Page 9 of Masked
“I could make an exception in this case.” Getting more comfortable, I kick one leg over the other. “Have it be a good time and a long time.”
“Gosh, you really do have all the answers, don’t you?” She drops the bottle cap and places her hand on my ankle.
“Not all of them,” I say. “Still can’t figure out what you’re supposed to be dressed as.”
Taylor laughs at my sudden left turn from the mountain of tension.
It’s a push and pull sort of dance. Give a lot, but bring it back down here and there. I’m not gonna win her over if all I do is insist this ends in my king size bed. As much as I want it, showing her there’s more to my wants than sex, will keep her hooked for longer.
Hell, if I’m lucky, forever.
“So, you’re saying it doesn’t land?” She looks down at the outfit. Tits squeezed so tightly out the top, she might as well take it off. Not much left to the imagination. And I’ve got a feeling that it’s by design, since when I arrived tonight they were barely visible. “I’m a baby doll. Y’know? A baby’s doll in the literal sense but Baby Doll if you’re looking at it in the naughtier way.”
She has to be blushing with the way her pitch and tempo shifts. What I wouldn’t give to see it.
“Baby Doll. I get it now.” Raising a hand up to her chest, I can see her shivering in anticipation. Like she wants me to move the extra inch to grab hold of her and give in to my base desires. Not yet,Baby Doll. Instead, I wave my hand over her cleavage and speak. “I’m guessing this fits in with the naughtier way, then? To make sure all eyes are on you?”
“Maybe.” Now I know she’s blushing from her squeaking alone. “But what if I said there’s only one pair I’m hoping to hold?”
“Then, I’d repeat what I said earlier.” I take a quick swig from my bottle to build some dramatic tension. “You’re in luck, Baby Doll. Because they’re locked on you, and they might never look away again. How could I? Tight ass, sexy body, the creepy pale porcelain that lights up your eyes. I’m not convinced I didn’t die out there, and we’re not in heaven right now.”
“I can tell you for a fact that we aren’t . . .” She cuts herself off, taking a play from my book. Drawing out the moment as long as she can. Balancing it on a knife’s razor-sharp edge until I want to beg for the rest. “Not yet.”
Two words is all it takes for my world to come crushing down around me.
4
TAYLOR
We finish two rounds of drinks, dancing to the same beat of edging into flirtation and withdrawing to normalcy. The Cowboy’s playing it cool, taking his time. Not from nerves, that much became clear when he spoke about my body.
No, his approach comes from wanting to make getting to know each other more than small talk. He’s turning the mundane into a spectacle. Slipping and sliding in different directions, but one of us always manages to get back on track. To the evenings end. Where he, and I, will join in divine ecstasy.
No point in denying it, not to myself, or him. Those sails have set and float further into the horizon.
“Can I ask you something, Cowboy?”
His head tilts down and bright eyes meet mine, pleased with how I address him. “You just did. Might as well do it again.”
Smirking at his cocky response, I slip my hand onto his thigh. Partly to gauge his response to things moving a little further,mostly because I can’t seem to keep my hands off of him. I started feeling this way the second he came into view in the alleyway. Felt my bodies primal urges barking and howling out for him. My fingers reaching out delicately and latching on tight.
Not sure what it is about him, but there’s a connection that I can’t explain in words. Like we’re kindred spirits, bound by some unknown, cosmic force, fated to be right here, right now.
Silly as it might sound, I’m almost certain he feels the same. I can see it in his eyes. How his steely gaze can’t manage to break away from me for longer than a few seconds. Stealing naughty glances at my body when he thinks I’m not looking. Or better still, he knows I am and doesn’t care.
He wants me to notice his intrigue, his affection, his lust.
Whatever the case, it’s working.
Too freaking well.
“I get that you came up to help me, and I appreciate it tremendously,” I start. The Cowboy’s eyes narrow and harden as I speak, as if he doesn’t like where I’m steering the conversation. “But weren’t you afraid of what might happen to you out there?” I finish quickly, so he doesn’t get the wrong impression.
This isn’t an attempt to get away from him, but one to understand him better instead.
I’ve already gotten under his skin, now I want to get inside his mind.
“I wasn’t,” he says simply. “I’m no stranger to taking a hit. It’s gonna take a lot more than some wannabe tough guy to scare me.”
