“Shut up,” she muttered, irritated he was finding so much humor in her shortcomings.
Mantis put his hand on her thigh and squeezed her bare flesh. “I promise you’re gonna love this.”
His fingers made their way closer to her sex, and she felt the muscles in her body, one by one, releasing tension. Her eyes half-closed, but not because she was sleepy. Instead, her nerve-endings were on high alert, willing his fingers to dip below the edge of her skirt. She pouted when he pulled his hand away entirely.
“Make no mistake, I plan to pick up where we left off very soon,” he said when she groaned at his fingers’ absence.
“How soon?”
He turned his head and smiled. He was right about her inability to give up control. The only time she did it willingly was when Mantis had his hands on her naked body. Then she gave in enthusiastically.
“I can’t keep my hands off of you,” he murmured, running his fingers up her thigh like she’d wanted him to moments ago. “Lift your skirt.”
Rather than telling him he should concentrate on driving, Alegria did as he asked.
“Show me what you want me to do to you.”
His hand moved from her thigh to her breast.
“Show me,” he said again, this time pinching her left nipple with his deft fingers, the ones that made her beg, and plead, and even scream.
“Please, Alegria,” he murmured.
When his grasp tightened on her nipple, she put her hand on her own flesh. In seconds, he grabbed her wrist and brought her fingers to his mouth, licking away every trace of her essence.
“Do you know how much I want you?” he asked.
With her skin flushed and a terrible ache between her legs, she wanted him just as much.
Alegria shuddered, remembering the magical hold he had on her body then, and every other time they’d made love.
It wasn’t a surprise that Dutch had never been able to bring her to the heights of pleasure that Mantis did. He was far too tentative, waiting for her to control the situation like she did with everything else. There were a handful of times when he showed signs of taking over, but when he’d backed off, she’d been left disappointed to the point of no longer being interested.
She tried to squeeze her thighs together to assuage the ache that came whenever she thought about Mantis’ hands or mouth on her, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate.
If only they’d made love one last time, she could’ve held the memory of it forever.
As it was, she had to reach much further back to relive the last time he’d brought her to the precipice and then sent her hurling into the abyss of ecstasy.
—:—
Mantis didn’t feel like talking when his father picked him up at the hospital, and thankfully it was something the man who’d raised him had always recognized easily.
“Your mother went shopping,” he told him when they pulled into the driveway.
“I’m going to need to rent a car.”
His father nodded. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
Mantis looked at him.
“You know, like drive you to the rental place.”
“Right,” he said, shaking his head at his stupidity.
His father squeezed his shoulder. “How about a beer?”
“Isn’t it the middle of the morning?”