Third Life - Noelle Adams Page 0,15

need.

“How was that?” he asks.

I can’t see his face, but even his voice sounds faintly smug. I frown with my eyes still closed. “You know how it was.”

“Pretty good?”

“Very good. Which you know perfectly well.”

“It does look like you’re feeling good right now.”

I can’t resist taking a peek at his expression, and it’s just as dryly amused as I suspected. “I am. So thank you. I mean it. But that’s all the ego stroking you’re going to get from me.”

“We can do a different kind of stroking, unless you’re ready for this to be over.”

My eyes pop open all the way. “You think I’d say I’m done when I’m the only one who’s had an orgasm?”

“Not really. You seem like a generous person. But men do that to women all the time, so I figured it was only fair to ask.”

I snort. “I do appreciate that you’re not one of those men. My one-night stand would have been pretty disappointing if that were the case.”

“But that’s what you were expecting, right?”

“Right. But you clearly defy all expectations. So we can do some more, if you want.” I swallow, my cheeks warming even more than they already are. “I mean sex.”

He leans over and murmurs in my ear, his husky voice making me shiver. “Sorry to break it to you, baby, but what we were just doing is sex.”

I choke on surprised laughter. “I know that. I just meant...”

He’s climbing off the bed and pulling off his tie. “I know what you meant. I’m just giving you a hard time. It seems to me that you haven’t had anyone give you a hard enough time.”

I frown as I watch him. He’s really sexy as he takes his clothes off. He’s not making a show of it or anything. He’s just unbuttoning his shirt, pulling the tails out of his trousers, sliding off his belt, and undoing his cuffs. But there’s something incredibly sexy about the matter-of-fact intimacy of it. But I’m not absorbed in watching enough to forget the conversation. “What would you know about whether people give me a hard time or not?”

“I don’t know. I’m just guessing. But it seems like you’re used to people treating you as perfectly competent and composed. I can see why. You’re obviously supersmart, and you’re probably one of the best at the work you do. So you’re used to people taking you seriously and assuming you know what you’re doing. And you’re not rattled very often. You’re not usually thrown off your guard.”

I stare at him, startled and strangely moved by his casual words. He’s not just seeing me. He’s understanding me. I lick my lips and feel a few faint alarm bells, warning me—reminding me—that this is just a one-night stand and that, after tonight, I’ll never see this man again.

It doesn’t matter how deeply he seems to understand me. All that matters is that we enjoy right now. “Well, if that’s what you’re trying to do, then you’re certainly succeeding. I have no idea what to make of you.”

“Good.” He pulls his undershirt over his head, baring his chest. It’s a very good chest. Broad shoulders and tight abs and attractive muscle development.

But it’s not a bodybuilder’s chest, and it’s not waxed or manscaped in any way. Some of his chest hair is dark and some of it is gray.

He looks real. Realer than he did in his suit.

His smile fades as he drops the shirt on the floor. His fingers linger on the fly of his trousers, but he doesn’t unzip yet. “Disappointed?”

“No!” The word bursts out of me. “No. You look good. Really good.”

He relaxes as he shucks his trousers. “Okay. Just checking.” He’s wearing black boxer briefs, and he’s visibly aroused beneath them.

I gulp at the sight of him.

This is happening. Really happening.

There’re hardly any barriers between us now.

“I... uh, I assume you have your own condoms.” I’m trying to sound easy and natural and pretty sure I’m not managing it. “But if you don’t, I’ve got—”

“I’ve got us covered,” he says, walking toward the bathroom. I watch him. The tight contours of his ass. The long columns of his legs.

I’m going to have sex with this man. In just a minute or two.

I realize I’m still sideways on the bed in a rather messy sprawl, so I sit up and slide my skirt off all the way. I’m almost naked now, and it feels strange so I pull back the covers of the bed and get under