Neanderthal Seeks Extra Yarns (Knitting in the City Book 8)
Page 19
“Yes. Well, some parts of it are.”
“Like what?”
He reared back, giving me a surprised look. “You’ve never read it?”
I shrugged. “No. I guess I haven’t.”
“Huh.” His gaze flickered over me, like I was something new. “I have it in my emails, in my draft folder. I keep stumbling across it every few years. The last time I read it was before Eleanor and Rebekah were born, so parts of it are funny to me now that weren’t then.”
“Which parts?” I tilted my head.
“Let me show you.” Dan leaned to the side so he could show me his screen. “It says here, you have to pay me for every kid we have.”
“What?” I moved closer, trying to read over his shoulder. “I have to pay you?”
“That’s right. The first kid is two million. The second is five. And the third—and all subsequent—are ten.” His gaze flickered over me. “Didn’t you say you wanted more kids?”
I glared at him, endeavoring to keep a straight face.
“I’m serious.” His hand on my knee, which I didn’t recall being there just a second ago, slid up my thigh. His fingers inched under my nightgown and hooked into my underwear at my hip. “If I ever want to be one of those assholes who are working to colonize Mars, well then, I gotta get another seven babies in you.” He nuzzled my neck, nipping at my jaw.
“I should have fought for a clause about twins.” I covered his hand, encouraging him.
My husband rolled me onto my back, setting his phone away and pulling down my underwear. Leaving a trail of kisses from my hip, thigh, knee, calf, ankle, foot, I squirmed under his attentive mouth, reaching for him. But he took his time, nipping and licking a return path along my leg.
When he got to my knee, he paused.
I glanced at him, found his eyes on my kneecap. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Dan shook his head, as though to clear it, and nudged my thighs apart.
I sucked in a breath in anticipation, opening my legs wider, but he moved to my stomach, placing kisses on my lower belly, to my ribs and side, pushing my nightgown up as he went.
I took the opportunity to yank at his shirt. “Take this off.”
He made a reprimanding sound in the back of his throat, licking and sucking my skin. “Nicely.”
“Take this off nicely.”
He chuckled, shaking his head, but then he did. He lifted to his knees and pulled off his shirt, and I watched him as he did so, my gaze devouring the sight of his stomach and sides, that sexy trail of hair leading into his boxers.
Grabbing the waistband, I used it to pull him forward and then pushed it down his thighs. His hands caught mine, halting me. So I gave him my eyes.
Dan glanced at my nightshirt, lifting an eyebrow. “Take that off,” he demanded.
“Nicely?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed, then flickered to the thin cotton nightgown, and he reached for the hem, pulling it from my body and moving on top of me, covering my mouth with his.
“Hey,” he said, between kisses. “I got an idea.”
I slid my hand into his boxers, wrapping my fingers around him and stroking. “I have all kinds of ideas.”
He sucked in a breath, but then gave me a husky chuckle, pulling my hand away. “Just follow my lead, okay?”
A thrill went through me and I nodded. Whenever Dan said “Just follow my lead,” that could only mean one thing.
He shifted to lay next to me, clearing his throat as though preparing to speak while trailing a fingertip lightly over my stomach, between my breasts, and then down again. A slow grin claimed his mouth as his eyes danced between mine.
“You’ve been up in space for a long time, huh?”
I stared at him, my mouth opening in surprise. “I have?”
“Oh yeah. A long, long time.” He nipped at my jaw. “All those thousands of miles above the earth.”
I blinked.
Was he . . . were we going to roleplay about . . . astronauts?
“You should know, this great nation is indebted to you for your service. As a token of thanks, I’m here to take care of your needs.” He lifted himself over me, still smiling his little smile, and nuzzled my neck. “I bet you were lonely up there, all those months.”
My breathing was coming faster, but I was confused, because . . . astronauts.
“Dan, I—”
“That’s not my name.” His knuckles brushed against the underside of my breast, tickling me.
“Fine. Who are you?”
“Didn’t they tell you? Those NASA people hire us as part of—uh—your reentry procedures.” He pulled his bottom lip into his mouth, licked it, and bit it. The action was hugely distracting, it always had been, and he knew it.
“What?” Wait a minute. What were we talking about?
“Don’t worry, ma’am. I’m an expert,” he whispered, his eyes on me sharp and interested. He parted my knees again and pressed his thigh against me.
