He shrugged. “So what if the relatives cluck their tongues? Situation normal. I can handle it.”
“What about work? Everyone thinks—”
“Let them think what they think. Their assumptions don’t control us.” He closed the distance between them and took her hands. “Tonight made me realize what a fuckin’ idiot I’ve been. I know you don’t see me as boyfriend material, and I hope we can—”
“Shut up, Eddie.” She closed her eyes and squeezed his hands vice-tight.
Heart hammering, he braced himself for the dressing down he so richly deserved.
“You’re not the only one who figured something out tonight.” She released him and gestured toward his bedroom. “What happened here was amazing, and I panicked. Because guys like you have never treated me as more than a temporary plaything. I’m not the girl they bring home to their nice family and show their high school trophies to.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “So when I woke up in your bed, I figured the smart thing to do was to shut it down before I got hurt.” Her voice wobbled. “And then, you brought me home to your parents. And your mom made us fudge, and…” Her eyes screwed shut, and her words dissolved into a sob.
“Hey, hey now.” He wrapped his arms around her quaking shoulders.
She fisted the front of his shirt and snuffled into the crook of his neck. “I just wanted it to be real, you know? To believe we could actually be more than horny work friends who accidentally fell into bed together. I wanted the sweet guy who humored his mom, and the Spider-man quilt, and the trophies, and the weird fudge, and—”
The tight knot in his chest burst open, and he stopped her torrent of words with a ravenous kiss. Her lips parted on a sharp inhale, and then she hiccupped, a sound so cute he had to kiss her again. And again.
“Rosie,” he whispered against her lips, “I want that too. So much. Ever since that night, I can’t stop thinking about how much I want you. Not just in bed. I mean all of it."
Her hands slid to his hips and tugged him tight against her. His cock hardened to the point of pain, grinding between his zipper and her soft, warm flesh.
“Thank God.” She kneaded his ass through his jeans. “Do you know how hard it’s been to keep my distance at work, when all I want is to—uhng.” She rolled her hips, and the speech center of his brain short-circuited.
He duck-walked backward toward the bed, kissing her non-stop. Along the way, they bonked into the breakfast bar, crashed into the bookshelf, and knocked over a lamp. No matter, the gravity of the bed pulled them in, strong and true. The backs of his knees collided with the mattress, and he collapsed with her atop him.
She straddled him and clasped his jaw with both hands, her dark eyes glittering. “No getting carried away this time. Is this what you really want?” Her lush breasts pressed to his chest, and his hips ground up on autopilot, seeking her moist heat. Her breath was hot on his face. “I need to hear the words, Eddie.”
“Yes,” he hissed. “I want this. I want you.”
“And afterward?”
“We’ll figure it out together. Please, Rosie.”
She answered with a kiss that singed his soul.
Planting his heels, he rolled her onto her back and slid his hands beneath her top. She helped him peel it over her head, then lay back while he stroked her silky skin from waist to throat. A lacy blue bra imprisoned her breasts. He tunneled his fingers beneath her, searching for the clasp.
“It fastens in the front.”
He grappled in vain, afraid of ripping the delicate fabric. With a sexy chuckle, she flicked it open, and her glorious breasts spilled out, creamy golden skin, dark rosy nipples, heavy and warm and delicious. With a hungry moan, he trailed kisses over the vine tattoo that wound behind her ear and along her collarbone before twining among the red and pink roses across her chest. The closer he came to her pebbled nipples, the more she squirmed on the mattress.
He cupped the heaven-soft mounds and circled their tight peaks with his thumbs. “Impatient, aren’t you?”
“Hell yeah.” She raked her fingers into his hair and pressed his face to her chest. “I’ve been wanting this since New Year’s.”
“Me too,” he growled, and sucked one firm bud into his mouth.
“Sweet Jesus.” She threw her head back and bit her lip.
Watching her surrender to desire fired his blood to the boiling point. He rolled and sucked and pinched her nipples until she gasped, then pushed up and raked his gaze over every gorgeous, golden inch of her. “You’re a goddess, you know that?”
Fire flashed in her eyes as she reached for his shirt. “Take this off. All of it. I want to feel your skin against mine.”
He shucked his clothes, then tugged her skirt and tights off, leaving only her blue satin panties. He knew he wouldn’t last long after weeks of imagining this moment, and he wanted to give her as much pleasure as possible before plunging inside her.
With a hungry, mewling sound she reached for him, but he slipped from her grasp and kissed his way down the soft curve of her belly, his fingertips teasing her thighs apart. He swirled the tip of his tongue over the lotus blossom framing her navel, then grasped the elastic of her panties in his teeth. Though they’d had no wine with dinner, he felt drunk with desire, dizzy and reckless as he tasted the succulent skin he’d dreamed of every damn night since she left his bed.
He skimmed her panties over her hips. She kicked them away and giggled when they landed atop the bedpost. “Hard to keep your place tidy when I’m here.”
“Fuck tidy,” he growled. “Let’s get messy.” He parted her soft pussy lips with his thumbs and dove in.
She sighed his name as he licked and nibbled
