His smile is pure wickedness. “Do you want me to stop?” he asks softly, his fingers now making circular motions on the inside of my thigh. Even through lined linen pants, his touch is potent.
Stop. Don’t stop.
Don’t stop.
My voice catches on a runaway breath. “We haven’t talked about what’s going to happen now.”
“I’m glad you asked.” Another wicked, lusty smile. “We’re going to do it right this time. I’m going to take you out to dinner, the movies, and we’re going to do whatever else you want. We’re going to have standing dates every weekend. When we’re out together, I’m going to introduce you as my girlfriend, and you’re going to let every rat bastard that comes on to you know that you’re taken.”
His eyes darken and his voice deepens. “It’s going to be all that and sex too.”
It’s hard to stay focused on what he’s saying with my senses swimming and my body in a constant state of need, want and desire.
Good lord, and that’s with him only touching my leg, so far ignoring the place inches above that’s literally aching and throbbing for him. I’m not sure I’ll be able to survive if he continues his journey up.
“Josh, I really need to go home.” It’s a struggle to keep a level head. “I have to go to work tomorrow and I don’t have anything to wear.” Because there’s no way I’m going to work in the same clothes I wore today. That’s a one-night stand give away.
Josh shifts closer, his hand caressing my hip. With his mouth now too temptingly close to mine, I recline farther on the pillow behind me.
Belatedly, I realize that me on my back and him above me, touching me, is a scarier and more vulnerable place to be, and especially cruel to my sex-deprived body.
“You can wear the skirt and blouse you left here. I had them dry-cleaned and I’ve been waiting for you to pick them up.”
“You know you could have dropped it at Paige and Mitch’s house.”
Smiling, he places his other hand on the curve of my waist, causing my stomach to tense, the muscles beneath to quiver. “I was waiting for you to ask for them.”
If he wanted his words, the silken rumble of his voice, to have the desired effect on me, my body’s reaction is everything he could ever hope for: pebbled nipples, damp panties and heat spreading inside me like a forest fire.
Fighting it—and me—becomes too much. “Okay, I’ll stay. But no sex.” My adamant tone is at odds with the sad state of my body. Who am I if I can’t last at least a day after he and Chloe broke up before I fall into bed with him again?
His hand remains on my waist as his smoky gaze turns probing. Suddenly, he rises from the bed.
“Okay, we’ll do things your way. But just so that you understand, I meant what I said about the way things are going to be. You’re not Chloe and I’m not going to be the same guy I was with her. I want you, full stop. It’s going to kill me to wait a few hours much less a day. While I’m going to do my best to be patient, you better believe I’m going to do everything in my power to make sex between us a sooner than later scenario.”
Be still my crazy, beating heart. If that was issued as some kind of warning, it’s falling well short of its goal because the way my sex is throbbing, it takes it as a promise, one it would be happy to see him keep.
That said, he casually strips off his shirt and tosses it—I have no idea where, given the fact that my attention is riveted on what is uncovered.
Damn him.
His chest is a combination of enviable genes, his love of all things sports, and three days a week at the gym. It’s a masterpiece of defined muscle covered in a dusting of brown hair, unblemished skin and lickable abs. And I’m not just saying that, I really mean it.
“You can sleep in one of my t-shirts,” he tosses over his shoulder as he walks over to the dresser on the other side of the spacious room.
I scamper off the bed and silently tuck my tongue back in my mouth. “I’ll sleep in the spare room.” Well away from living, breathing temptation.
With his back still to me, he opens the top drawer on the right and taunts, “Scared?” He shoots a quick glance over his shoulder, his eyes sly and knowing.
Alright then. He just threw down the gauntlet and I’m up for the challenge. I pick it up. “I was thinking of you, but if it’s not going to be too frustrating…” I let my voice trail off, all coy suggestion.
It’s the moment when the devil appears on his shoulder and prods him with a tiny pitchfork as conveyed by the subtle change in his posture and the darkening of his eyes. “Don’t worry about me,” he drawls as he holds up a blue-trimmed, white t-shirt with the number thirty on the back. His Steph Curry t-shirt, which means I should be honored. “Will this do?”
At my nod, he walks over and hands it to me, his gaze never straying from mine. “You can change in the bathroom if you want.”
If you want. Why does it feel as if gauntlets are being tossed about all willy nilly?
If I had more nerve than brain, I would change here in front of him. It’s not like he hasn’t seen it all before. And will in the near future.
“I’ll be right back.” Clutching the shirt to my chest, I head to the adjoining master bath, closing the double doors firmly behind me.
I couldn’t have been gone more than a minute or two, but by the time I return, Josh is already in bed and the room is dimly lit by a single lamp on the nightstand closest to him.
“That shirt looks better on you,” he murmurs appreciatively as I climb into bed beside him after hanging my clothes in his walk-in closet.
“I bet you’d say that if I were dressed in baggy sweats.”
Before I can blink, he’s flush against ne, his arm around my waist, his hair roughened legs tangling with mine.
“You promised,” I nearly wail my objection. How the hell am I supposed to sleep like this?
