just because it felt good—was going to land him in a place where he didn’t want to be. A place he’d have to walk away from. And that wasn’t how he wanted it to go.
Daring fingers flexed and splayed over his thigh, moved ever closer to the hard ridge they’d provoked, forcing a strangled groan from Nate’s throat as he throttled down the road toward his place.
Time for a reminder about who was in the driver’s seat.
Time to take back control and set some limits. And if boundaries were going to be tested, it would happen the way he liked—on his terms. It was time to push Payton to extremes—make her pay for that wandering hand and finally get her to say “when”.
Chapter Fifteen
MINUTES later they were rounding the top level of the parking garage in Nate’s building. The sun burned low in the sky, casting the stark concrete supports in gilded rays.
“That was incredible!”
He barely heard her over the roar of the engine echoing through the structure and waited until he’d pulled to a stop and cut the engine to respond. Pushing the machine up on its stand, he grinned. “Yeah? Glad you had fun.”
“I’m not sure fun even begins to describe it.”
He stripped off his helmet and then turned to help her with hers. Damn, that smile was enough to drive a man to distraction.
And about that…he had some payback to attend to.
“Come here.” He slipped one hand under her thigh and, the other around her back and, ignoring her squeak of surprise, pulled her around to straddle his lap. The gauzy fabric of her skirt bunched between them. Her heeled leather boots—looking decidedly bad-girl when paired with his bike—tucked behind her as she settled warm and soft against the hard-on he’d been battling for hours.
She stroked his jaw, brushing over the day’s growth of stubble with a silky smile that had him responding even as he willed himself to heel. He shook his head, his gaze searching her face, trailing down her neck and body, and then returning to her eyes as he nuzzled into her palm, kissed the hollow and then ramped past “sweet” bringing a scrape of teeth into the action. He wanted her to know where this was going.
Payton’s heart skittered to a halt as instant heat surged through her, twisting into a needy ache that left no part of her unaffected. Her breasts, her belly, her fingers and toes. Every fine hair that covered her body took notice, bowed beneath the desire born of his touch.
His tongue licked out as his blue eyes pierced her with his intent. Her breath sucked in. Her body coiled tight. And then he licked again, trailing a cool, wet path of erotic sensation in a circle around the first.
“We should go inside,” she murmured, more than ready to let Nate take the exhilaration of the ride to the next level. This was a man who made her want everything. A man who, when merged with her, made her feel invincible. Unstoppable and completely alive.
One large hand snaked around her waist, while the other went to her nape, guiding her closer until their lips met in a soft brush, a teasing introduction after too long apart. Her fingers curled against his thighs, and he angled his head, taking the kiss deeper.
Willing and eager, she opened to him. Moaned against the claiming thrust of his tongue as he filled her mouth. So good but she wanted more than a taste. She wanted him everywhere and all at once. Everything he had. Everything he was.
Something was happening within her, something she knew better than to give into but couldn’t seem to stop.
Take me. Make me yours.
The forbidden wish rose unbidden from the dark shadows of her mind.
Hold me. Forever.
When Nate let go of all his careful restraint, he gave her what she’d never had before. Showed her what she didn’t know existed. It was incredible. Addictive. It was more than the physical. More than the mind-blowing sensation spearing through her at his slightest touch and deepest penetration.
But it wasn’t what they’d agreed to. It wouldn’t last. Only when he held her in his arms and stopped holding back, she felt as if, maybe, just maybe…it could.
Soft and wild. That was Payton. It was the sound of the cry that escaped when he caught her lip between his teeth, held and tugged the slightest bit. The sultry moan when he gripped her bottom, dragged her closer and drove his tongue deep into her mouth. Rocked harder as the muscles of her lean thighs bracketed him, flexing and tensing to the rhythm he’d set—until their breath came in fevered bursts between them. Desperate draws cut short by their need for more contact—deeper contact.
“Please…please…oh, God.”
That’s right. Just like that.
His hands fisted at her hips, seizing the delicate waistband of the panties that kept him from where he wanted to be. Sweet perfection tangled with his tongue, curling around, licking over him, sucking every bit of restraint from a mind that hadn’t had much to begin with.
Control. That was what he was after. But her kiss stroked like a match-head over rough stone, igniting Nate in a flash flame. And there was no controlling the combustible desire when she opened to him, invited him in.
Tearing back from the kiss, he sucked air, tried to get a hold of himself. But all he could see were those soft wild curls swaying from side to side as Payton’s mouth devoured his neck, his ears, his jaw, and then more when her fingers got in on the game—working the buttons of his shirt, with her lips following down his chest. Each heated kiss punctuated by her breathy pleas and silky declarations, “Nate, oh, Nate. What you do to me…want you…need you…don’t stop…”
He couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to stop.
Don’t ever stop.
His eyes opened. Had she said that? Or was it simply where his mind had taken him following his train of thought?
And then, somehow, she’d opened enough of the buttons to get the bulk of his chest free, and the little demon was licking at his nipple again. Her teeth grazing around it and then sucking with enough force the sensation pulled straight from his groin—where her deft fingers tugged at his straining fly and he was once again left panting through gritted teeth as he raced to keep up with her.
He was supposed to be holding the reins! It was Payton’s turn to say “when”.
“No.” Hands clamped on her shoulders, he set her back against the fuel tank.
Her brows pulled together in pained confusion. “Why?”
“No condom.” It was true, though only occurred to him as he’d grasped for an excuse to modify their positioning.
“I need to get on the pill,” she groaned. Her heartrending cry of distress over their predicament would have been comical if his groin hadn’t tightened to the point of pain at the forbidden memory of skin on silky smooth, wet skin. If he weren’t totally caught up in her parted, kiss-swollen lips and the warm pants escaping them at a rate that damn near matched his speeding pulse.
“Upstairs,”
