Ride Rough - Tessa Layne Page 0,43

Like she could move. Trace had wound her up into a bundle of nerves ready to go supernova at the slightest brush against her clit. Honestly, with a few more lashes of his tongue or the slide of his cock against her clit, she'd have passed right out from the ecstasy of it.

Seconds later, his feet hit the stairs again and he appeared in the door holding her purse. "You're not winded?"

He lifted an eyebrow as he stalked toward her. "Stamina, babe."

"Cocky much?"

"Confident. There's a difference." He held out her purse. "I think you know what to look for."

Any other man would have opened her purse and looked for the condoms she suspected Izzie snuck in there. But not Trace. Another crack appeared in her defenses. The tiny gesture of respect slithered through the barbed wire around her heart and continued to chip away at the walls she'd erected. Pushing the thought aside, she opened her purse, and sure enough Izzie's favor was indeed a condom. A string of them. She pulled out the row with a grin.

Trace grinned back, his smile lighting his eyes. "Not nearly enough," he said with a shake of his head.

"Oh, come on." Cecilia rolled her eyes. "That's how many? Six?"

He flicked his eyebrows again and flexed. "Stamina."

"Did you just flex? You did, didn't you," she exclaimed with a laugh. "You really think we're going to need all six of these?" She tossed them on the bedside table. As if.

"We're gonna need a lot more than that, sweetheart," he rumbled with the gravelly edge to his voice that turned her insides to jelly. He loomed over her and removed the purse from her lap letting it drop to the floor, and brought his face within inches of hers. "Doubt me?" he murmured, eyes fierce and determined.

And, just like that, with one look, the arousal that had slowly dissipated during their banter roared back to life. She swallowed. "No?"

Trace brought a hand to her neck, thumb sliding up and down at the hollow. Tingles flooded her body, racing to her nipples, her core, heating her from the inside out. Her body trembled under his intense gaze, nerve endings on fire, waiting to receive his touch. His thumb dipped lower, tracing a line from her sternum to between her breasts, pressing against the bone, then siding back to the hollow at her neck. Each caress brought his hand closer to where she wanted it, she arched into his touch inviting him to explore further, but still, he held back.

"Trace," she whispered, more out of frustration than anything else. He lowered his head, capturing her in a tender kiss, teasing her mouth with flicks of his tongue. But only teasing. No satisfaction. She moaned.

"Mmm?" he murmured against her lips. "Did you... want... something?"

Want? She made a sound of pure frustration. Hell yes, she wanted. She was dying of anticipation.

"Tell me what you want, Cecilia."

Her core tightened at the way her name rolled off his tongue, but the words he wanted from her stuck in her throat and came out as another incoherent sound. His fingers circled her breast, first one, then the other, barely touching her sensitized nipples. She wanted his mouth on her in the worst way - sucking, scraping, biting.

"What was that you said?" he taunted, fingers skittering over her skin, lingering at her hip, teasing lower and lower.

The words formed on her tongue and in her mind. Dirty filthy words. Everything she wanted from him, his hands, his mouth. She'd read Fifty Shades and watched occasional online porn. It wasn't like she was some shy flower. Not by far. But the difference between writing words and saying them was... immense. Pens might be mightier than swords but spoken words held vastly more power, and the thought of naming her desires... terrified her. She could feel her cheeks flaming under his scrutiny. "Do you torture all your conquests this way?" she gasped, falling back to safer territory.

He stood, eyes glittering, jaw twitching as a scowl darkened his features. She instantly regretted her words. Had she pushed him too far? She was an expert at that, the critical voice in her head reminded her. He bent again, bracing his hands on either side of her head. "Let's get one thing straight, sweetheart. You have never been, nor will you ever be a conquest." He practically spit out the word. "Beautiful? Yes. Intelligent? Yes. Absolutely maddening? Hell, yes." He glared at her. "Never a conquest, and don't you