my house. “Tess, you insult me. I’m not the slacker you think I am. I’ve gone days with no sleep. If you can keep your hands to yourself and go right to bed, I’ll get enough beauty rest to be my irresistible self in the morning.”
Wiseass. He was the world’s biggest wiseass. “I’m keeping my hands to myself and so are you. Couch, remember?”
“Yes, how could I forget?” he said it like a kid who was just warned about brushing his teeth. “This will be a real first for me.”
“What? Sleeping on a couch?”
The devil himself couldn’t have smirked as deviously as he did. “No. Sleeping on the couch alone while the woman who invited me to spend the night is all comfy and cozy upstairs in her bed.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything.”
“Yeah, how is this a first for you?”
The question was simple, but with a flirtatious undertone—I wasn’t sure how he made it sound so… sensual. I liked this playful side to him and I wanted to see if I, too, had it in me to play.
“First time I’ll be having a Grayson sleepover without Riley.”
“Come on. You need my sister to protect you?” he joked. “Okay, my turn. First time I’ll be inches from a woman—in nothing but my underwear—who won’t let me touch her.”
He was unnerving. How the hell was I going to get my beauty rest with him half naked right under my nose? “Nothing but your underwear? You can’t keep your shirt on?”
“I usually sleep in the nude, so there you go—another first. But maybe I will sleep with this shirt on,” he tugged at the V-neck of his fitted black t-shirt and sniffed, closing his eyes and licking his lips. “Smells like you. So sweet and sexy.”
My panties were about to combust. “I don’t like this game anymore. You don’t play fair.”
He inched closer to me, dropping his heavy arm around my shoulders and then massaging the back of my neck between his strong fingers. “I never said I played fair. I hate following the rules.”
Shivers, tingles, butterflies. He was killing me, but we were turning my corner and nearing my house. I had to amp myself up for the expression on Trish’s face when I walked through the door arm-in-arm with Mr. Panty Dropper in all his rugged glory. “Well, then there’s another first. Rule number one: no more schmoozing. You’re clouding my judgment.”
“Good! That means you haven’t totally broken me yet.”
His grip around my shoulder tensed and then he let his arm fall back to his side. It was the first time we’d broke contact since I’d sat on his lap in the subway. The sudden disconnection made me think he regretted his admission. But, honestly, how could I bebreaking Marcus Grayson?
Arriving home couldn’t have come at a better time. “We’re here. Welcome to my humble abode.”
He opened his arms, gesturing for me to take the lead. Following me up the few steps to the door, I felt his gaze, weighty and intense, as I fumbled with my keys.
“Tessa?”
“Yeah?” I pulled the keys from my purse and turned to face him again.
“Once we’re inside I can’t touch, right?”
Stand your ground, girl, even if it’s falling out from under you. “Nope.”
“So…” His fingers were instantly tangled in my hair again, his body pressing against mine. He rested his forehead to mine and we both closed our eyes, taking in the moment. “I had such a great time tonight, Tessa. Can I kiss you goodnight?”
He was asking ? Wow, maybe I really was breaking him. But broken or not, he was still a force to be reckoned with. The kind of force that takes over your limbs and makes them feel frail and clumsy. “I’d like that very much.”
The last word hardly had the chance to touch the dark, cool air before his lips were against mine again. He kissed my top lip, then my bottom, sucking it into his mouth and using his tongue to open me up to more of his magic. Slowly exploring at first and then plunging deeper, I let the moment just be , like
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