4
“Oh yeah?” She cocked her head to the side. “Where’s my brain?”
While I stared, I tried to decipher her thoughts.
“It’s okay, Jenner. You can say it. You won’t scare me away.” She reached inside my bucket and took out a cold beer, twisting off the top and drinking down several gulps. “Maybe we should bet something-like this is what’ll happen if you’re right or this is what’ll happen if you’re wrong.”
“As long as a win earns me your lips, I’m down.”
“Which lips?”
Fuck me.
This girl had a fire that was roaring as loud as mine.
Each breath, each glance, each swipe of her tongue made it grow.
I used my head to nod toward her face. “I’d start with those.” I took the beer from her hand, bringing it up to my mouth to take a sip. “If they tasted as good as I expect them to, then I’d go lower. Much lower … until I found the others.”
Her eyes answered me before she said, “I’ll take that bet.”
I set the beer down, my dick rubbing against my zipper. “Why wait?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying … if I kissed you right now, would you stop me?”
JOANNA
J
enner was nothing but trouble.
I’d learned that the moment I’d taken a seat in the sportsbook, fate somehow placing me next to this delicious man. Every word, every expression, every visual dip he made down my body only tempted me more.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.
It didn’t help that he was positively gorgeous.
Even through his clothes, his broad shoulders and the outline of muscles in his arms told me he had a body I wouldn’t be able to stop touching. Perfect lips surrounded his straight white teeth, followed by a path of thick, dark stubble. He had a small, pointed nose and emerald eyes that were wickedly sinful and extremely dominant.
Dominant like his personality-something I’d never experienced before in a man, but I was quickly learning it was a trait I couldn’t stay away from.
No matter how many times I attempted to get up, the heat in my body forced me to stay seated. A heat that stirred a storm of sensations, a humming of tingles.
A burning need that trumped every warning sign in my head.
Each sign signaling more trouble.
“If I kissed you right now, would you stop me?”
His words were simmering in my chest, his eyes so incredibly dangerous that it was making my blush grow deeper.
The spot between my legs was pulsing.
Throbbing.
Oh God, what is happening?
“No, I wouldn’t stop you,” I whispered, unable to speak any louder.
My reply hadn’t been prepared; it hadn’t been thought out.
The spontaneity a mistake the moment I realized he was moving closer.
His palm cupped my cheek, his fingers moving into my hair, and he was pulling me toward him.
He didn’t slam his mouth into mine, like I’d expected.
He closed the gap, leaving an inch between us instead.
As though he was teasing himself.
As though he was preparing for how I was going to taste.
“I’ve been staring at this one.” His thumb pulled at my bottom lip. “Thinking how badly I want to bite it.”
I forgot that we were in a casino.
That we were surrounded by his family and friends.
That there was a massive wall of TVs and games and bets happening around us.
I could only focus on him.
This feeling in my body.
This urge that was controlling me in a way I hadn’t ever experienced.
I sucked in a deep breath. “Then, what’s stopping you?”
“The second I taste you, I’m going to want more. I’m a greedy motherfucker, Jo. I won’t be able to stop with a kiss …”
These were promises, not lies.
His eyes confirmed that.
Would one taste be enough?
I knew that answer.
In fact, every part of me could feel that answer.
“So, what are you going to do, Jenner?”
I held in my breath.
Waiting.
Longing.
“Follow me to my room.”
He wasn’t asking.
Did I want him to?
My skin was scorching, each swipe of his thumb igniting a new flame.
“Now?”
“Yes.” He stood, towering over me, making me feel so tiny in this chair. “Right now.”
He held out his hand for me to grab.
The second our fingers linked, a bolt of energy passed through me. I almost jumped from how strong it was.
There was only one place my feet were going to lead me.
There was no sense of even trying to talk myself out of this, to try to delay going to his room.
Having sex with this man was inevitable.
Because, in this moment, I belonged to Jenner.
With our fingers still gripped, I rose from my seat and followed him through the casino, his hand moving to my lower back as we approached the bank of elevators.
“Jesus,” he growled in my ear. “Your fucking ass …” His fingers lowered, teasing the top of it. “I knew it would be perfect, but goddamn it, not this perfect.”
There were so many things I could say, so many ways I could derail this, but our connection was too strong.
I felt that in my bones.
I gave him silence, and he gave me breath, exhales hitting my neck, like foreplay.
But the moment we were inside the elevator with the door closed, one of the top floor buttons selected, he was moving me toward the back wall. A huff of air came out of my mouth when the metal bar pressed against my spine.
His hands surrounded my face. “So fucking gorgeous.”
His eyes were piercing mine.
He had the ability to make me feel like he was taking all of me in even though our stares were locked.
I couldn’t breathe.
Especially when he slowly closed the space between us. “Jo …” His eyes turned even more feral. “I can’t wait a second longer.”
His lips fell against mine.
Claiming me.
Owning me.
I tasted the beer and the desire on his tongue, a hunger every time it entered my mouth.
A satisfaction the second it pulled back.