Skin on Skin Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Gross!” She snatched it from him, shrieking again when she realized she held a ten-inch—and but for the color—very realistic-looking replica of an erect penis. “This is ridiculous! I mean, it’s so big it has to be a joke.”
    Tony looked pointedly at his fly and back to the dildo. “I dunno. Length-wise, I’d say it’s about a match, but girth-wise I think I have it beat.”
    Laughter fled from her eyes and her eyes got dark and speculative. But a nanosecond later the humor was back and she just rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll bet.”
    “Just say the word and I’ll show you the proof,” he waggled his eyebrows, eliciting another laugh, and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.
    “She is so inappropriate,” Lauren said incredulously. “What mother buys her daughter—and a boyfriend she’s never met—a full array of sex toys?”
    He had no answer for that, and sensed she wasn’t really seeking one. He looked down and saw that, in her frustration, Lauren was twisting the rubbery shaft rather violently. “It hurts me to watch you do that,” he said, gently removing it from her grip.
    She looked down, and realizing what she was doing, dropped the rubbery phallus with a muffled curse.
    “With technique like that, no wonder she worries about your sex life,” Tony chuckled.
    Hurt embarrassment flooded her eyes then, and he knew he’d hit a particularly raw nerve. “Hey, I was just kidding,” he said quickly, “you know that.”
    She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Some of us aren’t natural contenders for the bedroom Olympics,” she said and disappeared into the bathroom.
    He hated that she made him feel like an asshole, especially when he had no way of knowing he’d poked a sore spot. By the time Lauren emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, he’d worked up a decent level of irritation.
    But then she sat down on the bed next to him, face scrubbed clean of makeup and looking so earnest as she laid a palm on his thigh. “I’m sorry I overreacted. Don’t be mad, okay?”
    He laid his hand over hers, feeling like even more of dick. “It’s my fault. Sometimes I don’t know what’s off-limits.”
    She smiled in consternation. “Usually I can take it, as you well know. But my love life—or lack thereof—is a sensitive subject.”
    One she hadn’t been willing to discuss any further, and by mutual agreement the subject was dropped. The dildo went back into the basket, which was shoved as far back in the closet as possible.
    Now as he pounded back up the beach to the hotel, he wondered what had happened to Lauren to make her so self-conscious about her own sexuality. She wasn’t uptight and was rarely offended by his often vulgar sense of humor, but now that he thought about it, she never talked about her own sex life. And it wasn’t just the pressures of having a porn star for a mom, although he imagined that was enough to give any woman a complex.
    All the more reason to stay far, far away from her. Tony made it a point to give women with sexual baggage a wide berth, as they were more likely to put a high value on sex, often confusing it with commitment or love, and the last thing he wanted was to hurt Lauren further. But how a woman as beautiful and sexy as she could be so shy when it came to sex, he didn’t understand. Then again, he didn’t understand 99.9% about women and their hang-ups.
     
    Lauren spent most of her hour-long run psyching herself up for the evening to come. Tony had already been up and out by the time she woke up for the second time. The first time had been at about four AM and she’d been plastered against Tony, her breasts nestled against the unyielding muscles of his back, her leg hooked over his. Through the fabric of her tank top and his T-shirt she felt the heat of his skin, the subtle shift of muscle and sinew as he breathed deep in sleep.
    In some part of her sleep-fogged mind, she tried to dismiss the urge to cuddle as the result of