He placed his near-empty wineglass on the wooden edge of the hot tub, then trailed both hands along her back and cupped her bottom. “Oh, I know you’re aching right here for me.” He shifted her hips, rubbing her sex against his hardened length. “That I don’t doubt.”
She gripped her wineglass in hopes it wouldn’t fall out of her hand. Again, that slow smile spread across his face, looking deadly and dangerous all the same. Then he added, “But I’d like to hear your reasoning behind it.”
As his hands squeezed her buttocks, she fought the desire to stop talking altogether and shift a little higher to force him inside. “Are you always this vocal about stuff?”
“Always,” he said with conviction.
He swirled her hips and her eyes fluttered closed as pleasure swept like molten lava in her veins. When he squeezed her bottom again, clearly waiting for her reply, she opened her eyes. “I want you.”
“The passion is intense, isn’t it?” he asked in a seductive, low voice.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I feel it, too.” He held her stare, serious and stern. “I don’t want only tonight, Ella. Let’s get that out of the way, all right?”
God, get inside me. “You want to go on a date, then?”
She attempted to shift her hips again, and he chuckled softly. “Woman, you melt under my touch in a way I have never seen before. I want to play with you, and learn all the things that make you you as I do.”
Odd term. “Play with me?”
“Yes.” He pressed his face into her neck and inhaled deeply. “I want to play with this sexy body and watch it heat under my hands.” Shifting her hips against his cock, he groaned. “But since you’ve never done this before, I want you to know where we stand.” He gave a forceful lick up her neck and then looked to her. “I want more time with you.”
Ella watched him, and thought this conversation was peculiar, to say the least. Didn’t men just take what they want and be happy with that? To her, this seemed like a negotiation, as if he planned it all and needed everything to be clear. “Do you always plan sex out before you do it?”
One sleek eyebrow arched. “I need you to understand what I want.”
He was serious, that she firmly believed. But the annoying voice in her head stopped her. “I don’t want to date.”
He hesitated. “Coming out of a relationship, then?”
“A long relationship.” Don’t ask about it, please.
His eyes narrowed slightly. “I certainly don’t want only one night. I’d like to get to know you, if that’s all right with you. But we don’t have to do strings attached, so how about a friends-with-benefits arrangement? Would that suit you?”
“Only friends—no relationship—though?” she retorted.
He grinned. “Friends who hang out and also fuck, yes?”
Part of her knew this was a bad step. Even hanging out could lead to a relationship, and that was the last thing she wanted. Though all the same, she wanted Kyler, even found herself excited over the idea that he wanted to get to know her better … or play with her again. “Okay, I agree.”
“You agree with what?”
She quivered against the warm tone in his voice that seemed to pull at something deep inside her. “No strings attached, but you want to get to know me after tonight.”
He smiled, warmth filling his expression. “Ah, that I do.” He rose with her in his arms, as if her size-eight frame weighed nothing. With an oh-so-sexy smile on his face, he rested her bottom on the edge of the hot tub. “Put your hands beside you.” Her heart hammered as she pressed her hands against the warm edge, and he added, “Open your legs, nice and wide.”
Lord, he seemed so solid: a confident guy, and that was sexy. To her, it seemed like a reward when she did what he asked. When she didn’t respond or hesitated, he gave her hard looks and used a firm voice, but the moment she pleased him it all vanished.
Odd.
Regardless, she ached for his touch. Hesitation was the farthest thing from her mind as she widened her thighs. She’d already learned that that easygoing look from him, matched with his charming smile, meant pleasure.
This man could deliver.
The warm air caressed her hot sex when she spread wide. His eyes blazed with an intoxicating flare, setting her on fire, as he murmured, “Put your calves over my shoulders.” She slid her ankles over his damp skin and then ran her legs over his hard muscles until her knees rested against his shoulders. He growled low in his throat. “That’s it, sweetheart.”
If he said anything else, she didn’t hear it because his mouth was on her. It was magical. His tongue swept up her folds