Chapter 16 #2
But when Greer touched him, it was again on his right side. “The definition of your muscles. The play of sinew under your skin. The hollows and shadows.” She traced a finger down his jawline. “You’re really quite beautiful.”
Why should that make his face heat up like a twelve-year-old boy? “Not compared to you. At least I think you’re more beautiful. It’s hard to tell with you all covered up.”
She laughed, a sweet, light sound. “Nice try.”
Then she shimmied her way down his body, rubbing her shirt across his hypersensitive skin. She traced a line down the middle of his body with her tongue, and Alex gave up.
He was a dead man.
He flung his arms out to the side but kept his hands wrapped into fists. He felt her smile against his belly.
When his dick was nicely wedged between her breasts, Greer paused. Used her tongue to probe his belly button this time. Darting it in and out in quick little flicks.
His balls pulsed in response. Out of pure self-defense, he wrapped a hand in Greer’s hair, tugged lightly. “If you don’t stop that, I’m gonna—”
She tongue-fucked him again.
His fingers clenched around that wild halo of hair and he ground his back teeth together to hold back the impulses squeezing his cock.
With his last remaining brain cell, he began visualizing a complex tooling design.
Lots of flowers and leaves, one of every kind known to man.
In his mind, he beveled, crosshatched, and detailed the hell out of entire garden.
She pressed a smacking kiss to his stomach and rested her chin there to stare up at him. “You okay?”
No, he was only a half-second from blowing, and she hadn’t even unzipped him yet.
Pathetic.
“I…” Jesus, was that strained sound his voice? “Um…yeah.”
“You’ve been a very good boy.”
If she only knew how bad he really was, she’d jump off this trailer and walk away as fast as her sexy legs would carry her.
But instead, she slithered farther down his legs and rubbed her cheek against his zipper.
His eyes were squeezed so tightly closed it was surprising he wasn’t shedding blood tears. When Greer unbuttoned his jeans and slowly slid down his zipper, he didn’t dare open his eyes. As it was, he was holding his breath until his lungs felt as if they would bust.
“Mmm.” The hum of approval from her throat killed him a hundred different ways. She worked his pants down, over his hips and thighs, and slowly down his calves.
When moments passed and he didn’t feel her touch, Alex was forced to crack open his lids. “Greer?”
She glanced up at his face as if she’d forgotten he had a voice. “Why do you hide all this?”
“It’s a very long story.”
“I’m a very patient woman.”
Okay, that was complete bullshit. But she was tenacious. “You’re telling me you’d rather hear the stories about my tats than—” he reached down and wrapped a fist around his cock, “—do something with this?”
“I’m telling you I want both.”
So many emotions tumbled through Greer as she stared down at Alex’s half-virgin, half-Illustrated Man body, she couldn’t possibly catalog them all.
In the moonlight his skin was a warm copper and the ring in his pierced nipple flashed.
His skin molded to his muscles, highlighting the indention at his collarbone and his hip.
His chest was almost bare of hair, but he had a fine dusting on his legs and under his arms. By the rise and fall of his chest, he was either uncomfortable as all hell at being on display or he was so turned on that he couldn’t get himself under wraps.
And God knew, she wanted to trace every picture, every tiny line of his tattoos. The way he protected them meant they were important. Either because he held them close or because he detested them.
But just as his body was a work of art, so were his tattoos. That he’d let her expose him was huge.
Greer’s heart swelled to six times its normal size. No matter how much she wanted to shuck her clothes and rub her naked skin against his, she couldn’t let him make this just about sex. So she simply sat back on her haunches and remained silent.
“Before I learned to tool leather, I was a tattoo artist,” he finally said.
She waved her fingers near his shoulder. “Are you telling me that you…” She’d seen the ink on his back. That was impossible, unless he was freakily double-jointed.
“My brother Javier.”
“Oh.” Now, she ran a hand along his shoulder. “I’m so sorry he’s gone. He was obviously very talented.”
He shrugged the shoulder she was touching, but tension radiated from his muscles beneath her palm. “It was years ago now.”
So the topic of his brother wasn’t on the table. Fine. “If you were half as good as he was, you didn’t hurt for business. What made you move from tattoos to leather art?”
“My clientele sucked.” He twisted to his side and sat up in one fluid motion. “Look, all that stuff was in the past. And the past should stay there.”
