“Good thing you like strange men.” Mick kissed her throat, her jaw, her cheek, before finally bringing his lips to hers, capturing her mouth for a long, deep kiss that drew a moan from Faith’s throat.
“I don’t know about strange men, plural,” she said, her breath coming faster as she pulled away. “But I like you an awful lot.”
“I like you too,” Mick said, fingers trailing down her side to squeeze her hip before his hand drifted back up, cupping her breast through her tank top.
Faith sucked in a breath, shifting beneath him as his thumb brushed across her nipple. Mick felt her flesh tighten through the thin fabric and thoughts of kissing her there—there and everywhere else—drifted through his mind, making his aching body pulse with need.
“God, that feels…” Faith’s words trailed off and her eyes fluttered closed as Mick circled her nipple with the pad of this thumb, once, twice, before curling his fingers over the top of her shirt and tugging the fabric down.
His first glance at her took Mick’s breath away. She was curvier than she looked in most of the clothes she wore, full and round, with ivory-pale skin and a nipple the palest shade of peach that flushed to a dusty rose at the center.
She was gorgeous, so gorgeous that the first kiss he pressed to her puckered flesh was more reverent than passionate. Her body was amazing, deserving of hours of devoted worship.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured against her soft skin.
“Mick, I—” Her words ended in a gasp as Mick’s tongue flicked across her tip, teasing and swirling until Faith moaned his name.
“I want you so much.” Mick pulled the other side of her tank top down, baring her other breast.
“I want you, too.” Faith’s voice shook as her hands threaded into his hair. “But I… Shit, I can’t think when you’re doing that.”
“Do you want me to stop?” Mick flicked his tongue across her left nipple as he teased her right between his finger and thumb.
“No.” Faith spread her thighs as her chest arched closer to his mouth. Mick settled his hips between her long legs, pressing the evidence of how crazy she made him against her center.
“And yes. Maybe,” Faith said, her breath catching again as Mick ground gently against her, rolling his hips, teasing the bundle of nerves at the top of her.
“Yes, maybe what?” Mick asked, having trouble thinking straight.
All he could think about was getting Faith out of the rest of her clothes and his body buried to the hilt inside her. He wanted to feel her gripping him, wanted to look into her big brown eyes as he brought her over the edge.
“Don’t worry, I have something.” He claimed her lips for another kiss as he dropped one hand, letting his fingers slide under the waist of her panties, over her soft curls, and down to where she was so wet it made Mick groan as he slipped one finger inside of her.
“Damn,” Faith said, lips moving against his mouth as she spoke. “That feels so good.”
“I want to make you feel good.” He added a second finger, continuing his long, slow strokes as he moved back to her breast, pulling her nipple into his mouth.
Faith sighed his name as she clutched at his shoulders, her breath coming faster. Gradually, her hips began to lift into his thrusts and Mick quickened his pace, sliding his fingers deeper into her slick heat. His tongue teased from one nipple to the other, sucking and nibbling until she was panting for breath, her fingers digging into him so tight he could feel her nails through his t-shirt. Only then, did he move his thumb to the top of her and begin to massage her clit as his fingers plunged deeper.
“Oh, God,” Faith sighed, her head pressing deeper into the pillows as she arched into him. “Oh my God.”
“Come, baby,” Mick whispered against the hot skin of her breast, feeling how close she was in the way she trembled beneath him. “I want to make you come.”
Seconds later, Faith cried out, her body gripping his fingers as she found release. Mick abandoned her breast, bringing his lips to hers, claiming her mouth, stroking his tongue against hers as she rode out her orgasm, her hips lifting into his fingers until she finally stilled beneath him.
“Good?” Mick asked after, sliding his hand gently from between her legs.
“Amazing,” she said, hand shaking as she rearranged her shirt, concealing her breasts, making something inside Mick send up a cry of mourning. “I’ve never felt…anything like that before.”
“Your ex didn’t know what he was doing?” Mick asked, fingers playing back and forth along the top of her panties, wanting nothing more than to strip them down her legs and make her come all over again, this time with something more intimate than his fingers moving inside her.
He was about to tell Faith he’d be right back, and make a run to the bathroom to grab a condom from his backpack, when she answered his question.
“Eli and I never slept together,” Faith said, making Mick’s hand freeze mid-caress.
“You never slept together?” he asked, his desire-fogged mind having trouble understanding how any man could be with Faith for a month, let alone the nine months she’d said her first relationship lasted, without begging to be allowed into her bed.
Faith shook her head, her eyes shifting to focus on a spot over Mick’s shoulder. “We fooled around and slept over at each other’s apartments sometimes, but we never…you know. And he never made me…”
“He never made you come?” Mick asked, outraged on Faith’s behalf. “What was wrong with this guy?”
Faith shrugged, her cheeks pinker than they’d been a moment before. “Nothing, I don’t think. I mean he did that once or twice but I never… We just never let things go too far.”
Mick stilled, what she was trying to tell him finally penetrating. “You’re a virgin?”
Faith rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah, technically, I guess.”
“You’ve never had sex, Faith,” Mick said. “That’s the definition of being a virgin.”
