“You like me takin’ charge,” he murmured.
“No I don’t.”
“Yes you do and I’m more than happy to oblige you.” He slid down her body, sucking her right nipple into his mouth while his fingers plucked the other.
Ava panicked a bit and squirmed. Not because it felt good, but for the first time she feared he hadn’t been listening when she’d confessed about her desensitized br**sts. How long would he play and tease, awaiting her response? Would he get pissed off when his attentions elicited no reaction? Or if she told him to stop?
A sharp pinch on each tip simultaneously had her crying out in total shock.
“You sure felt that,” he drawled and returned his eager mouth to her ni**les, delicately licking. Sucking forcefully. Nipping with his teeth. His rough-skinned hands continually caressing and squeezing the fleshy part of her br**sts as his mouth worked the softened tips into rigid peaks.
This was okay. She relaxed slightly. She could handle him taking his own sweet time.
But as soon as she loosened up he moved. He stopped nuzzling and laving her chest and scooted down her torso. Kissing her stomach. Tracing each of her ribs with his hot mouth. Tonguing her belly button. Rubbing his warm, soft lips over her hipbones. Letting his goatee skim the sides of her torso. Turning every inch of her skin into his personal playground. Never focusing too long on one area. Keeping her on edge until her body vibrated inside and out, wanting more than just his erotic caresses.
“Tell me why you got that panicked look when I told you to roll over when I had you the first time,” he asked as if his mouth wasn’t hovering over her mound.
Ava’s face heated and the flush spread down her entire body. She looked away.
His tongue made a slow pass up her slit and he commanded, “Ava. Look at me and answer the question.”
She blurted, “Because Jake always f**ked me doggie style. Didn’t register why until after.” When guilt shone in Chase’s eyes, Ava reassured him, “So I figured I shouldn’t be greedy and ask if we could do it face to face since I’d already gotten off twice and you hadn’t gotten off at all.”
Chase’s eyes iced over. “Taking one for the team, were you? Just goin’ along with it because that’s the way I wanted it?”
Yes. “No. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Which is it? And don’t tell me what you think I wanna hear. Tell me the truth.”
Why was he pushing her on this now? And why, rather than putting on an easygoing front, distracting him with a kittenish purr, did she find herself snapping at him? “Here’s the truth. I wasn’t thrilled, okay? I never get off when a guy f**ks me from behind. So go ahead and give me that cocky cowboy smirk because you know exactly how hard you made me come that way.”
Chase pushed to his knees between her legs, tugging her into a sitting position so he loomed over her. “I’m not keeping a goddamned o**l s*x or orgasm scorecard, Ava. Christ.” The tender way his big hands slipped up her neck to cup her head belied the fierceness on his face. “After all the nights I spent fantasizing about you, forcing myself to keep away from you, even when I know it hurt you, the last thing I wanna do is fight when we’re finally nekkid together.”
Made her go all gooey inside, how he balanced his gruff side with his sweet side—and he wasn’t even aware he did it. She curled her fingers around those impressive biceps and whispered, “Me either.”
His posture relaxed. He let his thumbs draw a slow arc over her cheekbones. “I still see questions in your eyes and that stubborn tilt to your chin, darlin’. Talk to me.”
“I realize you like to be in control, but I want to touch you too. And it’s sort of selfish, to be honest, that I can’t run my hands and my mouth all over this incredible body.”
“Selfish?” He laughed softly and kissed her nose. “That’s a new one. I’ll play along. Or I’ll let you play. But I’ve got two rules. First, no touching my feet because they’re so damn ticklish.”
Ava smiled, surprised he’d admitted that weakness.
“Second. No touching my cock.”
Her smile vanished. “That’s not fair.”
Chase cocked his head, studying her.
“What?”
“If I gave you full access to my cock, you wouldn’t touch me anywhere else, would you?” He let his hands fall to her br**sts. “Kinda like them other guys you’ve been with only wantin’ to get their hands on these. I don’t want that for us. Ever. Maybe that is selfish. But it’s been the same story for me. Women I’ve been with have gone straight for my dick. I want you to feel your hands on me, on my body, not just between my legs. I want that more than you can imagine.”
Ava’s heart flipped over at his raw honesty. When she struggled to find a response that wasn’t trivializing the situation, he sighed.
Then he retreated, stretching out on his back on the bed, folding his arms behind his head, spreading his legs.
She wanted to touch him in a way no other woman ever had. Physically. Emotionally. She straddled his hips, watching his face as she angled across him and freed his right arm. Starting with his hand, she outlined each thick finger from the ragged tips to the webbing, loving the rough texture of his knuckles and the hard calluses, built up from years of riding bulls. She placed a soft kiss in the center of his palm and curled his fingers into a fist. Next she followed the corded muscles in his forearm, marveling at the strength. When she reached his massive bicep, she sighed. Her fingertips traced every bulge and deeply cut section of muscle. She kissed the bend in his elbow and lowered it to the mattress before reaching for his left arm.
Instead of using her fingers to acquaint herself with this side of his rippling, muscular flesh, she used her tongue. The “damn, woman” uttered under his breath made her smile against his tricep as she mapped his muscles with her mouth. After she released his arm, her mouth wandered from the cup of his shoulder, up the column of his neck.
Chase groaned and turned his head, granting her full access.
She loved his reaction to the scrape of her teeth, the sucking kisses, the feather light placement of her lips in random spots on his neck. Goose bumps spread across his arms and up his nape. He shifted on the bed, not thrashing, but wiggling enough she knew he liked what she was doing to him. She reveled in this immense power of worshipping rather than being worshipped.
Ava immersed herself in him. The scent of his skin. The tangy taste of his sweat. The way his muscles strained beneath her tongue. She kissed, licked and nibbled her way down the center of his throat, from his square jaw to his breastbone. And could she get a halleluiah that he had chest hair? Talk about manly, masculine goodness. She rubbed her face over the dark patch of hair, breathing him in, listening to the pounding of his heart, warmed by the heat from his skin, and knowing his body’s response to her was echoed in her body.