Because safe is boring. Safe didn’t get my heart beating faster, my sex clenching. But I wasn’t about to say all that.
He stepped back, giving me a few inches of breathing room, so the last thing I expected was for him to snatch the hem of my nightshirt and peel it up to my waist.
Like a deer caught in headlights, I froze, unable to move, let alone speak. “What are you doing?” I finally managed, releasing a deep breath.
He tipped his head to the side, his eyes laser-focused on my silk panties. “I’m seeing how wet you are.”
Well, I’m officially a hell of a lot wetter now. “And how can you tell only by looking?” But then I remembered my panty set had been nude, and yeah, I was soaked, which meant he could see my arousal.
“It won’t take much to get off,” he said matter-of-factly while letting go of my nightshirt. “I’ll be on the couch while you finger fuck yourself into orgasm, and then you will get a good night’s sleep after. Don’t argue with me,” he roughly added, eyes holding mine like a challenge.
“I prefer my vibrator, not my fingers, thank you very much,” I bit back, angry at both his order and the fact he was so damn frustrating that he could walk away from me like this. The man had restraint like I’d never seen in my life.
“No.” A dark expression crossed his face. “It’ll be your hand tonight.” He palmed my cheek as if he wished he was touching me somewhere else instead. Or maybe that was me?
“You can’t tell me what to do,” I reminded him, but that cocky smile cutting across his lips was evidence he knew I actually craved it.
I was twenty-nine and a mother, and most days I felt unsure what in the hell I was doing. And part of me missed having someone guide me. Make the decisions. Take some of the control so I could breathe for five minutes and stop worrying so much about . . . everything.
“You’ll do what I say, I know you will.” That unwavering confidence only turned me on more.
I had no clue why he wanted me to touch myself. What difference did it make? Well, unless he wanted me to imagine it was his hand on me, and the vibrating metal might interfere with that fantasy. “Pretty bossy for my neighbor.”
“I’m damn well more than that,” he offered in a low, steady voice.
“What you are is confusing.” I clenched my hands at my sides, searching for the strength not to “offer” myself to him, knowing he’d probably reject me, but I was failing miserably. “The only hand I want on my body tonight is yours. So, vibrator it is.”
His jaw clenched as he quietly studied me, a nearly vicious look greeting me.
“Just so you know, your restraint speaks volumes,” I admitted, shoulders falling. I turned toward the bed and startled when his hands circled my waist and he pinned me against his hard frame.
With his mouth at my ear, he murmured, “If you think for one second it’s not taking every ounce of my control not to fuck you right now, you’re insane.”
Oh God. My ass went back, pressing harder against him like an invitation to do whatever he wanted with me as long as he relieved me of the pain between my legs.
His teeth grazed my earlobe as he kept me locked in place.
“So do it,” I challenged, calling his bluff.
The growl at my ear and his warm hand lifting my shirt wasn’t what I’d expected, but it was what I needed. The second he slid a finger over my panties along the seam of my sex, I moaned, and my knees buckled. I winded my arm back to hook his neck, trying to draw him even closer.
He feathered his fingers over my panties one more time before he finally shoved his hand down them and touched my smooth sex.
He squeezed my breast with his other hand while roughly pushing two fingers inside me. “Is that what you want? You want to see me lose control?” He was angry, but he wasn’t stopping. He wasn’t backing down. “God, you’re so wet.” His hand went still when he asked, “You wanted to make me jealous tonight, didn’t you?” His breath fanned over the sensitive part of my ear, causing chills to coat my body.
“No,” I whispered as he moved his thumb over the sensitive part of my sex.
“Don’t lie to me.”
I kept hold of the back of his neck so my legs wouldn’t collapse as I shared, “Yes.” I peeled my eyes open to look down at his inked arm holding me against him, and he resumed touching me.
“Come for me. Now, Maria,” he demanded. “I can’t break another rule. I can’t fuck you while you’ve been drinking, and I’m two seconds away from bending you over and showing you how much restraint I clearly don’t have when it comes to you.”