Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(30)

“What does that even mean?”

His eyebrows shot up and he was just about to outline all the ‘benefits’ at their disposal that ‘everything but sex’ covered.

…When the clouds suddenly dumped a river of rain on them.



*



DRENCHED THROUGH THEIR clothes, Isaac drove them back to his house while Xoey mulled over the amendment to his proposal.

Once in the house, he went to grab them some towels, and she couldn’t help but stare the entire time. Good lord, he was ripped. It was pure unadulterated fantasy fodder to watch his shirt cling to him like a second skin, molding to and highlighting every last fighter-trained muscle in his body.

Now why exactly was she taking sex off the table?

He was back in a flash with two towels, one of which, he wrapped around her to bundle her up, the other he used to gently dry her hair. Holding her close, he rubbed her arms to warm her up, completely heedless to the fact that he dripping wet himself.

This right here was classic Isaac.

She tried really hard not to turn to mush on the spot.

But there was one thing that had to be said.

“I do love you, Isaac. You know that right?”

He froze. And then tightened both arms around her in a vice-like embrace. “I love you too, Xo.” The rough whisper rumbled out of his chest, gravelly with emotion. “Never stopped. Never will.”

Her heart spun in her chest. “I’m scared,” she confessed, sinking into his embrace when he pulled her tighter into his arms. “The idea of possibly damaging what we have and losing you…terrifies me.”

“I would never jeopardize our friendship for anything and I know you know that.”

She did. Of course he wouldn’t.

“So please Xo, just give us a chance. You talk about the risks at stake but isn’t it riskier to not even try? I think we could have something great between us. And it you want to take things slow, hell, I’ll be happy just kissing you for months on end. It can’t be any worse than my not being able to touch you at all for the last year. So to answer your question earlier, partial benefits can mean anything you want, sweetheart. Even if it means us just holding hands. I’d still consider that a benefit. Whatever you want, Xo. However slow you want to take this. Let’s just try this.”

“Dammit.” She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head against his chest. “You’re such a nice guy.”

He chuckled. “Is that a complaint?”

“No. But it does make me think of that saying about nice guys.”

He frowned. “About us finishing last?”

She let loose a slow, wicked smile that had his fists curling into the towel, and every muscle in his body tensing against her.

“No…I think it’s the exact opposite.”

Then she pounced on him.

“Is this you starting on our partial benefits?” he rasped when her fingers unzipped his jeans, and found him hot and hard and waiting for her.

“If you’re asking, then clearly I’m doing it wrong,” she murmured with a grin, repeating his own words back to him as she kissed her way down his rock hard torso.

Slowly, she slid her hand down and then back up over his rigid length in one firm, fluid stroke, dragging a low, hissing curse out of him. And at least another hard inch. Wrapping her fingers around his base, she swiveled her hand to make up for what she couldn’t encircle, and then glided her tongue around him in a slow, deliberate circle.

She’d forgotten how much she loved this.

Feeling him lose control for once. Because of her. For her.

Her tongue traced over the entire length of him before she eased him into her mouth fully, reacquainting herself with how thick he was, how impossibly hard he could get. Then she began pumping him at his base with both hands, squeezing, while her mouth took him in as deep as he could go.

It was a heady thrill knowing her hands, her mouth were ripping these lusty groans out of him, each one in turn, vibrating through her and spurring her own arousal.

Her next descent drew him all the way to the back of her throat.

And his fingers finally speared through her hair. He sucked in a sharp, tortured breath as she repeated the motion again. Then suddenly, she was overcome by a dizzying erotic cocoon as he started thrusting gently into her mouth.

Panting, he stopped. Thighs hard as granite, his engorged head nudging the back of her throat. Then she swallowed, just once, and felt a wave of lust hit her when his fingers tightened in her hair. She ignored the warning, however, and gave him another slow, rolling caress with her throat.

A hoarse, guttural groan bursting from his chest was her instant reward.



*



What little restraint he had left in his brain was demolished at the snug fit of her mouth around his rock hard erection, her hands cupping him and squeezing him in a mind-erasing rhythm that had all functional reason and discernible sanity draining out of him at an alarming rate.

Not to mention a serious lack of oxygen problem in his brain that was starting to blur his vision around the edges.

Isaac didn’t care a damn bit.

Strangling on his own lust, he began muttering words of love and lust, promises and threats, exposing every raw inch of his heart for her to claim as she took him closer and closer to the edge. But never close enough.