On purpose, she let the top of the dress fall to her waist. Only the flare of her hips kept it up at all, and that balance was tenuous at best. She didn’t cover herself. Didn’t have to. He’d seen every inch of her. Toured his hands and mouth all over her. And when he saw her breasts now, all he could do was stare.
She couldn’t imagine a better reaction. His pleasure became her pleasure.
Her feminine power exploded.
“I want to be a bad boy but I’m afraid of tearing the dress.”
“Good call.” She wiggled her hips and the material fell. She caught it before it hit the floor and handed it to him. “Here.”
For a second he stood there with the dress draped over his arm. “Damn.”
He wasn’t looking at her face. No, his gaze traveled up and down her legs. To her thigh-high stockings with the lacy tops and the matching nude-colored underwear. She’d worn the combination for him.
“You like?” she asked, even though she knew from his expression he did.
“So that you’re clear, I like you pretty much any way you’ll let me have you.” He used his finger to trace the lace pattern on the top of her thigh. “But damn.”
Perfect reaction.
He’d stripped his tie off and shrugged out of his jacket. She went to work on his shirt. It took her about two seconds to get those small white buttons undone and to pull back the edges to reveal that firm, tanned chest. “Let’s get this off you.”
“I can do it.” But he didn’t make any move to help.
“I’ll take care of you.” She stripped the shirt off then sat on the edge of the bed.
She skipped the talking and asking and went right to the button at the top of his pants. His breathing kicked up as she lowered the zipper then pushed his dress pants to his knees. The boxer briefs went next.
When she took his length into her hand, his fingers slipped through her hair and held her close. The noise he made when she took him in her mouth, half moan, half yell for joy, sounded like music. It would stay in her head for a long time.
“Ellie.” His voice dipped even lower than normal and held an extra-rough edge.
She licked her tongue over his tip then peeked up at him. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“I’m trying to figure out how I’ve stayed away from you for the past five nights.”
“Sheer willpower on both our parts.” Wasted time, as far as she was concerned. She wanted this. Wanted him. “To prove we could.”
To continue the farce that this was fake and meant nothing…that was over. In reality, what they shared had started to mean everything.
She was falling for him. The words rolled through her head without a signal from her brain. They should have scared her and had her ducking for the toilet. She’d refrained from any real involvement up until now. Found excuses with other boyfriends to cut things off. With Derrick she wanted more, not less.
She understood him. They were good together. He made her rethink some of the views she held and things she took for granted. Made her assess Noah from a fresh perspective. And she smoothed out Derrick’s rough parts. Had him thinking about something other than work every second of every day.
This—what they shared—may have started off as nothing, but it was something now. At least to her. The only fear, and it was a very real fear, was that this newfound reality only ran one way.
The room spun around her. He’d pulled her up and flopped onto the mattress, taking her with him. It was not the most dignified sprawl, but she landed on top of him—exactly where she wanted to be.
She scrambled to her knees and shimmied out of her underwear then took care of getting his pants and briefs the rest of the way off. He was left wearing socks and she had the thigh-highs on. That seemed like a pretty great combination to her.
She dipped her head to kiss him and he caught her face and held her steady. Cupped her cheeks in his palms and ran a thumb over her bottom lip. “I brought the condoms home.”
The practical words shot through her. It took her a second to process what he was saying, but the choice was smart and made sense. They hadn’t talked the “us” part of them through yet. That first time they’d had sex had been a risk. They could get it right now.
She looked around the bedroom. “Where?”
He pointed at the nightstand next to him. “Drawer.”
That was the only word he could seem to get out, which only made him sexier. As she reached, he took advantage of her unguarded position and brought his mouth to her breast. Licked all around her nipple before sucking her.
She tried to slouch on the top of his thighs, but he held her firm. His fingers traveled down her stomach and kept going lower. Between that hot mouth and those searching fingers, she lost all sense of time and what she wanted to do next. She got lost in a swirl of energy. It thrummed through her. The tension ratcheted up as her body got nearer to the edge.