Page 159 of On Merit Alone
“It’s expensive.”
He shrugged. “Good thing I'm rich.”
“It’s—”
Soft lips cut me off as he kissed me quiet.
“Wear the dress, Merit,” he insisted. “Please?”
I hummed, my body suddenly resigned to this feeling of overwhelming electricity with him. “Help me into it?”
His soft smile pulled into a wide grin, but he moved away, shaking his head as he went. “Sweet but dangerous, Jones. You’re trying to tempt me.”
I smiled too, my teeth finding my lip. “We don’t have to be there for a while. We could try to find me something pretty to wear underneath.”
“Jesus,” he groaned up to the ceiling. The look that replaced his old one was full of longing and lust, but his words were straightforward. “Nope. No. We have somewhere else to be, so let’s put a move on it, yeah?”
Twenty minutes later, I was making my way into the kitchen in my new outfit. Ira was leaned up against a stool and bent over at the waist, petting Cash. When he noticed me approaching, he looked up.
The smile that spread across his face was legendary.
“Holy hell.” He rose to his full height but didn’t come toward me. His eyes refused to stay still as they bounced over every surface of my person. I didn’t fidget under his scrutiny, but soaked it all in, blossoming under the praise of his gaze alone. When he held out his hand to beckon me closer, I took it immediately.
Raising our joined palms in the air, he said, “Turn for me.”
I giggled. His voice had taken on this husky, almost choked tone. I liked having that effect on him. As I turned my back to him, I flipped a gaze over my shoulder just in time to see him staring at my ass. When he noticed I caught him, he didn’t look away, just smiled roguishly and cursed again. “C’mere.”
Again. I didn’t protest, fitting myself in front of him comfortably. The heels brought me just under him, which I didn’t mind because it meant his lips were that much easier to reach—lips that he couldn’t seem to keep off of me today.
Every chance he got, he placed kisses on my jaw or at my neck or took my mouth like it was the first time he’d tasted me. His hands graduated from running along the plains of my back topalming the curves of my hips to all out gripping my ass as he held me close to him. I was getting dizzy from all the attention and heated by his teasing tastes.
It must have been affecting him too because, in addition to the heavy piece of anatomy that he had pressing into my belly, when he finally pulled away from me and came up for air, he let his lazy eyes trail my body shamelessly before asking, “So whatdidwe decide to put on underneath?”
A laugh bubbled out of my throat like soap overflowing from a cup. He was too much. But I was actually loving it. I’d never been showered with so much attention in my life. Not for just me, at least. Everyone always praised me for my skills as a basketball player, but not as a woman. Ira was rectifying that with every heated glance and wanton word.
“You rejected my offer to help,” I said. “So you aren’t privy to that information.”
He hummed in mock disappointment, then with all the confidence of a man who knew he’d get what he wanted, he said, “Damn, I hate having to wait. But I guess I’ll find out later.”
“Later?” I asked, eyebrow cocked. “What’s happening later?”
“Oh, I plan on getting you drunk and happy,” he said, hands still pulling me closer.
“Ira! We’re going towork,” I said with another laugh, this one more of a guffaw. He could not be serious. Which also reminded me… “And why are we going so early, anyway?”
Dark eyes landed on me in a steady stare.
“Come on now, Six,” he said, his voice lowering. “Do you really think I’m going to share you with a million other people looking like this before I get to have you?”
My lips parted. I felt an immediate reaction to the low timbre of his voice at the apex of my thighs. My good sense left the room as I asked for clarification. “Haveme?”
He smiled, a huff of a laugh falling from his lips. Then helowered those lips to mine as he spoke, “That mind of yours is always in the gutter. A date, baby. We’re going on a date.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed.”
“I’m not, I’m happy, but…”