The ball of concern in her gut would’ve eased if she believed for a microsecond that Alex’s past didn’t haunt him. “That’s impossible. The past always impacts who we are now.”
“Right now, I’m a man who wants to…make love…with a beautiful woman.”
He was right. It was unfair for her to ask him to strip down in every way possible their first time together. So she stood and toed off her prophecy boots, set them aside.
“If those boots are supposed to have so much power,” he said, “why don’t you keep them locked up somewhere safe? Keep them clean and shiny all the time?”
“Because they’re meant to be worn. Yes, they’re art, but not some rare piece to hide behind glass and ropes and guards. In fact, they have no power if you never put them on.”
Part of her wanted to push, wanted to kneel down beside him and somehow pour her own belief inside him. But that would only drive him away, so she dug into her pocket and produced a clip. Wound it into her mass of hair to control it.
“Don’t,” he said. “I like it loose.” The smile that crossed Alex’s face was so open, so sweet she would’ve done anything for him in that moment.
“It has a life of its own. Hell, it has its own address.” But she dropped the hair tie at her feet.
Now his smile heated into something dark and primitive and possessive. Little prickles ran over Greer’s body at the sight.
So she unzipped her jeans, wiggled her hips, and pushed the fabric around her ankles.
In response, Alex spread his feet wide and leaned back on his palms, once again opening his body to her.
His erection, lying hard and close to his stomach, said he liked what he was seeing.
Her heart was thudding so hard, pulling in a decent breath became a challenge.
Her underwear wasn’t a testament to a pricey lingerie chain, but it matched. Somehow, pink and green floral cotton didn’t seem like it was Alex’s speed, but the way his intent gaze roamed over her, he was a fan.
Greer breathed through the flutters in her stomach, reached between her breasts and unhooked her bra. This was always a leap of faith for her. She’d been “blessed” with a much bigger woman’s breasts.
Alex didn’t move, but his fingers were digging into the trailer bed.
Without really thinking about her actions, Greer rubbed at the spot under her breasts irritated by the elastic band, effectively lifting them and creating a skin magazine-worthy cleavage. Hmm…now even Alex’s handsome toes were curling. He was obviously a boob man.
She hooked her thumbs into the sides of her panties, paused.
“If you stop now, I will cash it in right here on this trailer. How do you feel about your artists stumbling across a dead guy with a boner from hell?”
“Is that even possible?”
He reached between his legs and fisted his penis. “Pretty sure this is all the blood in my body.”
The sight of him holding himself, absentmindedly stroking up and down, sent buzzing shocks through Greer’s body. And they all shot directly between her legs to set off a damp ache. She pushed down the scrap of cotton and kicked it aside.
“Turn around,” Alex demanded.
She did as he asked, the night air sweeping her body, electrifying her skin and hardening her already tight nipples.
“You have dimples in your ass.”
She looked over her shoulder and shot him a cheeky smile. “So I’ve been told.”
“Come here,” His words were deep, dark, demanding.
Her thighs went loose, and she rubbed them together, trying to satisfy that edgy feeling building inside her. In a fluid move, he grabbed her hand and reeled her toward him, holding a hip to spin her around.
Then, as light as a butterfly landing on honeysuckle, Alex kissed the dimple on her right butt cheek. His warm breath skimmed across the divide between, and he kissed the other dimple, touching it ever so lightly with his tongue.
Her knees went loosey-goosey.
A simple touch by a less than simple man.
“Turn around,” he said, grabbing her above the knee and placing her foot on the other side of his legs as she turned to face him.
“I need to sit down. I’m standing here—”
“Naked?”
Oh, so naked and her legs spread so wide that he was on level with all her achy parts.
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Then come closer.”
She stepped toward him until she could feel his warm breath at the apex of her thighs. Her legs were caving, doing some shaking-shivering-quivering thing. She’d been with a few men, and quivering had never been in her sexual repertoire, especially not when the man had barely touched her.
But Alex had her in one huge quaking state of anticipation.
He gripped her upper thighs, used his thumbs to part her, and took a long, leisurely lick.
And holy of all holies, he did some wicked curl thing at the end that had her clitoris humming.
She reached down to stroke herself, needing to curb the intensity of the feeling, but Alex was faster, grabbing her hand and holding it away. “Uh-uh.”
“I need—”
“You said you trusted me.”
“I do, but—”
“Then trust me to know what you need, to take care of you.”