Her fingers itched to pull his sleeve up farther, and she wavered over his arm until he caught her hand in his and pressed it to his skin. An electric jolt shot from her fingertips straight to her heart. He looked so perfect, like carved stone, but his skin was smooth and hot, firm but giving, alive.
“You can touch me,” he said. “Anywhere.”
Even as the invitation thrilled her, it gave her pause. Touching was such a private thing. She didn’t understand how he was able to do it so well with people he didn’t know.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” she asked.
That crooked grin returned in full force. “I like being touched.”
When she continued to hesitate, he drew his sleeve up himself, exposing black ink marks that swept across his upper arm, over his shoulder, and disappeared beneath his T-shirt. The tattoo had to be quite large because the shape hadn’t even begun to materialize. Just how much of him did it cover?
The swell of his muscles distracted her from further investigating. She’d never touched hard rounded flesh like this before. She wanted to touch him all over. And his scent. How was it she was just noticing it now?
“Are you wearing cologne?” she asked as she filled her lungs.
He stiffened. “No, why?”
She leaned as close as she could without burying her face against his neck, seeking out more of that intoxicating scent. “You smell really, really good. What is it?”
Where was that scent coming from? It seemed to be everywhere on him, but too light. She craved a more concentrated dose.
“Michael?”
A funny look crossed his face. “It’s just me, Stella.”
“You smell this good?”
“Apparently. You’re the first to comment on it.”
“I want this smell all over me.” As the words left her mouth, she worried she’d said the wrong thing. That statement had sounded a little too personal, a little strange. Would he notice how strange she really was?
He bent down so his lips hovered a hairsbreadth away from her ear and whispered, “Are you sure you’re bad at sex?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It means so far you’re very good at it.”
Her fingers flexed on his arm, and she battled the urge to press herself against him like a stripper on a pole. It bewildered her. She was not at all stripperish, and unlike him, she actively disliked touching. But she craved connection so much she hurt with it. “So far we haven’t done anything yet.”
“You’re very good at the talking part.”
“I’ve had sex. There isn’t a talking part.”
A spark danced in his eyes. “There’s definitely a talking part.”
Please, don’t let there be a talking part. There was no hope for her if it involved talking. “So far—”
He gathered her hair to one side and brushed a fleeting kiss behind her ear. It happened so quickly that by the time her body tensed up he’d already pulled away. When he didn’t move to repeat the caress, her muscles relaxed once again. The place where he’d kissed her burned with awareness.
Without touching her skin, he stroked his fingers over her hair. Slow, measured movements that swept from her crown, past her neck, and down her back. The motions calmed her even as they put her on edge.
“I think you should kiss me,” he said in a husky voice.
Her heart squeezed tight, and her skin pricked with panic. She was a horrible kisser. Her awkward attempts were sure to embarrass them both. “On the mouth?”
The corner of said mouth kicked up. “Wherever you want to. The mouth is usually a good place to start.”
“Maybe I should brush my teeth. I can do that right—”
He pressed a thumb to her lips, silencing her, but his eyes were gentle. That touch, too, was gone before it fully registered in her brain. “Let’s try this another way. Do you want to see my tattoo?”
Her mind eagerly switched gears, jumping from fear straight to excitement. “Yes.”
With a small smile that was half amusement and half self-deprecating, he pulled his white T-shirt over his head and tossed it on the counter.
Stella’s mouth went lax as she filled her eyes with him. A dragon’s head, its mouth open in midroar, covered the entire left half of his wide, sculpted chest. The ink on his shoulder and arm formed one of the creature’s claws. The intricate scales of its body worked diagonally across his abs and disappeared inside his jeans.
“It’s all over you,” she commented.
“It is. Here . . .” He captured her right hand and pressed it to the ink over his heart. “Feel it.”
“You don’t mind?” When he shook his head, she bit her lip and tentatively settled her left hand on his chest as well.
Her touch was timid at first, but when he didn’t object, she grew bolder. She pushed her hands across his firm chest, enjoying the ridges of defined muscle and the smoothness of his hairless skin. Tactilely, she couldn’t discern a difference between his inked skin and his unmarked skin. Fascinating.
Her fingertips bumped down his abdomen, and she counted under her breath, “—Five. Six. Seven. Eight.” Her fingers met the waistband of his jeans, and his stomach muscles flexed and rippled as he took a breath.
“You couldn’t have a regular six-pack? You had to make it eight?”
He rolled his eyes as his lips curved. “Are you complaining, Stella?”
“Nothing to complain about. I had no idea I liked tattoos until now.”
“So you like it?”
She thought that should be obvious, so she didn’t answer. Besides, it was getting difficult to concentrate. The sight of his perfect athlete’s body and his excessive tattoo, the feel of his hot skin, and his delicious scent overwhelmed her senses.
“Can I take your glasses off? Will you still be able to see without them?”
She swallowed and nodded. “I’m nearsighted, so I won’t be able to see things far away, but that’s all right because—”
He slipped her glasses off. A soft clinking sounded as he set them on the counter behind her. The hotel suite and everything around her became a soft blur. Only he stood out in sharp focus. The solid feel of him against her palms grounded her.
“It might be easier to kiss me if you wrap your arms around my neck,” he suggested.
Her fingers twitched as she dragged them across the decadent expanse of his stomach and over his hard chest. After looping her arms stiffly around his neck, she said, “Done.”
“Closer.”
She inched forward.
“More.”
She inched forward again, stopping before their bodies could come flush together.
“Stella, closer.”
Understanding broke over her, and she settled herself against him. They were touching almost everywhere. Only the thin layers of her clothes separated them. Her nerves jangled, and panic threatened, but he didn’t rush her. He stood still, watching her with his patient, kind eyes. Against all odds, she relaxed.
“Are you still with me?” he asked.
Coming up onto her tiptoes, she aligned their bodies until they fit . . . just right. Her heart crashed in a crazy rhythm against her sternum, but she was still in control of herself—because, clever person that he was, he’d given her that control. “I’m okay.”
When he closed his arms carefully around her, his heat sank through her shirt and warmed her skin. The pressure of his undemanding embrace reached deep inside her, calming her and loosening knots she hadn’t known were there. Maybe she was better than okay.
She would gladly pay his escorting fee again just for him to hold her like this. This was heavenly. She burrowed her face into his neck and breathed him in. She skated her hands over his bare skin as she tried to nestle closer to him. If he could hold her a little tighter . . .
Something hard prodded her belly, and she drew her head back.
“You can ignore that,” he said.
“We haven’t kissed or anything. How can you . . . ?”
Hooded eyes searched hers as he lowered a hand from between her shoulder blades to the small of her back. The heat of his palm penetrated her clothes, and all the fine hairs on her body stood up. “This goes two ways, Stella. You like the feel of me. I like the feel of you.”