Private Practice (Private Pleasures 1)

“Yep.” He could almost hear the gears in her brain turning as she ran her calculations. He was bigger, wider, and longer than the vibrator. Thank God he’d told her to bring the thing tonight. He might have to rename it “The Deal Breaker.”

Ellie flipped over, wrapped her arms around her drawn-up knees and stared at him with huge eyes. “You’re right. I don’t want to do this.”

“Good.” Gripping her hips, he hauled her up into his arms, one hand supporting the ass she’d been so anxious to give him a piece of, the other fanned across her back. Her hands flew to his shoulders at the same time her legs clamped around his waist. Ignoring her squeak of surprise, he stood. “I’ve got a better idea. Grab the blanket, will you? My hands are full.”

“Oh-kay.” Despite the skeptical reply, she reached down and snagged the lightweight blue quilt.

He carried her down the hall and straight out the back door. The big, glowing orb of a moon turned her skin alabaster and edged the quickly encroaching rainclouds bunched low over the treetops with silver.

“Tyler, have you lost your mind? It’s going to rain.”

He stopped in the flat, grassy area in the middle of his oak-shrouded yard. “You won’t melt. Drop the blanket.”

She did. He toed the edges out into a square, then sank to his knees and lowered her until she lay across the spread. His breath hitched at the picture she made, bathed in moonlight. Still not the right setting to bare his soul and tell her he wanted to be more to her than…hell…the guy who’d talked her out of chapter 13, but maybe he could show her. He crawled over her. She smiled up at him and shivered.

“Cold?”

“No. This is the best I’ve felt all day. You’re right. I won’t melt.”

Well, hopefully she would, but not from a little rain. He leaned in and covered her soft, smiling lips with his, sinking into a long, hot, wet, endless kiss.

“I don’t remember the naked backyard campout chapter from the handbook,” she said, a bit breathlessly, when he lifted his head.

“Not everything worth learning is summarized in a book. Sometimes you’ve got to rely on instincts.” To prove his point, he cupped her jaw and kissed her again, worshipping her mouth, not stopping until she clutched his shoulders and made urgent little sounds in the back of her throat. When he looked down at her this time, dazed brown eyes stared back at him.

“I’m not sure what the lesson is, Tyler.” Her whispered admission and concerned look sent flames licking hungrily up his abdomen and spreading into his chest. Type A Ellie liked to know the rules, liked knowing what to expect. Flying blind made her nervous. He prepared to make her all kinds of nervous.

“Trust me.”

“I do. But…”

Her voice trailed off when he put his lips to work on her jaw, her throat, the smooth curve where neck became shoulder. “I could kiss you all night,” he murmured against her skin.

“You couldn’t. You’d get chapped lips,” she managed, spearing her fingers in his hair and bowing her spine as he flicked his tongue over her perfect, pebbled nipple.

He laughed and transferred his attention to her other breast. “Can’t help it. You’re so beautiful.”

The fingers in his hair stilled. “You don’t have to say things like that.”

“Like what?” He kissed the soft swell directly over her heart. “The truth?”

He did have to say things like “you’re beautiful,” he realized, feathering his fingertips down her fluttering stomach, because she honestly didn’t know. How could he have overlooked the words for this long? Time to fix the oversight.

“You’re beautiful here…” He kissed her stunned mouth.

“Tyler, don’t—”

“And here.” He brushed his lips over the vulnerable hollow at the base of her throat and swallowed a satisfied smile when her pulse beat an erratic rhythm under his lips.

“Don’t…” she gasped again, arching involuntarily when he swirled his tongue around her belly button. It took a few beats for her to find her voice, but eventually, her weak, “I’m not,” reached his ears.

“You don’t have the first clue, do you?” He wedged his shoulders between her legs and kissed the point of her hip. “How beautiful you are. Every inch of you…” His voice dropped and he kissed her between her thighs, where she was already hot and wet.

Her head tipped back and strangled denial caught in her throat. He kept right on kissing her, licking, sucking, swirling his tongue over her until she shivered uncontrollably.

Moving up her body, linking his fingers with hers, he brought their joined hands to rest on either side of her head. “Look at me, Ellie.”

Chapter Fifteen