Speak Low (Speak Easy 2)

Oh God, Joey. Please don’t say no.

With my heart thumping wildly, I looked down at his fist, unfurled his fingers, and slipped his hand beneath the cotton. Taking a deep breath, I pressed it to my skin and shivered with pleasure when his warm palm covered my breast.

I looked back at him again. For one agonizing eternity of a second, he struggled with his decision.

Well, maybe it was half a second.

He bent forward, grabbed my head with his other hand, and crushed his mouth to mine—oh my God that mouth, those full, luscious lips I’d stared at so many times—how was it possible for them to feel and taste even better than they looked? He kissed me hard, his tongue plunging between our open lips, stroking and sucking. Lust ricocheted throughout my body and centered between my legs. Reaching up to take his face in my hands, I kissed him so deeply and desperately I couldn’t breathe, but I cared less about consuming oxygen than I did about consuming Joey.

He lunged off the couch at the same time I struggled to get up on it, and our bodies came together before we tumbled to the floor, frantic to climb inside each other’s skin. We ended up on the rug between the sofa and the coffee table, a tangle of twining limbs and searching hands and hungry mouths. Joey’s leg slid between my thighs and I squeezed it, lifting my hips. It felt so incredible I nearly exploded right then and there. My God, it’s Joey, I kept thinking. It’s Joey and me and it’s finally real and it feels so fucking good.

Passion for him surged through me like a lightning storm. My heart pounded against his chest, or was that his pounding against mine? I have to get closer, there has to be a way to get more of him. The image of him shirtless in the kitchen popped into my head. I remembered eyeing the muscles in his back, how hot and hard his chest felt under my hands when I checked for bruises. I recalled the way his abdominal muscles rippled down his taut stomach. Oh, God, I wanted to touch him there, touch him everywhere, with my hands, my lips, my tongue. I wanted him naked, next to me, on me, under me, inside me. My head fell back, my jaw dropping in disbelief at the way I wanted Joey.

He moved down my body and took one nipple in his mouth, sucking it through the cotton, and I had to bite down on my own hand to keep from crying out at the pleasure it wrought from deep inside me. Desperate to feel more of his weight on me, I shimmied underneath him, claiming his mouth again with my own and wrapping my legs around him. And then I couldn’t help smiling against his lips because I could feel the way he wanted me. Moving my hands around his sides to his round, muscular ass, I pulled him into me, gasping at the huge, hard feel of the bulge in his trousers. Oh my God, I could come just like this, just feeling his cock rub against me through our clothing, because it’s him and this is crazy and my heart is going to burst out of my chest and he feels so good and I never want him to stop and—

“Christ, Tiny.” Joey braced his hands above my shoulders and looked down at me, breathing hard. “What are we doing?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, digging my heels into the backs of his thighs. “But don’t stop.” He groaned, and I lifted my head off the floor and kissed his lips, his chin, his jaw. “Please don’t stop.” I pressed my lips to his throat and felt his pulse on them. “I want you.”

“Since when?”

“Since when?” I panted.

“Yeah, since when do you want me?”

I dropped my head to the floor. That was not the anticipated response. “What do you mean?”

Lifting himself off me, he knelt between my knees. “Last time we talked about this, you said you wanted him, not me.”

I propped myself up on my elbows. “I never said that.”

“You certainly did. You accused me of judging you for getting what you want. I asked you if you wanted him, and you said yes.”

Had I said that? Sighing, I closed my eyes. “I know, but…” God, this was so maddening—my feelings were so twisted up inside me. I had wanted Enzo, and everything he’d promised me. But now that he was offering, I wasn’t sure I wanted it anymore. Why was that? Was I simply that fickle? Or had I changed my mind because of Joey? I wasn’t sure, and I knew the worst thing I could do right now was say something I didn’t mean.

I opened my eyes. “I don’t know what I want anymore. I’m confused.”

“Well, that makes two of us.” He got to his feet and snatched his coat off the sofa, shoving his arms through the sleeves.

“And what about you?” I demanded, sitting up. “You’re the one who was out on a date tonight, not me!” It was so irritating having to whisper when I wanted to shout. I scrambled to my feet. “Where did you take her?”

“Nowhere, I just gave her a ride home.”

“Did you kiss her? Did you?”

“No.” Joey ran his hands through his hair. “Why the fuck do you even care?” He tried to push past me and go for the front door, but I didn’t let him. I caught him by the elbow, spun him around and threw myself at him, grabbing him by the back of his head and pressing my lips to his. He groaned in frustration but slanted his mouth over mine, and I sucked his tongue into my mouth. He tasted so good, like the rain, and oh my God I wanted to taste every inch of his body. His arms looped around my lower back, lifting me off my feet, and held me tightly to his chest. But when I tried to twine my legs around his hips again, he set me down and gently pushed me away.

“I can’t do this,” he said, picking up his hat from the sofa. “I just wanted to say goodbye.”

I twisted my hands together. “Where are you going?”

“Chicago.”

“Tonight?”

“No. There’s something I have to do here first, but I’ll have to leave fast after that.”

“Something with a gun?”