“He asleep?” her voice quivered with nerves, and her tongue darted out to swipe across her bottom lip.
Oh yeah. She definitely wanted me. Fuck yeah.
Marin
“Yep. Like a light,” Pierce said as he moved to the kitchen. He grabbed the bottle of wine he had opened for me during dinner, and poured us both a glass before heading to me. I took the glass he offered, then gave a little jolt when, instead of joining me on the couch, he grabbed my hand and pulled me from the sofa, leading me toward the back door.
“Wh-where are we going?”
“Figured we could sit on the deck for this conversation. It’s a gorgeous night. Might as well take advantage, don’t you think?”
Titan woke up and hopped off the couch, following behind us so he could roam and sniff. Pierce left the door partially open so he could hear in case Eli needed him, then he guided me to a set of loungers off to the side, partially in the shadows.
He was the picture of comfort, his feet extended, crossed at the ankles, one arm behind his head. Meanwhile, I sat with my whole body stiff as a board as I clutched the glass in both hands and stared off into the yard. Silence enveloped us, and I was slowly started to calm down, feeling my shoulders sag, when he spoke, undoing all of that.
“Tell me what you’re thinking right now.”
Oh man, talk about diving right into the deep end.
Unable to meet his piercing blue gaze, I kept focused on the darkness in front of me and lifted my glass to my lips, sucking back a huge, fortifying gulp. “I’m thinking . . . that I feel overwhelmed right now,” I finished on a whisper.
The concern I heard in his voice as he asked, “Because of me?” was finally enough to forced my head around so I could meet his gaze.
His forehead was furrowed, the blue in his eyes glinting like icy fire. “Yes,” I breathed.
He placed his wineglass on the ground beside him and threw his legs over the side of the lounger to face me full-on, his elbows braced on his knees. “I’d never make you do anything you don’t want to do. You know that, right?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to force the scattered, jagged thoughts flitting around in my head into something I could understand, something I could explain. It was the world’s most complicated jigsaw puzzle inside my skull.
“No, I know. It’s not that. I just . . . being around you is overwhelming. I feel like you surround me. You invade everything, even the air, and I sometimes forget to breathe.”
My eyes darted open and flew to his when I felt his fingertips caress my cheek. His gaze had darkened in the past several seconds, the intensity in his eyes stealing the air from my lungs. “I know the feeling.”
“You—” I swallowed thickly. “You do? Because of me?”
He nodded, then he spoke, and his words made the ground fall out from beneath me. “I want you more than I can ever remember wanting anything before. I can’t stop thinking about you, even though I know I should.”
I nodded, surprisingly relieved to know he was struggling with this whole thing as much as I was. “If anything were . . . to happen . . . between us, it would be messy. I don’t know if I’m ready for messy.” I sighed and tried to look away, but he refused to let me, taking my chin between his fingers and holding it in place. “Honestly, I don’t know what I want. After Frank, I told myself I was going to take a break from men. The only reason I went on that terrible date was because my friends wouldn’t let up.”
I could see the questions swirling around in his eyes, but was grateful when he didn’t ask them. “You know, it doesn’t have to be messy.” I gave him a look that said, come on man, making him laugh. “No expectations, Marin. We take it a day at a time and just enjoy what we have. I want you. I know you want me too. I’m tired of thinking of a million reasons why this is a bad idea.”
Before I could form a response, his hands spanned my waist, and he was pulling me off my lounger and onto his lap. My legs widened instinctively, straddling his thighs and sucking in a surprised gasp when I felt his hard length press against my center through our clothes.
“What are you doing?” I asked on an exhale as he took my wineglass and set it on the ground beside his.
“Testing a theory,” he replied, then he fisted my hair and slammed his lips against mine.
18
Marin
I never knew a kiss could be like this. With his lips on mine, his tongue a sweeping invader, he became the sole focus of my universe. The kiss became an all-consuming entity, stealing every thought from my brain except more and this and now. I was lost in the ocean, surrounded by glaciers that reminded me of Pierce’s eyes, and I was absolutely okay with that.
The sound he made was rough and animalistic, and I felt my panties instantly dampen. “Fucking knew you’d taste this sweet,” he growled against my mouth before tightening his grip on my hair and tipping my head to the side so he could get a better angle.
The kiss started out like an explosion of fireworks, but just like that, it turned into a battle. His teeth sank into my bottom lip and my nails raked down his back, fisting at the material of his shirt. He soothed the sting with his tongue and groaned when I pulled at the cotton at his back so I could press my palms against his smooth, hot, bare skin.
His hands came down, his fingers digging into my ass cheeks. He used his hold to rock me against the hard length straining to escape his jeans. I pulled in a stuttered breath at the shock that friction sent through my whole body. “Pierce,” I said on a sigh, sinking deeper into him.
“Been waiting to hear you say my name like that.”
I hadn’t realized just how much control he’d been holding on to until that very moment, because at the sound of me sighing his name, that one word dripping with lust like a wet sponge, he snapped.
Suddenly, I was no longer straddling him, but on my back on the lounger beneath him, my legs wrapped around his thighs as he shifted his hips to rub against my sex while plundering my mouth.
He whispered a word of encouragement when I arched my back to press harder against him. He broke the kiss to drag his lips and teeth along the column of my neck to my ear where he spoke of how long he’d wanted this, how crazy I made him.
The feeling is mutual, buddy, I thought to myself.
His hand skated along my outer thigh, pulling my left leg up higher. “These fucking shorts,” he groaned when he reached the leg of my boy shorts. “I think they might be the death of me.”
“But what a way to go, right?” I teased before fisting his hair and bringing his mouth back to mine. “Don’t stop kissing me,” I panted as his erection rubbed at the seam between my thighs. “Never stop. Do it forever.”
“Gladly.” His hand traveled farther up, dipping beneath my hoodie. “So soft. Are you this soft everywhere?”
I took his hand beneath my top to be a tit-for-tat scenario and slipped mine beneath his shirt, rubbing my palms along muscles I hadn’t known existed beneath all those starched button-downs of his. “Are you this hard everywhere?”
He lifted his head and gave me a smirk that was so hot I thought it might actually kill me before rotating his hips. I felt a coil tighten low in my belly. “You tell me.” Oh God, I was about to come. Just from him dry humping me. If I didn’t feel so damn good right then, I might have been a little embarrassed that I was pawing and tearing at him like a teenager.