I don’t know what I’m doing when I stand up from the table and hold out my hand to him. Our plates are still sitting there, and normally I would go straight to washing them and cleaning up after dinner, but I’ve already waited days for him.
And I’m tired of waiting. Time to really jump in the deep end.
Chapter 20
Mateo
I can’t read Nell’s expression when she stands up next to me. It’s not a look she’s ever given me, but just like everything else where she’s concerned, it makes me want her. I take the hand she offers and am shocked when she begins pulling me down the hallway in the direction of her bedroom.
I try to control my reaction, to stop all my blood from rushing south. She could just want to show me something. She could . . . fuck. I’m sure there are any number of reasons she could be taking me back to her room, but I can only think of one. And her bed, and her skin, and her taste on my tongue, and the cries I’m determined to wring out of her.
She nudges the door open, but instead of turning on the overhead light, she moves toward the bedside lamp. She flicks it on, and the amber glow shines up on her, bathing half her face in light. I stay by the door. One last-ditch effort to control myself in case this isn’t what I think it is.
She doesn’t say anything. And the seconds of waiting, the anticipation, only make me harder. I watch her struggle to decide on what to say, and when she sighs, I think maybe she’s changed her mind. That she can’t bring herself to ask for what I think we both want.
But I should know by now that Nell will always find a way to shock me. She reaches for the bottom of her sweater, and in one quick move pulls it up and over her head. My gorgeous shy girl has done more than bloom. She’s fucking brilliant. Brighter than the sun, strong enough to pull me right out of orbit. She’s wearing the same black lacy bra that she’d flashed me the last time I saw her. But this time I get more than a glimpse—oh no, I look my fill. Her long neck gives way to dainty shoulders. The bra has her tits pushed up and together, and praise Jesus for Victoria and her secrets. My eyes drop to the narrowing of her torso, the flare of her hips, the soft indentation of her belly button. Her skin looks smooth there and paler than her arms and her face, and I have the strongest urge to leave my mark there, to tease that uncharted skin with my tongue and teeth. Her jeans rest at her hips, stopping my further exploration, but I can remember the vague outline of her legs in the dark of my truck. I certainly remember the feel of them, squeezing at my hips as she came.
That memory snaps me back into action, and I step fully inside the room and close the door. I hear her exhale, and look back to her gaze.
“I thought maybe you . . .” She trails off.
“Would say no?”
She nods. I cross to her and use one finger to tip her chin up so that she faces me. “I told you before . . . nothing you could do can make me not want you.” I take her hand and draw it to my cock, straining at the confines of my jeans. She smoothes her hand over it once, and then again, no hesitation.
“You’re already . . .”
“Hard? Yeah, sweetheart. I pretty much always am with you.”
“But we haven’t even kissed.”
“I’ve been thinking about kissing you again since the moment our last kiss stopped.”
I’m trying to think of a less crude way to tell her that her tits always do the trick, too, when she unfastens the button at the top of my jeans. I suck in a breath at the slight ease in pressure and hold it as she slides my zipper down. Her knuckles accidentally bump against my erection, and I groan. She pauses and looks up at me, and her eyes are calculating. This time her touch is not accidental. She drags a finger over the bulge in my boxer briefs, and the jolt of need I feel is so similar to hunger that I barely resist the urge to pin her to the bed and taste her.
She moves her fingers to the waistband of my jeans and pushes them down. While she does that, I reach back to grab my shirt and pull it over my head. I kick off my shoes and step out my jeans, and it’s my turn to stand still while her eyes study me. Slowly, as her gaze moves over my chest, she lets her fingers trail in its wake. Tentatively, she circles her finger over my nipple in the way that I’ve done to her, and I fight a groan.
She smiles. “None of that, now. If I’m not allowed to hold back, you aren’t either.”
I can’t wait another second to kiss that smart mouth. I wrap my hand around her neck and drag her closer. Her lips instinctively part under mine, her tongue eager and seeking, and there’s such a fucking change in her from the other night. She throws everything into the kiss, running her hands up my abdomen and over my chest and down my arms. I have no doubt that she’s absolutely in this moment. She’s not thinking about anything else, and my cock pulses in response. She breaks away with a gasp, and looks down between us.
