I blink. “Well, I do do that. Sometimes. If the men in question deserve to have their bones chewed up and spit out. I just don’t have sex with any of them while I’m doing that.”
He huffs out a soft laugh. “How? Seriously. You must have been beating men off with a stick all through college.”
My cheeks flush hotter. “I guess. Sort of. But it never felt right. I mean, I messed around with a few guys, here and there, but I never wanted to get naked with any of them.”
“But you want to get naked with me,” he whispers, making me laugh. He grins in response. “What? You said you did.”
“I know I did,” I say, still laughing as I roll my eyes. “I just didn’t expect you to look so pleased with yourself about it.”
“Why shouldn’t I be pleased?” he asks, releasing my wrist to thread his fingers slowly through mine, sending more tingles shivering across my skin. “You know how competitive I am. Learning I’m the only man you’ve ever asked to be with you is…” He pulls in a breath, smile widening as he adds, “Well, it’s going to my head. I won’t deny it.”
“Was that a double entendre?”
He bobs his eyebrows. “You want it to be?”
“No, I do not,” I say firmly, even though I’m every bit as charmed by him as I’ve been all day. “Let’s keep it classy, Satan.”
His eyes widen and then almost instantly narrow again as they fill with heat I don’t understand until he murmurs, “You did it. You called me the ‘S’ word. You know what that means.”
I wrinkle my nose and curse, but secretly I’m blazing beneath the skin. “Yes, okay, fine. Spanking is on the table. But not tonight. Tonight, I’d appreciate a little…finesse.”
He frowns. “You think you have to ask for that? Finesse is a fucking given, woman. I’m going to make you come so hard, get you so damned wet, you won’t feel anything but pleasure when I’m inside you.”
Now, it feels like that chipmunk on my face is in my throat, wiggling like crazy as I fight to swallow and remember how to breathe at the same time.
Derrick smiles. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Something like that,” I finally manage to force out in a rough voice. I clear my throat as I confess, “I don’t know if I’m ready for that level of dirty talk. I feel like I’ve been hit with a stun gun.”
“But in a good way,” he says.
“That wasn’t a question.”
“No, it wasn’t,” he says, leaning close as he adds in a whisper, “I can tell you liked it. Your nipples are so hard I can see them through your sweater.”
I cringe lower in my seat and clutch at the neck of my sweater, wishing I’d left my coat on.
“Don’t,” he says as I tug the fabric away from my chest with my free hand. “I like it. It makes me want to bite them. To bite and lick and suck them into my mouth while I make you come on my fingers.”
Eyes wide, I hiss, “Stop. You can’t jump right into the deep end of the smut-talking pool with me, Derrick. I am so out of practice with this kind of stuff, and I wasn’t great at it to begin with. I need water wings and a paddleboard and a life jacket.”
“No, you don’t,” he says with a confidence that would be annoying if I weren’t so turned on, I can’t think of anything but how much I want to drag him into the backseat of his car and have my way with him. “You’ll be just fine.”
But will I?
I’m not sure. All the way back to the hotel, I’m adrift in a sea of uncertainty. There are so many reasons to back out before it’s too late, but I’m having a hard time concentrating on them when Derrick’s hand is on my thigh and my pussy is throwing a “we’re about to get laid, hallelujah” party in my pants.
After we leave the car with the valet, we wheel Gram through the lobby to her first-floor room. Derrick asks her to make our excuses to the rest of the family at dinner—telling her we’ll be ordering room service and staying in—and we start back to our wing of the resort.
But I still don’t know what I’m going to say. What I’m going to do.
And then the door to our room closes behind us and we’re alone for the first time all day and suddenly my instincts take over.
I turn and hurl myself into Derrick’s arms, head spinning as he kisses me as hard and deep as I was secretly hoping he would, banishing the last of my anxiety in a rush of heat.
Chapter Eighteen
Derrick
I can do this. I’m not going to screw this up.