“Alright.” He swallowed and stepped back, dropping her hands. “We’d better get some sleep.”
Then the man turned and walked away from her, snuffing out the extra candles as he went, leaving only the one on the bedside table alight. He didn’t look back.
What the fuck?
Slapping her couldn’t have been more effective. For the second time that day, he’d said no to sex.
“Nick?”
“Yeah?” He sat on the end of the bed and tugged off his boots and the socks beneath, too.
“What’s going on?”
“Hmm?”
“I don’t understand what’s going on here.”
He shoved a hand through his hair. “It’s late. We should get some sleep.”
Clearly, they’d entered a different dimension, one where Nick didn’t want her. Except that couldn’t be right. He’d been plenty hard in the shop earlier, and his jeans sported an impressive bulge now. So, whatever his issues were, her sexual attractiveness to him didn’t seem to be a part of it.
Men were such complicated creatures. Women were so much more straightforward.
He grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged it off over his head. The revelation of his hard body made her swoon. The bands of muscle and the way they flexed as he rolled his shoulders. He had a certain grace to him, an efficiency of movement. She could watch him for hours.
“You want to sleep?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
She sat on a chair and removed her own brand new boots and comfy socks. Pulled her shirt off and dumped it on the small table. His gaze jumped to her, taking in the sensible cotton bra, but was hastily diverted. He scurried into the bathroom and she heard the sounds of him brushing his teeth. When he emerged he got straight into bed, climbing beneath the blankets. With eyes shut, he gave every appearance of settling in for the night.
So he missed the removal of the rest of her clothes.
“I guess you’re really tired,” she said, throwing back the blankets on her side of the bed. She climbed onto the mattress, clad in nothing but her own skin.
“A long day.”
“Yeah, it was,” she agreed.
His eyes shot open when her hand slid over his chest. The heat of his skin and hard flesh beneath felt sublime.
“I think I know what’s going on here,” she said.
“That so?”
“Male nipples are so nice.” She rubbed the side of her thumb over one hard nub. “Useless, but nice.”
“I can think of a use for them.”
“Can you?” She leant forward and lapped at one, secured her lips around it and sucked. His sudden intake of breath and muttered ‘yes’ curled her toes. Her pussy was swollen and slick. Ready. But she’d been ready for the better part of the day, damn him. She tightened her fingers in his chest hair and tugged, just a little. Giving him a small serving of her ire seemed more than justified.
Nick’s hand covered hers. “Ros.”
She moved onto his collarbone, tracing it with her tongue. “I think your delicate male pride was wounded when I chose the gun over you earlier today.”
He didn’t reply.
“See, this is a precarious situation we’re in, Nicky. Relationships don’t generally evolve from one party holding the other party hostage. Not healthy ones, at least.”
“You think we’re in a relationship?” he asked. His voice held no malice, but still.
Ros lifted her head. His forehead was furrowed and his fine lips were sealed tight. If only they’d stayed that way. He stared back at her, dark eyes unreadable.
“If mentioning that you abducted me and held me hostage upsets you, we’re not going to get very far.” Which was the absolute truth. She swung a leg over him, straddling his long body and seating herself atop his jean-covered hips. Actually, not a comfortable position. The zipper dug into her, raised as it was by his hard-on. She shuffled forward onto his bare, flat stomach. Much better. Nothing to chafe her there.
Nick licked his lips and his gaze slid down her warily as if her naked state worried him. So it should. His hands held back, not touching her. Fine, she could do the touching for both of them. Her fingers stroked the soft skin of his face, the arch of his cheekbones and the dips of his temple. For a while the day before, when she’d been fighting off the infected, she’d thought she’d never see him again. Never get to be this close to him, ever again. It put things into perspective. He had issues, but then so did the rest of the world. Nothing was normal anymore. Man-wise, it seemed she’d been searching for perfection, but it didn’t exist. Unicorns were more likely. People, on the other hand, were infinitely fallible.
“I also think that us leaving the cabin has got you feeling a bit discombobulated,” she said. “All of your careful plans have fallen by the wayside. That can’t be pleasing to your inner control freak.”
“I’m feeling what?”
“Confused. Unsettled.”
“And that’s why you’re sitting on me bare-ass naked?”
