Holt rolled them until she lay back on the bed. He straddled her hips and smiled. “Gonna see my soft, sexy geek girl now.” He tugged at her robe, pulling it open. “Gonna go slow and taste every last geektastic inch.”
Naiya froze when he bared her completely, her nipples beading as cool air rushed over her heated skin. “Maybe we should … you know … get down to business.” She didn’t do slow. Or soft. Or gentle. Sex was hard and fast and then over. It was about the act, not the feeling. Something to endure, not savor. And yet behind the bar, Holt had focused on her pleasure, and for the first time, so had she.
“Maybe I want more than business.” He traced a warm finger over the curve of her breast. “Maybe I want to see you, touch you, make you lose control and come over and over again until you’re so wet and ready for me you’re begging for my cock.”
“That won’t happen.” She’d never asked for sex. Never wanted it except to wash away Viper’s stain. And then it hadn’t been pleasurable. It had been necessary.
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “You should know by now I’m not one to turn down a challenge.”
“You’re not one to turn down anything.”
“Especially not when she’s all I think about,” he said.
Naiya’s cheeks flushed and she dropped her gaze, but there was something sinfully arousing about the fact he’d been looking at her, thinking about her that way when she’d been totally oblivious to his interest.
“Like it when you’re shy.” He cupped her breasts in his warm palms. “I like that my strong, independent woman is vulnerable inside. I like that she needs something from me.”
“I need a lot of things from you, it seems.” Her nipples hardened under his touch, and he rolled them, tugging gently until her breaths came in short pants.
“Just like I need a lot of things from you.” His hands slid down, and he traced one finger along the elastic of her panties. “I want these off.”
“Maybe I’ll just … keep them on.” She drew his hand away. “Or I could … look after you.”
“Then I’ll be missing the best part.” He leaned over and tore the panties away.
Naiya gasped and her hand flew to her hip, fingers splayed in what she hoped he took as a casual gesture.
But, of course, Holt missed nothing, and particularly not her attempt to hide the long, thin white scars, angled down to meet in the middle.
“What’s this?” Pushing himself to sitting, he tugged her hand away. Defeated, she looked away, a lump forming in her throat.
“V for Viper.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He did it after the tattoo so that every man would know I was his.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she’d turned off the lights like she usually did when she had sex to avoid the inevitable questions.
The bed creaked. She heard the rustle of clothing. A soft groan. And then Holt’s warm tongue on her stomach.
“H for Holt.” He licked the letter over her scar, and Naiya trembled, clutched the soft silk sheets in her hands.
“Don’t.”
“N for Naiya.” He licked again, and emotion welled up in her chest.
“Please, Holt. Stop.”
“B for beautiful.” This time he traced the letter with his lips, his breath warm on her skin.
“You don’t have to do this,” she whispered, stroking his hair.
Sliding lower, he kissed her scar again. “M for Mine.” And then he slid down, kissing his way over the soft skin of her abdomen to her mound.
“Open for me, darlin’. I got more writing to do.”
“Holt.” She threaded her fingers through his hair, undecided about whether she wanted him to keep going or stop. She’d never let any man go down on her, finding the act too intimate, leaving her vulnerable.
“You’ve never been tasted?”
“No,” she whispered.
He paused, studied her, then he pushed himself up, dropped his weight over her body. “Let me taste you. Let me be the first one to give you that kind of pleasure. I’ll go slowly. I’ll be gentle. You hold on and stop me if I do something you don’t like.” Then he grinned. “But I guarantee that’s not gonna happen.”
The smile did her in. He didn’t smile often, but when he did his face lit up and she caught a glimpse of what she assumed was the man he used to be—the man he had been before Viper took him. Kinda like the girl she had been before that terrible night at the party. “Okay.”
His smile broadened and he slanted his mouth over hers, caressing her lips with his tongue. Such a gentle, tender kiss, as if they were starting all over again. She touched her tongue to his, wanting more than gentle, wanting the kind of kiss he’d given her before, hard and hungry and full of passion, but he pulled away. “I’ll start here.” And then his mouth brushed against her cheek, her jaw, down the column of her neck, his lips cool and smooth, the rasp of his beard deliciously erotic.