Page 69 of Love and Loathing

“You know what I mean.”

He looked at her, a long, heavy beat, with her heart thudding, and heat spiking, pooling between her legs.

“And what do you want, Evie?”

“I want you to tell me what I want.”

He held her gaze for another moment, then looked away, breathing a curse. “It was going to be dinner. A nice restaurant. I was going to do all this properly.”

“There’s nothing proper about you, Aubrey. Stop pretending.”

He gave a grim laugh at the hit. “Fair enough. Then go and get in the car. I’m not doing this here.”

They didn’t speak much on the way to Aubrey’s flat. Evie sat in the passenger seat with an overnight bag on her knee, feeling absurdly prim and proper, like a girl scout on her way to sleepover, all prepared. Aubrey had watched her pack from the doorway, saying nothing, face closed, rubbing the edge of his thumb over the corner of his key fob—leather, of course.

Her heart was beating quickly, and she was nervous enough to wonder if this was a good idea. Maybe Aubrey had been right, and it was too soon. But she wanted him too much to be reasonable, wasn’t quite certain that he wouldn’t pull away from her again, decide they were impossible. So she may as well be greedy, mightn’t she? Have him while she could.

They walked into his flat, Aubrey carrying her bag, putting it down by his sideboard at the entrance to his living room. It all looked the same as she remembered, smelt the same. Alien, masculine, ordered, neat. All of it as reassuring as the dry certainty of his voice. Her heart gave a skip.

But Aubrey walked into the kitchen. “Coffee?”

She followed him into the pristine space. “No.”

He started to make himself one, and she stood there, trying not to look as nonplussed as she felt. The man was moving aggravatingly slowly, calmly, scooping out the coffee granules with precision, checking the water level.

“You can take your clothes off if you’re in a hurry,” he said, getting milk out of the fridge.

She stared at him.

He smiled, laughing at her expression. “You look a little impatient over there.” He inspected a mug. Apparently satisfied, he put it down on the counter. Then he paused, watching, as she began to take off her jumper.

She took her vest off, too, stood there in her bra, fingers on the button of her jeans. “Unless…” she paused, a teasing smile playing on her lips, “you were joking?”

“I wasn’t joking.”

So she continued, Aubrey seeming to forget about the coffee as she stepped out of her jeans, unhooked her bra and let it fall. He swept his eyes down her, then turned back to the coffee machine.

“And the rest.”

She did as he said, stood naked in his kitchen. Coffee ready, he took a sip, looking at her. The still air felt like silk on her skin, all of her screaming for touch, heart racing so hard her legs trembled.

“Are you ready for me, Evie? Wet enough already that I could slide right in?”

Her voice was a whisper. “Yes.”

“Come here.”

He put the coffee down as she walked over, shaking with needy anticipation. He cupped her cheek, kissed her on the lips—that was all: his lips against hers, the light touch burning, holding for an eternity while every part of her criedplease.

She felt a tremor go through him, a sharp hitch of breath, the hand on her cheek tightening convulsively into her hair, and he kissed her fully, tongue stroking into her mouth, sending her thoughts tipping and her body pressing up against his.

His hands slid firmly down her sides, finding every shallow curve, the dragging pressure of his large palms warm and sure, as though they were newly defining the shape of her, telling her where she began and where she ended. But he gripped herhips as she moved against him, holding her back, the tips of her nipples barely brushing the soft fabric of his top.

“No, Evie,” he chided. “You might be in a hurry, but I’m not. Maybe I’ll let you come by dawn. If you’re good.”

She glared at him, expression made a lie by the way she stroked her hands up the back of his neck into the soft, short hair. Pouting in pretend sympathy, she said, “Is that why you need the coffee, old man? Something to help you stay up all night?”

He laughed, muttering a curse under his breath, forehead sinking to hers for a moment before a hand lifted from her hip and he spanked her firmly on the backside, jolting her against him with a shockwave of sensation.

---