“Really,” his voice is a growl as the hunger reaches his eyes again. I can see that he’s horny, and for a split second I worry that I’ve done something wrong. But the butterflies in my stomach are at it again as I realize this man is insatiable and I’m the meal he plans to devour. “I want to take you apart a thousand times before breakfast, and another thousand before lunch. I want to study every noise you make and every curve of your body until you’re all that I know.”
“What about you? Don’t I get to do anything to you?” He doesn’t answer and I worry again that I’ve crossed a line I didn’t even know existed. Hundreds of possibilities start flooding my brain and he must see what’s happening. “I mean, most guys, that’s kind of all they want. Some women, too. And this is the second time you’ve turned me down when I tried to get into your pants.”
“That’s because I’m not done with you yet, Angel.”
“James, if there’s something wrong?—”
“I just…fuck this is going to sound so damn stupid. I don’t want to…I don’t want to fuck this up. I don’t want you to think I’m only here to get laid.” His thumb runs over my bottom lip. “I want to make you happy. Show you how badly I want you…and this.”
“This?” I slide my hand between his legs and he groans, his head dropping to my shoulder when my fingers dance over his cock. Christ, he’s big. “What isthis?”
“What do you want it to be?” He mumbles against my skin.
Unsure how what to say, I continue to tease him while my free hand plays in his hair. “Well, I guess?—”
“You don’t need to answer that right now,” he says, raising his head up to let me see the worry in his eyes. “And you don’t even have to put a label on anything. You can always tell me to stop or back off, and I will.”
“That’s the thing—I don’t want you to back off or stop. I want you to let me have my turn.” I squeeze gently. His fingers dig into my hips in response while another moan escapes him. “When do I get to take you apart?”
“Soon. I promise. Angel, I want to take my time with you, and when you can’t take it anymore, I want to do it all over again. I want to worship you like you deserve to be worshipped.”
I cup his face and bring it to mine. “Okay, how about we have breakfast on the beach? We can get the photos done, and after that, we’ll take each other apart all damn night. Since you don’t want to rush things anyhow.”
Hunger morphs to worry, and back to familiar sadness. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No, James,” I assure him. “I can absolutely respect taking our time to figure this out. I’m just a little surprised to know that you are a pleasure dom. I thought Dani would have picked that out of you and told me already.”
“A what? Is that bad?” His shoulders drop, and his brows knit together in confusion and worry. “Are you trying to find a nice way to tell me that wasn’t good for you?”
“It basically means you get off on getting your partner off,” I explain, biting my bottom lip. “As far as what we did? It wasreallygood. Unexpected, but impressive.”
“Pleasure dom, huh? And impressive?” he kisses me deeply, leaving me breathless once again. “I’ll take that, for now, so long as I get to keep kissing you.”
My fingers play in the hair at the back of his neck and he moans deep against my ear before he buries his head against my neck. I’ve found a spot that makes him purr like a damn cat. I’ll remember that for later.
It’s a few hours of him distracting me from getting ready every chance he has, and me teasing him as far as he’ll let me go. I finally get us out of the apartment and we leave for Venice Beach. We talk about music and work, keeping the topics light-hearted and fun. He holds my hand the whole way there, bringing it up to his lips at each red light and kissing my knuckles.
I blush every time.
For wanting to take it slow, I have a sneaky suspicion that he’d drive me to Vegas right now if he could. I don’t know how to handle this kind of attention, because this isn’t how my relationships go. Dani called the cops on one of my exes. My mom or stepdad have scared a few away. Mostly, though, they’ve been a trail of short-term hookups. That’s not even counting the jerks my mom tries to set me up with.
I’m so used to pushing people away that my brain is struggling with the idea of having something more. I’m not sure how to handle a legitimate relationship, but James seems more than willing to give me the time I need to figure it out. It’s scaring the shit out of me.
He parks the Jeep closer to the beach than I realized you could, and I’m surprised by the number of open spaces around, but it’s still early for LA. There’s a restaurant nearby with a crazy aesthetic and a cow’s ass sticking out of the front, it looks like the perfect place to nurse a hangover, which neither of us have. We order and find a table in a corner. We share our food and his hand doesn’t leave my thigh the entire time we’re there.
While talking about the photos from yesterday, I reach over and snag a piece of bacon off his plate. He laughs as I pop it in my mouth and I stare at him. I glance down and realize both plates are empty and I’ve been picking his clean of crumbs.
“Shit, I’m sorry!” I’m mortified, but he’s smiling at me. “You must think I’m?—”
“Beautiful?”
“That wasn’t the word I would use.”
“I would, and did. If you’re still hungry, I can get you something else. What do you want?”
“Hell no, that was…I shouldn’t have done that.” I can hear my mother’s voice in the back of my head and I wish she’d go away.
He doesn’t argue, simply leans over and kisses me softly between every few words. “On the way back to your place…we’re going to a grocery store…and I’m buying one of everything you like.” He squeezes my knee. “You’re going to need it, because I can’t stop thinking about how good you taste, and how much I want to devour you all night long. I’ll mark every inch of you as mine. Every. Single. Inch.”
