Beg Me (7 page)

But her body was content to lie there. She
felt safe…replete. Rested.

She made herself think back.

And last night lit up in her mind like a
marquee sign.

Drake
—

Slowly, she tugged the pillow away and
turned her head. Through the tangle of her hair, she could see him.
She went to brush it out of the way, but he was already doing it,
smoothing the tangled strands back from her face, behind her ear,
smoothing it down her back.

“
Good morning,” he said, his voice
neutral.

Like he was waiting for her to either freak
out or fall apart.

Oddly enough, that was what she would have
expected.

But she found herself smiling at him.

“
Morning.”

His hand rested on her cheek, his thumb
stroking her lower lip.

“
I’d like to kiss you,” he said
softly.

Tania blushed. Then she lifted a brow at
him. “You sure about that? I’ve got morning breath.”

He shifted in the bed, moving closer, but
doing it slow, watching her, gauging her reactions.

She just waited.

He rested a hand on her hip, stroking it
restlessly. “Yeah, I want to kiss you.”

“
Then go ahead and do it,” she said,
smiling at him, stroking a finger over his tattoo.

He kept a careful distance between them,
touching her only with his mouth, teasing the seam of her lips with
the tip of his tongue until she opened for him.

It was light, soft and slow, nothing like
the kisses from last night.

A perfect good-morning kiss, she decided as
he pulled away, smiling at her.

She smiled back, caught off guard by the way
her heart skittered and danced in her chest. This was Drake—Kyle’s
buddy. Her friend too.

Just a friend?
That low, sly voice in her heart taunted her.
He’s the one you automatically thought of when
you decided to you’d grab this proverbial bull by the horns—and
you’ve never done sex without emotional ties. Just a friend…and
he’s the one you’ve called every time you’ve been down over the
past few years. He’s the one you want to see on a bad day… Just a
friend?

But those thoughts were too complicated for
an early morning, especially one without coffee.

She continued to trace the tattoo on his
arm, pushing up onto one elbow to study it closer.

“
Witch,” Drake muttered.

She glanced at him and then grinned,
realizing her shift in position had put one breast square on level
with his mouth. There was naked, burning need in his
eyes—
intense
need, she
realized…

Very intense.

Abruptly, she asked, “Why did you agree to
this?”

A mask fell over his face. He pulled away,
giving her his back as he sat up. “Because you asked me to,” he
said flatly.

“
There’s more to it than that,” she
said slowly. She wasn’t certain how she knew, but she
did.

He tossed her a scowl over his shoulder and
shot up over the bed. “Hell. I get to have fantasy sex with a
beautiful woman. Why shouldn’t I agree?”

Tania blushed at the compliment, but she
wasn’t thrown off track. “You and I both know there’s a good
possibility I’m going to freak out at any given moment. Hell, the
few times I’ve gone out on dates, tried to even kiss another
guy—I’ve freaked. No reason to expect it not to happen now and
we’re planning on a lot more than kissing. If I do freak out…well,
I know you—that’s not going to settle easily on you. You’re going
to blame yourself—hate yourself for scaring me. So why did you
agree?”

“
Tania…”

He stood by the window, his head bowed, the
sun shining in around him, glinting over the blue-black highlights
there. Shifting his gaze to her, he blew out a sigh. “Maybe I’ll
give you an answer, if you answer me first.”

“
I asked first,” she said, scowling.
She scooted around in the bed, sitting on the edge with her legs
crossed and the sheet wrapped around her like a toga. Then she
shrugged. “Okay. Shoot.”

He came back to her, watching her with
that weird, hungry look. “Why did you ask
me
?”

He stopped in front of her and sank to his
knees, still staring, still watching.

She jumped as he reached up and laid his
hands on her thighs, rubbing them with small, slow circles. Her
heart skipped a beat, her breathing constricted in her lungs and
for about ten seconds, she couldn’t even remember the question.

“
Why you?” Then she glanced away,
licking her lips. Taking a deep, slow breath, she looked back at
him and said, “Because I had a feeling you’d get it. You didn’t
look freaked out by what you saw five years ago.”

She squirmed a little because this next part
was embarrassing. “And…well. Hell, you’re gorgeous, Drake. I know I
can trust you. I like being around you…and…um, well, there are
times when I see you looking at me and I see something—kind of like
the way you’re looking at me now.”

His hands flexed on her thighs. “And how am
I looking at you?” he asked roughly. Slowly, he used his hands to
lightly tug her thighs apart.

It never occurred to her not to let him.

“
Like you want to eat me alive. Like
you want me—so much.” Her voice shuddered out of her and she jerked
her gaze from his face. “Sometimes it scares me, when I’m out and I
noticed a man who
notices
me,
you know? But not with you. You’ve never scared me. And…well, like
I said—you’re gorgeous.”

She licked her lips and shrugged, going for
casual but failing. “I figured if you already found me attractive,
and I know I find you attractive. So if you weren’t opposed to the
kind of games I like, maybe you’d be okay with this.” She met his
gaze and held it. “Was I wrong?”

“
No.”

I
t was his
turn to look away. His turn to search for words.

She’d been honest, and he felt laid
bare—she’d noticed.

As much as he’d tried to hide how he wanted
her, she’d seen it.

“
Finding you attractive barely touches
it,” he said gruffly. As he spoke, he eased his hands higher,
higher, watching her face. “And yeah…your games don’t bother me in
the least.”

He gave her a strained smile, watched as her
lashes fluttered when his fingertips grazed the naked flesh between
her thighs. “You have no idea how many wet dreams I’ve had about
you over the years, Tania—dreams that involve you, that pretty
mouth of yours. Then after what I saw you with you and Kyle…hell.
After that…well. You can figure it out. But it’s not just because I
wanted to get you naked and on your back or your knees.”

