In one smooth motion, he leaned down and sucked at the skin on her shoulder, taking the salt into his mouth. Callie groaned with pleasure as his mouth seared her with its potent heat, and then he pulled his heat away from her and downed the bitter liquid in the shot glass. Callie was so mesmerized by his every move, his every breath, she was so under his spell, that she had forgotten all about the lime between her teeth, so it was in slow motion that he leaned towards her, closer and closer, until they were finally eye to eye. With a tenderness that she could hardly believe he possessed, he placed his mouth over hers, slowly tasted her lips with his tongue, tasting every curve and the corners between her upper and bottom lips, taking his time to brand her once again before he sucked the juice from the lime.
If Callie had known that a lime could be so potent, so blatantly sexual, she would have planted a row of fruit trees in her garden long ago. She would have become a master of lemon tarts and key lime pies. Tobey removed the lime from her mouth with his teeth. Dazed, she watched him pluck it from his mouth and put it in the empty shot glass. Loud clapping for the band playing at the reception brought Callie back to reality.
Had a stranger just licked salt off of her shoulder and then sucked a lime from between her teeth?
But before she had time to fall all the way back to earth, Tobey leaned down and whispered in her ear the two words that were to be her downfall.
“Your turn.”
Callie stood dumbly, unable to make any part of her body work. This gorgeous man actually thought she was going to lick salt from his neck and then suck a lime from his lips?
As if sensing her reservations, he said, “You don’t want to waste your drink, now do you?”
Callie slowly shook her head. “No. It’s just that I,” she stuttered, unsure of what she could possible say to get herself out of this crazy predicament.
What was she doing? She was a nice girl who owned a candy store, for god’s sake.
Not some wanton slut who picked up men at weddings. She sneaked a glance down at his ring finger and breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn’t a husband stealing slut.
As doubts threatened to take her over, she remembered her store and how she was going to lose it. Suddenly, it was all too much for her to deal with.
“Oh, what the hell,” she said. Before she could change her mind, she picked up the slice of lime and shoved it into Tobey’s mouth.
Her quick action must have stunned him and pleased him all at the same time, because his eyes crinkled and he chuckled from around the lime.Callie narrowed her eyes and looked up at him. He was going to regret laughing at her. She’d show him. She might look like a tiny blonde candy maker, but she could give as good as she got.
At least she hoped she could.
Blocking out any thoughts of where she was and how unseemly their drinking game was during the middle of a wedding reception, Callie focused on the task at hand: to make Tobey want her even more than she wanted him. She was going to set him on fire and then leave him high and dry after she took what she wanted.
Coming up on her tippy-toes, she smiled coyly and ran her forefinger over the juice dripping from the lime onto Tobey’s full lower lip. “I should be gentler with you,” she said, then brought her finger to her mouth and sucked the drop of juice dry.
Tobey’s Adam’s apple moved in his throat and Callie thought, That’s one point for my team.
She took her finger from her mouth and brought her hands up to the bow tie of his tux. “You’ve got an awful lot of clothes on, don’t you?” Tobey raised an eyebrow as if to say, So what are you going to do about it?
Even with a slice of lime between his lips he looked daunting and powerful and far, far too sure of himself. Callie matched his silent dare with a cheeky grin. Licking her lips, with great concentration she ran her small hands down the front of his tux, from his broad shoulders, down past his well-formed pecs, to what she assumed was a washboard stomach.
Callie felt a moment of insecurity reach in to her bravado. Think quick, she urged herself, and right as she was wondering if she was indeed up to the task of seducing the seducer, she noticed Tobey’s large, workman-like hands.
Callie took one of his lightly calloused hands in her own. She ran the tip of her finger along the soft skin and muscle at the curve between his thumb and forefinger and smiled with pleasure at Tobey’s exhale of breath. Her heart beating far too fast, she slowly turned his hand over and continued tracing the skin on his palm.
More turned on than she’d ever been before—and all this in public with a man she’d known for five minutes with her clothes on and intact—Callie pushed the sleeve of his tuxedo jacket up to his forearm. Working to keep her fingers steady, trying to keep herself from simply jumping Tobey right then and there and riding him in the middle of the wedding reception, Callie undid the gold cufflink from his dress shirt and let it drop to the floor.
Neither Callie nor Tobey watched the cuff link fall to the ground. They were intent on each other, wrapped up in the escalation of their game. Slowly, precisely, Callie folded Tobey’s starched sleeve up once, then twice. Every time her skin brushed against his, heat surged through her.
Tobey’s pulse beat rapidly under the exposed skin of his wrist and she wanted to cover his heartbeat with the heat of her mouth.
“Perfect,” she breathed, as she ran her thumb over his pulse-point. The spell remained unbroken as she reached for the salt shaker and sprinkled salt on to his tanned wrist and the edge of his palm. Raising his wrist to her mouth, Callie brought her lips to his skin and waves of desire washed through her as their bodies made contact again. She groaned as she sucked at him, hardly tasting the salt, desperate for a taste of Tobey’s essence, so potent and male and wonderful. Unwilling to lose contact with him, she licked a grain of salt off of the firm flesh on his palm and she heard a low sound from his throat, like a caged lion on the verge of escape.
Knowing she needed to drink the fiery liquid, promising herself his mouth if she could tear her lips away from his wrist, Callie reached for the shot glass and drank the tequila in one long swallow. But this time it wasn’t bitter and she didn’t think it was going to kill her. Instead it made her feel warm, even warmer than she already was, and languid and perfect. She got back up on her tippy-toes and placed her hands behind Tobey’s neck and felt softness on her fingers as she threaded them into his hair. He leaned into her and she placed her teeth around the lime and sucked the juice from it without ever touching her skin to his, and then suddenly the lime was gone and she was kissing him, and his tongue was in her mouth, conquering her, showing her that she was going to have to play the game by his rules.