Page 9 of Mistletoe Madness

Dutifully, I obliged. “What would you have picked?”

“Truth.” He dropped his hands from my arms and took a step backward. Immediately, I felt the loss of contact between us like a cold, arctic wind.

“Truth? Really?” I scrunched my nose up in confusion.

“Yes. Because thetruthis I’ve wanted to kiss you for weeks. Months, if I’m being completely honest right now. But you just got out of a relationship—fuck, you were about to getmarried—and I didn’t want to be the asshole who hits on his hot new roommate while she’s still nursing a broken heart.” His gaze drifted toward the center of the foyer where a bundle of mistletoe hung from the chandelier.

“I thought if I just waited long enough … our chemistry … you would ...” Even though he spoke in half-formed sentences and incomplete thoughts, they somehow managed to communicateeverythinghe was trying to say to me. Or maybe it was simply because after living together all these months, I could read between the lines, could hear what he didn’t have to say.

He ran his hand through his hair and huffed out a quick, sardonic laugh. “God, I’m such a nerd. Listen to the dork trying to seduce the woman of his dreams by talking about science. Becausethat’ssexy.”

The pieces of the puzzle slowly locked into place. The subtle innuendo and banter we’d shared these past few months; the long nights on the couch watching TV together; the way he cared for me like no one else ever had before. Nick didn’t have to do anything special to seduce me. He already had, just by being himself.

“Youaresexy, Nick. So fucking sexy I can hardly stand it sometimes. I’ve wanted you, too.”

“You have?” He brought his face back around, and when our gazes locked, his eyes blazed with naked, open longing.

If what he said was true, he’d been doing an excellent job of hiding his feelings, but it appeared he was done pretending. One look at his handsome face and I knew exactly how he felt about me. The thick bulge tenting his jeans only served to confirm it further.

I rolled my bottom lip between my teeth and nodded. “You’d blush if I told you all the secret ways I’ve lusted after you.”

He took a confident step forward, all pretense between us gone for the moment. “Tell me.”

I shivered at the sudden note of command in his voice, anticipation boiling in my core. Nick was a good guy. The absolute best. But I also knew he could be strong-willed and was determined. And if his co-workers I’d met so far were to be believed, he ran his teams like a general—with an iron fist and no room for argument. Briefly, I wondered if those characteristics carried over into the bedroom.

I wasn’t what you’d call an adventurous lover—one of the reasons Brayden had strayed, he’d told me with a sneer as we sat opposite one another, flanked by a bevy of lawyers—but I wanted to be.

For Nick.

I had a lot of fantasies where he was concerned, but being bossed around by him, made to do things I’d only ever imagined in the darkest recesses of my mind, was the most compelling of them all. I wanted him to strip me of my clothes, and then I wanted him to strip me of my inhibitions. For him, I wanted to be the best version of myself. The woman who knew what she wanted, and asked for it, instead of shirking away from it.

And that all started right now.

If Nick was brave enough to confess his feelings for me, I needed to be brave enough to reciprocate.

“Six weeks ago, I heard a noise coming from your room, so I went to investigate. You were in there. Alone.”

“Was I asleep?”

I shook my head. “No, you were watching a video. Your headphones were in.”

His face lifted a fraction of an inch as he tried to recall the night in question, and I saw the moment he understood what I wasn’t saying. “What was I watching?” he asked, knowing full well what the answer was but wanting me to speak the words aloud anyhow.

“I don’t know, Nick. I was too busy watching you.”

He fought to bring a smile under control, but in the end, it won out. The dimple in his right cheek popped, and I wanted to lick it. Admittedly, there were a lot of parts of Nick that I wanted to lick, but I’d be happy to start there. “What was I doing?”

I felt the flames of desire skate up my body as he played along. “You were touching yourself.”

“Where?”

“Your dick,” I breathed out, and my core clenched with a need so intense my knees nearly buckled as I recalled the way he’d gripped himself. How the tendons in his neck pulled taught when his head fall back and a moan escaped from between his parted lips.

His hand found the waistband of his jeans, and he popped the button and lowered the zipper. “Show me.”

“Oh god.” I let out a moan of my own and took a step toward him. Saliva pooled in my mouth as I reached into his pants and skated my palm over his impossibly hard dick. I stared up at him, letting him see what he did to me. How he affected me. I was in love with him, and this moment was the culmination of all of my dreams. I didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, but for tonight, Nick was mine.

“Do you still want that kiss?” I asked, circling his cock at the base the way I’d seen him do that night. I squeezed his length, and a gust of his breath ghosted against my face.

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