“You don’t know the half of it,” he went on, calmly ignoring her body’s plea and keeping his hands where they were, idly tracing her phoenix with one thumb. “Turns out there are other, better ways to give your brain that reward. These experts recommended certain non-chemical stimuli proven to shower your brain with dopamine. Methods capable of drenching it in wave after euphoric wave of pleasure. Perhaps you’d like to learn more?”
“I’m dying to learn,” she admitted, a little shocked at the degree of strain in her voice and the power of the need he’d sent spiking.
“Great.” He eased her over onto her back. “A few simple rules shouldn’t be a problem for such an eager student.”
Oh God. The way he said rules made her insides quiver. “Office Donovan and his rules. I should have guessed.”
“Just for this lesson. First rule is you keep that banged-up head of yours right there on that pillow. Second is you speak up right away if anything I do is too much for you right now.” He gave her navel ring a gentle tug, making it impossible for her to think. “Can you abide by those rules, Reckless?”
“Anything,” she said quickly, relinquishing her slippery grip on dignity and then kicking it to the curb completely by silently imploring him with another squirm of her hips.
The mattress springs squeaked, and then firm but gentle lips brushed her navel, tweaking the charm with his tongue. “Promise, Roxy? I don’t want to do anything to hurt you.” He bestowed another kiss, a little longer and, oh sweet heaven, wetter, as his tongue laved the spot. “We can always shelve this lesson until you’re ready.”
“I’m ready. I swear.”
The tip of his tongue speared lower, tracing a path down…down…down. She gasped and, unable to help herself, lifted her head and turned so she could see their reflection in his mirrored closet doors.
He lifted his head as well. Stern words tickled her wet skin. “Reckless, we’re two seconds in and you’re already breaking the rules. Can you be a good girl or not?”
“I can. I swear. It’s just…” Desperate to demonstrate her compliance, she lowered her cheek to the pillow. “You can’t do this to me and expect me not to want to watch.”
He took a moment to process the admission then turned to the mirror and zoomed in on her desire-flushed face. A similar flush rose to his cheekbones. He swallowed and nodded. “All situated now?”
“Uh-huh.” She tucked both hands under the pillow to convince him.
He trailed all ten fingers down her sides, and around, stopping when his hands cupped her ass. “Then let’s get started.” With that, he flicked one thumb between her legs, just deep enough to graze her now aching pussy. Before she could catch her breath, he followed the teasing caress with his other thumb. Her hands tightened to fists beneath the pillow.
Intent eyes locked with hers in the mirror. “More?”
Yes please, yes please, yes please! The only reply she could produce was a pitchy moan, but he took it for the affirmation she intended and proceeded to repeat the maneuver, over and over, delivering a steady strum of attention until each touch elicited a wet sound to accompany her moans. She lifted her hips higher, anxious for the sweet relief of those nimble thumbs hitting the target with the kind of furious precision a boxer reserved for the speed bag.
Eyes still on hers, he lowered his head, turned at the final second, and dropped an open-mouthed kiss to the point of her hip. “So demanding,” he murmured and ran his scratchy jaw over the vulnerable skin, leaving a strangely satisfying burn in its wake. At the same time, his hands slid away.
Bereft, she let out a small wail.
“Shhh. Keep your head on the pillow.” He waited while she obeyed and then curled his hand behind her knee and pushed it up toward her shoulder. He followed suit with her other leg, exposing her neediest parts to his dark gaze.
“Are you craving a cigarette now, Reckless?”
It took a moment to find her tongue and another to get it to work. “What? Jesus. No.”
“Because although my dick will fall off, I’ll give you a smoke break if you need one.”
“West!”
His lips twisted into a satisfied smile she shouldn’t have found so diabolically attractive. Braced on his bent forearm, he lowered his head. Wide shoulders flexed. Lean back muscles lengthened. She watched in the mirror, transfixed, as his profile disappeared between her legs. Gentle lips closed over her clit at the same time one long, leisurely finger slid inside her. Time snapped then spun away. The next moments passed in a desperate haze. An exquisite agony of quick lips and tongue whipping her clit into an unbearably receptive instrument of torture, and that slow, heavy finger stroking her into a constant, shivering thrall.
Sweat stung her eyes, but she kept them open and fixed on the sight of him feasting on her like he’d never get enough. “West,” she panted then caught her breath and panted his name again, even though she wasn’t sure she’d be able to find sufficient voice to tell him how close she was. He’d taken her to the razor’s edge of an orgasm—one that promised a fast, sharp sting of pleasure wrung from nerve endings denied the decadent heat, the crucial friction, and glorious fullness of a body-to-body fucking. Even now, the tight, coiled pressure deep in the untouched core of her being sent out a warning tremble, unloosing stingy ripples that tormented rather than relieved. “West…please. I need you.”
Miraculously, he understood. He reared up and covered her. Corded arms braced on either side of her head, keeping the bulk of his weight off her while his hot, thick cock nudged
