Promise Me

He puts his plate on the coffee table, and waits for me to finish my bite before taking my plate and placing it atop his. “Can I get you to say yes to my next question, too?”

We lean toward each other. It’s slow-motion torture. It’s also safe to say I will agree to all his requests. And that’s a fairly frightening realization, especially considering I thought all the scary parts of this…whatever this is…were behind me. They’re not, though. Each step I take with Vaughn is new and leads down an unmapped path. Are there landmines here? Do I care? “What’s the question?” I mutter.

“Put this on me?” Somehow he’s produced a condom packet in his hand.

Oh my. If this is a landmine, I will gladly throw myself on it. Lifting my brows and fluttering my lashes, I ask, “Anywhere in particular?” We inch closer.

“Considering it’s extra large, there’s only one place it will fit.”

I laugh. I can’t help it. Any more than I can help how I break eye contact to glance down at his lap. And then my eyelids flutter. I can’t believe he’s hard—full-mast hard—and we’ve yet to really touch since his quick hello kiss. I’m immediately turned on knowing I do this to him. “Wow. You must really like pizza.”

“Pizza I can take or leave, but you I’ve got to have. Now.”

“Right here? On my aunt and uncle’s couch?”

His naughty smile doesn’t quite protect me from the unadulterated longing in his eyes. “I’ve had a dirty fantasy about you and this sofa for several weeks now.”

Now I do, too, but there are big gaps between my fantasies and my actual know-how. “I’ve never—”

“You’ve got this, sweetheart.” The naughty smile softens into something that matches the look in his eyes and destroys me completely. “You’ve got me.” Our noses touch and then…

We can’t get our clothes off fast enough. Hands seeking, roaming, tugging off shirts and unzipping jeans. Mouths fusing, tongues tangling, teeth nibbling. When Vaughn gently bites my lower lip, I feel it in my breasts and between my legs.

I’m naked and flat on my back seconds later. He straddles me, offers me the condom.

I pull my hand back as if he’s holding out a blowtorch or a scalpel or something else I’m not qualified to handle. “I don’t want to accidentally mangle anything. I like it too much to hurt it.”

He laughs—a little strained—and places the rolled latex on my palm. “I’m hurting already, Kendall. The only way you make it worse is by not touching me.”

Well, when he puts it like that…

I lift the condom and place it like a cap on the blunt smoothness of his crown. Sensing my nervousness, he talks me through rolling it over his long, thick member. His penis is a work of art—an erotic masterpiece of strength and sensitivity. Sliding my hand along the length awakens a complex and powerful string of nerves running from my fingertips to my core. I’m wet and ready.

“Perfect,” he whispers before he props one of my legs over the back of the couch and the other over his shoulder. His fingers find their target to test my readiness and then he’s thrusting inside me in one smooth stroke. “Fucking perfect.”

It is.

His hands slide to the back of my neck to bring my mouth to his. His kiss is firm. Hot. Possessive.

It’s everything.

Chapter Nineteen

Vaughn

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

Kendall’s breathless words are barely louder than the patter of water against tile. “Showering?” I ask innocently as I skim my soapy hands up her shoulders. “Don’t you do it every day?” My fingers find and massage tight muscles at the base of her neck.

Her eyelids droop and the back of her head hits the tile with a muted thump. “Not with a guy.”

After a farewell knead to her now loose neck I slide my hands down the slopes of her breasts and give her nipples a playful pinch. “Hey, I’m not just a guy.”

“Okay, a neighbor…”

“Neighbor? That’s how I rate?” Determined to make her pay for the deliberate slight, I run my fingers along her sides.

She jerks and shrieks. She’s ticklish. Holy crap is she ticklish. Knee raised, body curled, eyes tightly closed ticklish. Charmed and, well, victorious, I go to town, prepared to fully exploit this situation. “Say ‘You’re the best neighbor ever, Vaughn.’”