* * *
Mia
* * *
“Wait,” I put my hand on James’ chest as he bent over me.
“What’s wrong?” He instantly stopped and pulled back.
“Nothing. I just want you to take all your clothes off. I didn’t really get to see as much of you as I would have liked the first time.” It had been a lament for months. Sure, I’d felt him. But the room had been dim and most of the time we’d been on top of each other. I hadn’t enjoyed the pleasure of seeing him walk across the room.
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Well, I can’t say no to that, can I?” He stood up and shifted a few feet back from the bed. He peeled his shirt off over his head.
I propped myself onto my elbows to have a better view of that hard chest, and ripped abs. “No, you really can’t. I’m demanding it.”
He undid his jeans, took down the zipper. “I’m not going to do a Magic Mike for you. Forget it.”
I tried not to grin. I knew exactly how to get what I wanted from James. “That’s okay. I didn’t want you to,” I said casually. “I can’t imagine football players can really dance. Too big and bulky.”
“Oh, I can fucking dance,” he said. “When I retire, I’m going on Dancing With the Stars.”
I couldn’t help it. I grinned at him. “Should I get some music?”
James stopped and shook his head. “Damn, you played me,” he said.
“You walked right into it. I couldn’t help myself.”
“No music for you then. I’ll save the full monty for another time. Today all you get is me buck-ass naked, you little tease.”
“How am I a tease?” I asked, drawing my eyes slowly over him. I wanted to commit his body to memory.
“More like you like to give me a hard time. I like that you’re not afraid to do that.” He undid the zipper on his shorts.
James tended to dress like he’d gone to prep school, but as the student who had snuck out repeatedly to go drinking, and who had seduced half a dozen studious virgins with very little effort. His clothes were expensive, crisp, traditional, but with an edge. The bad-boy-in-the-boardroom vibe.
I watched him shove his shorts to the floor. “Too many suck-ups in your past?” I asked him.
“Something like that.” James took his boxer briefs down.
It was a hell of a view. I swallowed, my nipples hardening. He was chiseled and defined, with muscular thighs and biceps for days. His cock was hard, and he raised his hands to clasp behind his head. Which only improved the view, which he clearly knew. He looked damn pleased with himself, a smirk playing over his lips as I drank in the sight of him. He should be pleased with himself. That was a body of perfection only a few would achieve.
“Should I turn?” he asked. “Let you stare from all angles?”
I shook my head. “No. Come here and finish what you started.”
He dropped his hands, his nostrils flaring. “Yes, ma’am.”
James came over to the bed and caged me in with his strong arms. He kissed me, hard, before undoing my bra with one hand. His enormous hand cupped my breast, squeezing with more force than I generally liked, but the pressure actually turned me on. It was just so damn sexy that he was so big.
But then he looked at me in a way that both thrilled and scared me. It wasn’t calculating or a man following his usual choreography. It was real.
“Do you want me to fuck you now?” James asked.
“What else would you do?” I asked, breathless with anticipation and something else. Emotion that was springing from a deep well I had buried years ago.
“Maybe I’ll touch your clit, rubbing it until you can’t stay still.” His thumb slipped inside my panties, brushing over my clit, before easing into my pussy. “So nice and wet for me, Mia.”
I had my palms on his biceps and I squeezed, needing to hold on to him. Something was happening and I turned my head toward the wall, breaking eye contact. It was too much, too intense to maintain our locked gazes.
With each stroke, I gave a low sound of approval. James moved faster over my clit, rubbing in a light circle, another finger inside of me. He added a second finger, stretching me a little. I gasped, need coiling deep in me.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
“I can’t. It’s too much.”
James ran a finger along my jawline and over my lips. Oh, God. It was an unexpectedly gentle touch. I turned back, unable to resist, yet feeling vulnerable.
I could smell his cologne, feel the heat of his skin, the rough scrape of his knuckles as his hand went into my hair. He’d eased his finger out of me, and I could feel the hard nudge of his cock teasing at my entrance.
“Mia. My Mia,” he said.
Then he was inside of me and I was sliding down into an abyss of pleasure, an orgasm crashing over me.
“James.”
Chapter Thirteen
Mia
I woke up with that groggy feeling you have when you napped longer than you meant to. My sheets were cool on my naked skin. My totally naked skin.
Nope, that hadn’t been a sleep-deprived fever dream. James had been at the assisted-living facility. I had cried hysterically. He’d brought me home and made me forget all my problems for an hour. And maybe introduced a few new fears, because holy shit, that hadn’t been just sex. It was intimacy, and that terrified me.
Now he was gone.
I wasn’t even upset or offended that he’d left without a goodbye. I had a feeling that he had been reluctant to wake me up. He really was kind of a sweet guy for a man with a playboy reputation and no real history of serious relationships that I was aware of.
Yawning, I forced myself to sit up and get dressed. I had no idea what time it was because I’d left Mississippi in the living room but I could hear Kadin playing in the living room. That meant it was at least four o’clock because that’s when Chrissy picked him up from her mother’s house on Wednesdays.
When I made my way into the living room, I moved past Kadin, ruffling his soft hair. He was playing with a truck on the carpet. Chrissy was in the kitchen, chopping vegetables.
“Hey!” she said, smiling at me. “Did you get a good nap?”
“Yes. Hey, was James here when you got home?”
She bit a carrot and chewed it. “Uh, no. But I’ve only been home for ten minutes. What was JJ doing here, Mia?”
“Me,” I said. “He was doing me.”
“Yes.” She offered me a fist bump. “Tell me everything.”
That made me laugh and I indulged her by tapping my knuckles against hers. “No. Forget it. I’m not giving you details.”
I went to the coffee table and fished my phone out of my bag. There was a text from James.
Didn’t want to wake you. Text me when you’re up.
He ended it with the flame emoji. I wasn’t sure what that meant.
I wandered back to the kitchen and showed Christina. “What does this mean?”
“He thinks you’re hot.”
“Oh.” I was pretty damn pleased by that. Though I also wasn’t sure any of this was a good idea.