“Closer to five actually.” She shrugged. “There were times I thought about having meaningless sex with a stranger, you know, scratch the itch. I had more than a few opportunities, but I couldn’t go through with it. Compared to my darling Phillip, they were all lacking in several important areas, and I wasn’t attracted to them.”
“What about me? Am I lacking in your eyes?”
She felt her cheeks catch fire with a furious blush. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“What would you say?”
“I haven’t felt butterflies like this since high school.” She took a breath before making a confession. “If you want to know the truth, I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite like this before.” After setting her wine on the coffee table, she followed her instinct and straddled him in his chair. “Prepare yourself, Mr. Grayson. I am going to give you a proper shagging you won’t soon forget.”
His hand delved beneath her hair to curve around her bare throat, and his voice dropped to a husky tone that made her nerve endings tingle. “Every time I think I know you, you surprise me.”
While his fingers gently caressed the nape of her neck, he teased her lips with the promise of what was yet to come. His teeth nipped at the corners of her mouth. Then the tip of his tongue moistened the places his teeth nibbled.
Chase’s hands started on her tanned legs. They moved up inch by inch, sliding from her calves to her upper thighs until they vanished beneath the hem of her dress. He grasped the elastic top of her underpants. He tugged on them, but they had nowhere to go unless she stood.
So, she did. She pushed her knickers down with one slick movement and kicked them to the side. An ache started between her thighs, an ache only he could ease.
His hands went to the outside of her dress as she returned to her original position on his lap. He molded her bottom beneath the silky material before sliding up her back. His fingers found the zipper, but he hesitated.
“Something wrong?” she asked in a breathless voice she didn’t recognize. Was that her?
“Would you mind keeping the dress on?”
A warm feeling spread through her lower region as she caught his meaning. He wanted to have sex with her while she wore the dress. The thought both scared and thrilled her. Her husband had always made love to her in the same way, lights off, clothes off, and her on the bottom. Would Chase change that part as well? Would he allow her to stay on top?
Her cheeks burned at the image the question invoked. She couldn’t possibly... she would die of embarrassment.
Maybe if she took charge now she could ensure sex with Chase was nothing like being with Phillip. She felt guilty enough for being attracted to another man without betraying Phillip’s memory completely.
“Are your sure you’re ready for this?” Chase asked.
He was still willing to stop if she didn’t want to see it through. Sweet. It made her even more determined to make love with him. A spark of the real her ignited beneath her breast, and she brazenly batted her eyelashes at him. “I refuse to be apologetic for knowing what I want, and I want you.”
He smiled.
She added, “Remember that phone call you overheard when I was talking about my one regret? You must have heard me say I had considered finding some bloke at a pub and giving him a good shag.”
He laughed. “Why do you persist in using words like that when you talk to me? I’ve heard you speak to other people. You’ve never used the word bloke or shag with any of them.”
“You got me.” She grinned. “I think it’s cute, the look you get on your face when I use British slang.”
“Is it a turn on for you, my ignorance?”
“It’s adorable.”
He stood up with her still straddling him. Since she had no idea what he planned to do next, she unwrapped her legs and put her feet on the floor. Taking her hips between his hands, he steered her backward until her bottom pressed against a short antique cabinet with several small drawers. He lifted her onto the thing and spread her thighs wide with his hips. Her jaw dropped as she realized his intention.
“Here?” she squeaked. “You want to... here?”
A devilish glint lit his dark eyes. “Is that a problem?”
“Not at all.”
In fact, it was the perfect idea, something Phillip never would have done. She tried to push her deceased husband from her mind. If they were going to make a baby, she didn’t want to be thinking about Phillip while they were doing it. But the more she tried not to focus on him, the more prominent those thoughts became.
Chase’s mouth went to her throat. He sucked on the sensitive skin below her ear, and his hand slipped between her legs. His fingers delved deep, exploring and teasing her most feminine of places, a place no man had touched in years.
The top of her head almost blew off. Every thought was instantly wiped away by his skillful mouth and hands. She couldn’t remember her own name, let alone anyone else’s. She became a new creature, a being made up of pleasant sensations and bursting lights behind closed eyelids.