She blew out a long breath. “Yeah. Okay. But I really wasn’t planning on having this conversation right now. I mean, we’ve only been dating for two days. This whole…making out after waking up thing kind of snuck up on me.”
“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” Mick said, doing his best to talk his cock down from its current state. Faith obviously wasn’t ready to go any further, and knowing he might be her first made him want to be sure everything was absolutely perfect if she decided she wanted it to be with him.
“I’m not embarrassed,” she said with another roll of her eyes.
“Then why won’t you look at me?” Mick asked, brushing her hair gently from her forehead.
“I don’t know.” She crossed her arms over her chest before finally shifting her gaze to meet his. “I always thought something was wrong with me.”
Mick’s brows pulled together. “How so?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was kind of a late bloomer. I was never interested in guys until after high school and then…” She bit her lip for a moment. “I went on dates before Eli, and I liked messing around with him, but I never lost control, you know? I never even felt tempted. I guess I’d started to think I wasn’t the type of person who was super into sex.”
Mick smiled. “But now you might be changing your mind?”
“You think? Maybe?” she asked in her signature smartass tone. “What clued you in?”
Mick laughed. “The moaning my name was nice,” he said, letting his fingers brush back and forth across the sliver of bare stomach between her underwear and tank top. “And how wet you were when I touched you.”
She let out a shaky breath. “You are something else.”
“Something good, I hope.”
She nodded, but there was uncertainty in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Mick asked, resting his palm lightly on her stomach.
“Nothing,” she said. “I just want to wait a while before we take this much further. Not because I don’t want to, I just…I’m fe
eling in deep enough as it is. I don’t want to slow down, but I don’t want to speed up, either. Does that make sense?”
“Absolutely, just ignore me,” Mick said, casting an embarrassed glance down to his boxers where his erection was still doing its best to burst through the fabric like Superman shedding his street clothes. “I’ve been trying to talk myself down for five minutes, but…” He trailed off, his face heating as Faith’s eyes drifted down his body.
“Now why would you want to do that?” She smiled as she rolled onto her side, brushing gentle fingers across Mick’s cheek. “I’m a virgin, Mick, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to return the favor.”
Mick’s eyebrows lifted and his mouth went dry. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Faith said, grinning as she leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. It was a gentle kiss, a kiss filled with such tenderness that it made the moment Faith’s hand found his aching length, caressing him through the fabric of his boxers, that much sweeter.
Mick sighed her name, chest clenching as she pushed him back onto the mattress, deepening their kiss as she showed him she knew exactly what to do with her hands. Mick tried to hold out, to draw out the pleasure of feeling Faith’s fingers wrapped around his cock, her breasts pressed tight to the side of his chest as she slid her hand up and down, but he didn’t last long. She felt too good, and he’d been too hard for too long. Only minutes later, he came with a groan, shuddering as she stroked him to the end.
“Sorry,” he said, still breathing hard as he kissed her forehead.
“Why?” she asked, with a smile.
Mick shrugged, feeling shy all of a sudden, and closer to her than he’d felt to anyone in a very long time. “I don’t know. The mess. It’s…messy.”
She laughed. “It’s okay. I kind of like the mess.”
“Like my thing for drool?” he asked, making her laugh again.
“Exactly like that.” She leaned in to kiss him before pulling away and sitting up to swing her legs over the edge of the bed. “But a shower does sound nice.” She slid to the floor and walked around the bed toward the bathroom while Mick let his eyes drink her in, shocked anyone could look so sexy in a pair of modest pink panties.
“We should probably get cleaned up before we hit the road,” Faith continued, stepping into the bathroom. “We’ve got another ten hour drive ahead of us.”
Mick hesitated a moment, an idea striking, a wonderful idea that involved excitement and adventure and more time in this bed with Faith.
“What if we stay?” Mick asked.
“What?” Faith poked her head out of the bathroom. “You mean stay the night?”
“I mean stay tonight and tomorrow night,” Mick said, sitting up. “We have the room for Friday and Saturday. We could drive home Sunday morning and still be able to get a good night’s sleep before work on Monday. You think you can get someone to feed Captain Snugglepants?”
Faith shot him a narrow look, obviously waiting to see if Mick was going to tease her about the cat’s name again, but he wasn’t. He actually found it pretty adorable that she’d named her cat Captain Snugglepants. It was one of the many things he found adorable about her, and the list kept growing the more time they spent together. It made him want another forty-eight hours alone with her, another forty-eight hours to see what other adorableness he could uncover.
“I’m sure Kitty’s boyfriend wouldn’t mind swinging by,” Faith said. “He feeds the Captain when I’m working anyway. John’s got a thing for cats, but Kitty doesn’t want to get one until they find a rental house with a yard.”
“Perfect,” Mick said. “So John will feed the cat, and we’ll have a vacation.”
Faith bit her lip, but Mick could see she was tempted. “You don’t think Naomi would mind?”
“Why would she mind?” Mick asked. “The room is paid for and she wouldn’t be able to get her money back now, anyway. You usually have to cancel forty-eight hours in advance.”
“Well…we would be able to walk around and see some things that way,” Faith said. “I’ve never been to New Orleans before.”