“No,” she sighed. “I’m sitting on you bare-ass naked because I want to have sex with you. I want to connect with you and feel close to you. Because you’re important to me beyond your ability to protect me.”
“Because you still think you can go out there and do okay on your own.”
She held back from rolling her eyes, just. “I’d manage.”
He snorted.
“But that’s not what we’re talking about,” she said.
“No? So what are we talking about? I’m confused, apparently.”
In answer she kissed his firm lips, trying to tempt him, to show him. Thank God, it worked. He opened his mouth to her on a groan and she slipped him her tongue. God, he kissed well. But then, he did all the physical stuff well. His hot, wet mouth hungrily kissed her back. It made her feel so much better. She squirmed against his hard stomach, rubbing herself on him oh so surreptitiously. As if he didn’t notice. Hands covered her thighs, fingers kneading her flesh. She kissed him until her head spun and she had to come up for air.
They both panted. But Nick took his hands off her and set them back on the bed at his sides. The look he gave her reeked of a challenge.
“Are you saying no to me?” she asked.
“No, I’m not saying no to you.”
“So I can do what I want?”
He cocked his brow. “Do you even know what you want?”
“I don’t think there’s a lot of doubt about that right now.” But she ground her wet pussy against him in case there was. “Talk to me, Nicky. You’re giving me cause for concern here.”
He hesitated, staring over her shoulder. “I think we went about this the wrong way. I think … I rushed things between us.”
Her world turned topsy-turvy. It spun and bounced and careened off the walls and made absolutely no sense at all. “And now you’re trying to slow things down? Right now? After today?”
“I said I was sorry about the gun,” he answered softly. “I meant it.”
“Yeah, you did. I know.”
“And I’ve been thinking since then …”
She waited. He didn’t elaborate.
“You’ve been thinking?” she asked.
He nodded. “About where we go from here.”
The silence held for a long moment as she attempted to pull her thoughts together. Her heart beat somewhere between her legs and he wanted to discuss their future. Random didn’t begin to cover it, given their not even a week-long history. She looked down and, good God, she was leaking bodily fluids over the man’s six-pack. The trail of hair leading from his belly button beneath the waist of his jeans clung damp to his skin. The musky scent of her overeager sex surrounded them.
“No. No. This is unacceptable.” She scooted backward and started in on the button and zipper of his jeans, tearing his pants open. “I am not doing this now.”
“Ros. I’m serious. I’m trying to do the right thing here! For once,” he finished bitterly.
“No.”
“Ros. Wait.” He waved his hands in the air and she ignored them.
“You picked the wrong time, buddy.” Grabbing two handfuls of denim, she dragged them down his thighs, freeing up the essentials. And the essentials were unperturbed by his bullshit, serious-relationship, ill-timed nonsense. It was the first time she’d come this close to his cock. Well, face-to-cock, as opposed to having him inside her. He looked to be just the right size, long and thick with veins wending up his length. The man had a rather attractive appendage, actually. She wrapped her hands around his hard length, testing the feel of him. Taking her time to learn him.
“I like this,” she said.
His mouth opened, so she stuffed hers full of his cock and sucked. No more excuses. No more talking. He tasted wonderful and felt even better, with silken smooth, salty-tasting skin over such solid flesh. Creamy pre-cum trickled onto her tongue. His hands cradled her head and fingers sunk into her hair. Nothing mattered but her hunger for him.
“Shit,” he muttered. “Sweetheart.”
She took him deeper then pulled back, drawing on him fiercely. The encouraging hands in her hair calmed her down some, signalling his capitulation to her. She massaged his sweet spot with the tip of her tongue and he groaned, stomach muscles clenching.
“You win,” he said.
Which was really all she needed.
His cock slipped from her mouth with a wet pop and she crawled up his body, covering him with kisses as she went, from those hot muscles that delineated his hips to his neat belly button, his pecs and the flat discs of his nipples. The crook of his neck smelled divine; she could kiss and lick him there all night.
Amongst other things.
“What were you thinking?” she asked, tickling the rim of his right ear with her tongue.
“I don’t have a fucking clue.”
The heat of his cock filled her hand and she fit him to the wet lips of her sex. Slowly, gently she took him inside. He seemed to need gentle now. Giving in didn’t really suit him.