Playing Hard to Get(72)

My outfit isn’t one to impress, though I am braless, which I’m guessing he’ll appreciate when he makes the discovery.

Hopefully he will.

“I look terrible,” I respond and his expression turns cross.

“Always putting yourself down.” He shakes his head, grabbing hold of my hand and leading me to his bedroom. “Kind of over it, Sutton.”

“You caught me at a bad time, Maguire,” I chastise him as we enter his bedroom, though I don’t mean a word of it.

I’m so glad he texted me. I’m so glad I’m here. With him.

He drags me over to his dresser so that we’re standing in front of the mirror that hangs over it. He looms behind me, tall and broad and mouthwateringly handsome, with his gaze locked on mine in the mirror.

“Tell me what you see.”

I’m frowning. “Me and you?”

“No, tell me what you see when you look at yourself.” He wraps his arms around me from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder. “And don’t list all of your faults. Say something positive.”

My gaze is caught on his face, the kindness I see there. The sincerity. No one has ever asked me to do something like this before, and it feels…weird.

“Don’t look at me.” He smiles, reaching up to angle my face more toward the mirror. “Look at you, Jo Jo. Tell me all the good things you see.”

My self-confidence isn’t the best, meaning my brain is scrambling as I study myself. “Um…I like my eyebrows.”

He chuckles. “Why?”

“They’re a good shape. I don’t have to pluck them much. My mom’s are pretty much the same.”

“So you’ve got your mama’s eyebrows.” He lifts his head, resting his jaw against my hair. “Tell me what else.”

“I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging—”

“It’s not bragging. It’s like, what do you girls call it? Self-affirmations.”

I frown. “How do you even know this?”

“I have two sisters, Jo Jo. They keep me up to date.”

Thank God for sisters.

“I guess I like my hair, though it looks a little wild right now,” I admit softly.

“I like it wild.” He smooths it away from my cheek, dropping a kiss there.

My knees want to buckle, the gesture was so sweet.

“My lips are okay.”

“Your lips are sexy as fuck.”

They part, all the words I could’ve said disappearing at his comment, and the heat in his gaze. I can feel him behind me, pressing closer, the length of his erection nudged against my butt.

“My boobs could be bigger.”

“I think they’re perfect.” He slips his hands beneath the hem of my sweatshirt, sliding them up, over my rib cage, until he encounters nothing but bare flesh. “No bra?”

“I don’t wear one to bed.”

“Lucky me.” He cups my breasts, his thumbs playing with my nipples, and a shuddery breath escapes me, my gaze locking on the movement of his hands beneath my shirt. “Say something else, baby. Tell me what else you like about yourself.”

A throb starts low in my belly at him calling me baby. “I think I have decent fashion sense.”

He’s smiling. “What are your thoughts about wearing my T-shirt to bed and nothing else?”

Oh Jesus. The man is trying to kill me. “I um, wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

Knox presses his face into my hair, breathing deep. “You always smell good.”

“I do?” My voice is weak, every part of my body on high alert. The way he touches me. The things he says.

It feels too good to be true.

“Yeah. Fucking turns me on, how delicious you smell.”

“You smell good too,” I admit.

“This isn’t about me, Jo. This is about you. And how beautiful you are, even though you can’t see it.” He removes his right hand from beneath my shirt, curling his fingers around my chin, holding my face, his thumb stroking my jaw. As if he can’t stop caressing me. “Look at you.”

His voice is reverent, his heated gaze skimming over my face, like he can’t get enough. I can hardly breathe at the way he studies me. How it makes me feel. As if I’m just as beautiful as he says I am.

It’s not a word I’ve heard much in my life. Oh, my mom and dad would tell me I looked beautiful, but they have to. Friends tell me I look pretty, but usually when I’m dressed up for something. Same with Bryan. He didn’t praise me much.

“Do you see what I see? A beautiful, sexy woman, who I can’t stop thinking about. And it’s not just your outer beauty that gets me. You’re beautiful inside too.” The hand beneath my shirt slides to the spot between my breasts, directly over my heart, making it turn over.

“You really think so?” I sound so doubtful. I’m not surprised by the way he scowls at me. “We barely know each other.”

“We know each other enough that I’ve learned you’re generous and smart. Thoughtful. Patient, because you have to be to tolerate my ass. You’re also pretty funny.”

“I am?”

“You like busting my balls, Sutton.” I turn my head so I can look in his eyes and he slips his fingers beneath my chin, tipping my face up, so he can deliver a soft kiss to my lips. “But I don’t mind.”