Desire throbbed between her legs, the quiet ache growing into something unwieldy and foreign. Something desperate. She wanted him. They were close enough that she could have brushed her lips over his, but she didn’t. She was going to tease him for now, like he’d been doing to her from the moment she’d walked through First’s doors.
“I’m surprised you didn’t get revenge after the ice cream incident,” she said.
His lip quirked. “I prefer to exact revenge when my opponent least expects it.”
“Am I your opponent?” she asked.
The room was silent, save for the thrum of blood through her veins. She could practically hear it sending excitement through her body—adrenaline causing everything to flutter. Her heart. Her breath. Her sex.
“We are on opposite sides of a bet…for now.” The invitation in his voice was unmistakable.
“That’s true.” She drained the rest of her glass, hoping that Dutch courage would work quickly and effectively. Warmth from the vodka sat comfortably in the back of her throat, and she willed that feeling to spread. Leaning forward to put her glass on the coffee table, she stretched farther than required so that her ass thrust ever so slightly in his direction. He would be able to see the denim of her skirt stretching across her butt. Would he imagine what it was like to grab her hips in that position?
She thought she heard a strangled groan, but it was hard to tell. Goose bumps rippled down her arms and legs. Sex had always been something that she enjoyed as part of a loving relationship, a way to show that she cared for her partner. But it had never thrilled her like this. It had never tangled her up so bad that she couldn’t tell up from down or left from right. And they hadn’t even shared more than a kiss till now.
Till now.
“Why are you really here, Paige?”
She sat back down, the words sticking in her throat at the sight of the fire and smoke in his eyes. “To have a drink.”
His gaze flickered to her empty glass. “And now?”
Of course he was too smart to fall for that flimsy pretense. Everybody knew what the offer of a drink really meant. Like Netflix and chilling wasn’t really about the latest season of Orange Is the New Black…
“My thirst has been quenched,” she replied.
“Was it what you wanted?” he asked.
Her heart pounded. “I think so.”
“Be sure.” He finished his drink and placed his glass next to hers.
The twin empty tumblers stared back at her, like a visual reminder that she was entering the point of no return. Her breath hitched as he slid his hand along the back of the couch. He didn’t touch her, didn’t need to. He could have her body sparking like New Year’s Eve fireworks by sitting next to her.
“I don’t know if I’m sure,” she whispered. “I don’t know why I’m here.”
He leaned closer, trapping her between his hard body and the arm of the couch. “You’re here because you want to lose the bet.”
“I don’t lose.” Her gritted teeth almost held the words in, but the lie still slipped out. She was about to lose…or about to win, depending on how you looked at it.
It’s okay to mess up this one time. Then you can go back to doing things the right way.
“You don’t compromise. You don’t lose…” His gravelly voice mocked her. “Such a rigid life you lead, Paige Thomas.”
“It’s done me well so far.” She squared her shoulders, but all that did was cause her breasts to brush against the hard wall of his chest. She swallowed.
“Has it?” His hands splayed out across her hips as he pushed her against the back of the couch, his body leaning over hers.
The dull ache turned to a forceful roar inside her. She longed to ease the throbbing between her legs. To feel the denim of his jeans rasp against her thigh.
“Or have you been missing out on some important life experiences?” His lips brushed over the shell of her ear, his tongue darting out to capture her lobe. When he sucked on her sensitive skin, she clamped her eyes shut so tightly, white light seemed to explode behind her shuttered lids.
“Like screwing my boss?” she said. Her voice didn’t sound like her own; it was hoarse, needy. Desperate.
“We don’t have to jump straight to screwing, Paige. There’s a whole lot more fun to be had before that.” His hands slid down her thighs, catching the hem of her skirt and pushing it up. “I know you don’t think we’ll work together, but I’m happy to prove you wrong.”
“I never said that.” Her voice was small, trembling. “I said we want different things, and I’m not willing to compromise my values.”
