Fix Her Up (Hot & Hammered #1)(36)

Travis stopped breathing, his hands dropping to her elbows. Holding tightly, but not pushing her away. “Georgie.” He expelled her name on a breath, but she saw something primal flare to life in his eyes. “I’ll eat you alive. No.”

“You won’t.” She tugged her arms out of his grip and—saying a prayer to whichever saint bestowed courage—reached back and unzipped her skirt. “Oh.” She frowned. “In my head, the skirt was going to drop and I was going to cock a seductive hip.”

His lips parted. “How do you do that? Make me this hot and want to laugh at the same time.”

“See, I’m teaching you something new.” She was painfully aware of the vulnerability written in her every feature. “Your turn.”

Hesitation battled with need in his expression, and it was so intoxicating up close, Georgie’s knees wobbled. “Once we find out how this feels, though . . .” His hands stayed fisted in the air beside her hips, hesitating, clenching and unclenching, before finally settling on them. “We won’t be able to forget.”

“You’re worried I’ll never forget how bad you were. I understand.”

His right eyebrow went sky-high. “Are you employing reverse psychology to get me into bed? I’m impressed.”

Georgie shrugged a shoulder. “Not bad for a virgin.”

“There it is.” He dropped his head forward. “Christ. I had a feeling you were a virgin. But I wasn’t positive.”

“Glad I could clear it up. We don’t have to—”

“We’re not.”

“Cool. But we are . . . ?”

“On-top-of-the-clothes stuff only.”

“Do panties count as clothes?”

“I don’t know. Yes.”

“Sweet.” Before she could lose her nerve, Georgie wiggled the skirt down over her hips and nudged it aside, feeling her face turn pink but staunchly ignoring it. “I’m ready.”

The world tilted when Travis picked her up by the waist, tossing her into the center of the bed like she weighed less than a feather. He crawled slowly up her body. “No. You aren’t.”

“I lie corrected,” she breathed.

“Stop being cute.” Without breaking eye contact, he unbuttoned her blouse. The entire thing in seconds with quick wrist twists. “Your bra counts as clothes, too.”

She gave a jerky nod. “You make the rules.”

“That’s right.” He surged forward and growled against her lips. “I’m no one’s entertainment anymore. You want to play? I decide how.”

Those words cut through the waves of lust plowing through Georgie. That statement was so at odds with the Travis of her memory. The arrogant baseball player who’d strutted to the batter’s box, doffing his hat to the crowd. Taking requests on which part of the outfield he should aim for. She wanted to explore the change he’d shown her now more than once.

His mouth dominated hers, leading the dance, giving no quarter. Almost as if he wanted to scare her off. His body said he needed her, though. To Georgie, inexperienced or not, Travis had all the classic signs of an aroused male. And Georgie was an expert now, because she’d thumbed through the issue of Cosmo today in between fittings at the boutique. Dilated pupils. Harsh breathing. Most importantly, a growing bulge behind his fly. Oh my God. Travis is on top of me with a hard penis. This is happening.

“Goddammit, Georgie. Don’t zone out on me.”

“I’m not. I’m zoning in. Way in.”

His forehead fell into the crook of her neck. The feeling was so nice, her thighs seemed to lift automatically to wrap around his hips. Travis liked that. He gave a closed-mouthed moan and shifted between her legs. “I’ve got no fucking right to be between these legs.”

“You do. I gave it to you.” That last word ended in a gasp when Travis’s teeth grazed her shoulder, his waist rolling into the cradle of her hips at the same exact moment. “Oh wow.”

“Try to sound a little less innocent while I get you off,” he rasped beside her ear, catching her lobe with his teeth. “How about that?”

“Yes, Travis.”

This name she’d said thousands of times in her life sounded entirely different in a threadbare voice with the insides of her knees resting against his rib cage. Head to toe, she trembled, turned on by his expert abrasiveness, her belly hollowing on a long shudder, her toes curling, nipples peaking. God help her, there was something kind of hot about Travis’s self-directed anger. This man had a will of steel and the focus of a world-class athlete, but apparently he’d lost a battle with himself over her. Her. She couldn’t turn off the excitement, no matter how hard she tried.

“Yes, Travis,” he echoed, shifting his hips slowly. Making her squirm. “Why weren’t you agreeable all those times I told you to go home?”

“I’m selectively agreeable.”

That smart-ass comment earned her a rough punch of his hips. “Look where it got us. You had to keep reminding me how nicely you grew up. Now we’re halfway to fucking.”

Oh my God. Her head spun, Travis’s face blurring into two, then fusing back together. Was she seriously supposed to have a conversation while this gorgeous, filth-spewing man rocked between her thighs? “I told you to go home once, too,” she said in a rush. “I left you alone. This isn’t all my fault.”