I finally set her back down on her feet. She swayed slightly, as if I’d made her legs wobbly from one kiss.
“I thought we were just having fun,” she teased.
I pressed another kiss to her pretty pink lips. “This is fun.”
“You’re a scoundrel. I thought you didn’t want Robert to know.”
“You didn’t want Robert to know.”
“No, but you said that.”
I shook my head. “No, you just got out of a relationship. I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable, knowing Robert and I are friends.”
“Will you still be friends if he finds out?”
I had no answer to that. “You and I don’t have to do this if that’s what you want. But not out of an obligation to someone else.”
In response, she stood on her tiptoes and brought my lips back down to hers. I kissed her long and hard, careless of who else saw. No one had to know. Everyone could know. Whatever she wanted. As long as I got her one more night. I couldn’t survive not getting another taste of her.
“Let’s get out of here.”
I reached for her hand, and as she had all night, she let me guide her out of the mass of people. Our friends would wonder where we’d gone off to, but I hoped they were enjoying themselves enough right now not to think too much on it. We still had a lot of unanswered questions about what was happening. But they could wait for another day.
We threaded our fingers together as we ducked away from the New Year’s Eve party. Last time we’d done this, we had been in too much of a hurry. We’d decided on a drunk whim to give in to temptation. Now, our arms swung in an easy rhythm, hands locked between us as we walked on the cobbled path that led to our villas.
Silence lingered, but it was far from uncomfortable. It felt almost natural. Even though neither of us was particularly the quiet type. Whitley was as fun and boisterous and outspoken as they came, and I always had a careful quip for the situation. But here, there was no posturing.
It was nice for a change.
“Your place or mine?”
She tilted her head to the side and then said, “Yours.”
“Mine it is.”
We headed up the short set of stairs and then inside. She lingered on the threshold for a second, as if she couldn’t believe she was doing this.
“Whit?”
Her eyes jumped to mine. “Just didn’t think I’d be here again.”
“If you’re uncertain …”
“No,” she said automatically. “It’s strange actually. I have no uncertainty.”
“Why is that strange? You’re always overly confident.”
She walked over the entranceway and closed the door behind her. “I might appear that way, but I’m not. I don’t think anyone is as confident as they portray.”
“Maybe.”
“I just … I’m not good at this. At the second night. The second date. Any kind of real relationship. I’m the bad girlfriend that parents warn you about.”
I smirked. “I’m pretty sure I was not warned off anyone like you.”
Her eyes crinkled at the edges. “You’d be surprised.”
“You haven’t met my family.”
The Kings were … notorious. Old Texas oil money sure had a reputation. That was all I was saying.
“I don’t feel uncertainty toward you, King,” she said, running her hands up the front of my linen shirt. She gripped the open collar, as she’d done in the sand, and drew me closer to her. “This feels right.”
Fuck.
That was exactly how I felt too.
I covered her mouth with mine, lifting her as I had earlier. Only this time, she wrapped her legs around my waist. Her silver dress shifted up her thighs, exposing her powerful legs. I hefted her up by the ass and carried the pixie over to my bed.
“There’s something I need to do,” I told her through a series of kisses.
“Keep kissing me.”
I obliged with a laugh. “Was planning to.”
She drew my bottom lip into her mouth and bit down gently. “Where?”
I slipped a hand between our bodies. My cock was already hard as a rock to have her here, to have her want me so blatantly. But that wasn’t what I was reaching for. I pressed up to what I thought would be her underwear, but I was shocked to find only bare skin.
I jerked back slightly in surprise. “You’re not wearing any underwear.”
Her smirk was purely devilish. “I know. It was a bad idea with all the sand. Didn’t you wonder why I kept adjusting my dress?”
My mind certainly hadn’t come to this conclusion. “I thought you were uncomfortable with how short it was.”
“Yeah, because I wasn’t ready to flash my pussy to everyone who walked by.”
My cock jumped at that word out of her mouth. She must have felt it because she ground her hips in semicircles.
“I like the idea of you with no underwear on, flashing your pussy at me.”