“It’s not like it makes me happy,” she said, sadness washing over her eyes. “It just makes me feel as much peace as I guess I can feel.”
“You don’t have to be happy. You can just... be,” he said, and that was what he’d told her in college, too.
She met his eyes, a sliver of a smile forming on her beautiful lips. “I’m happy right now,” she said.
And hell if that didn’t add an extra gallon to all those stores he had.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After the plates were cleared, Shannon declared the meal a feast. “I knew I asked the right man to get me into this delicious restaurant. It was amazing, and everything I hoped it would be,” she said, then launched into a new topic. “I watched a funny video before I met you for dinner.”
He raised an eyebrow in question. “I thought you weren’t into Internet videos?”
“I’m not. I only watch videos of my dance rehearsals, and I shoot most of those myself. But my friend Ally showed me a video she saw on Facebook. It’s this clip of a girl who grinds on her boyfriend in public while his hand is under her skirt, and they don’t even try to hide that he’s fingering her and getting her off.”
“I like getting you off,” he said with a naughty glint in his brown eyes.
“You cannot resist segueing back to dirty talk when I’m telling you a story.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said, placing his palms together. “The story was about a guy making a girl come. Forgive me for thinking about making you come. It’s only my favorite thing in the entire world to do.”
She shot him a tell me more look.
“It’s a hobby I once practiced a few times a day,” he added. “One I’m very interested in taking up again.”
A ribbon of warmth spread through her chest, both from the suggestion of one of her favorite activities, too, but also from the way he was so quick on his toes, so fast with a joke. The man had always made her laugh. He was handsome as sin and funny as hell, and that combo had been all she’d ever needed. He had filled all the sad places inside her. He’d burrowed into her with his laughter and his wit, replacing her darkness with his light. Tonight, he was firing on all cylinders—his caring, tender side in full force, along with his clever one, not to mention that handsome side. In his jeans and long-sleeved Henley stretched tight across his chest, he was a sight to behold.
“Anyway, back to the video. So the funny part is they had no clue they’d been caught on camera, even though they were totally obvious. They thought they were being quiet and sneaky when he was trying to make her come.”
“I could make you come quietly,” he said with an easy shrug of his shoulder. “I can make you come loudly, too. I can make you come in pretty much any way.”
She scoffed. Not because it was untrue, but because he was so damn sure of himself. “Confident much?”
“Yeah, I am. I have the track record to prove it. You’re pretty much the only class I aced in college.”
She laughed, looking down at her lap. He was too much sometimes. “Straight As, Brent?”
“Hell no. Higher. I earned A-pluses across the board in your pleasure.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re relentless.”
He leaned forward across the table, flashing her that cocky grin she’d loved so much. “When it comes to delivering multiple orgasms for you, yes. Relentless is precisely what I am.”
She held up her hands. “Fine, fine. You win. You win for being the King of Distraction again. Because I was trying to tell you that watching this video made me think to go looking for videos of you.”
He straightened his spine and furrowed his brow. Excellent. She’d regained the thread of the conversation. “You looked for videos of me?”
“I did. I did a little Googling of Brent Nichols.”
For a second, he seemed unsure, nervous even. Then he returned to his cool, confident demeanor, leaning back in his chair. “Really? What else did you see?”
She dipped her hand into her purse, and took out the item she’d purchased at the candy store. A lollipop. She unwrapped it, taking her time peeling off the plastic as he watched her. His eyes darkened as she brought it to her lips, gently kissing the sucker.
His breath hissed. His eyes turned feral. This was what she wanted—him turned on and in the palm of her hand, and it had taken mere seconds. She flicked her tongue across the red candy, licking it once as he shifted in his chair. She pictured his cock standing at attention, straining against his jeans. She wondered if he still wore black boxer briefs like he’d worn in college. If he still looked hot in them as he did then, the outline of his dick so alluring when he’d take off his clothes for her. Her mouth watered as she pictured him unzipping his jeans, pushing down his briefs, his cock springing free.
Ready for her. Always ready for her
“But I need to correct you,” she said.
“About what?” His voice was husky.
“I’m not opposed to licking sweets off you.”
He sat up straight “You saw my bit?”
She nodded, then licked the red lollipop, swirling her tongue across the candy. She watched him as he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. Giving him away. But then he wasn’t trying to hide a single thing right now. She leaned across the table, lowered her voice to a whisper, and asked, “If I put my hand on you right now how hard would your dick be?”
“Rock fucking hard,” he said in a growl, the rough and sexy rumble of his admission sending a rush of heat between her legs.
She returned the sucker to her mouth, moving it back and forth between her lips. As she licked and kissed the candy, giving him a hell of a show, he stared at her with hungry eyes. In them, she saw the reel of his desires. All his dirty thoughts, all his dirty dreams—everything he wanted from her.
The waiter rushed by, dishes balanced on his arm.
“Check please,” Brent called out, and the man nodded, then continued on his way.
“Actually, allow me to clarify my feelings about sweets,” she said as she drew the lollipop all the way into her mouth, then let it pop out. “I’m not really a chocolate person. I’m more into the red, sugary candy. Like this sucker. I love how it tastes.” She paused, her eyes on him, then asked, “Do you wonder what my mouth tastes like right now?”
“Spectacular. I bet it tastes spectacular,” he answered, his voice strained, and full of heat. “Kiss me now,” he said, giving her a clear order. He leaned across the table and claimed her mouth, marked his territory with a passionate, crushing kiss that made her dizzy.
When he broke the kiss, the haze cleared and she returned to starring in her show. She kicked back in the chair, striking a casual, seductive pose as she sucked the candy deeply, reminding him of her talents.
He gripped the edge of the table. He inhaled through his nostrils. He looked as if he wanted to rip the table in two.
“You see, I’d be much more inclined to lick something like this off you.”
“A lollipop?”
“Candy, lollipop, anything sweet. By the way, how’s it going down there? A little tight in the jeans?”
“Unbelievably tight, but I don’t mind. Because my hard-on is within a few feet of my favorite place in the entire universe.
“My mouth?”
“Anywhere on you,” he corrected. “Your mouth. Your pussy. Your beautiful fucking ass,” he said, reminding Shannon that he’d explored her thoroughly. He was the only man she’d let take her any way he wanted, because she’d loved everything with him. She had given him all of her body, and he’d worshipped every inch of her.
“Mmm,” she moaned, licking her tongue across the sugary surface. She rolled her eyes in pleasure, then held the candy in the air. “I’m thinking of how much I miss the taste of you coming in my mouth.”