She didn’t feel beautiful. At that moment she felt flushed and sweaty. Her hair was damp and plastered to her skin. Her lips were swollen from kisses and her core was throbbing from good use for the first time in a long time. She wrinkled her nose, smirking dismissively.
“No,” he argued, dipping down to kiss her. “It’s not up for debate. You’re beautiful. Perhaps the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen up close.”
At that, Bree laughed and pushed her hair out of her face. “You work in the record industry, Ian. There’s got to be a steady stream of Tiger Beat princesses and sultry songstresses in your social circles.”
“I know. And?”
Bree’s eyes widened and she swallowed hard. How could it be possible that she ranked up there with all the music stars at the Grammys? It was sweet but impossible. She reached up to his face and ran a fingertip down the bridge o
f his nose. “I think we need to get you some glasses, Ian.”
With a growl, he flipped, rolling onto his back with Bree sitting astride him. Bree squealed with the sudden reversal, their bodies never disconnecting. “I don’t need glasses and I’m going to prove it.”
His hands gripped her hips and he started thrusting into her from underneath. Bree braced her hands on the padded leather headboard and moved with him. His eyes never left her face and in mere seconds, his jaw was tight and his fingertips were pressing insistently into the flesh of her hips.
If he wanted to watch her, she’d give him something to watch. Bree arched her back, running her fingers through her hair and thrusting her breasts out.
“Just watching you move like that...” He half spoke, half groaned, his words interrupted by the powerful rush of his release. She rode out the storm, finally collapsing onto the mattress beside him in a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.
Ian scooped her into his arms and pulled her back against the hard wall of his chest. “Beautiful,” he whispered, planting a kiss on her bare shoulder as they both drifted off to sleep.
Seven
“Aha!”
Ian poked his head out of the closet, the Monopoly game clutched under his arm. “Aha?”
Bree was in the kitchen, her back to him. She turned toward him and held up a handful of full-size candy bars. “You’ve been holding out on me, Ian Lawson. I found your secret stash!”
He laughed, shut the closet door and carried the game into the living room. “It’s not a secret stash. It’s an emergency stockpile. Are you telling me you don’t have a kitchen drawer filled with candy at your house?”
Bree planted a hand on her hip. “Uh, no. I use my drawers for utensils and towels. Normal stuff.”
“That’s because you don’t have Patty grocery shopping for you. She makes it her personal mission to keep me happy by buying me treats even when I don’t ask. She may have gone overboard this time considering I’d requested a bunch of healthy food this weekend for Missy. She probably thought I’d starve up here.”
“Well, we might with what I’ve found in the fridge.” Bree turned back to the drawer and opened another. “Oh. Here’s a bag of mini candy bars in this one.”
“Bring them. We can use candy bars instead of money for the game. It will make things more interesting.”
“What?” Bree’s nose was wrinkled in confusion, an expression that he’d always found undeniably cute and, at the same time, sexy.
Back in school, he would kiss the tip of her nose when she made that face. Now, he turned away and started unpacking the pieces of the game instead. They were far from that level of intimacy, despite having slept together.
“Each piece of candy can have a dollar value. Plain chocolate is worth five dollars. If it has peanuts, it’s a twenty-dollar bill. Crispy pieces are a fifty. Dark chocolate is a hundred. And the five-hundred is...one of the full-size bars. How’s that?”
“Gambling with chocolate. I like it. I get to be the banker.” Bree came into the room with her arms full of candy. “You’ll steal from the bank.”
Ian frowned. “What if I get hungry?”
“It will cost you some of your winnings.”
He loudly groaned in complaint but happily continued setting out the cards. “I’ll manage the properties, then.” He started laying them out on the coffee table by color. “Do we want to play the quick version?”
Bree looked up at him with an arched brow. “Why? What else do we have to do?”
A sly smile curled Ian’s lips. He could think of quite a few things they could do, none of which involved dice and paper money, but Bree had wanted to play a game.
She noted his devious expression and shook her head. “I hate to break it to you, but we are not going to lie around and do nothing but have sex until the snow melts.”