The Billionaire Takes a Bride (Billionaires and Bridesmaids,(39)

She shivered, and a spike of worry shot through her. They’d been having fun, and now she was going to ruin it, wasn’t she? “Sebastian . . .”

“I know. It’s okay.” He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her against him, then flipped onto his back. A moment later, she was on top of him and he was below her. “And there we go. Now I’m yours to play with.”

Chelsea hesitated. “I . . . I don’t know.”

“I trusted you. You can trust me, right? I’m not going to do anything. We can just kiss.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know that I like kisses anymore.”

“Have you even tried?”

“I kissed you at the party, didn’t I?”

He grimaced and held a hand to his chest. “Ouch. There goes my ego.”

“Oh, please. I think it’d take more than that to hurt your ego.” She sat up on top of him, her hips meeting his. She could feel his erection underneath her, but he linked his hands and put them behind his head, acting like it was no big deal.

“You want me to close my eyes?” He did so, and puckered his mouth like he was waiting for a cartoonish kiss.

Another giggle escaped her. He was being utterly silly and yet . . . it was making her relax. She should have felt tense, but she didn’t. “How should we do this?”

“Well, I don’t want to brag, but I’ve heard it works best with lips on lips.” And he puckered again.

She chuckled and leaned in and gave him a smacking kiss. “There.”

“See? Was that so hard?” He kept his eyes closed.

“It wasn’t,” she agreed. He made it easy. He actually made this kind of fun. So she leaned in and pressed her mouth against his again. His lips parted under hers, and she started to press small, light kisses to his mouth, mostly because she liked his lips. They were awesome lips, full and sculpted. Lips that would look sensual on a woman, but he still managed to look masculine and sexy. And it . . . wasn’t bad. She wasn’t bowled over with desire from kissing him, but she wasn’t freaking out, either, which was good. It was just sort of . . . there.

Maybe she needed to try to deepen the kiss to get her brain to unlock. When his lips parted, she nibbled on his lower one. Man, she was rusty at kissing. All of this felt terribly awkward. Was it time to add tongue? She slicked hers against the part of his mouth.

He groaned and his hands moved from behind his head to her hips, pulling her against him. His tongue flicked against her own.

And that suddenly felt like too much. She pulled away, breathless and scared. “Derby. Derby, derby, pillow. Whatever the word was.”

Sebastian’s eyes opened and the glazed look disappeared immediately. His hands flew off of her. “Shit. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said, sitting up again.

“That was good, though,” he said. “Did you enjoy it?”

She bit her lip, thinking. “It was . . . all right?”

He rubbed a hand down his face. “Damn. I was going to say I needed a cold shower but I think all that praise effectively killed my erection.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He spread his arms. “Wanna hug it out?”

Chelsea laughed, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I do like a good cuddle.”

“Then that’s all we’ll do for the rest of the night,” he said, and wrapped his arms around her, stroking her back. “I told you we’d go slow and if it takes months, then that’s what it’ll take.”

“Years?”

“Or years,” he agreed.

She buried her face against his neck, inhaling his scent. He really was the sweetest guy.

*

He really, really was going to die of blue balls. Sebastian held Chelsea against him, stroking her back as she dozed.

Years. Jesus.

She hadn’t been into the kiss. He could tell that the moment he opened his eyes and saw her frustrated expression. Instead, she’d analyzed it like it was a problem. Like if she added tongue plus lips, it might equal fun. He wondered if she was in her own head too much to enjoy things.

He wondered if the problem was him.

That was a blow to the ego. He knew he was good-looking enough, and he was rich. And (to his great dismay) marginally famous. That usually added up to more women than he could possibly ever want. Now he wanted one, and she had zero interest in sex.

One thing was clear, though. He wasn’t going to pressure her. She was going to take the reins, and he was going to let her have full control, however she wanted, for as long as she wanted.

And while it might be a bit torturous for him at times, it would be the most delicious kind of torture. Already his mind was racing as to how he might ease her into their next round of awkward foreplay.

At some point, she had to snap out of it, right? To recover what she felt she’d lost?

Then again, it was like she said: There was no rape-victim guidebook on how to feel. She’d been through hell and emerged out the other side. If she took a bit longer to get turned on, then, well, he’d just have to wait for her.

Sebastian’s hand stroked down her back, feeling the line of her spine under her soft skin. Some people were worth waiting for, and Chelsea was definitely one of them.





Chapter Sixteen