“I’ve wanted you for a long time, Colby,” she said, sliding her hands from his chest to his shoulders, the slightest tremor in her fingers. “I don’t know if I can play this power game. But I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines too scared to try.”
He couldn’t hide his smile. He spread his fingers over her flared hips, loving the soft warmth of her. “You’re going to be amazing at it. I have no doubt.”
She pressed a whisper-soft kiss to his mouth. “I might freak out.”
He ran his hands along her sides, enjoying the freedom to finally touch her. “And I’ll be there for you if you do to take care of you and talk you down. Plus, you’ll have a safe word to pull the plug anytime you need to. And I will always honor the word stop no matter what.”
She lifted her head, and the last flicker of worry in her eyes seemed to fade as her gaze warmed. She touched his face, her fingertips scoring over his beard like she was learning the feel of it. “I can’t believe I’m going to do this. But I used to be the girl who wouldn’t have been afraid to have a fling with my unfairly hot neighbor. I want to find that girl again.”
“Unfairly hot, huh?” he asked, teasing.
“Don’t get cocky, country boy.” She adjusted herself on his lap, and her heat pressed against him. All desire to joke fell away.
“Tell me what you want,” Colby said, his voice gruff and his arousal firing anew. “I want to hear you ask for it.”
She dragged her body across his hardening erection. “Corrupt my boring, vanilla world, Colby Wilkes.”
He groaned at the words and the feel of her against him. “You’re a liar, gorgeous.”
She lifted her eyebrows.
“There isn’t anything vanilla about you.” He leaned forward and pressed an openmouthed kiss to the curve of her neck.
She tilted her head back, giving him access. “If that’s a black joke, I’m going to kick your ass.”
He chuckled against her skin. “Ooh, you get feisty when you’re turned on. I like it.” He moved his palms down from her hips to cup her backside. “So how daring are you feeling tonight, neighbor?”
He could tell she was losing the thread of conversation, that his touches and kisses were distracting her because it took her a second to answer. “What do you mean?”
“No time like the present to start your corruption.”
Her gaze drifted toward the hallway where Keats had gone, her expression transparent—unsure but tempted by the unknown.
“I told you I wouldn’t touch you earlier, and I didn’t. But now I’m going to give you a choice. We can stop this, and you can go home and watch me from your window.” He nestled his erection against her. “And I’ll gladly give you a show—all while not allowing you to come until next time you see me. Or you can stay right where you are.”
Her voice was breathless when she spoke again. “What happens if I stay?”
“I fuck you right here where Keats will absolutely hear everything from the kitchen.” He nuzzled his teeth against her collarbone and bit gently.
She gasped softly.
“Tell me to stop, Georgia. And I’ll let you go.”
—
The word was a perfectly easy one to say. It was right there on her lips. Stop. She wouldn’t even have to take in a breath to say it. But with him kissing her neck like that and the feel of his erection rubbing exactly where she needed it, she couldn’t find it in herself to say it. Keats will hear. That was a guarantee. She could hear him fiddling around in the kitchen, probably eating his dinner.
The thought only made the ache between her thighs burn hotter. Colby sucked her earlobe between his lips and teased it. “God.”
“That doesn’t sound like stop,” Colby mused.
“We could go in your room.”
“Not an option I gave you,” he said, that tone coming into his voice. The one he’d used in the fantasy. The one she’d imagined when she couldn’t hear what was being said on his side of the window. “Take off your jeans.”
“Colby . . .”
“Is that stop?”