Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1)(36)

Only two thoughts pounded through me. Oh, shit, is it so obvious that I’m a virgin? And: Why is he bothering with me at all if there’s no chance of sex in this for him?

All that quickly became irrelevant, however. His mouth consumed me, obliterating everything else. The kiss went on and on. His tongue explored me, tasting until I grew more confident. I touched his tongue with the tip of mine. He made a low growling sound of approval and wrapped an arm around my waist. In one move, he lifted me off my feet just enough so that he could walk me across the loft. The tips of my boots skimmed the floor. I gave a little squeak. My hands clung to him, arms wrapping tightly around shoulders that tensed and corded.

When he stopped, his arms loosened around me. I slid down the length of him, my feet returning to the floor. My head, however, remained lost somewhere in the clouds. Or, more precisely, lost somewhere between the taste of his mouth and the sensation of his body against mine.

Suddenly the warm rasp of his callused hand against my cheek disappeared.

He backed away.

I bit back a moan of disappointment and stopped myself just short of reaching for him and pulling him back by the front of his shirt.

With his eyes trained on me, he sank down on the bed, leaving me standing in front of him. I shifted on my feet, unsure what was happening now and trying for all I was worth to look sophisticated and at ease. Pointless. He had called me out as a virgin, after all. And I had admitted I came here looking for experience. That kind of outted me.

His pale eyes gleamed in the dim, red-gold light from the floor lamp.

Deciding to act, I stepped forward to follow him, but he shook his head at me, those eyes of his glittering like shards of glass. Leaning back on the mattress, he propped his elbows on the bed, looking deceptively casual.

“Take off your clothes.” The request was anything but casual, and yet he uttered it as though he were asking me to pass the salt.

An odd strangled sound rose up in my throat. I fought it, pushed it back down, and tried for speech that sounded halfway normal. “What?”

He angled his head to one side, studying me. “You wanted to learn foreplay. Isn’t that why you came here looking for my brother?”

My face heated at that reminder.

“Well, you got me.” He announced this like he was somehow second best. Which was ridiculous. Logan was hot, but he looked like he belonged as a lead in a boy band. Reece. Reece was something else entirely. “Now. Take off your clothes.”

My hands trembled. If not for his reassurance that he didn’t do virgins, I’d be running for the door. Probably.

I moistened my lips and my stomach tightened at the way his eyes followed the tiny movement. He missed nothing. Swallowing, I asked, “Isn’t that kind of skipping foreplay and getting right to it?”

“I’m the one with the experience. Are you going to trust me?”

It was my turn to look him over, splayed so deliciously upon the bed, so effortlessly hot. Like picking up virgins from the bar and bringing them up here was something he did all the time. I didn’t think that was the case, but the green monster of jealousy still crept up on me. I didn’t want to consider whether he had done this before. That he had reclined there on his bed and invited other girls to take off their clothes for him. Even though the presumption of his experience was what brought me to this moment, I wanted to think I was the first to see the inside of this room.

“Should I trust you?” I lifted my chin in an attempt to look braver than I felt. “It’s not as though I know you.” But I did. At least a little. I knew he was the kind of guy who helped a female stranded alongside the road. I knew he was good with kids. He was also the kind of guy to get offended when he was mistaken for his man-whore of a brother. He had scruples.

“We’re not going to do anything you don’t want to do,” he explained. “Taking off your clothes . . . looking sexy doing it.” A corner of his mouth lifted. “Well, that’s a hell of a turn-on. And isn’t that what you want to learn? How to turn a guy on? A particular guy, right?”

Hunter. Yes. My mind leaped upon the memory of him. My purpose. The reason I was here. That was it exactly. I nodded.

“Good. Then what are you waiting for?”

What was I waiting for? I bit my lip, trying to decide. Logic and the hot pulse of desire in my veins urged me on. Yes. Just do it. Pretend the fear is gone, and live for once.

“Here.” He sat up on the bed. “I’ll match you move for move,” he offered. Because guys like him were shy about getting naked. Right. As though that would somehow make me feel better about stripping off my clothes in front of him.

He reached behind his head and gathered a fistful of shirt. In one tug he pulled the dark gray fabric over his head.

An invisible band tightened around my chest. Holy sexiness. My gaze devoured him. Bronzed skin. Washboard abs. My mouth watered and dried simultaneously. I could see now that the tattoo that covered his arm snuck down onto his chest, the fauna design covering his left pectoral. There was also some kind of script stretching down along his rib cage. Words I couldn’t make out from where I stood.

“That’s just ridiculous,” I breathed, awe and lust swirling through me like some heady elixir. I didn’t even realize I said the words aloud until they filled the space between us, making that band around my chest squeeze tighter.

One corner of his mouth lifted, curling up ever so slightly. “Tip number one: Don’t call a guy ridiculous when he undresses in front of you. It might give him a complex.”