Then Tyler was signing the check, and the waiter was gone, moving like a streak toward the door. The moment I heard the click, I gulped in air, then watched as Tyler’s coolly composed expression softened a bit. “You see? There’s a thrill in being naughty—no, don’t say anything. I can see the truth on your face. And you gave him a bit of a thrill, too, I think. If nothing else, he has a story he’ll be telling his buddies into his old age.”
“I hope you tipped him well,” I said, surprised I could form words, much less conjure sarcasm.
“I think you were the best tip. But yes. I upped the standard gratuity considerably.”
I started to stand, but he gestured for me to stay seated, and I was glad that he did. As juiced as I was, I couldn’t be certain that my legs would support me.
“You did well.” He’d moved to the cart and now he took a bottle of champagne from its bucket. He poured a glass, then brought it and a small plate toward me. There was a coffee table directly in front of me, and he used his foot to push it to one side, then placed the drink and the plate on it. The plate, I saw, held a selection of chocolate truffles.
I glanced up at him, and he met my questioning look with a smile. “Time for your reward. Tell me, Sloane, what do you want?”
You. Oh, god, only you. The words seemed to press against my lips, begging for release. But I bit them back, perhaps foolishly wanting to keep some piece of me hidden despite sitting naked before him.
Slowly, purposefully, I glanced at the coffee table. “I’m very fond of chocolate.”
“Is that so?” He plucked up a round truffle, gleaming with a shell of dark chocolate and topped with a tiny star of white icing. “Whatever the lady wants.”
He knelt in front of me, one hand resting on my knee as he leaned forward and trailed the truffle gently over my lower lip.
“Open for me,” he said, and as I slowly opened my mouth, he gently spread my legs. Cool air swept between my thighs, teasing my overheated skin and making me even more aware of how wet I already was.
I whimpered, but the sound was muffled by the candy. “That’s a girl,” he said, as he eased the truffle into my mouth. “Now bite down.” I did, then moaned in surprise and pleasure as sweet cherry juice eased over my tongue, a stray bit catching at the corner of my mouth.
As I swallowed my half of the truffle, he took the rest and slid it over his own lips, his gaze never leaving mine as he swallowed. I saw it there—that storm in his eyes. A tempest of fire and need that would surely capsize me, send me reeling. I wanted it to. I so desperately wanted his touch, his kiss. His everything.
“Delicious,” he said, and the sensuality in that single word had my body clenching. It took everything inside me not to yank him close and beg him to please, please just fuck me because nothing else could douse this building heat and bank the fire that was threatening to turn me to ash.
“But this,” he said, as he used the tip of his finger to dab at the stray juice on my mouth, “this is even more delicious.”
I swallowed, anticipating the pleasure of watching him slide his own finger into his mouth and then sucking the juice off. Or, perhaps he would surprise me and slide that finger into my mouth, and I could curve my lips around his finger and lose myself in the cherry-coated taste of him.
That, however, wasn’t what he had in mind.
Instead of pressing his finger to my mouth, he brought it to my clit, sliding his hand down between my parted thighs. I gasped as thought abandoned me.
And then, as he slowly—so devilishly slowly—teased and played, all rationality and reason escaped me as well. I was nothing but sensation. A human-sized collection of atoms that existed solely to shimmy and buzz in pleasure.
Then he pulled away. I whimpered, desperate for him to finish what he’d begun.
“Shhh,” he murmured, as he placed his hands on my hips to keep me from writhing in silent demand.
“Tyler—” My voice was raw, ripped from me. “Don’t. Let me—”
“Hush,” he said again, keeping me motionless. Worse, keeping me unsatisfied. “I think there’s a bit of cherry juice in a very sweet spot.” His eyes flicked up to mine, hot and hungry, and my sex clenched in anticipation of what was coming. “And I want just a little taste.”
Yes, yes, oh sweet Jesus, yes.
As if he purposefully set out to torment me, he trailed kisses up the inside of my thigh, driving me just a little wild. I wanted to writhe, to twist my body in time with the sensations that were pounding through me, but he held me fast. I couldn’t move. And somehow my immobility made the pleasure that much keener.
With the tip of his tongue, he teased the soft skin at the juncture of my thighs. I drew in a shuddered breath and arched back, trying to breathe as sparks of pleasure shot over my body, so delicious and yet at the same time not enough. I wanted the explosion.
“Please,” I begged, then cried out in triumph when he shifted his attention to my clit, his tongue finding that most sensitive part of me. His tongue laved me, teased me, and my body trembled with the pressure of a building explosion that never quite seemed to come.
I arched my back, my eyes squeezed tight, as if by sheer force of will I could make myself go over. I was close, so damn close …
“Tyler,” I murmured. “Tyler, please …”
Gently, he pulled back, then tilted his head to look up at me as I fought back a cry of protest. “As I said, delicious.” He leaned over and picked up the glass of champagne. “Drink,” he said, and I gratefully took the glass, gulping down a swallow of the cool liquid that was painfully insufficient to quell the heat that raged inside me.