God, he smells so good. Feels so good.
And he’s good at all the other things that exercise the rest of my senses.
“This isn’t sex,” he says, gathering me closer to him, which is when I feel the unmistakable proof of just how turned on he is. “I just want to hold you,” he whispers, trailing his mouth lightly against my cheek. “Go to sleep.”
If I wasn’t so damn horny, I would laugh.
There’s no way I’m sleeping a wink tonight.
“Josh.” His name comes out part whine, part moan.
He raises his head to gaze down at me, his eyes half-lidded and filled with lust. “What, babe?”
“You do understand why we can’t have sex tonight, don’t you?” I don’t think he does. I’m not even sure I do.
“You want to give it a day or two after the breakup?”
Looking into his beautiful slate-blue eyes, I cup his shadowed jaw in my palm. “Yes, but that’s not the main reason. I want to be the kind of girl worth waiting for.”
Josh’s head rears back in surprise.
“I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous but hear me out. If I hadn’t dropped by Paige’s the other day, who knows when we’d have seen each other again. Who knows if I’d ever have met Chloe. But if she’d told you then that she was ready, you guys would be…well, you know.” I don’t even want to say it. “And you’d have waited all those months for her to be ready. We, on the other hand, sort of fell into it. Before, the only thing we had in common were two best friends, and then one day we were having sex at your apartment.”
Josh stares at me for a long time without speaking, his gaze tender. “Is that what you think, that I wouldn’t wait for you?” His voice is soft, his smile rueful. “Since you were a sophomore in college, all I’ve done is wait for you. Wait for you to get over the crush you had on Trent. Wait for you to lower your defenses long enough to admit you were attracted to me. Wait for you to be ready for something serious.”
There is no air left in my lungs after that. I won’t deny that our bickering was its own form of foreplay but this—everything he just said—is verbal se
duction. “You knew about my crush on Trent?”
Josh rolls his eyes as if to say, Are you serious? Everyone knew you had a thing for him. “Why do you think I can’t stand the guy?”
I let out a strangled laugh because this is too cute by half. “But that was years before I met you and it’s not as if I seriously thought I had a chance with him.” While sometimes I still enjoy flirting with Trent with the occasional tongue-in-cheek plea to Paige to let him know I’m all grown up and available—wink wink—it’s all in fun.
Josh’s features settle into a scowl. “And if you did have a chance with him?”
“Jealous?” I can’t say I mind poking the bear a bit. Now he knows what it’s been like for me while he was being oh so patient with Chloe.
In response, he runs his hand up my bare leg and stops treacherously close to the bottom curve of my butt. “You know it.”
“Too late. He’s already been friend-zoned. I’ve got my sights set on someone else.”
His expression clears. “As long as the someone is me, I’m good with that. Now, getting back to your point about not wanting to have sex tonight…” he continues, tightening his legs around my thigh.
“What kind of impression will I be sending out if I’m on my back, legs open every time you snap your fingers?” As soon as the words are out, I wish I had phrased it more eloquently.
I don’t want you to think I’m easy.
Josh goes motionless for a moment, then his chest and shoulders begin to shake with laughter. “Are you serious?” He stares at me, amusement in his eyes. “If getting you naked on your back, legs spread only required a snap of my fingers, Thanos would have nothing on me. The fact I waited until you were almost done with college is a testament to my patience and willpower.”
“But the minute you did—” I snap my finger. “—I was in your bed an hour later. We hadn’t even gone on a date.”
His mouth pulls to the side and I can’t tell if he’s annoyed or amused. “Erin, you said you didn’t want a boyfriend. You can’t blame me for taking whatever I could get. I was nuts about you. Still am.”
Placing the palms of my hands on his chest, the rhythmic beat of his heart steady and strong beneath my fingertips, I gaze at him. “Did it ever occur to you that we went from sniping at each other to being fuck buddies with no stops in between?”
The reality of it has been hitting me more and more with every day that’s passed since I first saw him with Chloe. She’s the one who got to cuddle with him. He’s taken her out to dinner, and they’ve done God knows how many things together that didn’t require either of them being naked.
“And that bothers you?” he asks, his gaze probing.
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“To tell you the truth, it never really occurred to me.”
His admission doesn’t surprise me. Men and women always tend to see these things differently.
“What’s clear though is that it bothers you,” he continues, his tone heavy with the gravity of my feelings.
Moving my hands from his chest, I slip my arms around his neck, ever cognizant of his erection against my lower stomach. “The more I think about it, the more I want us to try the more traditional route this time. You know, where we do all the things you said before having sex.”
It’s taken me a while to come to this place, but here I am. I think it’ll be better for the relationship if we work our way up to sex.
While I’m glad he and Chloe never slept together, what she did get is something I now want. The courtship. The wining and dining. Walks in the park. Date nights, even if it’s just take-out food and Netflix. His exclusive attention where the end game isn’t getting me into bed and orgasms.
I haven’t had that in way too long. And a date here and there doesn’t count.
A teasing smile tips the corners of his lips. “But I planned to wine and dine you.”
