The unexpected segue gave her a hitch. Not an unwelcome one.
"I thought I should tell you," he said. "In case I gave you the wrong idea about that earlier."
"You seemed . . . averse to it then."
"Yeah. I know what Geoff is, and I've thought about the things he might do with women, but for some reason I'd never applied those things to you. And when I did, at first, it felt wrong. Maybe because I wasn't entirely on board with Geoff's preferences. Yet, it's like I said. Watching how you respond, and finally turning the mirror on myself, thinking about it . . ." He gave a half chuckle. "I had this really hot dream the other morning."
Curling her fingers in his chest hair, she smiled against his flesh. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." He kept up that tantalizing rubbing motion over her ass, grazing her upper thighs and returning to her lower back.
"We were in the kitchen, and you dropped a plate. You said you were sorry and were all blushing and upset about it. I told you I'd fix it before Geoff found out, but first you had to drop your panties and bend over, because you'd been a bad girl."
He shifted, a sheepish note entering his voice. "Sounds kind of silly, but it was a dream. I couldn't control it."
"It doesn't sound silly." Far from it. "If it was never your thing, I was okay with that. Totally okay. But if you are . . . I have thought about you doing something like that as well."
"Oh yeah?" When he raised his head so he could look down at her, she tucked her head farther under his chin, making him chuckle. "So now you're going to be the shy one."
"Well, it's easier to talk about it when I'm not looking right at you."
"Okay." He rubbed her back some more. "So how have you imagined it?"
"Which version?" she asked, and earned another laugh.
"Tell me a current favorite."
"Well, with Geoff, I imagine a cause, kind of like how you did. I do something 'accidentally' to piss him off and he decides to punish me. He has this way about him . . . It makes me want to play it out like that." She paused. Men tended to be competitive, and she didn't want to imply that because Geoff brought out different feelings in her, they were somehow better than what Chris could inspire. But she realized she had to proceed under the assumption the men wouldn't compete that way. Because if they did, this wasn't going to work, was it? She'd be exhausted by keeping the balance.
Since Chris kept touching her and listening as if he'd had none of those disquieting thoughts, it reassured her. She took a breath. "You're different. You'd do it just because you want to do it, and that's what would get me all . . . worked up."
He put a hand beneath the seam of her buttocks to probe between her legs. They loosened and she purred helplessly as he played in the residual dampness of her climax and his.
"Tell me more," he said in a low rumble. Close enough to a command to give her another shiver. His other arm tightened around her.
"We're out in the yard, and you're raking. I'm planting some flowers. I go into the garden shed to get something and, when I turn, you're standing there, blocking the door. I have a pitcher of water, and you tell me to pour you a glass. When I do, you drink it and I watch the beads of water gather on the glass and drip against your body, because you're shirtless."
"Of course. Voyeur."
She smiled at that, pushed at him. "Can't help that you and Geoff are both such hot, sexy guys."
Chris snorted. He didn't see himself that way. He'd probably say Geoff was the pretty one, but both her men were beautiful.
"So I'm leaning in the doorway, guzzling water."
"Drinking water. This is my fantasy," she reminded him primly. "But when you put down the glass, you're looking at me in a way that gets me all nervous, but excited, too. Like you did when we were sitting in the front room, before you took me in here." She paused. "What were you thinking then? No editing. Your words, your fantasy."
"I was thinking I needed and wanted you so badly, in so many ways, I almost couldn't trust myself to touch you, for fear I'd just rip you open to take and take and take."
He banded both arms around her again, holding her closer. "You're trembling again."
"The good kind."
"Okay." But he still rocked her, rubbed her soothingly. "I want to hear more about your fantasy. Keep talking, Sam."
"Okay . . . You set the glass aside, step forward, and grip my wrist. You sit down on that old decrepit stool we keep in there and pull me down over your knee. You don't say anything. You're just rubbing my ass, like you're staring at it, thinking all sorts of thoughts you won't share with me. Then you start spanking me. Light at first, then harder, stinging slaps that have me struggling, but you hold me down until you're done. You make me straddle your lap and kiss me. While you kiss me, you grip my backside in both hands, kind of hard so I can feel the spanking. After this endless kiss, when I can feel how hard you are, you push me gently off your lap, pat my ass and leave the shed. You go back to raking."
"So I'm an idiot in your dream?"