“Same difference.” His hand brushed her upper thigh, and she almost yelped in anticipation.
Her experience with foreplay was limited to her ex’s half-hearted attempt at getting her off with his mouth. But she had the feeling that Noah would be able to do more with his little finger than any of her ex-boyfriends had been able to do with their whole bodies.
Yeah, because he’s had a lot of practice. He dazzles women but he doesn’t stick around…
The thought bounced in her head like a Ping-Pong ball, making her question everything. Casual sex was supposed to be bad—it broke hearts, got people tied to unhappy relationships. Destroyed dreams.
Casual sex had no safety net.
“Noah.” She curled her hands over his shoulders, the protest ready on the tip of her tongue. But no matter how hard her brain tried, her lips would not force the word out.
“Shhh.” He brushed his lips along her jaw, one hand skating up over her rib cage to palm her breast. Sparks of desire shot through her, and she melted under his touch. “Let me make you feel good.”
The fight left her body as he rolled a hardened nipple between his thumb and forefinger. “Okay,” she breathed.
Victory danced in his eyes, but he didn’t say anything else. Instead, he slid down her body, his lips blazing a trail over her neck and collarbone. He nipped, kissed, and licked the curve at the skin exposed by the vee of her T-shirt. He shoved the fabric up and snapped the front closure of her bra, exposing her to his mouth. A pleasant hum vibrated against her skin.
“Please,” she begged, arching her back. Her focus had narrowed to a tiny slit. She would expire if she didn’t have his lips on the sensitive peaks of her breasts right bloody now.
“Tell me what you want, Paige.”
God, no. Normally sex was a fumble in the dark, pleasurable but silent. Not this. Not where she was open and visible and vulnerable. Her fingers threaded into his thick golden hair. The strands were soft against her palms, soft yet sturdy. Like him. She pushed his head lower—showing, rather than telling him what she wanted.
A rough chuckle vibrated against her chest. “That’s one way of doing it.”
She was about shrink away from him, embarrassed. But then he gave her what she wanted. He wrapped those full lips around her nipple and sucked. Hard.
“God, Noah!” Her head fell back, and her body turned molten beneath his touch.
He tugged at her with his teeth. Lavished attention on her in a way that was new and exciting and terrifying in how quickly it stripped her down to her bones. She wanted more. Once he finished with one side, he turned to the other, and she had to brace her hands behind her. All the while her hips rolled in a sexy grind simulating the rhythm of his mouth.
“You taste so good,” he murmured, his face buried in her breasts. “I want to taste the rest of you.”
“Yes.” The word was out before she even had time to consider what he was asking. Or telling.
Noah didn’t really ask for anything.
He pulled off her top, bra, and skirt until his lips landed at the ticklish spot on the inside of her knee. She was rewarded with a grin when she squirmed, a giggle escaping her lips. Instead of going straight in for the kill, he traced circles with his forefinger. The maddening movement held her between arousal and discomfort—making her want to arch into his touch and pull away at the same t
ime.
“Are you ticklish on both sides?” He moved to her other leg and laughed at her shriek. “What about here?”
He pulled her legs over his shoulders and tested the backs of her knees. Paige hummed at the touch, which didn’t seem sexual and yet was an entirely new level of intimacy. She watched as he explored her, enraptured. Never before had a man seemed so engrossed in her body.
His fingertip found the scar on her upper thigh. It was faded now, silvery white instead of red. “How did you get this?”
“Barbed-wire fence. I was playing with my brother at a friend’s farm and I got too close, tore up my dress, and bled all over their kitchen.” She laughed. “My mother was not impressed.”
He pressed his lips to the scar. “Sounds like you were an adventurous kid.”
“I was.”
But what about now?
Everything now was so ordered, so by-the-book. So…dull. Except for tonight.
“I love how your freckles go all the way up.” He followed them with his lips, kissing the biggest clusters and chasing his mouth with his hands.
