Page 34 of The Triple Play

He hummed his absolute delight at my response, his teeth grazing my lower lip. “Then I’ll happily oblige. But I should warn you,” he rasped, his hand coming back around the nape of my neck, his grip a little harder than before as he forced my head to tilt back a little, “I’m not exactly known for being gentle.”

That set me on fire like nothing else. “Shit, yes, okay,” I said, the words coming out as a damnwhimper.

His mouth dipped lower, leaving a heated trail of open-mouthed kisses down the front of my throat, his touch too much and just right all at once. “Please tell me you have a bed in this apartment, Annie, or I swear to god, I’ll fuck you on the hardwood,” he muttered, and I nearly lost my mind.

I could barely think straight with the way his mouth was moving against my skin, could barely grasp what was happening here, but I didn’t want to stop. “Yeah, I-I do,” I croaked.

His hold on the back of my neck tightened a little more, his elbow finding purchase in the cushion to his right, and he finally let go of the arm of the couch and grabbed my waist instead. Warmth seeped through my oversized shirt as his hand dragged down my clothed side, his touch firm, and my breath caught in my throat the moment he ventured lower than the hem of my pajama shorts.

Strong fingers dug into the flesh of my thigh, squeezing, kneading the flesh there, his hand nearly big enough to cover half of it. They ran up and down the side and back, dipping beneath the hem, ghosting over the spot where the swell of my rear met my thigh, and my breathing stuttered, my head swimming from the sensation.

“I can hear your heartbeat,” he chuckled darkly, his breath fanning out across my collarbones. “Are you nervous, sweetheart? Is that why you’re not venturing anywhere other than my stomach?”

I blinked rapidly, my gaze trained on the ceiling from how he was holding my head in place. “Overwhelmed is a better word for it,” I said, the words barely more than a breath. But I took the hint for what it was — a request for me to explore.

And explore I did.

I let my fingers roam across his abs the way I had before, feeling every dip and swell, before coming up over his pecs, across his traps, brushing gently over his shoulders and down to the bulge of his biceps.God.He shivered as my hands moved, a soft groan reverberating against my throat as it seeped out of his mouth.

His hand fisted the bottom of my shorts in an instant, pulling on the soft fabric until it slowly started to give way, moving over the swell of my ass until it was free from being locked under my weight. He lifted his lower body as if it weighed nothing, pushing my legs together as he dragged the shorts lower, lower, lower, down over my knees and ankles and feet until they were gone, his hand encouraging my thighs apart?—

My cheeks heated as I felt him pause above me.

“Christ,” he rasped. “You could have warned me that you weren’t wearing?—”

“Shut the fuck up, Colton,” I laughed breathlessly.

His chuckle followed him as he kissed his way back up my throat. “Never,” he murmured, crashing his lips against mine again in a quick, desperate kiss before pulling back. He released his hold on the back of my neck and snaked his arm between the cushions and my back, bracing himself with one hand on the arm of the sofa again, and hauled us both up in one quick movement, my arms wrapping around his neck as if they somehow knew the drill already. He held me up like I weighed nothing, catching his balance as he stood with ease.

“My burrito?—”

“Will still be there when I’m done with you,” he laughed. His other arm came up under the shelf of my bare ass, urging me to wrap my dangling legs around his waist.

My body moved for him before I could even think about it, the heat of my center pressing directly against his lower stomach, and I shivered at the contact, at the hint of friction, at the way I knew for damn sure that I wasn’t exactlydryafter the way he’d been touching me.

He started walking toward the only other door off the living room, his breath hot on my ear. His shoulder dipped a little as he adjusted me higher, his fingers tightening around the curve of my waist. “You always this wet when I’m around?” he teased, his teeth nipping at my earlobe as he spun, pushing the ajar door open with his back.

My face burned, and I buried it in the crook of his neck, inhaling the scent of his cologne. He smelled of spices, deep and earthy, with a hint of sweetness I couldn’t quite place — the scent alone had my head spinning. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You like it, though, sweetheart,” he said.

I let my fingers play with the strands of his hair as he stepped across the small space between the door and my bed. Self-consciousness gnawed at me for not making the bed, but it wasn’t strong enough to stop me or make me think twice. I wasn’t sure anything was at this point. Not with him in my space, not with him walking into my life like he belonged in it, like he wasn’t second-guessing a single second of this. Like this was the only logical next step.

He didn’t bother to untangle himself from my limbs. No, he was on me like a bloodhound, kneeling on the floor to bring himself closer to my height. His mouth met mine more urgently than ever, devouring me like his life depended on it, his hands slipping beneath the loose cotton of my shirt and dragging along my waist, my back, my ribs. He groaned as his fingers ghosted the lower swells of my breasts, finding them bereft of a bra.

“You look so goddamn cute in just a shirt that I’ve got half a mind to let you keep this on,” he mumbled against my lips, trailing his fingertips back down my sides so lightly it made me shiver. “But fuck, I want to see all of you so badly.Off.”

He pulled the fabric up in an instant, his hands pushing against my arms a little less than gently, forcing them to dislodge from his body so he could pull it over my head.

And then I was naked. Utterly and completely bare in front of him.

He pulled back just enough to let his half-lidded eyes wander, drinking me in as if I was anywhere near as impressive as he was.

“Fuck,” he breathed, the sound tight in his throat.

It was like everythingchangedwithin a second.

His breaths came a little quicker as his mouth found my skin again, trailing kisses along my collarbone, my upper chest, the higher swell of my breast. He moved quickly, insistently, one hand shifting beneath me and curling around the back of my thigh, the other cupping my breast like it had every right to be there. An electric shock rippled down my spine as his tongue and his thumb found both of my nipples at the exact same time.

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