Page 91 of Summer Reading

I could have told him that, right then and there, but I didn’t want to freak him out by saying it, so instead, I simply said, “One hundred percent.”

I took his hand and pulled him to the bed. It was neat and tidy right up until I ripped the gray-and-white quilt back and climbed onto the mattress, pulling him along with me. It felt deliciously wicked to be in the bed where he slept. I pictured him here, reading to me over the phone at night, and I wondered whether he wore pajamas to bed or read to me when he was in the raw. Why did the mere idea of that make my eyes cross?

I kneeled on the bed and he joined me. I couldn’t resist running my hands over his warm skin, the corded muscles in his neck and shoulders. He closed his eyes as if my calloused and scarred chef’s hands were a balm.

I leaned forward put my mouth in the dip of his collarbone. He sifted his fingers through my hair, gazing down at me with such affection, I felt it bloom in my heart.

“When you read to me on the phone at night,” I said, pausing to slide my lips up his throat and over his chin to his mouth. “Are you naked?”

That surprised a laugh out of him. I felt the puff of breath against my mouth. He leaned close and kissed me and said, “Is there a fantasy involved here, becauseI don’t want to ruin it by admitting that I sleep in footie pajamas.”

It was my turn to laugh. I could just see him in a giant pink bunny suit, and the fact that even that seemed sexy to me informed me that I was a goner.

“Just curious,” I said.

“Ah, I think you’ll just have to spend the night on one of our dates and find out,” he said.

His hands slid from my knees, detouring up the inside of my thighs and around my hips to my backside. He lifted me up, lowering me onto my back, and then he was above me. I tried to catch him and pull him down on top of me. It felt as if I’d been waiting forever to have him right where I wanted him, but he outmaneuvered me.

He scooted down the bed, kissing one knee and then the other. His mouth slid, hot and wet, up the inside of my leg, skipping over my throbbing center, to slide down my other leg and kiss my knee.

I let out an aggrieved groan, and a smile curved his lips as he glanced at me from beneath his thick dark lashes. That look. Until I drew my last breath, I was quite certain I was going to remember that look and how it made me feel. Desired. Cherished. Loved.

He settled in between my legs, and when his mouth settled on the sensitive bundle of nerves that was aching for his touch, I thought I might fly apart. Ben didn’t let me. He was relentless in pushing me right tothe edge and then pulling me back. It was the sweetest torture I had ever known, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to curse him or sing his praises. Perhaps both.

Finally, when my back was bowed, my heels were digging into the mattress, my fingers were twined in his hair, and I was tingling from my head to my feet, he relented. Using his tongue and his fingers, he pushed me right over the precipice into a swirling light storm that rippled down every nerve ending in my body.

I couldn’t move. Every breath I took sent aftershocks through my body. I’d had a lot of orgasms but never one like that.

Ben kissed his way up my belly, lavishing attention on my breasts, and sliding up the side of my throat to nestle into the curve of my shoulder. Summoning my muscle memory, I forced my arms to move and I slid my hands up his arms and onto his shoulders. His blue-gray eyes met mine and I could tell he was quite pleased with himself, as he should be. But of course I couldn’t let that stand.

I leaned up and forced him onto his back. He let me. I wanted to do to him what he’d done to me. I wanted to taste every inch of him, and I trailed my lips over his skin, working my way to his erection. I made him suffer for it. By the time I took him in my mouth, he was covered in sweat and his hands were trembling.

“Samantha.” He said my name on a gasp and I knew he was right there. But he wasn’t letting me havemy way. He gently lifted me off him and reached over to the nightstand to grab a condom. I helped him slide it down his length, and then he moved in between my legs. His gaze held mine as he slid into me, and it was everything.

He put his hand under my hips and lifted me up. I braced myself against the mattress, meeting his every thrust by clenching tightly around him. He grunted and I moaned. It felt that good. My release hovered right there, mine for the taking, but I waited until I felt him. His entire body tightened and he swelled in my core, and then I let go. My orgasm unfurled inside of me in a glorious burst of shimmering colors. I had never felt anything like this before and I knew, way down deep inside, it was because I was in love with him.

The words were right there. When he gathered me in his arms and kissed me, I thought they might slip out on a whisper. But they didn’t. Instead, I kissed him back, wondering if my lips were giving me away. If I kissed him differently now that I knew how completely he owned my heart.

He slipped from the bed and disposed of the condom. I thought I should go. It might be for the best, so I didn’t rush things between us by making a premature declaration offeelings. I didn’t get the chance to flee. He was back in the bed before I could gather my wits, which were scattered like rose petals all over the bedding. Before I could say a word, hegathered me in his arms and pulled the sheet up over us. Then, to my delight, he pulled out our book and began to read to me.

I rested my head on his chest, feeling his heart beat beneath my cheek while I listened, and I knew I had never felt as purely connected to anyone as I did to this man.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Despite my own state of blissful coupledom, I couldn’t help but notice that Tyler and Sophie quickly became inseparable. I thought being in robotics all day would have been enough for them, but no. Every evening was spent with Sophie at our house or Tyler at her house. I was not prepared for this teenage lovefest.

Ben and I were sitting on the porch one evening, watchingThe Alphabet Murderson my laptop and discussing the case, when Tyler came home from a date with Sophie. He practically floated up the front steps and his lips were seriously swollen, so either he’d been attacked by bees or he’d been kissing the girl.

“Hi, Tyler,” I said. “Did you have fun?”

He didn’t answer but drifted across the floor with a dreamy look in his eyes. At the door, he turned to look at me as if it just registered that I had spoken.

“Yeah, ice cream sounds great.” The door shut behind him.

Ben paused the movie and said, “Whoa.”

“I know. He’s been like that all week,” I said. Ifretted my lip as a horrible realization dawned on me. I turned and stared at Ben with wide eyes.

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