Page 20 of Icing the Cougar
Trinity steps out, and we walk in silence. She stops in front of her door. I have a choice. Go with her or let her have this space. I make the wrong ones all the time.
"Trinity," I say. "Don’t."
I reach out and touch her arm, and she doesn’t pull away. It’s more than I thought I’d get tonight.
We go inside, and I follow. I watch as she finally kicks off her shoes and sits down on the couch.
Her hands twist in her lap. I touch her shoulder, then sit next to her.
"I saw you," she says. I hear a tremor in her voice. I thought she was strong, unbreakable.
"Trin," I say again, because I don’t know what else to say.
"I know you're..." she pauses, "you're aggressive. I mean, I know that." Her cheeks flush, and I almost grin. She’s serious though. More than serious. I can see that.
"What is it, then?" I want to reach out and hold her, but she might shatter in my hands.
"I thought I could handle it. I thought I could handle you."
"You can." I say it with more force than I mean to.
Her eyes meet mine, and there’s something new in them. It scares me. More than that, it makes me want to hold her. "Maybe I don’t want to," she says, quieter now. "Maybe I don’t know how."
I run my fingers through my hair, trying to piece this together. "Was it the game?" I ask. I don’t know how much she saw.
"Seeing you out there, like that," she says. "It was..." She stops and breathes in deep. "I wasn’t ready."
"Ready for what?" I ask.
"For thewayyou are." Her eyes shine like she’s about to cry. "I was scared," she admits, and it kills me.
"Trin, you don’t have to be," I say. She leans in, and I catch her, gentle like she might break. "Not of me."
"Then of what?" she whispers.
I hold her and kiss the top of her head. "Not of me," I reassure her.
Her face presses into my chest. I don’t know how to do this.
I feel her lips on my neck, slow and soft, like she’s exploring new territory. She looks up at me with those hazel eyes, and I pull her close.
"Let’s," she says.
It’s one word, but it fills me with more than the rest of the night combined.
Trinity stands and takes my hand. I’m afraid of what she’s about to do, but we walk down the hall to the bedroom.
Trinity doesn’t turn the lights on. She just kisses me, slow and deep.
The softness is my undoing. I push her hair back from her face and breathe her in.
My suit jacket slips off, and it feels like everything is right there, open and exposed.
Her breath is hot against my skin. She bites my lip, teasing me, daring me to be gentle. I am. I didn’t know I could be.
I lift her, soft as I can, and sit her down on the bed. She doesn’t look away. I wonder if she can tell how lost I am, how much I want this. Want her.
We move slowly, and I find places on her body I didn’t know were there. I find places in me I didn’t know I could get to. Her dress floats to the floor.
