“I am big enough,” he said, the words coming unbidden. They were his truest desire in this moment. His voice had even dropped a level and sounded husky to his own ears.
“Is that what you want?” she asked, her own voice slightly trembling.
“More than anything,” he admitted. He had no problem with honesty. His problems lay with other things like commitment.
“Why?” she asked. “I googled you earlier. You date some really hot women.”
“I don’t date,” he said. Knowing that he could say he just fucked them. She wouldn’t understand it. He was different with her. Actually, he was different because of her, he realized.
“Then what is this about?”
“I thought it was about winning a bet,” he said.
She tipped her head to the side, eyeing him for a long minute, and he let her. He had no illusions about the man he was. He might not like all the parts of himself, but he knew ever since he’d woken up in the hospital that he’d tried to be better. To do better. He was never going to be anyone’s idea of a white knight. He didn’t want to be. He just wanted to be the best of who he was.
Ofttimes that was a beast.
Today...he’d seen someone else when he’d taken her for a ride on his bike. He’d seen a man that he didn’t know and wasn’t sure he wanted to. But with her, that man was lurking in his skin.
She wanted to ask him more about why he didn’t date but wasn’t sure that she was ready for the answers. She wanted him, and that was enough to deal with on its own but she also really liked him. A part of her wished she could write him off as a spoiled asshole. He owned that about himself, and that had made her like him even though it shouldn’t have.
There were massively overgrown vines around him, blocking her view of who he truly was. But every once in a while, she caught a glimpse of someone who made her heartbeat faster, and not just with lust.
“So did I scare you off?” he asked. His voice had a low graveled whiskey tone that made every sense of her body take notice.
The sheets on her legs felt too heavy and the shirt against her body to thick. She wished for the courage to be naked with him. To find her way into his arms and this time really experience everything he had to give her.
It made her uncomfortable to admit it, even just to herself, but Conrad was the embodiment of everything she’d ever wanted in a man. He was driven and successful, a man who commanded respect. He was blunt and asked for what he wanted in a way that made her feel almost superficial in her other interactions with people.
“Lady?”
“Yes?”
“The way you keep licking your lips makes me want to feel your tongue on my skin...” he said, his voice getting even deeper. “Did that scare you?”
“No,” she said slowly as a moist heat pooled between her legs. She hadn’t wanted like this in way too long.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“What it would feel like to lick your chest and then work my way lower,” she said.
“Damn. That’s...”
“Too much?”
“Not at all. Honestly, I like it.”
“I do too,” she said.
“I should let you go,” he said after a few moments had passed.
“Yes. I have to open the shop in the morning and then my assistant will be in around noon. So I could come see you after that—does that work?” she asked.
“I forgot...” he trailed off.
She arched both eyebrows at him, angling her head to the side. “That I have a life and don’t just exist when you want to see me?”
“Indy, you cut me. I just meant I forgot what it was like to run a business. Why don’t we do it next weekend?”