Shame the Devil (Portland Devils #3) - Rosalind James Page 0,121

If the baby was his, she needed the distance. If it wasn’t, things were even more impossible. She said, “I should tell you. Something happened to me after I spent that night with you.”

“Yeah. You mentioned.” Still sounding lazy. Not upset at all. She tried to think, Of course he’s not upset. A baby’s a little money out of his pocket, and that’s all. But she couldn’t get there, not with what she’d seen from him today.

“Not that,” she said. “I mean …” She was not telling him this. She was not. “I started thinking about how I could … change. If I could take some … steps. To be a little more … adventurous.” He wasn’t touching her anymore, and she wanted his hand back. She wanted him to slip that strap off her shoulder and kiss her there, so gently. She wanted to feel him unbuttoning the front of the chemise, and she wanted to feel the brush of the thin cotton as it fell away from her body.

It’s hormones, she told herself, but it didn’t matter what it was. She wanted it anyway.

“Exactly what kind of steps?” His voice was like warm caramel, and he wasn’t on his back anymore. She saw the darkness of him over her, felt the warmth of his breath on her cheek. “Jennifer. Did you get a tattoo? Tell me it was on that gorgeous ass of yours, and I’ll forget all about my dream. Depending how well you describe it, of course. Or better yet … you could show me. Just roll over onto your stomach, and I’ll flip up that little nightgown and … look.”

How were you supposed to breathe? She said, “It’s dark.”

“Uh-huh. But, see, I’d have to turn on the light for that. Just a little one. Let it shine on you, so I can see.”

“What would I tattoo there?” she asked. “Which I didn’t.”

“Oh.” She could feel the disappointment in him even in the dark. “It’s on your ankle or something. Your hip, if I’m lucky. And you’d do a flower every time. Nothing wrong with a flower, though. Or maybe a tiny little heart. In that sweet spot right above your hipbone? Yeah, that works.”

“Because I’m so sweet. So conservative.”

“Conservative’s good.” He still wasn’t touching her, but now, he reached out and twined a curl around his finger. Just the faintest tug against her scalp, and she was heating up. Some more of his warm, dark voice, of temptation in the night as he said, “Nothing sexier than a good girl letting you take her over to the dark side.”

She opened her mouth to say, “Which I’m not going to do.” She wasn’t Harlan’s comfort object. They were both clear on that. All she had to do was get up and go back to her own bed. Alone. She didn’t need any more complication.

Instead, what came out of her mouth was, “Maybe you should …” She drew her hand down his chest. The barest brush of fingertips, but she felt his body go rigid. “Turn the light on,” she suggested with the last of her breath, “and find out for yourself.”

It had been one hell of a dirty dream. It had involved her ass.

It had really involved her ass.

He reached for the light on the bedside table, then thought, Whoops, and stopped with his hand halfway there. “Have you, uh, been with anybody since me? Because I don’t have a condom with me.”

Not good enough. A half-assed attempt at safety measures, and he knew it.

He heard her soft exhalation of breath, felt her hand brushing over his chest again, lingering at the nipple. He could feel her wanting to put her mouth there, too, like he was in her mind. “I didn’t mention to you,” she asked, like a woman made of softness, “that I found you weren’t … replicable?”

“That’s quite a vocabulary you’ve got,” he said. “I like that. I’m not replicable.” He had his whole hand in her hair now. Her hair was baby-fine, and if you twisted your hand, you could … “And same here,” he said as he did it. “Because it turns out you’re not replicable, either.” He took her mouth again and kissed her, dark and dirty and deep, his hair wrapped around his hand, the brush of thin, cool cotton against his skin.

By the time he was done kissing her, she was sighing. And he was flicking that little switch by the bed.

She said “Ahh… bright,” and put an