Author: Lorelei James

She cocked her head at him. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Laughing, he climbed in with total grace. “But I want you to be impressed with my cannonball skills.”

“Trust me, I’m plenty impressed with your other skills.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“So you don’t wanna hear about the summer nights I spent at Keyhole Reservoir with my brother and my cousins? Having cannonball contests to see who could get the girls the wettest?”

Hands down, Nick got her the wettest of any man she’d ever known and he didn’t have to perform a cannonball to prove it. Would he think she was lame if she mentioned it? Or would he laugh? She loved to hear his laugh.

“You’re thinking too much again. C’mere.” Nick brought her onto his lap, pressed her back to his chest and nestled her butt in his groin. He stretched his arms across the lip of the tub and her head fit perfectly in the space between his shoulder and his neck.

With the lights dimmed, surrounded by hot water and hot man, another sigh slipped free.

“Comfy?”

“Mmm.”

“Want the jets on?”

“Do you?”

“Maybe for a bit.”

“Whatever you want.”

His breath tickled her ear. “Why is it you’re so accommodating?”

“You sound surprised.”

“I guess I am. I sorta figured in your line of work, being front and center all the time, that you’d be more of a diva.”

Holly snorted. Diva. Not exactly a word used to describe an accountant. But her body slumped when she realized Nick wasn’t talking about her real career, but her supposed wild life as a stripper. Another mental snort sounded.

Come clean with him, he’ll understand.

Right. Part of her thought he might accept her as Holly, the woman hot with numbers, but a larger part suspected it was Holly, the hot number, who held his interest.

“Holls?”

Lord. No one but her closest friends ever called her that, and it tickled her to hear the endearment coming from him. “I thought you were gonna turn on the jets?”

“I was until you sorta drifted off. Thinking too much again?”

“No. Just relaxed.”

“Good. Jets coming right up.”

Bubbles frothed and Holly closed her eyes, wondering if the water temperature, the sexual satisfaction, or the man’s silent, comforting presence allowed her to loosen up so thoroughly. Her body went boneless. Nothing existed except the humid scent of the water, the blub blub blub of the whirlpool, and the quiet strength of the man holding her.

After a while the timer dinged and the jets turned off. She arched her back and her butt pressed into the erection that hadn’t deflated a bit since they’d been skin-to-skin in the shower.

“More bubbles?”

“No. I’m good.”

“You wanna get out?”

“Why’re you being so accommodating?” she teased.

“Because I’ve got a beautiful nekkid woman plastered against me. Brings out my chivalrous side.” Nick kissed the spot below her ear. “It’s a part of my personality I usually keep hidden.”

“Why?”

“Don’t we all have aspects of ourselves we don’t share with the world at large?”

Holly shrugged. “I guess.”

“So…tell me something about yourself that no one else knows.”

That was an odd request. “Why?”

“It’ll be fun hearing your deeply hidden thoughts.”

“If I share, that means you will too?”

“Yep. Turnabout is fair play. Come on. Tell me a secret.”

She frowned. “A secret like I stole a piece of candy when I was five and never got caught?”

“Is that true?”

“No. I’ve never stolen anything in my life.” Was it her imagination or did Nick’s posture stiffen?

Lightly, he said, “I was actually thinking a juicier tidbit. You know. Like you secretly jump on a trampoline in your backyard nekkid. Or you spent a weekend at a nudist colony. Or you went skinny-dippin’ in the neighbor’s pool when he was out of town.”

“Why am I n**ed in all your scenarios?”

Nick trailed his hand from the tip of her fingers to her forearm, across her bicep in a sensual glide. Her skin rippled beneath his slow and steady touch. “Because I like picturing you nekkid, even when you’re already nekkid in my arms.”

“I hate to disappoint you, but I haven’t done anything nearly that daring.” She paused, half-afraid she’d disappoint him if she didn’t confess to an outlandish and stripper-worthy scenario.

“Nothin’? Come on, spill it. I ain’t gonna judge you.”

“Well. This one time? At band camp?”

He chuckled against her neck and it sent tingles down her front, her back and everywhere in between.

“Smarty-pants.”

