Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
PERRY
Rex kissed me on the cheek and then just vanished before I could say or do anything. It was like he made my brain go offline. I somehow managed to pull away from the curb without looking back longingly. Points for me curbing my obsession.
The kiss under the streetlight had sent sparks shooting up from my soul. Rex had looked at me like he wanted to devour me after that kiss, and in the car and then again when his lips brushed against my cheek. There was no denying he wanted me. At least, I thought he wanted me.
Up ahead was an intersection and going straight would take me out of his subdivision.
Taking a right would let me loop around back to his house.
Straight was the obvious answer. The one that made the most sense.
Rex wasn’t supposed to like me, or want me, or kiss my cheek like a fucking gentleman.
He was supposed to be just some guy I pretended to date so I could get a taste of what a real relationship was like.
Naturally, I turned right, and the next thing I knew I was pulling into Rex’s driveway, my car just barely fitting beside his.
He probably hadn’t noticed that I was here.
I could still leave, and he’d never be the wiser.
But I turned the engine off and undid my seatbelt anyway.
I’d made some bad decisions in my life, and I was familiar with the sense of impending doom that would hang over me as I made a choice I knew was bad.
I waited for that feeling to show up as I climbed out of the car and approached his front door… but it never did.
So either this wasn’t a bad idea, or I was too broken now to recognize one when I saw it.
It didn’t matter. I lifted my hand and curled it into a fist and knocked on the door.
Inside, I could make out the faint sound of a dog barking if I strained to listen.
So I knocked again, louder this time. Fueled by urgency, I knocked faster.
The door swung open and Rex stood there, bathed in light. He hadn’t even gotten undressed or so much as undid a single button on his shirt.
“Perry?”
“You forgot something,” I said, taking a breath, giving myself one last moment to change my mind.
He patted his pockets, presumably checking for his wallet and his phone. His brow crinkled, his confusion evident.
This could go so unbearably wrong.
“What did I forget?” he asked.
I took a step forward, inviting myself into his house. Reaching for him, I grabbed the sides of his face, cradling his cheeks in my palms. My skin was hotter and tighter than it had any business being. I was a bomb about to go off if I didn’t kiss him soon.
“Me.” And that’s when I pulled him down to me. I stepped forward again, pushing us further into the house. Rex’s arms wrapped around me as we kissed. With my foot, I kicked back and shut the door, wincing when it slammed a little harder than I’d intended.
“Oops,” I said, breaking the kiss. Before I could say anything else, Rex was on me again. His mouth hot, his tongue licked past the seam of my lips as his fingers dug into my waist like he didn’t know yet if he wanted to pull me closer or push me away.
Don’t push, I silently begged, winding my arms around him now so I could plaster my body against his and convince him that this had to happen. I needed it to happen. Needed him.
“Perry,” Rex said my name in between kisses.
In between sliding his hands up my back and pulling me close and somehow steering me away from the front door without me noticing we’d moved at all.
Time and space had no meaning when he was close enough for me to feel the thrum of his heart through his chest and the puff of his breath on my cheek.
“Perry,” he said again. “Are you sure? Because we don’t have to.”
He trembled as he held me, like his lust was shaking him apart and telling me we could stop, that we didn’t have to do anything, came at a great personal cost to him.
But he’d pay the price if I said stop. He’d probably kiss my cheek and back away slowly.
Take a few deep breaths and offer me a glass of water.
And when he was alone, he’d jump in a cold shower and rinse this off like it was just a dream.
To answer him, I held the back of his head and pulled him down to me again. This time, I kissed him softer and slower, with more intention than the fevered whim of a kiss flung at him as I barged into his house.
Rex let out a groan and then his hands were everywhere, in my hair as he tilted my head and delved his tongue into my mouth again with unleashed hunger.
They slid down my back and up my sides and down to my ass, caressing me like he was trying to learn the shape of me.
Pressed against me was the rock-solid proof of his arousal.
I’d seen more than my fair share of dick, but I couldn’t remember the last time I was curious about what was in someone’s pants. A dick was a dick. Some were bigger than others. Some had owners who knew how to use them, and some didn’t. But Rex’s was a mystery. A treat that I wanted to unwrap.
But not yet.
Right now, I was floating away. Rex had kissed me dizzy, and now he worked his way down my neck, a fresh breath of air hitting my lungs making my head spin.
“You came back,” Rex said, his voice tinged with disbelief even though I was right there in front of him.
I didn’t have a good response to that, so I kissed him again.
Because what I really wanted to say was that I’d always come back to him, but it was too soon for words like always to be thrown around.
