Page 59 of Hard to Love
She pressed a smacking kiss to his stomach and rested her chin there to stare up at him. “You okay?”
No, he was only a half-second from blowing, and she hadn’t even unzipped him yet.
Pathetic.
“I…” Jesus, was that strained sound his voice? “Um…yeah.”
“You’ve been a very good boy.”
If she only knew how bad he really was, she’d jump off this trailer and walk away as fast as her sexy legs would carry her.
But instead, she slithered farther down his legs and rubbed her cheek against his zipper.
His eyes were squeezed so tightly closed it was surprising he wasn’t shedding blood tears. When Greer unbuttoned his jeans and slowly slid down his zipper, he didn’t dare open his eyes. As it was, he was holding his breath until his lungs felt as if they would bust.
“Mmm.” The hum of approval from her throat killed him a hundred different ways. She worked his pants down, over his hips and thighs, and slowly down his calves.
When moments passed and he didn’t feel her touch, Alex was forced to crack open his lids. “Greer?”
She glanced up at his face as if she’d forgotten he had a voice. “Why do you hide all this?”
“It’s a very long story.”
“I’m a very patient woman.”
Okay, that was complete bullshit. But she was tenacious. “You’re telling me you’d rather hear the stories about my tats than—” he reached down and wrapped a fist around his cock, “—do something with this?”
“I’m telling you I want both.”
So many emotionstumbled through Greer as she stared down at Alex’s half-virgin, half-Illustrated Manbody, she couldn’t possibly catalog them all. In the moonlight his skin was a warm copper and the ring in his pierced nipple flashed. His skin molded to his muscles, highlighting the indention at his collarbone and his hip. His chest was almost bare of hair, but he had a fine dusting on his legs and under his arms. By the rise and fall of his chest, he was either uncomfortable as all hell at being on display or he was so turned on that he couldn’t get himself under wraps.
And God knew, she wanted to trace every picture, every tiny line of his tattoos. The way he protected them meant they were important. Either because he held them close or because he detested them.
But just as his body was a work of art, so were his tattoos. That he’d let her expose him was huge.
Greer’s heart swelled to six times its normal size. No matter how much she wanted to shuck her clothes and rub her naked skin against his, she couldn’t let him make this just about sex. So she simply sat back on her haunches and remained silent.
“Before I learned to tool leather, I was a tattoo artist,” he finally said.
She waved her fingers near his shoulder. “Are you telling me that you…” She’d seen the ink on his back. That was impossible, unless he was freakily double-jointed.
“My brother Javier.”
“Oh.” Now, she ran a hand along his shoulder. “I’m so sorry he’s gone. He was obviously very talented.”
He shrugged the shoulder she was touching, but tension radiated from his muscles beneath her palm. “It was years ago now.”
So the topic of his brother wasn’t on the table. Fine. “If you were half as good as he was, you didn’t hurt for business. What made you move from tattoos to leather art?”
“My clientele sucked.” He twisted to his side and sat up in one fluid motion. “Look, all that stuff was in the past. And the past should stay there.”
The ball of concern in her gut would’ve eased if she believed for a microsecond that Alex’s past didn’t haunt him. “That’s impossible. The past always impacts who we are now.”
“Right now, I’m a man who wants to…make love…with a beautiful woman.”
He was right. It was unfair for her to ask him to strip down in every way possible their first time together. So she stood and toed off her prophecy boots, set them aside.
“If those boots are supposed to have so much power,” he said, “why don’t you keep them locked up somewhere safe? Keep them clean and shiny all the time?”
