Chapter 12
Twelve
SARAH
Theo had insisted we sit on the couch that faced the fire. It was a comfortable old sofa in a floral fabric not even my grandmother would have picked out. I needed to update the furniture in here.
And I dithered so I didn’t have to think about the way my knees trembled as I lowered myself onto the cushion next to Theo. He shimmied closer, resting his arm along the back of the couch.
“What are you thinking about?” he murmured silkily.
“The word gallimaufry,” I blurted out, twisting my fingers nervously in my lap.
Theo’s mouth trembled with amusement as he reached out to smooth his hand over mine.
I jumped at his touch. His skin was rougher and more calloused than a person might expect, but I remembered him telling me he was part of a rowing team back at Oxford and he’d continued to row alone after graduation.
Were the calluses from rowing for years?
“Why are you thinking about the word gallimaufry?” he asked softly, his lips almost touching my ear.
A shiver skated down my spine and I turned a wee bit so our faces almost touched. “I need to get rid of the furniture in here,” I offered, my voice hoarse with tension and nerves. “Put my own stamp on the place. Something more cohesive.”
“Ah.” Understanding dawned. “It is quite the gallimaufry of furnishing, isn’t it?”
I swallowed hard as my eyes landed on his mouth. I think I nodded. It was hard to know because I was suddenly hot and the wild butterflies in my stomach made it hard for me to concentrate on anything else.
Theo studied me before he reached out to caress my cheek with his thumb. The soft touch made me move closer. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” His voice sounded hoarse, and there was a smolder in his eyes I’d never seen before. Like … he was turned on.
My belly flipped, this time deeper and lower.
Be brave, I told myself as I felt his chest brush my shoulder. Be brave and take what you want.
I turned toward him to bridge the short distance between us. My lips brushed softly over his, tentative touches that made my mouth tingle. His lips were soft, full, and my heart rate sped up along with my gentle exploration. Theo stayed perfectly still, letting me take my time.
It wasn’t scary. It was exciting.
I pressed my lips a little harder against his and, finally, he kissed me back.
A gasp escaped from me into him as tingles awoke across my breasts, making them feel fuller, tightening my nipples.
That same tingling sparked to life between my thighs.
Wanting more of that sensation, I moved my mouth against Theo’s, enjoying the way he took his time.
Who knew kissing could feel like this?
Suddenly, he pulled back, and I noted the pink across the crest of his cheeks. His gaze was low-lidded with desire and instead of terrifying me, it thrilled me. “Open your mouth, little darling.”
Oh.
This was the part I was sure I was going to hate.
But the only way to know for sure was to try.
I licked my lips and nodded. And I was sure Theo groaned before he brushed his mouth over mine, coaxing me back into the deliciousness of his soft kisses.
Then I felt his thumb on my bottom lip, pulling it down. Asking me to open.
I parted my lips and at the first touch of his tongue against mine, a rush of arousal squeezed my belly. I gasped again at the sensation, my hands coming up with a mind of their own to rest on his shoulders as I tried to mimic what he was doing with his tongue.
Theo groaned as I licked at him, and his arms were suddenly around me, crushing my breasts to his chest as he deepened the kiss.
Whoa.
Holy … this … this is what I’d been missing out on the whole time?
Losing myself to sensation, I matched him, moaning into his mouth as our kisses turned hungry and desperate.
THEO
I was harder than I’d ever been in my life.
At the first innocent brush of her lips against mine, I swear all the blood in my Neanderthal brain rushed south. I went from half-mast to full at the simple touch of Sarah’s tongue against mine.
I couldn’t explain my visceral reaction to kissing this woman.
And at that moment, I couldn’t give a damn why. I just wanted to experience her.
As she moaned into my mouth, her hands drifting up the nape of my neck to slide her fingers into my hair, any last remnants of rational thinking flew out of my head.
Instead, I pulled her light weight over me until she straddled me, my cock straining against my zipper at her heat.
“Oh.” She broke the kiss, those stunning eyes wide with arousal and questions.
“Don’t,” I practically begged her not to overthink this. “Unless you want to stop.” Please, Christ, do not say you want to stop. I think I might have offered the universe my fucking soul to have Sarah not say she wanted to stop.
“I don’t want to stop,” she murmured, her cheeks flushed.
I reached up to cup her hot cheek, stroking my thumb over her soft skin. “I’m dying to know if that blush covers the entirety of your delectable body.”
