She slid her feet from her sandals and padded farther into the room, looking for Reid. His voice, even lower than normal, came from the direction of the living room, but she didn’t see him anywhere. Her stomach tightened into that knot which was probably suffocating the things fluttering around in there. Screw butterflies. Those had to be hummingbirds. On speed.
Rounding the couch, she finally found Reid sitting on the floor in nothing but a pair of white athletic shorts, one leg stretched in front of him and the other bent with his forearm resting on his knee. He’d laid out the big floor pillows usually stacked in the corner and then complemented them with the decorative pillows from the couch and each of the beds. It looked like the floor of a sheikh with terrible taste in interior design, and yet, it was also the sexiest setup ever.
In one fluid motion he stood and held out his hand. Lucie swallowed hard and wiped her hands on her thighs in case they were grotesquely sweaty, and then placed her fingers in his. He pulled her into the center with him, but didn’t pull her into his arms. There couldn’t have been more than two inches between them, but it felt like the Grand Canyon.
She tilted her head up to meet his stare, and he angled his down to meet hers. It was then she realized he might be waiting for her to make the first move like in the workout room. Okay, no problem. All you need to do is start things, Lucie. She closed her eyes and tipped her face even more, waiting for the moment her lips would meet his, anticipation coursing through her veins like a drug…
But nothing happened.
Opening her eyes she wondered if time had somehow frozen. Reid hadn’t moved a muscle—His jaw muscles jumped. God, that was sexy. Why was that so sexy? She wondered what it meant when he did that. Jackson always did it when he was aggravated. Was he aggravated?
“Reid?”
He said nothing at first, but lightly tapped the length of his finger over her lips once, as if to say he didn’t want her to speak, then took it away again. She furrowed her brow. She didn’t understand.
He walked around to her back, again so close but not touching. She felt his breaths on the side of her face as he leaned in. And when a single finger trailed down her arm, she swore an electric current burned in its wake. “Seduction isn’t about actions,” he said, retracing the path back toward her shoulder. “It’s about control. I can make you do all the work—have you undress me, do a strip tease, even have you on your knees in front of me—and as long as I’m the one controlling the situation, you’re actually the one being seduced.”
Reid moved her hair over to fall in front on one side. God, she wanted him to pull her into his body, to feel his chest on the backs of her shoulders and the length of his erection cradled against her ass.
“Lose the shirt, Lucie.”
Grabbing the hem in both hands, Lucie raised her arms, pulled it over her head, and tossed it onto the couch.
“Now the pants.”
With shaking fingers she released the button, slid the zipper down, and let the capris fall to the floor before kicking them away. All that remained on her body was a white lace demibra and matching thong.
Finally Reid put more than a single finger on her and to feel the kiss he placed on the nape of her neck after teetering on the edge for all that time was like a jolt of lust shot straight through her. She jerked in response and there may have been a moan, she couldn’t be sure. Her body, her brain, everything felt hyperaware and short-circuited all at the same time.
Her knees gave way, but strong hands grabbed her hips and pulled her back to hold her steady. “Shhhh. I’ve got you. I want you to lie on your stomach. Use the pillows however you want to make yourself comfortable.”
He helped her down and once she was settled, joined her by stretching out alongside of her. With her face turned toward him she studied the intensity in his features as he ran his hand down her back, her waist, over the curve of one cheek. His jaw flexed, hollowing his cheeks with every tic, and his hazel eyes in the red-tinged light reminded her of the fiery colors of autumn.
“Damn, Lu. When did you get an ass like this?”
Was she supposed to answer him? He hadn’t wanted her to talk earlier so she’d just assume it was a rhetorical question. Besides, she wouldn’t even know how to answer that given the way her brain had shut down the minute he touched her.
All thoughts of questions and answers evaporated when a thick finger followed the line of her thong between her ass until it reached the sheer triangle covering her sex. Instinctively her hips raised off the floor, giving him better access. Apparently they had a mind all their own. Thankfully they were on the same page as her.
“Fuck you’re so wet.” Now two fingers stroked back to front, and back again. Then he settled his upper body between her legs, which placed his face—
Lucie gasped as he bit her left cheek. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to cause a quick sting of surprise before he kissed it better.
“I’ve never done that before,” he said, “but there’s something about your ass that makes me need to devour it. Did that bother you?”