Page 27 of Bad At Love

He rubbed his finger over his eyebrow, every muscle in him bunching with anticipation. “You have, huh?”

Lower lip caught between her teeth, she nodded.

A slice of sanity returned. “I have two conditions.”

Her pout was instant and adorable. “I don’t like conditions.”

He pulled back slowly, her defiance fueling his determination. Keeping his hands off her shoulders felt near impossible, but he persisted. “Then I’m afraid this will never happen.”

Her nostrils flared. “What conditions?”

“What happens in Cancun stays in Cancun. We don’t have to continue anything when we get back home.”

Thick shapely brows tied into an endearing frown. “That sounds like a get-out-of-jail card.”

He fought the urge to kiss the suspicion out of that luscious mouth. “Yes, for you.”

“Or you’re already regretting this and it’s for you,” she said, that frown sliding back into place. Something painful crept into her eyes and her spine went straight. “That day, I shut you down before you could say more. I don’t even know what you want from this.”

An awkward pause sprang to life and DP realized she wanted him to elaborate. Vulnerability shone in the slack set of her mouth. If he knew one thing about Chaaru, it was that loving someone had scarred her badly once.

And to lay their precious friendship on the line in pursuit of something she considered herself a failure at...that told him how much she did want this.

Tenderness and desire twinned through him. But right then, surrounded by strangers, there was no way he could spring nearly twenty years of feelings on her. Neither did he dare believe that she would want this when they returned to real life.

“Can you put thoughts of future aside and give me this week?” he said, reaching for her hand.

A rough exhale left her lips. “Okay. What’s your second condition?” A little of her usual sparkle returned to her eyes. She dragged the tip of her pink nail down his neck. “And why didn’t I know that you drive such a hard bargain?”

Pleasure fisted his gut tight as she pressed her thumb against his Adam’s apple. “This week, you’ll let me do whatever I want with you. To you.”

A little of huff of air escaped her before she said, “Jesus, DP.”

“Yes, or no?”

Pink streaked her cheeks. “Where’s all this coming from?”

He tapped his temple. “I have years’ worth of fantasies to live out in one week.”

Her lush mouth fell into an O.

Leaning forward, he kissed the corner of her mouth and felt her stiffen against him. Slowly, she let him take her weight. Softness and strength, she was all his dreams spun into reality. Somehow, he stopped himself from devouring her there and then and nuzzled her jaw instead.

There was sex and then there was full out kissing. He’d always avoided indulging in the latter for it felt more intimate than fucking. An expression of love and yearning instead of just lust. If he kissed Chaaru like he wanted to, he wasn’t sure he could stay whole. His passion and longing would pour out of him, rendering him hollow. He might as well give up his soul into her keeping.

While he would make her every fantasy come true this week, not kissing her was the only self-preservation left to him.

He wiped the lip gloss he’d smudged with his thumb. “You trust me, don’t you?”

“I do,” she said, the hoarseness of her words a stroke against his thickening cock.

“Wonderful,” he said, kneading her hips with a firm, hungry touch. “I’m going to ravish you and ruin you so thoroughly that you can’t think straight for days after.”

12

Dusk fell fast as DP and Chaaru, with three other passengers, walked towards a gleaming black SUV.

She was still reeling from DP’s filthy promise, her belly full of horny butterflies. Who knew the man hid such a filthy mind under those flannel shirts and sweater vests?

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