Page 10 of Scandalous Lover

I shake my head, but I'm smiling in spite of myself. “Don’t tell me you had a crush on me growing up. That might make it too weird.”

She slaps my chest playfully. “Don’t be ridiculous. I had a crush on Avery like everyone else.”

I laugh and shake my head again before tilting it back to rest on the soft cushion of the sofa and consider the full moon outside the window above me.

She’s totally right. I have no reason to feel so hesitant.

It’s just…

I place a lot of weight on being the responsible one in the group. The one who always does the right thing. The one everyone can come to for solid advice or help in a tough situation. I’m the predictable one, and I like that about myself. It makes me trustworthy. It’s why I'm such a great manager.

What would it mean for me to go so completely off the rails like this?

“I can hear you thinking over there,” Naomi says, snuggling in until her head is curled in the crook of my neck and shoulder. I wrap my arm behind her warm body and pull her close, forcing back my moan at our heartbreakingly intimate position.

If I’m not careful, my longing for a life that includes endless hours in this very position is going to start to show.

“It’s not you, gorgeous. It’s me.” The words come out sounding strained, but at least I managed to force them out. Every fiber of my being is battling the idea that I have to get up andleave this woman.

Naomi just laughs and snuggles in closer. “You did not just say that.”

“Sorry. I wish I could give you the good time you deserve.”

“You deserve it too.”

Do I really, though?

I came to this city tonight with one goal—meet someone who might be interested in starting something long-term on Faraday Island. I know that’s an insane goal to have for a speed dating event, but it hardly seems like giving in to a one-night stand with a woman who I could never be in a relationship with would be a successful end to the evening.

I want to though. There's no denying that. But I’m an expert at denying myself things. It makes me a better person to make the right choice, even when it’s hard.

My self-control, however, is waning by the second, especially now that Naomi’s lips have found the sensitive skin of my neck and are grazing upward toward my jaw. I close my eyes and sink into the feeling, allowing my hands to roam once more. She moans in pleasure as I touch her and…well…I may have lost the battle.

Or won.

It’s hard to say at this point.

Her lips find mine, and it’s over. She can feel my resignation, I know she can, because she slides one leg over until she’s straddling my lap.

Now that I have her full body in my arms, pressed against my chest, settling down on my hard cock, it's everything. She’s everything. I can barely remember my own name, let alone why I was trying to fight this in the first place.

She’s soft and smooth under my hands as they graze down her arms. Even softer in the places I find when I push her top up a bit. I can't get enough touching, and it seems like she’s feeling the same.

Naomi pulls her mouth off mine, and I lean forward like a baby bird.

I’m distracted enough that I only notice my shirt coming off when it drags over my face, blocking her flushed cheeks from my view.

Naomi falls on my bare chest like an animal.

“Oh my god, you’re so fucking hot. I knew you would be,” she whispers against my skin as she drags her lips and tongue up my stomach and over both nipples.

I grip her ass tighter to me, grinding her center along the hard ridge of my erection.

When her lips hit mine again, my life is complete. Between her tongue pressing into my mouth, her hands sliding over my bare chest, shoulders, and stomach, and the way her body feels as we grind together—-this may be all I need to survive.

I lose her mouth again, and battle to keep from moaning in despair.

“Okay, so I know I said you could keep your pants on as long as you wanted…”

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