on the counter. “Nope.”
“Okay…” I was at a loss. The only woman I’d ever lived with was my mother, and she was unflinchingly direct. If something was on her mind, you knew it. “Do you want me to rub your shoulders? Your feet? Leave you alone? Is this where I’m supposed to run out and get ice cream and pickles? Because I can do that, too.”
“My neck, please?” Her entire posture softened, and she flashed me an embarrassed, tight-lipped smile.
I was so out of my depth. The last eight years had been full of willing women who made themselves annoyingly pleasing, which meant I was completely out of practice in the relationship department. I had no fucking clue how to read Liberty, or how to make her happy. She was a five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle, and I didn’t have a box to see the full picture.
“Come here.” I tugged her wrist lightly and drew her back toward me.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “It’s killing me right here,” her fingers pressed into the spot where her neck met her shoulders.
I definitely wasn’t about to offer massage oil again, so I worked the knot lightly.
“God, that’s good,” she praised, shifting her weight.
“Want to sit down?”
“I’m good right here.”
I fought the urge to trade my hands for my mouth. I wanted to taste every inch of her skin, to worship the lines of her body slowly until I knew exactly what made her tremble and sigh.
She shifted her weight again and leaned back.
I angled my hips away. The last thing we needed was to get into another elephant-in-the-room miscommunication about my intentions here. Besides, if she’d wanted me that way, wouldn’t she have said something—anything about our little locker room moment? I wasn’t insecure—I knew she’d orgasmed, but maybe that unspoken line was just that…unspoken and a line. A big, fat line.
Her sigh turned to frustration, and she stepped out of my hands and turned to face me. Her face was taut, her brows knit, and her eyes somewhere between plea and irritation. “I can’t do this.”
“Okay.” I put my hands up and stepped back, only to realize I was already against the damned counter.
“No, I just…” She bit her lower lip as her gaze slid down my chest to my tailored Armani slacks and dress shoes. Then she groaned and covered her face with her hands. “Ijustneedyoutocomecloserorgoaway,” she mumbled.
“What?” I moved a little closer. “Liberty, honey, I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”
She dropped her hands and glared at me. “I said I need you to pick one. Come closer, or go away, because I’m dying over here, and you look like that!” She waved her hand toward my torso. “And I get that it’s the hormones. I’ve read the pregnancy books. I understand that an increase in…drive is to be expected, but no one in those fucking books had to live with Nixon-freaking-Noble while they were pregnant!”
I tilted my head and studied the quick rise and fall of her breasts, the color rising from her neckline to her cheeks, and the blatant hunger in her eyes. She was turned on. “And my only choices in this scenario are come closer or go away?”
“Going away is probably safer,” she muttered.
“You’re horny.” I grinned.
She scoffed. “That’s a stupid word.” Her expressions shifted about twenty times in that many seconds. “Fine. Yes! But only for you. It’s not like I’m out there scoping out guys. I only want you,” she ended softly.
I took a breath and counted to three while I reminded my dick to behave. It gave me a mental playback of the words I only want you and started throbbing.
“And if I come closer, what’s that going to look like?” My voice dropped.
“What do you want it to look like?” It was nearly a whisper.
Fuck it.
“I want you naked and writhing beneath me.”
Her eyes popped wide, but her lips parted.
“I want to put my hands, my mouth, my tongue on your skin, and I want to watch you unravel.” I moved forward, bringing us inches apart. “I want to hear you scream my name when you come, and then I want to slide so deep inside of you that I’m seared into your memory. And then I want to make love to you, all slow and easy, so I feel you come around my cock, all tight and hot and wet.” I got up in her space, forcing her to tilt her head back to keep eye contact.
Her breaths stuttered.
“And then—” I leaned