anything.”
His lips skim mine, causing them to tremble as his words feather against my mouth. “What’s your safe word?”
After I toss out a string of crazy safe words like “Dancing Queen” and “bologna,” because there’s no way any amount of thinking is happening with his cock pressed to my core, Austin’s warm laugh reassures me.
“We’ll work on safe words next time.”
Nodding fervently, I agree, already eager for a promised next time before he’s even begun.
“Now,” he says, his voice rumbling as the heat of his fingers tease the skin beneath my panties, lifting away each time I try to grind against them. Lightly, he presses soft kisses on my lips. “I’m going to touch you.” Kiss. “Tease you.” Another kiss. “Take my time.”
When I try kissing him first, he pulls away, and my whimper is audible.
“Shhh,” he whispers against my mouth. “First, ground rules. You give me complete control, and I give you everything I know you need. Deal?”
When the yes escapes my lips, his tongue invades my mouth and two fingers slip past my panties and slide deep into the heat of my soaked core. His pumps climb to a soothing pace, and when his thumb barely grazes my sensitive nub, it happens. An orgasm rips through me so quickly and easily, the only thing I can do is cover my wincing face with my arm.
No wonder he told me to keep my money. A woman who can’t hold out for two fucking minutes has got to be barely worth the man’s time.
Controlling my breathing enough to mutter, “Thanks,” I try shimmying my skirt back in place. Which is comical with his fingers still inside me.
Without blinking, he moves those dangerous fingers—tilts them just so and presses them against the perfect spot along my inside walls.
“Going somewhere?” he asks, with a confidence and cockiness that fills my face with a smile.
Panting, I can only shake my head as he drags his fingers in and out, and hits that spot again and again. And, oh my God. His open mouth sends a hot breath through the lace of my panties, warming my clit as a third finger plows in.
In an instant, I’m undone. Clamping against his three fingers and grinding them to a halt.
He drags them out of me and commands my attention. “Open your eyes.”
When my heavy lids open just enough, I’m completely turned on, watching him suck each finger clean. Mmm rumbles from his throat, and I see the sexy dip at the base of it—where his neck ends and that ripped chest begins. The little pocket of him I’m dying to kiss.
“I want you naked,” he says, laying open-mouthed kisses and light licks onto each area he reveals as he slowly peels off my clothes.
The warmth of his breath travels down the inside of my thighs, until his hands wrap around my ankles.
“Why did you wear those shoes?” he asks, still occupied with rubbing his stubble against my calves. “You weren’t wearing them earlier.” He places a soft kiss on each ankle, then puts my heels back on.
My surprise wanes beneath his soft touches, and I stare as he begins removing his own clothes. I can’t help the hitch in my breath when his pants fall to the floor and I see the fullness of his cock jutting out, topped with a growing bead of desire.
I lick my lips and when my eyes lift, soaking in every defined inch of his tight torso and built chest, I meet the darkness of his hungry gaze, giving him the only answer I have. “I thought you would like them.”
“I do,” he says, tilting my head with one of his strong, tender hands, and angling his rigid cock at my lips with the other.
My mouth opens, and he slides himself along my tongue, giving me as much as I want. Tasting him, I’m nearly undone and about to come again. I want all of him.
When I lay into him, giving it my all in a forceful suck, the only thing he says is, “God, Evie. That’s it.” His hips thrust in a steady pace, and I’m lulled, warm in the foolish thought of this connection. Our connection.
With a gentle grip on my hair, he drags himself out, stroking the fullness of my lower lip with his thumb. “It’s not too late to back out.”
The hunger in his eyes is lost behind something else, and despite the lingering invitation of his sincere smile, concern bleeds through.
My hand presses his into my cheek, and I kiss his palm. “I’m not backing out.”
A contemplative look flashes across his face before he grabs a condom from his pants. Sheathing himself in a slow, teasing stroke, he nestles his body gently on mine. The heat of his tip at my core halts my breath.
“You sure?” he asks. “This isn’t something I can undo later, or erase.”
Smiling, I make a desperate move to take more of him. He backs up, his lifted brow conveying his control.
It’s me who moves up to his lips, planting several kisses of reassurance. “I’m sure.”
The words barely escape my lips before he thrusts inside, throwing me to my back, feeding me the full length of him at once. As he rocks me in harmony with him, nothing else exists. Just every nerve of my body building. Climbing. Desperate for him. Only him.
In the forever that disappears in seconds, his kisses and licks across my breasts send tingles and shivers across my arms to my fingertips as they glide and grasp along the muscles of his neck and carved angles of his back. My legs wrap around him, eager to keep him—hold him—for as long as I can. As soon as my heel meets the resistance of his skin, he bucks hard, using his thumb to make tiny circles along my clit.
I hold out, clinging to the pleasure that fills me, only strong enough to push off my climax until he says, “Now.” His low, deep command has me tumbling into more sensations and emotions than I ever knew existed, consuming me in each breath, undoing me with each shudder.
And then it’s over. Austin covers me with a nearby throw, cuddles me, tells me how I’m everything, leaving me with the sinking feeling that he was right.
This can’t be undone. Or erased.
I never imagined that the way to get over someone would lead me to falling for someone else. Someone unintentional. Unavailable.
As he dresses and leaves me for the night, I pretend to sleep, not stirring at all when his lips press their heat on my cheek. Regret rolls over me like a thick fog, and when the door clicks closed, I sink into longing for him—the only man who’s ever managed to walk away with a precious piece of my heart.