Phoenix Burning(29)

“I’ve known women who refuse to climax unless they feel as if they’re in control. But usually it’s just that—control. And you have to remember that not every woman will have an orgasm when she has sex. I’ve known women who never had an orgasm with certain partners but managed it with others.”

“Meaning you?”

Connor’s shit-eating grin was enough to answer that.

Wade’s description ran through Alex’s mind. “If something happened in the past, something that utterly undermined someone’s self-confidence, that would fall under the same heading, wouldn’t it?”

“There’s a certain amount of trust involved in an orgasm,” Connor mused. “For women much more than men, I think. If she doesn’t feel safe, hasn’t ever felt safe, then I suppose it’s reasonable to think that might be why she’s never reached that point where she’ll let go and just free-fall into climax.”

“Shit.”

“You could always walk away.”

“Not a chance.” Alex practically snarled his response before realizing that Connor had been prodding him on purpose, trying to see how deeply involved Alex had gotten himself. Bracing both hands on the counter, he sighed deeply.

“This is the place to teach someone to let loose.” Connor held out his arms to encompass the bar. “Think with your head and not your dick, and you’ll come up with something. I have faith in you.”

“That’s one of us.”

The cage at the front of the bar swung open, and Gabriel admitted Emory into the main room. Connor shot Alex one of his rare full smiles. “Apparently she has faith too.”

Alex’s mouth went dry as he took in her outfit. The snug black and white top accentuated her slender figure and put her pert breasts on display. He had a strong urge to brush his lips along the low neckline and dip into the cleft between the twin mounds. Filmy cap sleeves rested below her shoulders, more decoration than necessity, and there was an inch of bare skin between the hem and her low-slung cargos. Her hips were a soft flare and her ass perfectly shaped. Pixies weren’t supposed to be that sexy.

He started toward her, forgetting for a moment that there was a bar between them still. Connor’s chuckle was entirely too amused when Alex bumped the counter.

“Take a deep breath, Romeo,” Connor chided. “Gabriel can handle the room if you’d like me to take the bar.”

That was truly a first, but Alex was past caring. “Okay.”

She moved toward the far end of the bar, her dark gaze meeting and holding his as he walked to meet her. Her curly hair was piled on top of her head. The slender length of her neck was exposed. It was hard to think of anything but the need to kiss her pale skin, work his way down to her collarbone and up to her lips.

“Hi.” She dropped her gaze to her hands, twining them together as though she were nervous. “Am I interrupting anything? You guys look busy.”

The telltale sign of her nerves forced Alex to marshal what was left of his self-control. She didn’t need a lunatic preoccupied with satisfying his own desires. She needed a man who could help her lay her fears to rest and let go of her inhibitions. “I’m never too busy for you. Can I get you a drink?”

“That’d be great.”

He was reminded of the first night she’d come in. “Rum or vodka?”

“How about a cosmopolitan?”

Alex wondered at her choice. At what it meant. It was hard to decide if he was making something out of nothing, or if she was trying to send him a message. Shaking off his need for analysis, he poured Grey Goose into a glass and reached for the cranberry juice.

“I wasn’t sure you’d have time to chat tonight.”

Her words gave him a jolt. Connor’s faith had seemed misplaced before, but now Alex realized he had been overthinking the problem. You couldn’t force an orgasm. You couldn’t trick a woman’s body into letting go. So simple, yet so complex. In that moment he knew what she needed. He set her drink on the bar, waiting for her to pick up the thread of conversation.

“I’m sure you could snap your fingers and get any woman in here.” She took a tiny sip of the cranberry-tinted liquid. “Don’t feel like you have to babysit me.”

He laid his hands flat on the counter and gazed right at her. She was fiddling with the stir stick in her drink. When she finally glanced up, he could see the insecurity on her face. He decided to throw her off balance. “If you’re trying to give me the brush-off, just come out and say it.”

“Brush-off? No! I mean—that’s not what I was trying to say.”