“Me either,” Mick said. “It would be fun to explore together.”
“Yeah, it’s been pretty fun so far,” she said with a grin that made his blood run hotter.
“It has been,” he said, “but I meant what I said. I’m fine with waiting as long as you want to wait.”
Faith cocked her head, considering him for a moment. “Thanks. I do want to wait, but I have to confess I’d kind of like to see you all the way naked.”
Mick’s throat went tight. “You would?”
Faith nodded, setting Mick’s recently spent cock to thickening all over again. “You think you’d be up for a couple’s shower?” she asked, reaching for the bottom of her tank top and pulling it up and over her head.
Mick was out of the bed, chasing a giggling Faith into the bathroom before the fabric hit the floor.
Chapter Nine
It isn’t love if it happens this fast. This is lust, a crush, a hormone-fueled obsession that is probably dangerous, and most certainly addictive.
Whatever it is, it isn’t love, so wipe that goofy smile off your face, woman!
Faith’s inner monologue did its best to pull her down off the cloud she’d been floating on all afternoon, but it’s weak, pitiful whining was no match for the way Mick held her hand as they walked around the French Quarter, for the way he hung on her every word and laughed when she got powdered sugar all over her face eating her first beignet.
No match for the way he pulled her under a shade tree in Jackson Square and kissed her while the bells of the cathedral rang and the applause of people cheering for a nearby street performer rose all around them. The day was magical, as if the entire world were celebrating the fact that she was falling in love.
Love. She’d never been in love before. Now she was sure of it.
The affection she’d felt for Eli was a pale shadow compared to the warm, wonderful, thrilling sensation that filled her chest every time Mick’s fingers brushed hers. Being with Mick was like swimming in a warm ocean—blissful and right. She wanted to swim right down to the bottom of him and learn all his secrets, to know him better than she’d ever known anyone, to get even closer to this man who had already gotten under her skin in a way no other person ever had.
“What are you thinking?” Mick asked, running a hand through her hair as he pulled away from their kiss.
“Silly stuff,” she said, her cheeks heating. Thankfully, it was warmer in New Orleans than in Georgia this time of year and she could blame her blush on the balmy temperature.
“Silly stuff like what?”
“Like that kissing you feels like a conversation.” She wrinkled her nose. “Is that weird?”
He shook his head. “It’s like telling secrets. A little scary, but nice.” He hugged her closer. “Better than nice.”
“Don’t be scared.” Faith pressed a soft kiss to the cleft of his chin. “I won’t tell any of your secrets.”
Mick smiled down at her, a gentle smile that made the final dam deep inside of her threaten to burst. She could sense the swell of feeling building inside of her, pushing against the floodgates, threatening to destroy the last of her defenses in a giddy rush of emotion.
“You’re pretty sweet,” Mick said, fingers tracing up and down her spine in a way that made her shiver despite the heat.
Faith grinned. “I’m not sure sweet is the word most people would use.”
“Well, it’s the word I’d use,” he said. “Along with funny and so damned sexy I can’t seem to stop thinking about your pink panties.”
Faith’s eyes narrowed. “We aren’t going to be one of those gross couples, are we?”
“I don’t think so. But even if we are, I don’t care.” Mick’s smile widened, and his blue eyes flashed in that way that made Faith’s heart do a little flip inside her chest. “Have I mentioned that I really like the word ‘couple’ when it applies to
you and me?”
“Me too,” Faith said, moments before her stomach growled loud enough to be heard over the burst of applause from the crowd gathered around the jugglers a dozen feet away.
“Are you going to make it to dinner?” Mick asked with a laugh, threading his fingers through hers as they started across the square, taking in the elegant blue spires of St. Patrick’s cathedral reaching toward the blushing sky.
The sun was setting later than it had been earlier in the winter, but it was still going to be dark long before they arrived at the restaurant for their seven o’clock reservation.
Not only had Naomi booked the hotel room for two nights, she had also made reservations at her favorite New Orleans restaurant, The House of the Four Brothers. The concierge had slipped an envelope under their door while they were asleep, and inside were the details of their dinner reservation, as well as a gift certificate for a nearby clothing store. Naomi had thought of everything, even their clothing—or lack thereof.
At first, Faith had balked at the idea of accepting any more of Naomi’s generosity, but Mick had insisted that Naomi would be insulted if they rejected her gift. So, with reluctance, Faith had allowed herself to be coaxed into a black sundress from the store’s sale section, while Mick selected a blue button-down that made his eyes look even more stunning than usual. They’d asked the shopkeeper to refund the rest of the money to Naomi’s card.
Faith still felt weird about letting someone she barely knew spend so much money on her, but Mick’s comment about letting Naomi do what made her happy made sense. Faith knew if she were rich she would enjoy spending money on the people she loved more than anything else. She’d rather see a smile on the face of someone she cared about than drive a fancy car or own a mansion.
Besides, it sounded like Naomi could afford to do both, so who was Faith to refuse her the pleasure of spending her money on her little brother and his friend?
His girlfriend.
She was Mick’s girlfriend—it was still so unbelievable she felt like pinching herself every time his fingers tightened around hers.
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