Page 41 of Rules in Love
“Oh.” He sucked his lips between his teeth to stop laughing. “Do you need me to take you home?”
“Thanks, but I will be okay. I just needed a break.”
“Me too. Victoria was a little too…enthusiastic. A little too close.”
“I thought you liked dancing close. You held me pretty close.”
He stepped in front of me and ran his fingers down my lasso. I think he liked it. “Well, that’s because it was you.” Another step closer, a lick of his lips, and a brutally sexy lingering look down at mine. “Let me get you some water.”
He turned to walk away, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him leaving, even if it was for the seconds it would take to get me a drink. My hand reached to my waist and grabbed my golden lasso. With my tongue poking out to aid my aim, with all my might and a whispered wish, I threw it and snagged him on the first go. His back was toward me, but even over the music, I heard him. Heard and felt the guttural, deep-chested moan. He turned to me, and the wanton sexuality of his expression had me desperate to get my hands on him. With his arms caught behind his back, I dragged him toward me.
“So, what are you going to do with me now? I’m powerless to stop you,” he sighed.
Inch by inch, hand over hand, I ignored his continued heckling and my anxiety’s valid attempts at sabotage, and wound him in, leaving just enough slack remaining to sling the lasso over my shoulder and lead him outside. Through trepidation more than intent, I remained silent until the whistles of the swirling night air welcomed us to the edge of the balcony. Exhausted and panting in a not remotely sexy way, I turned to face him, gripped his shoulders, and pushed him against the railing.What the hell do I do now?
My uncertain eyes flicked to Finn’s and betrayed my cluelessness. The cocky bastard held my gaze and smirked, no doubt loving every minute of my awkwardness. He raised a single finger beneath the rope that held his wrists to his sides and brushed it along my bare thigh, leaving goosebumps in his wake and an intensifying ache in my core. “You didn’t answer me, Red. You have me at your whim. What are you going to do?”
I poked out my chin, attempting and failing to ooze confidence. “I… Can’t you tell? I’m going to kiss you. That’s what.”
“Oh. Okay, then. Do it.” Squeezing his eyes shut, he leaned forward and puckered his lips. Trapped between laughing, grabbing, and swallowing him whole, or running, I did nothing. “I’m waiting.”
When I did nothing, he cracked one eye open, again laughed, and shoved the lasso away. That action heralded the end of Funny Finn. There was a new, edgy, sexy boy in town. He clenched my hip, really squeezed me hard, and by God, if I didn’t feel it right in the very fiber of my being. “Looks like it’s up to me.” He tightened his hold on my waist, then slid one hand up my spine to my neck. A tiny gasp escaped me with every inch his fingers traveled until they spanned out, gripping and pulling my hair as he turned us around in one quick move like we were on the dance floor again.
“Whoooo,” I squealed, my hair flying into my face as he whipped me through the air, my back making a heavy thud against the balustrade. “I can’t believe this is happening,” I panted, clawing at his Lycra-covered ass cheeks like a hungry, wild beast. “You’re so fucking hot.”
“You’re so fucking everything.” His voice was deep, dark, almost pornographic, then silent. He studied my face, watching me in a way no one had before. I would have thought a gaze so intense would force my eyes away, but they stayed, lost in the blue of his, watching them slowly close as he leaned down and pressed his parted mouth to mine.
This is it. Our first kiss.
Once, twice, three times, he chastely tasted me, each one coming with a tiny sigh and a sweet smile I felt against my lips and locked away in my heart. The tenderness seemed over, though, when he captured my bottom lip between his teeth, gently licking along its edge before tilting my head back and kissing me till I couldn’t breathe. He was so demanding, yet so needy. So gentle but rough. I was being worshipped, appreciated, devoured.
My knees buckled beneath me, and he felt it, holding me tighter against his strong body on a grunt, thrusting into me, effortlessly lifting me from my feet. I winced as my bum pressed against the glass, but the stinging chill was almost a relief from the heat raging between us. I moaned as he pulled away and began pressing kisses to the freckles on my cheeks, the very tip of my nose, and the corners of my mouth.
“God, to finally get you beneath me, Red,” he growled into my ear. “I’ve wanted this for so long.”
I sighed, licking the salty sweat from his neck, then burying my face into its hollow. “Me too.” He pressed a kiss to my hair, inhaled deeply, then raised my face with a finger beneath my chin.
Our gaze remained locked as he cupped my face, whispering, “So beautiful,” against my lips as his other hand caressed the curves of my hips. He moved his hand farther south, pulling my leg up to his hip. “I want you, Red. Do you want me?” All breathing ceased as he slipped his hand up my inner thigh, edging closer and closer until he was stroking the damp fabric between my legs. “So wet. Just like I knew you’d be.” My head fell against his shoulder, my hands clinging to his biceps as he massaged me lightly, teasing, drawing helpless sobs until…a throat cleared behind us.
“Get a room!”
I peered around Finn’s shoulder just enough to see a waiter shaking his head as he cleared the tables, then disappeared inside.
“I’m going to find and kill that guy,” Finn huffed in frustration, returning his fingers to the relative safety of my hip and placing another lingering kiss on the top of my head. “I’m sorry I lost control, Red. I completely forgot where we were.”
“Don’t be sorry, Finn. I liked it. Will you take me home now?”
His eyes rolled back in his head, and he groaned, almost whined as he ducked back down and scraped his teeth along the tender flesh of my neck. “I want to. But I warn you, if I get you in your room”—he kissed me once—“alone”—then again—“and naked”—then once more—“I won’t want to leave your bed.”
“Who says we’ll make it to bed?”
“Ohh, you are a cheeky one, aren’t you?” he huffed out a laugh, grabbing a handful of my ass to emphasize his point.
I nodded, kissed him softly and deeply, then took a bite of his perfectly defined shoulder. Rejoicing in the pained cry it elicited, I slid from beneath him, shook my head to clear it from its daze, and elegantly stumbled toward the noise of the party.
“I’ll be right back. I’m going to get my things.”
Finn