“The truth is, you’ve got the wrong idea about me, Nick. I’ve never done anything wild. This”—her gesture incorporated the bathroom—“being here with you, ha**ng s*x with a perfect stranger, is the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done.”

She suspected his silence meant he didn’t believe her.

“Seriously. I’m hopelessly square.”

“I beg to differ.” Nick smoothed his palm over the line of her hip. “There’s not a square thing about you. You’re all exquisite, tempting curves. I could just eat you up, sweet darlin’.”

“Didn’t you already do that?”

“Once ain’t enough.” He squeezed her ass between his powerful thighs and his c**k twitched against the small of her back. “Not nearly enough.”

Her stomach knotted, remembering the surety of his mouth as he’d licked and slurped her to a frenzy. She wanted to give him the same mindless satisfaction he’d given her.

Feeling daring, she floated to the other side of the tub.

“Was it something I said?”

Holly nodded.

“What?”

“You said turnabout is fair play.”

Liquid heat sparked his eyes.

“So, why don’t you park that sexy butt up on the edge and let me have a chance at eatin’ you up.”

Didn’t have to ask him twice. Water sloshed over the rim of the tub as Nick climbed into position.

Holly glided back and kept her gaze on his cock. When she licked her lips and wrapped those slender fingers around the root…he almost shot all over those delectable breasts.

She didn’t tease. No soft licks. Or tormenting breaths. No seductive nuzzle of his sac. Or whispering kisses up the length of his shaft. Holly just swooped down and swallowed him whole.

“Jesus.”

Her head bobbed fast. Her hand stroked faster. Her pace was relentless. Determined.

And fast. Way too fast.

Amazing as it felt surrounded by that tight, suctioning heat, she was going after him with such zeal he was on track to the speediest orgasm ever.

Was that her intent?

Nick nudged his thumbs in the hollows of her cheeks and stopped the motion. “Holly?”

Holly’s expression read pure panic as his dick slipped from her mouth. “What? Am I doing it wrong?”

“No. God no. It’s just…what’s the hurry?”

Crimson spread across her cheekbones and she ducked her face from view. “Sorry.”

“Hey. No reason to be sorry.”

“It’s just…I’ve never been very good at this sort of thing.”

That softly spoken admission damn near ripped all the air from his lungs, mostly because he knew it’d been hard as hell for her to admit.

Or she was lying.

Damn the cynical part of his brain. “Can you look at me?”

She shook her head.

“Please?”

Again, she shook her head.

Nick fisted his hand in her hair and forced her chin up. Not a lie in her eyes, just pure humiliation.

“Listen. You didn’t do a goddamn thing wrong. I love what you’re doin’. Every suck. Every lick. Every stroke. That mouth of yours is wickedly good. But I wouldn’t mind if you’d take it a little slower.” He traced the pouty swell of her bottom lip with the center of his thumb. “I sure like seeing these full, pretty lips stretched around my cock. I love the feeling as you’re takin’ me deep into this hot, wet mouth. I love the way you curl your tongue under the sweet spot beneath the head when you pull back.

“It’s sexy as shit having you on your knees in front of me. That’s why I want you to go slow. Because I wanna savor it, Holls. This first time of you lovin’ me with your mouth means too much for it to be over so quickly. And at the rate we were goin’…it was almost over when I stopped you.”

“So you didn’t stop me because you were disappointed in my technique?”

“Oh hell no. I’m just embarrassed to be so quick on the trigger.” Nick gave her a sheepish smile and pushed a silky section of hair behind her ear. “You’re in charge, but have pity on me, darlin’, ’cause I’m the one with no control when your sweet, hot mouth is on me.”

His confession appeared to soothe her. She offered him a sassy smile. “I’m really in charge?”

“Yep.”

“Does that mean I can do whatever I want?”

“Within reason. No pain games.”

“I’m not into pain. I’m into seeing your body light up like a Christmas tree with the orgasm I’m gonna wring from you.”

He murmured, “Touché.”

Holly kept her bright eyes on his as she leaned down and swallowed him again, but as she slowly released him, she scraped her teeth up his length with just the right amount of pressure, balancing on that deliciously sharp edge of pleasure and pain, before she freed the tip with a soft pop.

“Holy mother of saints.”