Commanding Her Seal (Plus Bonus Novella)(51)

Her fingers examined the ridges flaring from his spine and slid easily into the small of his back. His answering groan made her smile. There was nothing more surprising than the idea that she could make Fitz respond to her touch.

Before she could blink, her back hit the blanket and the press of his torso against hers took her breath. His fingers laced with hers, and he drew them over her head to pin her hands tight.

“Not so fast,” he said. “We’ve got some problems to work out before you’re allowed to get all handsy.”

What, she wasn’t allowed to touch him? “Sorry.”

He tsked. “No apologies, remember? The only thing you’re allowed to do from here on out is tell me what you want. You’re going to learn to talk to me, to tell me what you’re feeling. I’ll start you off easy. Say, ‘I want you to kiss me.’”

Since it was true, it was pretty easy to form the words. “I want you to kiss me.”

His mouth lowered to hers and nibbled on her lips. Teasing. Not the kind of kiss she’d expected. She waited for him to deepen it, sought it by craning her neck, but he kept the kiss light, moving just out of her reach.

“What do you want?” he murmured. “Tell me.”

Kiss me like you mean it. Hard. Insistent. As if he couldn’t get enough. That’s when it felt the best, as if she’d made him crazy.

But she couldn’t say that out loud. She scarcely had the vocabulary for this, for how to articulate the way his lips had burned against hers earlier on the boat, how easy it had been to show him what she’d wanted then.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

His gaze glittered in the firelight as he contemplated her. “I wasn’t going to ask. But I need to get some context here. Is this your first time?”

Oh, good gravy. She must really be screwing this up. Prickles swept across her cheeks, and thank God it was dark so he couldn’t see the embarrassment painted across her face like a big neon sign. “No, of course not. Assuming you mean sex. And not photography. It’s not my first time for that either. Which I’m guessing you already know—”

“Shh.” He rested a finger on her lips. “I’m asking because I need to know how to make this good for you. So work with me here. Did you have a crappy boyfriend who was so utterly selfish that he never took the time to notice you weren’t engaged?”

Yes. That one. Oh, God yes. That was exactly it—but she’d never thought about it as if maybe the fault was Paul’s. She’d always assumed the problem was hers, that her lack of experience had been a huge turn-off. “Actually, he said I was boring.”

Good move. In case Fitz wasn’t there yet himself, she could introduce him to the fact that her biggest problem wasn’t that her life lacked excitement but that she did.

He growled so low in his chest that she felt it rumble against hers. “Not now, but sometime later you’re going to give me his name and number. Sounds like lover boy needs a lesson in what it feels like to carry scars around. Except I’m going to make his visible.”

The thought shouldn’t make her grin so wide. But she couldn’t have wiped the smile from her face for any amount of money. Did he have any idea how much that one statement meant to her? How so very amazing it was to have a half-naked, gorgeous man get all protective of her like that?

A good bit of her fear blew away. Fitz wasn’t dangerous, not to her. If anything, he’d been treating her like a delicate piece of china thus far, as if he didn’t want to accidentally break her if he bobbled her the wrong way.

“I get it now,” he said. “You can’t photograph people because you think they’re judging you. You can’t tell me what you want from me for the same reason. But Lilah, surely you can feel what you do to me. How flipping hot I think you are.”

To emphasize the point, he circled his hips against hers, and yes, she could indeed feel how turned on he was. That pretty much clinched things. Fitz was the sweetest, gentlest man she’d ever met. Or probably ever would meet.

“You’re not boring,” he murmured and dipped his head to nuzzle her throat. “And you taste amazing. Change of plans. No talking. Just feeling. If I do something you like, you pick the way you communicate that to me. Deal?”

She nodded. She could do that all day long. But the fact that he wanted to make her feel good—she liked that the most. It was nearly miraculous.

He settled between her legs, rising up on his knees, and lifted the hem of her shirt to kiss the skin along her stomach. His unshaven jaw abraded her flesh and made her jump, but not in a bad way.