Sweet Rivalry (1001 Dark Nights)(25)

“No. I didn’t mean––I––”

“Relax,” I chuckle with my lips to her flesh, still swollen from last night. She tenses and then her sigh becomes a moan. Her legs fall open wider and right into my plan of attack.

I lick again. In her. Around her. Up and down.

“We have the bid…ohhhhhh.”

I run my beard up and down her seam each time before dipping my tongue into her again.

“It’s due in a few hours…oh God, yes.”

I start the process again.

“But…”

Her taste changes. Becomes muskier. Tells me she’s falling just into that comatose realm where pleasure swamps reality. Her fingers grip the sheets beside her hips. Her breathing becomes labored.

And then I stop: my hands, my tongue, my beard.

“Don’t stop!” Her head snaps up as I look at her from my perch between her thighs.

Now I’ve got her attention.

I kiss her ever so gently on her clit before sliding my beard over it as I watch her eyes widen and darken with desire. Her hair is a mess. Her lips are unpainted. She has creases from her pillow on her cheek. I’m between her thighs and her taste is on my tongue.

She’s never looked more beautiful.

“Stop talking, Harper. Stop thinking. Last night I let you take the lead. I know how much you need to feel in control and so I let you set the pace. Now it’s my turn. Now it’s my mouth on your *. My beard on your thighs. Work does not enter our bedroom. Figures do not matter. The only ass that’s going to happen to get beat in here is my hand smacking your beautiful one while I ride you from behind.” I dip down, take another lick of her addictive taste before I lift my face back up, no doubt with her juices on my beard. “This is you. This is me. And nothing else. So lie back. Relax. And let me enjoy the taste of your *. I dare you not to come.”

And with that––with her eyes wide and lips in the perfect shape of an O, I dive back in, challenge issued, and begin to work my magic while I watch her eyes slowly roll back into her head.





Chapter Fourteen



Harper




“Where’s your dartboard?”

His voice pulls on me to look but I’m so sexily satisfied that it’s hard for me to think of anything else than that tingling burn on my inner thighs, my abdomen, and my neck that is a subtle reminder of where Ryder’s been, what he’s done, and that he intends on coming back for more so I don’t forget.

Beard burn is a real thing.

And oh my God is it everything I wanted it to be and then some.

I turn my head to look over at him through the dawn-filled sky-lit room, where his face is snuggled in the pillow inches from mine, one eye hidden, the other looking as sleep-and-sex drugged as I seem, and the world feels right.

“My what?”

“Your full-size-poster dartboard of me that you use to get your aggression out.”

My laugh is soft. “I forgot to pack that one when I moved out here.”

“So you’re really here to stay?” There’s what sounds like hope in his voice and it does funny things to my insides, similar to what his tongue did to me earlier this morning.

“That’s my plan. Win the bid. Have reward sex. Find a place to live. You know, the usual.”

His laughter rumbles the sheets. “Have reward sex?”

“Yep.” And so I fill him in on my plan that first morning a couple days ago. It feels like yesterday and forever all at the same time.

“Reward sex. Huh. Then what was last night?”

“Reward sex,” I state with a definitive nod as I reach out and trace the lines of his tattoos that my tongue came close and intimate with last night. My body breaks out in chills at just the thought of it. “I think maybe I had my eye on the wrong prize.”

“So you finally got it right?”

“Yep. It took me thirteen years. A reward was definitely needed.”

He laughs again but this time the sheet slips off my bare breasts with its vibration, and I have a feeling that part was on purpose. His eyes slide down, stare at my pebbled nipples from the air of the room and the sudden want to have him again, before looking back up to mine with a mixture of desire and honesty.

“I never figured you for the blonde bombshell, Denton.” His words boost my ego in a way that’s unexpected. Like this was all supposed to happen this way. Like he appreciates me more now because he knew where I came from.

“And I never figured preppy boy Rodgers to be the tatted, bearded hottie from the security line that pushed every single erogenous button on my body.”

“Every one?” he asks with a lift of his eyebrows.

“Yep.”

“Hmm. I think there are a few we can find yet.”

“Is that a challenge?” I ask coyly.

“Isn’t that how we work together best?” All I can do is sigh at his words and nod my head. Look at my hand on his chest and smile at the truth in his words. “I looked for you the next day, you know.”

“What?” My voice remains even while my head shrieks the word. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?

“Yeah. It was like I’d always looked at you from afar––the girl hiding behind her shyness––and thought you were pretty.”