Cruel and Beautiful (Cruel & Beautiful #1)

Shit! “Yeah. Be out in a second.” My plans for the sexy nightie are trashed. I can’t delay this any longer, so I open the door. There he stands, the corners of his eyes drooping with concern.

When I was a kid, I used to love it in the summers in Charleston after a huge rainstorm. When the tide is unusually high, there is shallow coastal flooding and when storms dumped a couple of inches rain, small swimming pools would be everywhere. I feel like my bones have melted into one of those pools.

“Cate.” He calls out again. My name rolls off his tongue and sounds husky. “Are you sure?”

I rub my sweaty palms on my jeans. “About us? This? Yes. I’ve never been more sure of anything. I’m just a little nervous, if you want the truth. And it’s me I’m unsure of, not being with you.”

He reaches out, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Don’t be. I fall asleep thinking of you and wake up doing the same. You have nothing to fear, I promise.”

Glancing down at the floor, I stare at his bare feet. He must’ve taken his shoes off while I was in the bathroom. I shake my hands because for whatever reason, they tingle. “Drew, don’t say that. Remember dickwad?” I cross, uncross, then cross my arms again.

He puts his hands on them, stopping my repeated motions. “Hey, I want you in the here and now. Not with him.” His eyes have darkened. Is it with anger?

“It’s not that I’m with him. It’s that I’m unsure of my ability to …” This is awkward.

He shuts me up with a kiss. And it’s not just any kiss. His hands are on either side of my face as his tongue pushes through the seam of my lips. He pulls me against him as he deepens the kiss. He goes for broke here and succeeds. Everything I worry about flies out the window as my arms wind around his waist. I pull him into me and moan. When he lets me go I protest.

“I want you to undress me and then I want to do the same to you. Is that okay?”

I nod.

My hands shake as they pull at his shirt. Their clumsy movements succeed, with his help, in freeing him. I run my hands over the rigid muscles of his torso, across his hips and down to the waist of his jeans. I’m all thumbs, so he has to assist with the zipper and button. Getting his pants off isn’t that difficult. Maybe I’m losing my anxiety or my coordination is returning. My eyes drop down and I can’t help but notice the erection straining against his boxers. It shocks me so that I immediately look away. He smiles.

“I think I’ve lived in this state since we met. You only have yourself to blame.”

I don’t really know how to answer that so I do nothing except stare. He picks my hands up, covers them with his, and we both finish the task of removing his boxers. It’s difficult not to ogle what blatantly juts out in front of me. I can’t help but touch him. I’ve always thought cocks were weird looking appendages. Hell, so are vaginas, for that matter. But take a cock for instance. I’ve seen pictures of them when they’re soft, and they’re funky looking things with a sack attached behind them. And when they’re hard, some of them curve, or are super skinny or whatever. Drew’s cock is what I would call perfect. Not too big and not too little, but if a cock can be called pretty, his is.

He interrupts my cock-thoughts. His thumb and forefinger grab my chin and tip it so I’m forced to look at him. “Now it’s my turn.”

My palms, which are still sweaty, need a wipe on my jeans, but I don’t want to give that away. He knows I’m edgy. Hell, he can probably hear my damn heart race. It sounds like a freaking jackhammer to me.

He pulls my sweater over my head and stares at me in my bra. Then he sits on the bed and opens his thighs. Pulling me between them, he unbuttons my jeans. Now I stand in bra and panties only. Good thing I took off my socks and shoes in the bathroom.

“Your skin is perfect.” He runs his fingers from my neck to the top of my panties. “Unhook your bra for me, please.” I do as he asks and watch his face. His eyes roam my body but I thought they’d zero in on my breasts. They do for a moment, but then ultimately land on my own eyes. “You undo me, Cate.”

His finger moves to the top of my lace panties. He runs along the top, but doesn’t dip any further than that yet. “Is this okay?”

“Yes.” My voice is unsteady and I don’t sound like myself.

“You look sexy enough to eat and I’m going to eat you, Cate.”

“I know. I want you to.”

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