The higher he got, the tighter her body wound. Her sex clenched as he brushed the very top of her inner thigh, anticipation turning her to a statue as the air stilled in her lungs. This was it, her last chance to back out before it went from being an ill-advised fumble to something else.
He pressed his lips to the thin cotton of her underwear. A shudder rippled through her, and she curled her hands around the edge of the couch cushions.
“I can already feel how excited you are,” he said. His voice had taken on that husky quality again, that rough and jagged sound that made her pulse jump. “You’re so wet.”
Her eyes closed, and she tried to banish the fear edging into her consciousness. “That’s because you excite me.”
He growled then. Literally growled like a beast. “Fuck, Paige. If you want to back out you need to go now, because once I get this underwear off I’m not going to stop until you’re shaking on my tongue.”
Screw running away. Screw fear. And screw their stupid bet.
She leaned forward and grabbed Noah’s face in her hands, crushing her mouth down to his. His tongue greeted her ferociously, easily matching her hot-blooded need. He tasted earthy and male, a hint of orange making her instantly want more.
“So we’re clear,” she said, her breath coming in shallow gasps. “This is the one and only time I’m going to lose a bet.”
Noah chuckled. “Doesn’t feel like either one of us is losing a damn thing.”
“Get to it then.”
His wicked smile soothed any remaining fears about whether she could trust him with her body. Noah might not be the man of her white-picket-fence dreams, but she knew that he wouldn’t hurt her. Not physically, anyway.
Just so long as you don’t let your heart get involved…
The light caught on the golden lengths of his hair as he nuzzled her inner thigh. She hummed her appreciation as he took his sweet time kissing and caressing her, working his way toward the part of her that craved him most. Her legs fell open, giving unfettered access.
“Be gentle, okay?” she said, her teeth sinking into her lower lip as he drew her underwear down. She shifted, lifting her hips.
“I’ll only be doing things that make you feel good.” As if to prove his point, he brushed his lips over her sex, and she gasped, her hips bucking toward him. “Tell me to stop if it doesn’t feel good, okay?”
“Okay.”
He flashed her a cocky smile. “I don’t anticipate any complaints.”
The cool air caressed her heated sex, excitement vibrating in their air around her. He lowered his head and brought his hands to her, his thumb pressing against her slick folds and rubbing against her clit. A cry lodged itself in her throat.
No, she didn’t anticipate any complaints, either.
When he parted her, his tongue coming in to brush tentatively against her sensitive skin, she let her head roll back. Noah must have taken it as a sign of encouragement, because the gentle, tentative first stroke was worlds away from what he had planned next. He feasted on her, laving her and drawing her clit between his lips and sucking until it felt like all the blood in her body had rushed to that exact spot. She was weightless. Dizzy. Sublimely trapped in his net.
“Holy shit.” Her hips rocked against his mouth, one hand finding its way to his head so she could steady herself.
Within seconds the telltale signs of orgasm appeared—the clench of her inner walls, the tremble in her thighs. The pinpoint of euphoria in her mind that sucked all her focus onto one thing and one thing only.
His lips on her sex.
“I’m so close,” she gasped. It’d only been seconds, but he knew exactly what buttons to press.
He growled against her, the vibrations spiraling through her body and fracturing at the last second. She shouted his name, uncaring if anyone on the street outside could hear them. All that mattered was the wave of release that was an avalanche on top of her. Burying her. Changing her forever.
Chapter Fourteen
Paige’s whimpers were a sensual assault. He liked to think himself talented in pleasing women—because he wasn’t one those guys who thought sex was all about his own orgasm. But the bone-deep satisfaction that roared inside him when she chanted his name…well, that was new.
That’s because you’re not used to the chase.
Maybe so. But his gut didn’t seem to agree with his head on that one. He rested his cheek on the inside of her thigh, reveling in the sharp tug at his scalp where she still gripped his hair like it was her last connection to earth.
