“The sheer possibilities of my numbers.”
Now I was giving the chuckle. “I think I need another beer.”
His hot blue eyes just stayed on me for a minute, pinning me in place as we both let our minds drift to a sexual place. But then he cleared his throat and said, “I’m going to take off and let you get to your bed.”
“Thanks.” Disappointment slithered through me. I hadn’t consciously known I’d wanted this sexual tension to go somewhere, but I was full-on bummed that he was leaving. I smiled and said, “I guess you really didn’t get the bed so we could bang one out.”
His jaw clenched before he turned and walked over to the front door, seeming in a sudden rush to get out of there. I followed him, and just as he put his hand on the doorknob he said, looking back at me, “You and me, Liv? We wouldn’t need a bed.”
My eyes were on his, the rest of everything falling away. “No, we wouldn’t.”
His hand gripped the door handle. “But that would be a terrible idea.”
“The worst.”
The air was so electrified that it felt like we were panting as we watched each other. He said, “I should go.”
“You should.”
He turned, pulled open the door and I heard myself say, “Unless.”
Colin slammed it shut and turned around. “Unless . . . ?”
I shrugged and stepped forward, suddenly fully committed to this terrible decision. “Unless we were to lay down some ground rules.”
“Like?” He took his own step forward and his lips were just above mine, his eyes so heavy lidded and intense that it was almost intimidating.
“Like, um,” I started as his teeth nipped at my bottom lip, making my breathing choppy, “this means nothing, no strings, no one ever knows it happened, and no weirdness.”
“Fuck, I love your rules.”
“And,” I said as we kind of started kissing around our conversation, moving back into the apartment, “no romance.”
“Genius.” He put his big hands under my ass and picked me up, and I happily wrapped my legs around his waist. “God, I’ve been dying to eat off your red lipstick since I got here.”
“If you’re wearing those sex-nerd glasses, you’re welcome to eat whatever you want.”
His eyes crinkled at the edges. “Pervert.”
“Maybe.” He started full-on kissing me then, with all the power of his tongue and teeth and lips and breath. My hands went up to his thick hair, and all ten fingers sunk in.
“By the way,” he breathed, lifting his mouth off mine, “your polyester baseball pants are like the biggest fucking aphrodisiac.”
“Shut up, you ass, I didn’t expect—”
“I’m so serious, Livvie, you don’t even know.”
His words made me glow on the inside, and I licked at the corner of his mouth as I reached for the bottom of his shirt.
“I thought you hated my abs.”
“Shut up and help me.”
He carried me over to the island and set me down, and I was almost breathless in anticipation as he grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. Yes, I’d seen his chest before, but I’d never been able to ogle out in the open. I stared up at him through sleepy eyes and said, “Oh, my God.”
He was defined to the nth degree, his body all tanned skin and hidden strength.
“Gross, right?”
I nodded and whispered reverently, “So, so disgusting.”
I ran my hands up his pecs, and then things ignited. It was like we both got greedy for everything we weren’t doing yet. I pulled off my shirt and he was toeing off his shoes, and then his hands were unsnapping and mine were unbuckling.
As opposed to some drawn-out exploration of each other’s bodies, this was a race to the main event. We needed to feel and had no time to spare for half measures like foreplay. Hands were everywhere. Mouths were fused and unwilling to part.
I whispered into his mouth, intending to say, Are we sure about this? but instead saying, “Condom,” to which he muttered something in the affirmative that required his hands to go rummaging while I continued sexually dominating his mouth with my own.
Could a person die from this? I felt like I was going to die as my heart raced and my breath hitched and my every molecule was buzzing with electricity and writhing and attuned only to Colin Beck. He grunted when I used my heels to pull him closer to me, and he cursed into my ear when I bit his shoulder.
And then—finally—he was there, hot and tense and so unbelievably right inside me that I unintentionally dug my nails into his shoulder blades. I’d always thought the fingernail thing was cliché, but in that moment, I was physically incapable of retracting my claws.