Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 61851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
“It’s okay,” she said, not finished toying with him verbally. “No need to be embarrassed.” She spoke in a soothing tone. “Noah, my previous boyfriend, had an issue with premature ejaculation—”
He nearly slammed on the brakes when a streetlight turned red. They came to a jarring stop and he barked out, “I don’t have an issue with stamina.”
She deliberately widened her eyes at his outburst. “Oh, you don’t have to get upset about it. I just thought . . .”
“How about you just stop thinking for a while,” he suggested. “And talking.”
“You don’t have to be so grumpy about it,” she huffed, then turned her head toward the passenger window to hide her grin.
She gave him a short reprieve for the rest of the drive to her place but made sure to sway and stumble like someone still tipsy so he’d help her to the front door, then up the stairs to her bedroom. He switched on the nightstand lamp, and once she sat down on her bed, he started making a hasty retreat out of there.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
He stopped, turned, and put his hands on his lean hips. “To my own room.”
“Wait,” she said breathlessly and flopped back onto her mattress, her fingers fumbling with the button on her pants. “I need you to help me pull these leather pants off. I don’t think I can do it myself.” She wasn’t lying. The formfitting material was a bitch to take off, but she definitely had other motives tonight.
He closed his eyes for a moment, and she realized that this was it. This playful façade was about to turn very real, and now that the moment had arrived, she couldn’t deny she was nervous. She’d never seduced a man before, and while she had no doubts that Derek wanted her, there was a tiny bit of old insecurity swirling around in her stomach because he was Derek. The only man that truly mattered.
He exhaled a deep breath then returned to the bed. She lifted one foot and treated him to an impish smile. “Can you take off my shoes, please?”
He paused, then unbuckled the strappy heels and let each one fall to the floor while she unzipped her pants, then began to awkwardly shimmy the formfitting fabric over her hips.
“Here, let me do it,” he said, his voice sounding as though he’d just swallowed gravel.
He grabbed the waistband, his warm fingers grazing her skin as he quickly and efficiently peeled the material down her legs and off her feet, then dropped the pants to the floor, leaving her in her camisole and black lace panties.
Derek stood at the edge of the bed, staring at what he’d revealed, and everything went still and quiet. A heated, lust-filled look crossed his features and darkened his gaze. His chest rose and fell rapidly as his breathing escalated, and the outline of his cock pressed insistently against the front of his pants.
He was undeniably hungry for her yet she could see him waging an internal battle, and she spoke up before he tried to leave again.
“Derek,” she breathed, the one word a desperate plea.
He gave his head a shake, as if yanking himself out of a trance. “I need to go,” he said, and she heard the agonized indecision in his tone.
Now that she was no longer pretending to be intoxicated, she felt much too vulnerable in that moment—half-naked in front of him—but she pushed through her sudden nerves anyway. “Don’t go. Stay. Please.”
That same agony reached his eyes. “But you’re drunk—”
“I’m not,” she blurted out, needing him to know she was completely sober. “Not even a little bit. I had two drinks early on and the rest were nonalcoholic. I swear.”
His head cocked to the side as realization dawned. “Wait, so all this was . . . an act?”
She bit her bottom lip and nodded.
He didn’t seem angry or upset, thank God. In typical Derek fashion, at least with her, he appeared surprisingly amused that she’d gotten the better of him, and his lips quirked up.
She gave a little shrug from where she lay on the bed. “You were being so uptight, and I was just having some fun with you.”
The tension visibly left his body, his shoulders dropping, his expression changing to one of pure desire. “Do you realize what you put me through tonight?”
“Me?” she said, feigning innocence.
“Yes, you,” he replied and circled his fingers around one of her bare ankles, his thumb drawing slow, sweeping circles across her shin. “And you did it all deliberately.”
“I did,” she admitted, feeling herself melt with every caress of his thumb. She swallowed hard, then added, “And now . . . I want you.”
She’d just taken a huge risk putting her desires out in the open, but what Derek did next was not at all what she’d expected.