“You okay up there?” he asked.
“Fine.” She shifted, pulling away from him and trying to close her legs. But they caught on his shoulders.
“No need to run away.” He kissed the inside of her knee and rocked back on his heels, steadying himself with a hand on either side of her on the couch. “I enjoyed that very much.”
“Me, too.” Her face was shrouded by a section of hair that had escaped her ponytail. But a flush of pink covered her neck, and her chest rose and fell with quick little breaths. “You’re good at that.”
The way she said it sounded like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of his skills. “It takes two to tango.”
He stood and held a hand out to her. The second in which she hesitated made his heart feel like it was going to punch out of his chest. How did she get to him like that? His heart had no business here. But relief came when she slipped her palm into his and allowed him to haul her off the couch and into his arms. This wasn’t normal sex. She buried herself against his chest, not quite ready to look him in the eye.
Fine by him. He pressed his face into the top of her head and breathed in the scent of her fruity shampoo—strawberries and something tart. Sweet with a little bite. Like her.
“Why don’t we take a shower?”
She looked up at him, blinking. “Don’t you want me to…”
She swallowed, her gaze dropping down to where his erection strained painfully against his jeans. He wanted nothing more than to lay her out on the coffee table and sink balls-deep inside her until she screamed his name again. But he could tell Paige needed a little soothing, and he was more than happy to oblige.
“Of course I do.” He brushed the loose hair from her forehead. “But there’s no rush. We’ve got all night.”
He led Paige to his bathroom. She’d retreated into herself, her eyes avoiding his though she showed no resistance in following him. Her hair was a mess, strands escaping all around her face from where she’d thrashed her head against the back of his couch. She looked like sex personified—messy, undone, glorious.
As he wrenched the taps on his shower, she hovered in the doorway with her arms folded across her chest. “You don’t need an invitation,” he said, motioning for her come closer.
“Sorry.” She sucked in a breath.
“You okay?” He tugged her hair elasti
c until her thick, silky hair tumbled down her back. There was something about touching that glossy mass that deeply appealed to him—the long lengths brushed her lower back, goddess-like. “I haven’t scared you off, have I?”
“With your magical tongue?” A small laugh escaped her lips. “No. I’m just nervous.”
“Why?”
She looked up, a sheepish expression on her face. “We’re unmatched and I feel like you’re used to women who are more confident in, uh…sex things.”
“Paige.” He cupped her face. “You’re here because I’m extremely attracted to you, not because I expect you to perform for me.”
She nodded. “I don’t want you to feel cheated, that’s all.”
Her fear splintered something in his chest. “All you have to do is stand still and let me kiss you all over, then I’ll be happier than a pig in shit.”
“You have a unique form of seduction,” she said with a chuckle.
He pressed her against the bathroom wall, his lips parting hers for a soothing kiss. The sweetness of orange and honey melded with the earthy taste of her. A soft mewl came from the back of her throat as she sagged against him, stiffness leaching out of her body.
“I want you to get out of your own head and focus on what feels good,” he said. “Think you can do that for me?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Help me get undressed.”
Paige’s green eyes glittered, her pupils black and wide as she reached for his shirt. One by one she popped his buttons until the fabric hung open, exposing his chest and stomach. The sound of her breath catching almost undid him as she pushed the shirt from his shoulders. Her eyes caught on his nipple piercing.
“Can I…?” She looked at him.
“Yeah.” He nodded, his cock hardening further at the lust swirling in her expression. “I’m all yours.”
She leaned forward and ran her tongue along the piercing, the tentative gesture making his whole body buzz. Fuck, her sweet little mouth felt good on him, as he’d known it would. Growing bolder, she wrapped her lips around his nipple and sucked, sending whatever blood was still powering his brain down between his legs. He threaded his hands into the hair at the back of her skull.
Betting the Bad Boy (Behind the Bar) Page 14