There’s such wonder in her voice when she says, “It moved,” that I can’t stop my laugh.
“It does that.”
She reaches out to touch me again, but it’s not enough to feel her fingers over the fabric. I want her warm skin, those small fingers. But first, I want us on an even playing field.
“Take off your jeans,” I tell her.
While she’s shimmying them off her hips, I lose my underwear, gripping the base of my dick tight when her legs come into view. She bends to push her jeans off the rest of the way, and her chest nearly spills out of her bra.
I shift my eyes toward the ceiling because now I’m picturing her on all fours, the way her breasts would fall, waiting for my hands to cup them as I slide into her from behind. Damn.
I have to fight not to let my thoughts run ahead of my actions. But it’s hard. There are too many things I want to do to her, too many ways I want to have her.
But she’s a virgin. And I’ve never been someone’s first before. Not even with Lina. And the thought of it now feels too big to comprehend.
While I’m still looking up, her hand wraps around my cock, pulling me back to the present, and I shudder out a breath. Her eyes are trained on her hand where it touches just above mine, and I release my hold to give her control. I flex, and I move in her hand this time, and she makes this small noise of satisfaction.
“If I wanted to use my mouth on you,” she says, “would you teach me?”
Holy fuck, I’ll never get tired of how direct and honest she is.
“I will teach you absolutely anything you want to know.” She starts to drop to her knees, but I catch her around the waist, pulling her in tight against me. “But not right now. Tonight is about you. I’m the one who gets to learn now.”
She looks disappointed at first, but when I caress her thigh, sliding up the curve of her ass, she doesn’t complain. I shift her backward until her knees hit the bed, and then I guide her to sit. Her bed is low enough that she’s in the perfect position to take me into her mouth, and even though I want it—God, I want it so bad—I force myself to step back.
I kneel in front of her and pull her in for a kiss. Some of my need bleeds through, and our movements are fast and hard instead of the slow seduction I’d been aiming for. But as much as I long for control, it’s not something I know how to keep around her. I want her too badly.
When we both need air, I break away from the kiss and push her backward until she lies flat on the bed. Her arms fly out to her sides, and the rise and fall of her chest makes my mouth water, and as much as I love her in that bra, I want her out of it. Leaning over her, I slide my hands beneath her back to the clasp. She parts her legs around me, hooking her ankles behind my back.
The hooks of her bra come undone at the same time that she lifts her hips, arching her body up so that her center rubs against the muscles of my abdomen. She wants the friction she found that night in my truck, and it would be so easy to shift a little higher, lay myself on top of her, and align our hips. But there’s something beyond sexy about the needy way she writhes against me. I can feel her damp underwear against my skin, and I want to just stay where I am and glory in her uncontrolled actions. Before, I had to work to get her loosened up, to get her to give herself over to the pleasure, but not anymore.
I had intended to taste her, to bring her to the edge that way so that the rest might be easier for her, but now I have a different idea. If I can survive it.
I tell her to move back on the bed, up toward the pillows, and then I crawl onto the mattress beside her. I pull her onto her side to kiss her, and I feel her naked chest crushed against mine for the first time since our night in the pool. It had been good then. Incredible really, but it’s nothing compared to this. Reaching down, I trail my fingers down her thigh until I get to her knee, then with one swift pull, I drag her leg up and over my hip. She gasps and digs her fingernails into my bicep, but I’m not done. Not by a long shot. Slowly, I roll to my back, gripping her hips to bring her with me until she’s astride my hips.
“Sit up,” I say.
She looks nervous, but she complies. And fuck, she looks good on top of me. Her hair is wild, and her tits are flushed a pretty pink.
“Put your hands on my chest.”
She does, laying her palms flat against my pecs. Holding her hips, I shift her until my cock is trapped between her and my stomach, the length pressed against her pussy. The only thing between us is a pair of black silky underwear, slick with her arousal.