Chapter 31
Do I need a refresher? I laugh to myself.
Of course not.
Every touch, each kiss he’s given me, since we first started this ridiculous game has already kept me up at night. Replaying each and every time the intensity of his green eyes have poured into mine, understanding more than he ever lets on.
The kisses that have been so good they’ve made me lose sleep.
I can’t even handle thinking back to the evening we made out in the sand without getting completely hot under the collar.
My pulse picks up slightly as his eyes burn into mine.
I want him so bad, I can almost taste it. But no one is here. No reason to put on a show.
“You say you’ve been fooled. By which parts?” he asks again, dragging his knuckles up my ankle and back down again.
“That.” I point to his hand against my leg.
“This?” He drags his knuckles higher, pressing into my skin as they go.
“Yes.” I crack into a smile, nodding. “Very convincing.”
His knuckles trail up to my knee, squeezing it in his palm, like he’s done dozens of times. But this time it’s different. Because this time we’re all alone.
“And that.” I smile. “You have very convincing hands.”
He erupts into that deep laugh I’ve grown to love, and it makes me grin harder. He shifts on the couch, closing the gap between our bodies. “There’s one thing I’m not sure we’re fooling anyone with.”
“Which part?”
My heart begins to race as I wonder which part of our whole charade is coming next.
“In fact, I was thinking that we might need a little more practice with it. For the sake of being believable, of course.”
“Of course,” I mumble back quietly. “I want to make sure we’re on top of our game.”
He smirks, placing both hands on my legs, dragging them slowly up toward my lap.
My heart starts pounding so loud that I can hear it between my ears.
He leans in closer. His hands reach my mid-thigh the same time his lips meet mine, beckoning them to open. My eyes close and roll back in my head, giving into his kiss as I take it all in.
The fact that no one is here.
There’s no reason to put on a show.
Unless we’re really going to do this.
And the show is just for us.
I moan into his kiss and pull back from him, already feeling a bit lightheaded and breathless.
“Dom,” I mumble, not wanting to open my eyes yet. Not wanting to break the spell. “Do you think I need practice kissing to be more convincing?”
I crack one eye open, hoping I’m not just imagining what I think is taking place here.
He grabs my face between his hands, the weight and heat of them grounding me back in place.
“Liv . . .” He gently kisses my forehead, my cheek, then my other cheek, moving my face right where he wants his lips to go. Finally, he leans in closer, until his lips are brushing against mine as he speaks again. “Your kisses have fooled me so intensely that I think I might be fooled into falling for you.” I can feel him smiling against my lips as he pauses to take a breath. “The only thing here that needs more practice is us trying to figure out what the hell this is.”
I open both eyes so I can look into his while he talks. Hoping I’m not the only one imagining that this charade between us has become far more than a game.
“But, if you’re so unbelievably good at faking this, whatever this is, that I’ve somehow misunderstood, then I’ll—”
“You haven’t.” I push him back onto the couch, pressing my lips against his.
He swings me beneath him, enveloping me in his arms. Then he kicks both feet out over the edge, shifting again while he tries to find a position that doesn’t leave him hanging half-off the couch. But within seconds we’re both laughing. He’s too big for us to both lie down.
“The bed.” I shift up off the couch.
Without a word, he jumps and sweeps me off my feet, swinging me up into his arms like a rag doll. In under ten paces, we’re in the bedroom, where he tosses me down across the bed and climbs on top of me, pressing me down into the mattress.
I pull back.
“Just to be clear,” I blurt out breathlessly, “this part isn’t just practice. Right? Because if it is, I can just—”
“No,” he says firmly. “And you’re not . . .” He cocks his head to the side, pausing to study me.
“No.” I match his tone.
We both smile into another kiss before he swiftly pulls his shirt over his head, then leans down to cover my mouth in his again, making sure I forget that I even asked.
Every little thing we’ve done up until this point has felt like foreplay.
Him finding me standing in my red panties at the front door.
The way his eyes first rolled down my bare skin, like he was trying so hard to be the perfect gentleman, before he burst into the door.
His voice, that first time he said I looked gorgeous.
And the second time, too.
The crimson that spread over his cheeks after my swimsuit top slipped off.
My back pressed into the hot sand while his lips held me captive in the sunset.
Every single time his hand squeezed that sensitive spot over my hip, sending delicious chills up my spine.
All of it building in my body, demolishing any self-control I had left until this very moment.
When I first became single again, I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel, finding myself in the arms of anyone else. But now that I’m here, I can’t imagine it any other way.
I want him. Now .
And the fact that there’s no other person around, no one that he could possibly be trying to fool, makes each touch that much better.
I sit up and pull my sundress over my head, revealing just a pair of silky red panties underneath, no bra on top.
He pushes his forehead into mine with a small groan. Then he leans in to kiss me, but stops just before his lips get to mine. I feel them parting, breathing into my mouth, before he starts confessing to me again.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about those red lace panties I saw you wearing on the porch that first day,” he growls.
Then he wraps one hand around my neck, knotting my hair up in his fist behind my head, tilting my face higher to expose my jaw to his lips. I feel like putty in his arms, here to do with as he pleases. His mouth brushes against my earlobe, then travels down to my collarbone, sending a shiver straight through me. “I almost broke down the door that day, just so I could carry you inside and pull them off with my teeth.”