Page 54 of The Oscar Escape
The playful spark returned to her eyes. It made him want to devour her mouth and take her right there in the lighthouse’s lantern room. But he wasn’t about to rush. The first time he’d kissed her, he’d been all over the place in his head. That kiss had been deliriously intense and wildly rushed. With four years of longing under his belt, he’d had plenty of time to imagine what he’d do differently if he got a second chance.
He stroked the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip. “They say you always remember your first kiss. But I guarantee you’ll never forget our second.”
A sexy smirk bloomed on her lips. “You think you’re that good?”
“No.” He grazed his lips across her cheek. “I thinkweare that good.”
She twisted her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck and hummed her delight at his answer.
The satisfied sound rippled through him, intensifying his desire, but he wasn’t about to crush his mouth to hers—not yet. He trailed his tongue across the seam of her lips. “I’m treating this kiss like I’ve been hired to document your mouth,” he explained before kissing her left temple, then the right.
“Is that documentarian talk for teasing me until I beg you to kiss me into oblivion?” she purred.
“Call it what you want. But I never rush a job,” he rasped and tilted her chin. He pressed a whisper-soft kiss below her bottom lip. “It’s my duty to study every aspect of my subject.”
She rocked against him in a seductively slow sway, back and forth, rubbing his cock through their clothing. “Is there any way to speed up the process?”
He inhaled a sharp breath. What she was doing with her hips was sure as hell one way to accelerate the process. If she kept moving like that, he might not be able to control himself.
“Lucky for you,” he said, his voice taking on a carnal edge, “I’ve spent nearly my entire life observing your lips. I’ve got prior knowledge to build on.”
“I’ll play along. What can you tell me about my lips?”
He studied her mouth. “Your lips are plump and perfectly symmetrical—a photographer’s dream. But that’s not what calls to me when I look at them.”
She raised an eyebrow. “My lips call to you?”
“They do.”
“What are they saying now?” she asked, mischief glimmering in her eyes.
“They’re telling me they want to be teased, licked, and kissed.”
“Is that so?”
He observed her as she tried—and failed—to suppress a coy grin.
He turned his head like he was allowing her lips to whisper in his ear. “One more thing. And this is important.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“They don’t want to be kissed by anyone else but me.”
Building friction between them, she continued her provocative sway. Her gaze darkened. “How positively possessive. Are you sure that’s what they want?”
With his right hand, he gripped her ass and held her close. With his left, he brushed his thumb across her lips again, claiming what was his. “Oh yeah, your lips know they’re mine.”
She responded by slightly opening her mouth. She wrapped her glorious lips around his thumb and sucked it hard. The sensation fluttered through him. He barely had time to take a breath when he felt pressure, and that flutter became a sharp, titillating jolt. She didn’t bite him. She’d grazed her teeth on his skin, combining pleasure and pain as she caressed him with her tongue.
“Christ, Aria,” he rasped, drawing his fingertip down her jawline as he drank in the sexiest woman on the planet.
She parted her lips, released his appendage, then dabbed at the corners of her mouth with her index finger. “If you’re hellbent on studying my lips, you might want to research what two decades of vocal work with mandatory lip roll exercises can do for a mouth.” Her eyes twinkled. “Or,” she tempted, “you could take a break from studying andfuckingkiss me.”
This ferociously feisty woman! Her spirit, her boldness, and her glinting eyes owned his heart. He gazed at her—at this remarkable woman who was and would always be the love of his life.
“I know that face,” she whispered tenderly, losing the cunning edge as tears welled in her eyes.
He didn’t need a mirror. He could feel his love for her flowing like a melody. “I’m done hiding how I feel about you.”
