“Happy Birthday for yesterday,” he mumbled in a rough low voice. More pins were tossed onto the counter.
“Thanks.”
Carefully, he started pulling sections of my hair free, letting them fall down my back. The intent look in his eyes, the absolute focus as he did it, nearly killed me. What the hell was going on here? Talk about mixed signals. Maybe I’d have a cold bath, ice, the whole works. It would take at least that to put out the fire in my pants.
“Happy Twenty-Ninth Birthday for before Christmas,” I said, voice wavering. “I, um … I know I was there for the dinner, but…”
“But you were avoiding me.” The edges of his mouth slid into a smile. It seemed self-deprecating somehow. Definitely unfunny.
“Yeah.”
He stared at me in the mirror. And then he stared at me some more. God, I wish I could read him. Just for a moment even. I wished I could touch him even more.
“Funny,” he said. “We were only texting, but I got used to it.”
“Me too.”
“What do you want for your birthday?” he asked, changing the topic abruptly.
“Ah, nothing. You don’t need to buy me anything.”
“I want to get you something. So what do you want? What do you need?”
Him and him with his heart on his sleeve. “The handle on my canvas satchel broke the other day. Guess I could do with a new one of those, if you wanted to get me something. But Ben, it’s really not necessary.”
“A satchel. Okay. What else?”
“Nothing else. Thank you. Just a new satchel would be great.”
He shook his head. “Most women would be asking for diamonds.”
“Ben, I don’t like you because you have money. I like you because you’re you.”
His thumb stroked over the back of my neck, there and gone in an instant. Perhaps it was an accident. “Thank you.”
I plucked a pin from my hair, taking over the job. “We better get this done. It’s late.”
“I got it,” he said, focusing on my hair once more.
“Okay.” God he was beautiful. Why did I have to go nuts every time he came near? Just once it would be nice if I could not play the fool where this man was concerned. “I think maybe you should leave. I think I need you to.”
Thick fingers removed another pin, like I hadn’t said a word.
“Why are you here?” I reached back behind my head and grabbed his wrists, stilling him. “Ben?”
“Because apparently I’m shit at staying away from you.”
“Then I guess we have a problem.” Our fingers meshed, holding on tight.
“That’s putting it fucking mildly.”
My eyelids started blinking like crazy for some reason. “I warned you not to flirt with me again unless you meant it.”
He didn’t answer, just released my fingers and went back to playing with my hair, running it over the back of his hand, laying it over my shoulder. Such a stern look on his face, the frown embedded on his sharp features. My hands fell back to my sides.
And call me a blundering fool, but I was going there again. Apparently I would never learn. Hair half up, half down, and the buzz from the margaritas fading much too fast to help fuel such bravery. Damn it. I looked crazy—and hell, I probably was. Who are we kidding?
“Hey.” I turned, cupping his cheek with my hand. The bristle of his beard felt amazing, sort of soft and yet not quite. Even more amazing, he wasn’t stopping me or drawing back.
“Talk to me,” I repeated.
“Fucking hated seeing that guy all over you.”
“What? In the bar?”
A jut of the chin and he went back to examining my hair, carefully extracting another pin.
My hand slipped down, fingers skating over the side of his warm neck. The skin was so soft and smooth. “If it makes you feel any better, I pretty much want to scratch Karen and Meli’s eyes out with my bare hands. But that doesn’t change the situation here.”
The edges of his mouth turned down.
Fuck it. I edged forward, getting closer, leaning into his broad chest.
No.
No.
Apparently the dude seriously liked my hair. Because something in his pants was definitely making its presence felt against my stomach. The fire in my pants turned into a blazing inferno. I’m surprised we weren’t both incinerated on the spot. Everything low in me tensed, my thighs getting weak and strung out all at once. So this was what being really and truly fuck-me-now-or-I’ll-die turned on felt like. And yet, leaning into the heat and strength of him, I also felt perfectly safe.
Just not from rejection.
“Ben?”
“Hmm?”
“What is this? Do you know what you’re doing?”
“What I shouldn’t be doing.”
He slid his hand down my back, drawing me in firmly against his erection. Oh yeah. I dug my fingers nails into his neck, holding on tight. If he tried to ditch me now, I’d kill him. No joke. Death by hairpins. It would be messy but highly necessary.
Lucky for him, he didn’t.
“I mean it,” he said, voice devastatingly low but certain. So beautifully, perfectly certain.
“Okay.”
He covered my hand with his, holding it against his skin. The small acceptance of me touching him turned me on almost as much as the heat of his body. I rocked against him, rubbing myself against his erection.
The man swore up a storm. “Fuck, Lizzy.”
“What a good idea.” My heavy head lolled to the side and his hot mouth was there, sucking, licking, and biting. My blood ran hot, racing through me at the speed of light. His teeth sunk just a little into my skin, making me moan. Then his hand slid down, cupping my ass through the silk of my dress, fingers digging in. And this was all nice, really nice. But I wanted to kiss him so bad.
“Let me…” I stretched up, looping my arms around his neck, dragging his mouth down to mine. Once, twice, he grazed my lips with his. The fucking tease. And I had no control over him at all because, “You’re too tall!”
He laughed deep and dirty, hands sliding over my ass to lift me up. Genius. The man was a fucking gorgeous, bearded, bass-playing, oversize genius. My legs went around his waist and the smile on his face—shit. It was a total smirk. Just this once, he could have it, and for the record, it looked damn good on him too.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes.” I attached my lips to his and shoved my tongue into his mouth and kissed the man stupid. Just like I’d been dying to do for so long.
He groaned, one hand cupping my ass, the other rubbing and caressing the back of my neck. Encouraging me or holding me in place, I don’t know. Either way, it felt sublime. What was going on between my legs, meanwhile, the hard length of his cock rubbing just so, pretty much drove me out of my mind. When had sex gotten so good? My six-or-so-year abstinence had a lot to answer for, and yet I was damn glad I’d waited.
I kissed him deep, tasting and exploring. The feel of his beard brushing against my face, the soft slip of his hair through my hands. In lieu of actual fucking, I’d done a lot of making out over the years. No one kissed like Ben, though. Though I’d started out in charge of the mouth-to-mouth, the battle was more of a draw now. His tongue slipped into my mouth, teasing and tantalizing me, turning me on even more.
I hadn’t even realized we were moving until my back hit the wall. The bathroom wall. We wouldn’t be making it to the bedroom this time, and all right, fair enough. His hand moved from my neck to fumble with his zipper, knuckles brushing against the damp crotch of my panties. Ratcheting up my excitement levels just that much more. Then his finger hooked the satin material of my panties aside and his cock was rubbing against me there. Right fucking there. Yes, yes, yes.
“Ben.”
“Lizzy. Shit. Stay still.”
“I’m trying.”