He kissed the inside of her wrist, then worked his way up to the bend of her elbow. She felt the damp sweep of his tongue and the slick surface of his teeth as he drew her skin against them. The side of his head bumped against her breast, and Jade feared the dreaded panic had returned. But slowly, from the center of her breast, her body told her this was good and right.
“They’re supposed to get hard.”
She didn’t realize she had breathed the words aloud until Dillon’s head came up. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“What did you say?”
“I said… said that they’re supposed to get hard.”
“What are?”
“My nipples.”
He lowered his eyes to them. “Are they?”
She nodded. “When you rubbed your head against me.”
“Did it feel good?”
“Yes.”
“Have I done anything so far that you didn’t like?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“You stopped to chat.”
He chuckled softly. “See? I’m slipping back into my old ways. I’m expecting something to go wrong when I want like hell for everything to go right.”
As though this were a slow routine that they enacted every night, he raised her arms and laid them on his shoulders. Clasping her loosely around the waist, he drew her closer, until their bodies made contact. As he adjusted them together, Jade couldn’t conceal her astonishment.
“Your nipples aren’t all that get hard, Jade,” he reminded her in a rough whisper. Pressing his forehead against hers, he continued in the same, urgent tone. “It’s only flesh. It’s me, and you’re not afraid of me, are you?”
He waited for her to answer. She finally shook her head, rolling her forehead from side to side against his.
“Please don’t be afraid of me.”
“I’m not.”
“Then kiss me.” He angled his head back and looked down at her. “Kiss me, Jade.”
“I have.”
“No, I’ve kissed you. There’s a difference.”
She wanted to prove to him that she wouldn’t chicken out. More important, she needed to prove it to herself. She slid her fingers up through his hair, drawing his head down as she simultaneously went up on tiptoe. She pressed her mouth against his.
His response was lukewarm at best, and that piqued her. “It would help if you kissed back.”
“You’re not kissing me. We’re touching lips. That doesn’t count.”
Her fear of intimacy warred with her determination to defeat it. On tiptoes again, she tested the line between his firm lips with the tip of her tongue. It gave way, and suddenly she was skimming the inner lining of his mouth with her tongue, rubbing against his, tasting Dillon. She drew his head down farther. His mouth closed upon hers.
Something wonderfully sexy happened. They both felt it. Making a hungry sound, he crossed his arms at the small of her back, bending her against his middle. Because Jade still felt that she was in control, she allowed it. In fact, she welcomed the solid heat of his body.