“An expert?” I gasped.
“I’m a sex engineer. Obviously.” He grinned. Then holding my gaze, he bent and bit my ear.
A sex engineer.
I rolled my lips between my teeth, working to suppress a laugh and failing. But then my laughter abruptly ended as his large hand moved back to my chest, covering my breast and slowly—so slowly—rolling my nipple between his fingers.
I felt hot. Very hot. And uncertain. And that made me feel hot, too.
He whispered in my ear, “You’re so brilliant, so brave, my lady astronaut. All those months, doing that science shit, eating those freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches. But did you know?” His leg continued to move between mine, coarse leg hair against my inner thigh. “We can see you—when you change, when you wash—the cameras are everywhere. I’ve been watching you, following your progress up there in space.”
“Why?” My hands moved to the back of his head as I pressed him closer.
“Because I wanted you.”
I shuddered, uncertain where my hands were, and realizing he’d moved one above my head and the other he’d brought to my center. Our fingers entwined, he encouraged me to touch myself.
He watched, his eyes scorching; I was held captive by anticipation.
“What did you want to do to me?” I couldn’t wait for his response.
“Very, very naughty things. I could be fired for this, for touching you like this.”
While I rubbed myself, he invaded me with his finger, stroking, his eyes fastened to where our hands worked together.
My breath hitched, and part of my mind told me this was ridiculous.
Completely. Ridiculous.
An astronaut? Really?
Who had fantasies about being a sexy lady astronaut and making out with her own personal “sex engineer” upon coming home?
. . . However, another part of my mind—the hyper-imaginative part—played a slideshow of me (or someone who looked like me) spending lonely nights orbiting the earth in the International Space Station. She was definitely not me. She’d gone to the Naval Academy and had become a pilot. She’d sacrificed personal relationships for her dream of becoming an astronaut. She was smart. She was driven. She was powerful.
And she was very, very sexually frustrated.
And then I pictured me but not me putting on my space suit and flying home.
And then going through debriefing and spending a night in the bunks, or barracks, or whatever at NASA, touching myself, feeling lonely.
And then this man woke me in the night. He looked like Dan, and he was dressed in a suit, and he told me that the nation was indebted to me for my service, and he was there to take care of my needs.
It was preposterous.
This was nuts.
He was crazy.
And I loved it.
~The End~
About the Author
Penny Reid lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, three kids, and an inordinate amount of yarn. She used to spend he
r days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she just writes books.
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Read on for:
Penny Reid Book List (current and planned publications)
Other books by Penny Reid
Knitting in the City Series
(Contemporary Romantic Comedy)
Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance (#1)
Neanderthal Marries Human: A Smarter Romance (#1.5)
Friends without Benefits: An Unrequited Romance (#2)
Love Hacked: A Reluctant Romance (#3)
Beauty and the Mustache: A Philosophical Romance (#4)
Ninja at First Sight (#4.75)
Happily Ever Ninja: A Married Romance (#5)
Dating-ish: A Humanoid Romance (#6)
Marriage of Inconvenience: (#7)
Neanderthal Seeks Extra Yarns (#8)
Winston Brothers Series
(Contemporary Romantic Comedy, spinoff of Beauty and the Mustache)
Beauty and the Mustache (#0.5)
Truth or Beard (#1)
Grin and Beard It (#2)
Beard Science (#3)
Beard in Mind (#4)
Dr. Strange Beard (#5)
Beard with Me (#5.5, coming 2019)
Beard Necessities (#6, coming 2019)
Hypothesis Series
(New Adult Romantic Comedy)
Elements of Chemistry: ATTRACTION, HEAT, and CAPTURE (#1)
Laws of Physics: MOTION, SPACE, and TIME (#2, coming 2018)
Fundamentals of Biology: STRUCTURE, EVOLUTION, and GROWTH (#3, coming 2019)
Irish Players (Rugby) Series – by L.H. Cosway and Penny Reid
(Contemporary Sports Romance)
The Hooker and the Hermit (#1)
The Pixie and the Player (#2)
The Cad and the Co-ed (#3)
The Varlet and the Voyeur (#4)
Dear Professor Series
(New Adult Romantic Comedy)
Kissing Tolstoy (#1)
Kissing Galileo (#2, coming 2019)