“I want you to wine and dine me like you did Chloe.”
He tightens his arms around me, his erection thick and hard on my stomach. “But it’s more fun my way.”
Piqued, I jerk my arms from around his neck, only to find myself flat on my back and him over me as he easily pins my arms to the mattress. “Ah come on, Erin. Don’t be like this,” he says, his voice cajoling. “I wasn’t making fun of you. But are you seriously talking about no sex for four months?”
At the aggrieved look on his face, I have to fight back a smile. I stop resisting and he immediately loosens his grip on my wrists.
“I didn’t say four months.”
“Then how long did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know exactly. I figure I’ll know when it’s time.”
Josh. Does. Not. Look. Happy.
I lightly touch his cheek. “Is it going to be that bad, us dating first?” I ask softly.
He exhales a heavy sigh. Instead of answering me, he asks, “Do you remember the morning after our first time together?”
You mean the morning after the best sex of my life? How could I forget.
I give a jerky nod.
“When I asked if you wanted to go out for breakfast, what did you say?”
I see what he’s doing but it’s not going to work. “Don’t even pretend you were asking me out on a date. The only reason you offered was because you didn’t have anything to eat in the apartment.”
“Think about it. Do you seriously think I would have asked you out for breakfast if I didn’t want to spend more time with you? I could have just as easily ordered it from the deli at the corner and had them deliver it.”
“I didn’t know the deli at the corner delivers,” I murmur.
“My point is that you’re the one who ran out of there like a bank robber with the cops on your tail.”
I had beat a hasty retreat. You know me, I don’t like to overstay my welcome, and we’d agreed things between us would be about sex and sex alone.
“I thought you were just being nice,” I reply.
His expression softens as his gaze roams my face. “I was being nice, and I wanted to spend more time with you. Both can be true.”
“But we agreed— And I didn’t want—” I try to stumble my way through an explanation but fail miserably.
“Nothing was written in stone.”
“But you said you didn’t want a girlfriend.”
“And you said you were too busy for a relationship,” he counters.
“So if I’d told you I wanted more than just sex, that wouldn’t have had you running for the hills?”
A ghost of a smile touches his lips. “I’d have asked you to tell me where to sign up and I’m there.”
I search his face.
“Seriously, I was following your lead. One sign from you would have been enough.”
Looking back, I can see why he would have thought I wasn’t interested in anything more than what we first put on the table. Mostly because I didn’t want him to know. I’d done a great job keeping my growing feelings for him under wraps. And it wasn’t just about not wanting to get hurt, I’d also wanted to hold onto the only thing I did have. I hung onto the sex as long as I could and it had pained me to let that go.
It had been a choice between sexual pleasure and my emotional wellbeing. It shouldn’t have been a hard choice to make but it was.
“This time around, we need to tell each other what we’re feeling. What we’re thinking,” I say.
“I agree,” he replies with a nod. “Do you want to know what I’m thinking right now?”
If his erection hadn’t long given it away, the sensual seduction in his voice would have.
“I’m thinking that it’s probably a good idea if I slept in the spare bedroom so you won’t have to put up with me molesting you all night. And then tomorrow night, I’m taking you out to dinner.”
With that he levers from above me until he’s sitting on the side of the bed.
Bereft of his warmth, I push up onto my elbows.
“Can’t stand the heat?
” I tease.
He shoots me a glance and snorts. “Nope, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.”
“Not even if I wanted you to just hold me tonight?” As soon as the question is out, I wonder if I’m biting off more than I can chew (no pun intended). Despite my brave words, I’m not one hundred percent sure I can sleep beside him all night without doing unspeakable things to that gorgeous body of his.
He runs his gaze over my t-shirt clad form as if deciding whether he can do it or maybe if I’m worth the effort. My answer is his long-suffering groan and his mutter of, “You’re going to be the death of me.” The second he’s under the covers again, he spoons me.
“Do I get a goodnight kiss?” My voice is all innocence as I angle my head and saucily pucker my lips in his direction. I’m playing with fire. And I love it.
An unmistakable growl of frustration fills the air before he plants a firm and painfully brief kiss on my lips. “Now go to sleep before I change my mind.”
Change his mind about what? Sleeping with me or trying to coax me into having sex with him?
Surrounded by the warmth of his body, I decide I don’t want to know, content to simply fall asleep in his arms.
Chapter Nineteen
Josh
Last night, I slept like crap—and it was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time.
The crappy part was holding a near-naked Erin in my arms all night and not being able to do a thing about it. I think my dick was still hard when I fell asleep. For sure my balls were aching.
And I woke up in roughly the same condition, my dick mashed up against her delectable ass.
It was agony.
Fucking torture.
But if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Well except this time I’d make sure in the morning she couldn’t sit down without thinking of me inside her.
Thank God there hadn’t been any time to linger, both of us oversleeping and being forced to shower and dress in a rush in order to make it to work on time. We hadn’t even had time to down a cup of coffee, only sparing time for a too-short kiss in the parking garage before we jumped into our respective cars.
Played (Trapped Book 3) Page 15
