“You don’t want to finish the game?” he asks, bending closer to me on the couch, dusting his lips across my cheek.
I swear this wasn’t supposed to happen. I met him and planned to sleep with him, and that was all. But now, just a few days later, I’m swimming in a sea of feelings.
There’s only one solution.
Keep going.
I tug him up from the couch, my hand in his. “The ladder.”
His dark eyes shine with dirty deeds. “Perfect location.”
19
West
I begin my confession as I undress her. First, I slide the straps of her red and white polka-dot dress over her shoulders, down her arms. “Since the first night I met you, I’ve wanted to have you here.”
“On your ladder?” She reaches for the hem of my navy-blue polo shirt.
I bury my face in her neck, inhaling her flower-and-sweet-spice scent, letting it flood my senses.
“Yes. And my tub, and my couch, and my pool table.”
“Sounds like a game of Clue—Gigi, in the library, with your cock,” she says with a light laugh, and I love that she can be passionate and funny in the same moment.
I return to removing every item of clothing from her gorgeous body.
Down goes the bodice, off goes the skirt, then the shoes, until she wears only her lacy underthings—a pretty pink bra that boosts those lush breasts, and matching knickers that I bet are as soaked as I am hard.
But arousal is not all I see on Gigi.
That’s just the surface. A surface I adore. But I’m adoring too, what’s inside her. What’s under her skin, in her heart, percolating in that quick mind.
She’s clever and kind, and it’s a flavor combination I never knew I wanted, but now I need to taste over and over.
“Gigi James, you’re irresistible,” I tell her, as I reach for her wrists, lift them over her head, and tell her to hold onto the rung.
She curls her palms around it. “Like this?”
“Yes, that’s perfect. I’ve pictured this so many times.”
I kiss the hollow of her throat, eliciting a gasp, then her shoulder, drawing an arch of her gorgeous back. Slowly, luxuriously, I make my way down her arm to the crook of her elbow, brushing soft, tender kisses along her skin. “Your skin is so soft,” I whisper. “I could kiss you everywhere.”
“I won’t stop you, West.”
I crave the way she says my name at times like this, all heated and needy, like she desperately needs me to please her body.
But also like she needs me.
Just me.
As I travel back up her arm, down her chest, burying my face between the lush valley of these gorgeous globes, I feel so much need for her.
But it’s more than sexual.
I need this woman with me. In my house. My life.
I didn’t set out to find a woman who captivated me. Or to meet someone I’d become consumed with. But in a shockingly short while, that’s exactly what I’ve found.
A woman who challenges all my assumptions about myself.
My belief in my independence.
My certainty that I don’t want a relationship.
My steadfast faith that timing is everything.
The timing for us feels all wrong.
But everything is so right with her.
I don’t know what happens tomorrow or the next day or the day after, but I know this much—I want her with me for far longer than a week or two. And I want her as more than a friend.
And that means tonight is not the night to fuck her on a ladder.
It’s the night to make love to her in my bed.
I raise my face and look into her gorgeous blue eyes, shimmering with desire and so much more.
“Wrap your arms around my neck, darling.”
She does. “Why?”
“So you can come to my bed, where I can worship your body properly. So I can spread you out and lavish attention on you. And mostly, so I can show you how much I want you in my life.”
She shivers and parts her lips.
20
Gigi
I don’t know how to speak without my voice breaking, without starting to cry.
But not tears of sadness.
Tears of wonder.
Wonder at how this happened so quickly, so spectacularly.
But I don’t want to mar this moment with sniffles, so I swallow past the knot in my throat, and speak with a tremble in my voice but with all the certainty in the world. “I want you in my life too.” I loop my arms tighter around his neck. “As more than a friend.”
He slides his hands under my ass, scoops me up, angling me so I can wrap my legs around his waist. “You’re already more than a friend,” he says, those dark eyes intent on mine as he carries me to his bedroom, sets me on his king size bed and strips off my bra and panties.
His hands are strong, but gentle too, as if I’m something he cherishes. As he slides his hands down my body, trailing them over my skin, I feel adored.