He’s going to laugh at me and think I’m some sort of prude. I’m trying to think of a way to tell him without blurting out that stupid, dreaded word everyone seems to wince at.
“I’ve never done this.” Murmuring into the air above us, I wait for it to sink in as he continues licking…kissing…licking some more…until he stops. His hands loosen on me and I know what’s coming.
He’s going to drop me and walk away. Any minute now.
Except he doesn’t and his hands tighten on me again right before he kisses me. It’s not like either of the first kisses. This is hungry and wild and at the same time it’s full of tenderness.
The grind of his pelvis is more of a soft rock, that’s still driving me insane and when I drop my hands from his waist to the top of his arse, he pulls his lips from mine to look at me.
“No one’s touched you before?” he asks with a tremor in his voice.
Shaking my head, I can barely look at him as embarrassment heats my cheeks.
“You’ve never…”
“No.”
“How?” His gaze flit between us and then back up to mine.
“Have you met my brother?”
“Huh,” he chuckles and then grins at me, “I’m beginning to like him a little bit more.”
Even the tiniest bit of friction as he shuffles me up his body has my eyes almost rolling to the back of my head, unable to steady my voice as I say, “I thought you were friends.”
“Oh Buttercup,” he strokes my cheek with his nose. “I have something he needs, and he has something I want. That’s how this world works. There is no such thing as friendship. Fuck, family barely stands for anything.”
Kissing my nose, he puts me down and pulls away with a lick of his lips, yearning glazing his eyes.
“Wait! Don’t you…” I can tell he wants to do more. I can see it. His underwear barely contains it.
“I’m not going to take something from you that you’re not ready to part with.”
I go up onto my toes and tell him, “I’m giving it to you.”
“Giving it? I don’t want you to give it to me, Cass, I want you to beg me to take it.” His hot breath bathes my face and every part of me is ready to fall on its knees for him right here and now.
But before I can beg, like he wants me to, he turns and starts to rummage in the mirrored cabinets above the sink and counter.
My heart stumbles when my gaze goes to his hard-muscled back.
What on earth?
“What happened to your back?” Shock and horror tinge my words. And when he turns toward me with what I assume is his shampoo and shower gel in his hands. There’s a shuttered haze that clouds his regal features as he shrugs with a shake of his head, “Penance.”
That’s it. That’s all he says before he takes care of me like he wanted to from the start.
Chapter 17
Leo
Cassie has the Tibetan Mastiff wrapped around her finger and she has barely paid Toby any attention. Tracking my every move with his soppy eyes, he’s laid at the bottom of my bed, by her feet.
He knows he’s not normally allowed in here and he’s milking every single second of it, and her.
When I reach down to run my fingers across her soft cheek his eyes flit to mine and then to her. Sighing like he’s fed up with my presence, like he wants to have her all to himself he shuffles closer to her, so that he’s tucked to her legs.
I know it’s wrong, but I’m jealous of him and that he gets to lie next to her. I’m envious of all the attention I know she’s going to give him. If I didn’t love the bastard so much, I’d find him a new home away from my sweet, little Buttercup.