He pulled his hands out from under her
skirt, cupped her face. Truth time.

“
I’ve been crazy about you for as long
as I’ve known you…but you were taken,” he said quietly.

“
You…ah…what?”

Drake laughed. “You heard me. And you asked,
there’s your answer. I’m doing this because you asked me to, and
there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. And more, I’m doing this
because I want you more than I want to breathe.”

The look on her face vaguely resembled the
way she might have looked if she’d walked into a wall—stunned
confusion.

“
You…you
what
?”

She wasn’t jerking away, he noticed. Maybe
this was a good thing?

Lowering his head, he rubbed his mouth over
hers. “I’ve got a thing for you. Always have.” Then he looked at
her. “So here’s another question. And it’s one that just occurred
to me—is there any possibility this could ever go further?”

F
urther?

Tania stirred the bacon the skillet and
turned that question over in her mind.

She was still trying to figure it out.

Part of her wanted to snap,
No, it can’t go further. I’m using you to figure
out if I can ever have sex the way I like it again.
The thought of giving her heart away again, risking that pain
if she lost it again, it terrified her. She didn’t know if she
wanted to even think about that yet. Didn’t know if she
could
think about it, could consider
it with Drake…of all people. Kyle’s best friend.

But the rest of her… She remembered how easy
it had been to go to him.

How it felt to wake up next to him.

How it had felt to fall asleep in his
arms.

There had only been one other time she’d
felt that at ease…and it had been with Kyle.

Could this go further? Or maybe it
was
already
going further and
she hadn’t even seen it.

She was also thinking about admitting
to herself why she’d turned to him to begin with. Yeah, she was
attracted to him, and yeah, she trusted him. Okay, so she’d be a
fool not to acknowledge that maybe this could go further…if she
wanted it to. And yeah, she
did
want to what could happen.

She was curious. She was scared.

One thing she did know? Thinking about
trying something with Drake didn’t terrify her. It didn’t make her
want to cringe away, or wince, or fill her with dread…or
boredom.

It made her wonder. It made her nervous.

Hearing him behind her, she turned around
and stared at him. Without even realizing she’d been planning it,
she put the fork down and moved to meet him. “Maybe,” she said
softly.

His eyelid twitched—the only reaction she
saw. He held still, his blue eyes resting on her face like he could
patiently wait the rest of the day, regardless of his job,
regardless of the bacon sizzling behind her.

Licking her lips, she twisted her hands and
tried again. “I think maybe I wouldn’t mind seeing if this could go
further, and I think maybe it’s already moving there. I don’t know.
I don’t know much of anything. I don’t really know where to go from
here, but the thought of trying it doesn’t freak me out or
anything.”

“
High praise,” he said, crooking a
grin at her.

She blushed. “I didn’t mean it like
that.”

He stroked a hand down her hair. “I know
what you meant. And I know exactly where we go—to a movie. Tonight.
I’ll pick you up at six, if that’s okay. Then I’ll bring you back
here. In a few days, I’ll call you and we’ll try another date, see
what happens.”

“
Ah…okay.” She bit her lip, then
asked, “What about the rest…?”

He used his finger to lift her chin. His
mouth hovered just a breath away from hers. “Right now, the rest,
as you call it, is in your hands. You let me know when you’re ready
for more.”

The slow, deep, gentle kiss he gave her left
her nerves sizzling, burning…and if she wasn’t already so frazzled,
she might have decided right then and there that she was ready for
more.

F
ive times
that day she almost called, almost backed out. She didn’t, though.
Remembered the way he’d looked at her as he explained why he was
doing this. Not just because he liked the idea of screwing
her.

But because he had feelings for her—

It was humbling, even as it awed her. He’d
felt something for her for a long time, even when she’d been
married. All these years, and it hadn’t faded.

This was
Drake
, and it should have weirded her
out.

The fact that it didn’t was why, in the end,
she didn’t back out of the date.

When he knocked, she answered the door
wearing one of her favorite little black dresses. Sweet, simple,
sexy, without being too dressy.

“
You look gorgeous,” he
whispered.

“
Thank you.” She blushed, accepting
the flowers he held out, touched. It had been so long since she’d
received a gift from a man, so long since she’d gotten a simple,
honest compliment. It made her heart race, even as it warmed some
dark, cold spot in her heart.

She’d missed this, she realized. A lot.

“
So what movie are we going to see?”
She turned back to him with a nervous smile, unsure what else to
say, what to talk about. Dating was something else she was no
longer comfortable with.

But then he caught her hand, lifted it to
his lips.

And she forgot all about being
uncomfortable.

W
atching a
movie could be foreplay.

Yeah, logically, Drake knew this, but he’d
forgotten it.

And this movie involved next to no physical
contact, either. He could remember movies where he’d all but had
sex in the back corner, back in his wilder youth.

Nothing more risqué happened this time than
him holding her hand, but he was so acutely aware of Tania, that
was enough.

He found himself wondering what color her
bra was, what sort of panties she wore.

All throughout the movie.

And because of that, when it ended, he
didn’t trust himself to go into her house with her. Ending it on a
chaste note seemed wise.

She smiled at him, bemused when he kissed
her good-night after unlocking her door.

“
That’s it? No necking, no
nothing?”

He pinched her chin. “In your control,
remember?”

And before she could say anything else, he
nudged her inside and closed the door behind her.

M
y control
.

Tania woke up Friday, after a wet dream so
vivid, she’d been on the verge of climax.