“Told you I was a bad girl,” she said, mischief in her voice.
That they could be teasing like this, even while exploring this new and unfamiliar turn to their friendship, slayed him. The night she found him on the sand, the words he’d shared with her had uncovered pieces of him he rarely showed anyone. But this was rare, too, this absolute intimacy that was both urgent and intriguing.
He bent to kiss her neck, inhaling the scent that he’d savored for four-plus years on a purely pal basis. “God, I’m going to lick you all over.”
No one ever accused Teague of not following through. Despite Polly’s breathless pleas and her sexy, squirming body, he held out against stroking into her until he’d stroked her everywhere with the flat of his tongue and the caress of his lips. It was some of his best effort—but she deserved it and more, his best friend.
Her luscious taste was still in his mouth as he rose over her. She was panting in the aftermath of orgasm. He brushed her hair away from her face. “I went bareback before,” he said.
“I know,” she whispered. Her mouth was reddened from his kisses.
“I wasn’t worried, because—”
“I remember,” she said.
Of course she did. They both were aware she took birth control pills, that both of them were clean. Nevertheless... “I have a condom in my wallet.”
“I have condoms in the bathroom,” she countered.
He looked into her face. Very Private Polly, Skye had called her. But not with him. “Since we’ve shared so much...”
“It seems right that we do this without anything between us.”
The permission he’d been waiting for. Slowly, because it felt so good that he needed time to absorb the pleasure, he sank into the giving heat of her. She moaned, the flush renewing on her face.
His big hands slid beneath her hips to tilt her into his unhurried thrusts. A shiver worked through her body. “Teague,” she moaned.
He drove in again, and dropped his head to kiss and suck one of her reddened nipples. She jerked up, and he felt the telltale tightening in his balls. When he bit down on the hardened tip, she jerked again, crying out, a sound of cresting pleasure.
His movements were steady and sure then, rhythmic and demanding, and she lifted into each one. He groaned, low in his throat, knowing he had just seconds before cataclysm. Hoping to take her with him, he slid his hand between them.
She stiffened, her pelvis lifting into his as his thumb brushed the engorged nub of flesh. Her next cry took him over and he spilled into her as her contracting muscles closed around him.
In the aftermath, he lay on his back and gathered her close again. Replete and feeling damn good about the universe, he was astonished and then alarmed when something hot and wet dropped onto his shoulder.
Polly was leaking tears.
Oh, shit. “What’s wrong?” He went on one elbow to look at her. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head.
Panic drained all the satisfaction from his body. “Polly.” Oh, God. “This whole friends-with-benefits thing is such a bad idea. What can I do? How can I fix it?”
“It’s not your fault, it’s mine.” She held the back of her hand against her nose. “I—I’ve been lying. I’m not really your friend.”
“What?”
“I shouldn’t have let this happen again. But I saw you with Tess, and I felt stupid and jealous and I really, really want to be angry with you for being in love with her, though I know that isn’t fair.”
“What?” he said again, thinking of that last brief encounter with the former woman of his dreams. Her presence had barely registered, he’d been so concerned about Polly.
“You’ve been making me nuts,” she said. “There’s all your big talk about wanting kids, wanting a family, but then you go and fall for someone who’s already taken.”
“The fact is—”
“You shouldn’t love her,” Polly said, her voice fierce. “You only love her because it means you risk nothing. Teague, you’re never going to have her.”
“Sure, but what does that have to do with this? With us?”
She rose from the bed and dashed for a robe. Then she threw his jeans and boxers at him. “You have to go.”
The expression on her face was so serious, he did as she asked. Her hands on his back, she practically pushed him down the hall to her front door. But he drew the line at leaving before he had his shirt on—swooped to grab it—and before