Nervous was her default state, but weirdly, hearing him admit to feeling the same way made her own nerves fly out the window.
“Maybe I should do something to shut you up.”
She’d never been good at dirty talk, and her every instinct wanted to immediately apologize for saying something so rude, but Asa didn’t seem to mind.
“Please shut me up,” he said. “Please.”
She leaned down to slant her mouth against his, her tongue darting out to lick the place where he’d just bitten down on his lip. He groaned against her mouth, pulling at her shirt until he’d drawn it over her head, almost taking her glasses with it. He took those off next, setting them on the table before pulling her down for another kiss, his hand wrapped in her hair.
She had his shirt off in an instant, and this time there was no fumbling as he reached around to unclasp her bra, letting it slide down her arms to the floor. He’d seen her before, of course, when she’d unbuttoned her shirt in his room, but this felt different. Bright morning sunlight broke through the gauzy curtains over her living room window, and she was half-naked on his lap at her kitchen table. She felt exposed, suddenly shy.
“They’re small,” she blurted. “And I’ve always had this freckle right”—she pointed to the tan smudge near her left nipple—“here.”
Asa pressed his thumb into the freckle. “You’re perfect. And that is officially my favorite freckle. I’m obsessed with it. It’s unseemly how much.” He kissed her there, his lips dragging over her nipple in a way that made a shiver run up her spine. “And now you’ve got me running at the mouth again, when I can think of much more interesting things I want to do with it.”
He ran his tongue lightly over her collarbone, a tease, before finding the hollow at the base of her throat.
“I like the way you talk,” she said, her own voice coming out a little breathless. She realized she couldn’t put into words just how much she liked it, or how he made her feel. It wasn’t just the pulse she got between her legs when he touched her, when he told her how much he wanted to. It was the way it brought her back to herself, reminded her what she was doing and who she was doing it with. The fact that it was Asa, looking at her like that, causing this swirl of emotion and desire, made it that much better. And the fact that she was her . . . well, it made her feel like she was enough.
Her hand went to the hard ridge of his erection through his boxers, tentative at first, then a firm stroke with the heel of her hand along the length of him after she heard his intake of breath. He captured her mouth with his, taking her lower lip gently between his teeth before kissing her more deeply. “I want to see you,” he murmured against her mouth. “All of you.”
“Here?” The word came out as a high-pitched squeak.
He lifted her until she was sitting on the table, careful to move the notebook and her glasses over to one of the chairs. “What if I said please,” he said, his hand wrapped in the waistband of her jeans, the backs of his knuckles brushing against her skin while his thumb ran down the length of the zipper.
She lay back on her elbows, raising her hips in tacit acceptance as he flicked the top button open and pulled her jeans down her legs, laughing a little when they got snagged around one ankle.
“Lauren,” he said. “Jeans? You don’t own a nice pair of sweats for around the house?”
“I had a houseguest,” she said primly. “I was dressing up.”
Asa pressed a kiss to her calf, sliding his hands up her thighs and giving a squeeze. “What’s the situation on the cat pants,” he said. “If they’re stretch I’ll buy you three pair.”
“Stop,” she said, laughing, swatting at his shoulder, but then he was sliding her underwear down her legs and her breath caught.
She wouldn’t have called herself inexperienced, per se. She’d had sex before. But something about this, what she and Asa were doing, felt wholly new. Maybe it was the daytime effect, the fact that she could see him clearly and could feel his gaze on her, drinking in every inch of her body in the same unfiltered light. Maybe it was the sudden urge she had to do all kinds of dirty things with him, things she normally would’ve been too embarrassed to think about even in the heat of passion. Maybe it was that the passion had never really felt that hot . . . until now.
Still, she was surprised when he hooked her knees over his shoulders, his hands under her as he dragged her down closer to his mouth. She almost protested, but then any thought flew out of her head as he kissed his way along her inner thigh, ending with his mouth pressed against her hot center.