Her chest rose and fell with excited breaths, and despite her shyness, she forced out, “I-I suppose you’re about to find out.”
Dear God, she was magnificent.
I wrapped my hand around her nape, my fingers tangling in the silky strands of her hair, as I yanked her mouth to mine. I knew I should take it slow, or if I wasn’t being a total moron, stop altogether, but I couldn’t remember the last time I was this goddamn aroused.
To my surprise, Sarah’s timidity disappeared when she was turned on.
She sank into my kiss with eager hunger and rolled her hips, the seam of her jeans rubbing against my cock.
Her gasp lit me on fucking fire and I took over the kiss.
Needing to touch her, feel her, I slid my hands beneath her sweater and skated my palms up her slender waist to cup her perfect breasts.
They filled my palms exquisitely. I wanted them in my mouth.
I squeezed them, hard, and Sarah whimpered, her fingers tightening in my hair.
God, this woman. I wanted to fucking devour her.
I broke the kiss, my breathing shallow and rapid. “Take this off.” I tugged at her sweater.
Sarah didn’t hesitate. She seemed as impatient as I to feel everything.
At the sight of her straddling me, in nothing but a demure lacy bra, her hair falling wildly around her shoulders, her cheeks flushed, eyes bright … I honestly didn’t think I’d ever seen anything so beautiful or sexy in my life.
Holding her gaze, I felt her breathing grow labored as I reached around her back to unclasp her bra. Slowly, I peeled the straps down her arms until she was bare to me.
My mouth went dry.
Her breasts were … “I’m not just saying this, love,” I whispered gruffly. “But you have the most perfect breasts I’ve ever seen.”
And I meant it. Round and perky with tight, hard, dark rosy nipples that begged for my mouth. A flush spread across her chest at my words and I grinned. “Well, you don’t flush all over, but you certainly do flush in places other than your pretty cheeks.”
That only made her blush harder until I took her tits in my hand and squeezed them.
She made a guttural sound as her back bowed into my touch, and I was lost again. “I want to do filthy things to you, little darling,” I warned against her skin as I trailed kisses between her breasts. “Do you want me to do filthy things to you?”
“Yes, yes,” she panted, arching into me as I wrapped my mouth around her right nipple.
As I tormented the little hard bud, my fingers opened the buttons and zipper on her jeans.
Sliding my hand inside, I found the lace edge of her knickers and slipped past those too.
I felt the light dusting of hair that told me she wasn’t entirely bare, and her hips jerked with feeling as I expertly found her hot little clit.
“Oh!” She gasped as I sucked her nipple and rubbed the bundle of nerves between her thighs. “Theo, Theo.”
I swear I lost my mind at the sound of my name falling from her lips.
SARAH
I didn’t know how it happened. How we went from experimenting with a kiss to me riding Theo’s fingers as his mouth played with my naked breasts.
As my arousal tightened toward climax, I gasped out his name.
And then suddenly the man growled (aye, growled) and I was being lifted into the air. I grabbed onto him like a monkey, arms around his shoulders, legs around his waist.
“I need to fuck you,” he explained, voice thick, “and we need a bed because I intend to do it thoroughly.”
No discussion about whether we should do this and if we did, what it would mean.
And I honestly didn’t want to talk about it. It would ruin it.
I wanted him to take me to bed. If our kisses and caresses were a sign of what could be, I wanted to experience the kind of sex I’d only dreamed of.
So I nodded, clinging tighter to him, and triumph glittered in his blue-gray gaze as he carried me easily into my bedroom.
He dropped me on the bed and yanked roughly on my jeans. I loved that he didn’t treat me like delicate glass or a shy virgin, even as a flush of vulnerability heated through me as he tugged my knickers down my legs.
Theo’s eyes blazed as he stared down at me. “Bloody hell, woman, every inch of you is perfect.”
I squirmed in delight at his compliment as he whipped off his sweater to reveal the hard planes of his torso.
For someone who hadn’t exercised much while he was here, he certainly hadn’t lost any definition.
I wondered if he was naturally wiry and hard.
Then I didn’t wonder anything beyond wanting to explore him, to feel the smooth, hard dips and ripples of his lean muscle.
I licked my lips and his nostrils flared.
“Like what you see, little mouse?”
Words wouldn’t come, so I nodded.
He grinned as he unbuttoned his jeans, and the look was so cocky I found my voice.
“Smug bastard,” I grumbled.