I keep my gaze fixed down on the tiled bathroom floor. This is, without a doubt, the most humiliating moment of my life.
“Messy?” Austin sounds amused. “Baby, look at me.”
I keep staring down. He gently takes my chin and lifts my head, until I’m gazing into those gorgeous blue eyes.
I brace myself for laughter, I’ve made enough of a fool of myself as it is, but instead, there’s just tenderness.
“What you were doing back there wasn’t weird,” he states simply. “It was fucking hot.”
I blink.
“But… You didn’t mind?” I frown. “That I was getting all messy and gross. You know…” I blush. It had started out so well, but as Austin slid down my body, all I could think about was Matt’s face every time he deigned to go down on me. Like it was the biggest ordeal.
“Sugar, I could eat you out for days.”
Austin’s words make me flush, hot, but they fill me with a flicker of hope. “So, you didn’t mind?”
“What is this?” he cuts me off, frowning. “Who’s been filling your head with this bullshit?”
I look away.
“Is it this asshole ex of yours?” Austin demands. “What the fuck did he say to you?”
“He didn’t have to say anything,” I sigh. “I could tell. I wasn’t sexy enough for him, he couldn’t…”
“Couldn’t what?” Austin watches me.
I gulp. “You know, perform.” My humiliation gets worse. What kind of girlfriend can’t keep her man satisfied? And not even satisfied, but excited, full stop.
“We had problems, in bed,” I finally admit. “Most of the time, he couldn’t get hard. And even when he did…he wouldn’t last. He got so stressed about it, he didn’t need the distractions. You know, me getting loud and messy or anything.”
I look down, suddenly remembering how lonely I would feel, lying there in bed next to him. He wouldn’t talk about it, didn’t want the stress. I wanted us to work through it, to break through whatever barriers he had up, but he refused to even try.
“Fucking idiot.”
I flinch. Austin’s eyes widen in horror. “Not you, sweetheart, him! He was the one with the problem, and he made you feel like it was all your fault!”
“But it was,” I argue, shameful. “He said it had never happened before. I was the first woman who couldn’t get him excited.”
“Bullshit,” Austin scowls. He gets up suddenly, and grabs my hands, swinging me to my feet.I catch my breath, surprised.
“Now you listen to me, sweetheart,” Austin growls, looking furious. “Because you need to hear this. You are, without a doubt, the hands-down sexiest, most gorgeous, desirable woman I’ve ever had the pleasure to lay my hands on.”
He’s just trying to be nice. I open my mouth to protest, but he pushes me back against the sink and presses his index finger to my lips, hushing me.
“I’m not done yet,” he insists fiercely. “You’re sexy as hell, Sophie, and I want to rip that guy’s throat out for ever making you feel like you aren’t good enough. Because he’s a fucking liar. He wanted to blame you for his problems, and worse still, he made you feel like your desires were wrong. But they’re not, they’re perfect. You’re perfect.”
My heart trembles. His eyes are blazing with passion, and I can see, he means every word. “You think I’m sexy?” I whisper hopefully.
He gives me a devilish grin.
“I know you are.”
He suddenly grips my hips, yanking me tight against him. All of him.
My stomach twists.
Wow.
“Feel that,” he murmurs, his voice turning raspy. “That’s for you, darlin’, every last inch.” He grinds his hardness into my hips, and I can feel him, the stiff, gorgeous length.
I wet my lips, lightheaded. “I just…I don’t want to disappoint you,” I whisper, blushing to meet his gaze.
The raw intensity softens. Austin gently cups my cheek with his hand. “Never,” he swears. “Not in a million years.”
He kisses me, a kiss filled with heat and possibility. There’s nothing reluctant about it. No hiding his desire.
He wants me. Me.
The thought fills me with a new confidence. I reach up, looping my hands around his neck and burying my fingers in his gorgeous hair. I pull him down, kissing him hungrily, loving the feel of his body against me.
Austin groans against my mouth, and then he’s picking me up, wrapping my legs around his waist and effortlessly striding back out to the bedroom. My pulse kicks, but this time, it’s with desire, not nerves.
He sets me down on the bed. My robe falls open, and his eyes rake hungrily over my bare skin. I shiver, loving the way he looks at me. After so long with Matt, I wondered if anyone would find me sexy like this: raw and wild. But Austin looks like he wants to devour me whole.
And he does.
I gasp as he reaches for me, claiming my lips in a searing kiss. But even as I’m falling into the rush of his mouth on mine, his hands are roving over my body, teasing me, exploring every inch. I shudder as his fingers dip between my thighs again, stroking softly at my clit, sending pleasure ricocheting through my body.
I moan against him, and Austin breaks the kiss. He gazes hotly into my eyes, stroking again, deeper. “That’s it, baby,” he murmurs, dipping kisses down my neck and along the tender skin of my collarbone. “Moan for me. Tell me what you want.”