I need my life back. I need my
fantasies back. But I need to do it with somebody I can trust. And
I can’t think of anybody I can trust more than you.”
Fuck .
Drake stroked a thumb over her damp, soft
mouth.
Training wheels. Teddy bear. Band-Aid.
Basically, that’s what he was going to be. Oh, and a fuck toy.
He leaned in and pressed his brow to hers.
“You sure about this, Tania?”
In response, she angled her head and kissed
him. When she pulled back, she whispered, “Yes. I’m sure.”
“ Okay. When?”
“ Tonight. At least…I want to try.
Maybe just not all-out sex. Hell, for all I know I won’t even be
able to get far before I freak out, but I’m tired of waiting for
things to fade—I’m not waiting anymore.”
With a pained glance, he pulled away. “I
wasn’t exactly prepared for something like this. I don’t have
anything with me…”
Tania shrugged. “I do. And I’ll be honest. I
don’t think I’m going to be up to having sex tonight.” With a weak
smile, she said, “We might make it to third base before I freak
out.”
“ Third base.” He chuckled. “Well, I
don’t think I’ve done any hot and heavy necking in a long time.
Might be fun.” He skimmed his hands down her back. “I think I want
another beer. You want any more wine?”
“ Yeah. I think I do.”
He took a few minutes longer than he needed,
letting his blood cool, forcing himself to think.
He was about to go out there and
engage in sexual antics with the woman of his dreams…but not
because she had any sort of romantic feelings for him. It was
because she trusted him.
Shit .
Back in the living room, he gave her the
wine and sat down with his beer. “Before we do anything, we need to
talk.”
“ Do we have to?” She scowled, staring
into the wine.
He laughed. “Yeah. Considering that I don’t
want to screw this up, we probably should.” He reached up, brushed
a strand of her golden brown hair back behind one ear. “If we were
just going to have some quick anonymous sex, no strings, no
baggage, it would be one thing. But we aren’t anonymous, there is
baggage…and what we’re going to be doing isn’t just typical sex. Is
it?”
She slid him a look from the corner of her
eye.
“ You want to make this complicated,”
she muttered.
“ It is complicated, to an extent.” He took the wine from her, set it
on the table next to his beer. Then he caught her hand, tugged.
“Come here.”
She nibbled on her lower lip and then eased
across the couch.
Not good enough. He pulled her into his lap,
her back against his front. “You smell good. You’ve always smelled
so good,” he said absently, stroking a hand up and down one thigh.
“I don’t think I ever mentioned that it drives me nuts.”
She was tense.
“ Am I making you nervous?”
“ I don’t know. A little.” She rested
her hands on his thighs. “But it…well, it feels good. You feel
good.”
“ So do you.” He wanted to tug that
short little skirt higher but he didn’t, not yet. “I think you
should tell me what happened two years ago.”
She went rigid. He heard her swallow and he
braced himself for her to bolt off his lap. “Why?”
“ Because whatever he did, if I do it,
it will trigger some bad memories, I bet. I don’t want that.” Then
he stroked a hand down her hair, brushed it aside to bare her nape.
“And…while I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am, I suspect you
haven’t ever told anybody what really happened. At least not all of
it. Have you?”
She shuddered. Then she shook her
head. “No.” She turned her head away, dipping it low so that her
hair hid her from him. “You know what some people will think
about…what I liked. Hell, they say it about women who don’t have a taste for rough sex. If
they’d known I had a thing for kinky sex, that Kyle and I used to
have all these role-playing things where he pretended to rape me,
where I’d beg him to hurt me, where I’d beg him not to touch