Always was hardly a casual sort of word, and that wasn’t the kind of promise you made someone in the heat of the moment.
“I couldn’t stay away,” was what I settled on saying.
Rex kissed my neck again. We were still standing in his entryway, making out and groping like a pair of horny teenagers.
“I’m glad,” Rex said, yet he paused and I felt a but coming on.
I’m glad you came, but we have to stop.
I’m glad you came, but you need to go.
“But I don’t have any supplies. I mean, I have lube, but no protection. I haven’t been tested in a while, but I also haven’t had sex in a while. I was fine last time I was tested.”
My heart did a funny little swoop like it was gloating that I was wrong about what Rex was going to say.
“I’m tested regularly, and my results are negative across the board, but I can rock your world in so many ways that don’t involve us needing condoms at all.”
Something flashed in Rex’s eyes. A hint of raw want mixed with a gentle kind of vulnerability. I made my hands go still, and I stopped my body from its slow grind against his and for a second, we just breathed.
“Does my experience bother you?” The million-dollar question was out in the open, and Rex shook his head.
“No. It’s my inexperience that bothers me. I… don’t want to disappoint you.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
He drew me closer. “No. Because I’d feel this way if you were a celibate accountant who hadn’t touched another man’s dick in a decade.”
All the things Rex had told me about himself and his bedroom life came flooding back. The way men wanted certain things from him. The way they probably wanted him to be in charge and make all the moves and take care of everyone’s pleasure. But he didn’t have to be that way with me.
“Well, I’m not a celibate accountant, and I won’t tell you when the last time I touched another man’s dick was unless that sort of thing gets you off.
” As I spoke, I slowly unbuttoned his shirt, not bothering to look at the buttons.
Instead, I kept my eyes trained on his face.
“But I’d love for you to sit back and let me devour you. ”
Rex’s hands flexed, his fingers biting into my sides again. I fucking loved the way that felt kind of possessive. Like he was claiming me with his body regardless of what his brain might be saying about the whole thing.
I kissed the column of his throat. Slid a hand down his front, skimming the bulge in his pants.
He moaned and his body arched into my touch.
Something I learned in my line of work was how to set expectations before a scene.
Who would do what, and when, and what kinds of things were okay and what things were off-limits.
This wasn’t work by any stretch of the imagination, but I still found myself drawing on that experience.
“I want to strip you bare, and then I want to kiss you everywhere. I want to make you come with my hands or my mouth, and I want to grind against you. I want to stroke our cocks together. I want to see how they fit.”
Rex took a tiny step backward, putting just a little distance between us. “If you keep talking like that, I’m going to come in my pants.”
“See, no condoms required.” I grabbed his hand and led him further into his house. “Bed or couch, make your choice.”
A heated look flared through Rex’s expression, and he licked his lip before giving me his answer. “Bed.”
“Then lead the way,” I said, stepping out of my shoes. I narrowly avoided Danish, who had appeared suddenly and started following us to the bedroom. When we arrived, Rex apologized to the dog before shutting the door.
“I let him on the bed to sleep. Some people hate it.” He looked nervous again, and I did my best to defuse his tension.
“Some people are stupid,” I told him as I went back to unbuttoning his shirt. “God, look at you.”
I exhaled at the sight of his bare chest. He looked soft in the best way. Thick pecs and a slightly round stomach. His chest was furry, but the hair thinned out to a dark treasure trail.
I shoved his shirt down his shoulders and tugged it off him.
Rex tossed it aside, the only mess in the neat-as-a-pin bedroom.
The bed had been made and there was no laundry on the floor.
No stack of half-eaten snacks on the bedside table.
Were it not for the stack of books and the reading glasses, I might have thought he brought me to a guest room.
“You’re sexy as fuck. Can I call you Doctor Patterson, or is that weird?”
My comment seemed to do the trick and Rex laughed, releasing some of his nervous tension.
“Please don’t. If you want to role play, we can, but I’m probably not good at it.” Rex looked at my mouth for a minute before reluctantly lifting his gaze again to meet mine.
My eyes narrowed, and I pressed my hands against his chest, moving him back until he hit the bed and sat down on the edge of it. Then it was my turn to take my shirt off. I watched Rex watch me undo the buttons, one at a time, going slowly.
He looked at me like he was lost in a desert, and I was a tall glass of water. With my shirt off, I stepped between his legs, parting them with a gentle nudge of my knee. I cradled his face in my hands and stared down at him.
“If I do anything you don’t like, you can tell me to stop.”
Rex let out a dry laugh. “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”
I leaned down and brushed my lips against his. Once. Twice. “Fingers crossed.” Three times.