“No,” I said, much softer now and, with that, my shaking hands went out. Into the space between us. I felt like I had to, that this was me taking the first wobbly steps of adulthood. Because when my fingers touched his abs, the muscles contracted and he let out an almost pained hiss.
“God, I was hoping you’d do that,” he rasped, then covered one of my hands with his, sliding it up his body, leaving me to feel the satin smoothness of his skin, right until he placed it over his heart. “Look, I know we’ve only just met, Lils, but you smell so fucking good and I feel like I’m gonna die if I don’t get a chance to taste you. I’ll take you back to the university if you don’t want that, but—”
“No,” I said, and the word had quite a different inflection, something that had him stilling.
“No?” There was an easiness about him, something that was reflected in his expression as he began to grin. “No? If you don’t want that, what do you want?”
My heart thudded way too loudly in my ears, the rush of the tide and the roar of the pubs beyond all made for this wave of white noise that threatened to swallow me whole, but I clung to the thing that anchored me.
“You,” I said, short and simple. “Ben, I want—”
Any answer I might have been able to conjure, it was shoved to one side as he scooped me up, my legs wrapping around his waist as he walked me over to the wall, balancing me upon it as he forced his hips between mine.
“Good answer,” he replied, his hand stroking down my throat, his thumb swiping over my frantic pulse. “Such a good answer. You’re going to be my good girl, aren’t you, Lily? For just one night?”
I had no idea what that meant, which, in the cold light of day tomorrow, I might blanch at, but right now I was hypnotised by that rich, deep voice, promising me a thousand pleasures and more besides. Maybe he talked a big game, maybe he could deliver, I didn’t know. But I was about to find out.
“Just for tonight,” I agreed.
“That’s right,” he said, almost to himself, his voice little more than a mutter. “You’ll be mine for tonight.”
And before I could ask what the hell that meant, his mouth slammed down on mine and all sense went out the damn window. His lips plundered, there was no other word for it, and he did so masterfully, forcefully, separating mine, teasing the panting gap with his tongue, drawing my attention to the way I surrendered to him before taking his mouth too. His hands slapped down on my hips, dragging me closer so our bodies wedged tight, his thrusting into me. I let out a little groan, something that had him pulling away for a second.
“Lily?” he asked between noisy breaths.
“More,” I begged, my fingers going to his hair, trying to drag him back. He grinned at that, his teeth twinkling in the moonlight, sharp and white.
“Anything you want, baby. If I’ve got it to give, you can have it, for tonight.”
“For tonight,” I agreed, right before I sucked his full bottom lip between mine.
Chapter 3
We collected our shoes and bucket and spade, but as we did, I spared our construction one last look.
“The castle was coming along,” I said a little mournfully.
“It was.” An arm went around my shoulders and a kiss was pressed to the top of my head. “I guess we can only build so much in one night.”
I looked up at him then, staring into those pale blue eyes for a moment before I nodded, then took his hand.
His hand on my thigh,that’s all I remember of the drive back. When he lifted it off to change gears, I missed its presence. And when it stayed there? High enough to be indecent, hot enough to make me wonder how much I could handle. I squirmed in my seat at the persistent pressure, something he noted with a sidelong smile.
“Did you want to go back to your place?” he asked. “I’ve got some money if you’d prefer to go to a hotel.”
I blinked at that. No one I’d met had ever volunteered to do anything like that, and he seemed amused by my reaction.
“We can go back to my place,” I said, giving him directions, but when we pulled up out the front of my building, the reality of what this was really hit me.
I’d avoided casual sex because I couldn’t deal with the hassle. The high school gossip mill was real. A foreign exchange student from Italy had proven to be discreet and very good with his hands one time in Year 11, but that was only one day after school, the cool girls scooping him up and absorbing them in their social circle pretty quickly.
“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Ben said, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. “If you’ve changed your mind, we could—”
I silenced him by undoing my seatbelt and throwing myself into his lap, my mouth coming down on his. He let out a grunt of surprise, but recovered awfully quickly, kissing me back in a series of hungry then hungrier kisses, before he opened the car door blindly and we spilled out onto the concrete. I let out a little yelp as I was swept up into his arms, the car door kicked closed and the locks engaged before he made for the stairwell.
“What floor?” he asked, barely seeming to register my weight.
“The third. You can’t carry me like this—”