out of her sweatshirt, unlike some of the outfits he’d tried to navigate.
A smile popped to his lips before he could stop it.
“That’s good,” she said, and it took him a second to pick up their conversation. “I like puzzles.” Oh. Him. She was talking about him. Not a good thing, usually.
“Didn’t you want to see the piano?”
Her head dropped back, and her low laughter filled the room again. She was grinning when she lifted her head and strolled toward him. “Well, we could look at the piano. Play it, even.”
He blinked just to be sure he was seeing her clearly. Yup. The heat in her gaze was definitely there. Smoldering with the same intensity he’d seen in the practice room. Just as passionate too.
Fuck me.
That was exactly what she looked like she wanted to do. He’d seen that look often enough to know it instantly.
His pulse accelerated with each step closer she took. Anticipation prickled over his skin before it hunkered down with his desire to flush him with longing.
She stopped inches before him, head tilting back to stare up at him. “I suck at seduction, so I won’t even try. But I thought you invited me here to have sex.”
Was there a right way to answer that? One that didn’t blow the moment and every chance he had with her?
“Sex is good,” he finally said, fists clenching tighter to keep from reaching out for her. “But that’s not all I want.”
“No?” Her brow rose. “What else do you want?”
Awareness hummed between them in a frequency too high to hear. She made him hunger for things he didn’t understand. Dream of things that were impossible for him to obtain. Yet with her...
“More.” That was all he knew. Whatever it meant or was, that was what he wanted. “You’re more than sex.”
Her nose wrinkled before she bit her lip, hesitation rushing over her face. “How about we start with sex and see how that goes?”
The glimmer of hope he’d held disappeared with those words. Sex was where all his relationships started. “More” never turned into the right “more” after that. But if this was all he could have with Jacqui, he wasn’t saying no.
This was his normal, and he was a guy.
One with a stirring dick and a beautiful, fascinating woman offering to take care of it for him.
“My bedroom’s over there.” He nodded behind her before finally reaching out to brush her hair over her shoulder. It was as silky as it looked.
Her eyes drifted closed, lips parting on an inhale. Red and natural. Inviting. He gave in to the desire that’d simmered for days and stooped to taste them. Sweet. Soft. Untainted by chemicals or covering.
He savored the uniqueness, his tongue flicking out to capture her taste on his own lips. It wasn’t even close to enough. More. The word reverberated in his mind. Begged and screamed for it.
If this was his only shot with her, he wasn’t going to rush it.
He grazed the back of his fingers down her jaw, so soft. Her eyelids slowly lifted to reveal brown pools of intent.
She brushed a kiss over his knuckles that shot right up his arm to steal his breath. “Do you have surround sound with Bluetooth or a docking station?”
His brain stuttered to a halt, snapped then reengaged on the tangent. “Yes. Bluetooth.”
“Turn it on.” She ducked out of his touch to dig in her backpack.
What the hell? He found the remote and turned the system on.
She clicked around on her phone, and a few moments later music filled the room. The beginning notes of an alternative song flowed out, and he recognized it immediately.
“We The Kings?”
Her grin stole whatever doubts he had. She could listen to anything she wanted if it got that reaction from her. “It’s a playlist.”
“A...” He fumbled for the word. “Sex playlist?” He finally went with that. “Fuck list” sounded too crude. Did she do this often enough to have a playlist for it?
Her laugh was teasing but not bad. “No.” Nothing further came before she retrieved a plastic grocery store bag from her backpack. “Do we need this?”
He frowned. “What’s that?” The sense that he was once again missing something rose up to band around his chest. Sex wasn’t supposed to be this complicated. Was it?
They kissed, groped and ended up with his dick in her. He could do that.
“Condoms. Lube.”
“Lube?” What was she planning?
She shrugged. “Just in case.”
“In case of what?”
“We need it.”
For what?
She said it all with a straight face.