“Kiss me, Felix.”
13
Felix didn’t need to be told twice. He opened his fist, wiggled his fingers, and allowed his arm to relax. He reached for Jo. Adorable Jo. Beautiful Jo. Nerdy, creative, funny, thoughtful Jo. Who wanted him to kiss her. Who admitted to wanting a lot more than that. Her eyes fluttered closed. Her face angled up toward him.
He hooked his fingers under the strap of her purse and gently tugged. Jo’s brows knit together, and she blinked her eyes open.
“If we’re going to do this,” he murmured, “we’re going to do it right. You’re not going to be clinging to your purse when you could be touching me instead.”
He tugged again, and she let go.
“That’s my girl, Jo,” he said, each word precise.
She whimpered and bit her lip. Oh, fuck, he needed to make that sound come out of her again. He pulled her purse off her shoulder and leaned over to set it on the dresser nearby. Jo’s eyes followed him.
Felix took his time. He was going to savor this moment. Make her savor it too. He palmed the sides of Jo’s waist under that damn denim jacket, right where her leggings met her cropped blue shirt with an illustration of a cat on its back, playing with a giant d20 as if it were a ball of yarn.
When his hands made contact, she gasped in a breath that threatened to unravel his control. Hot, heavy need flooded his body, firming his cock and urging his pulse faster. His hands slid to her back. His fingers moved under the edge of her shirt, grazing skin and the band of her bra. He fingered the clasps and slipped underneath them. She was warm, warmer than his hands. Smooth and soft. He drank in the sight of the midriff he’d revealed by hiking up the back of her shirt. He would taste her there next, after he kissed her. He’d drop to his knees and roll down her leggings. Kiss her ivory skin all the way down to her pussy. Bite into the meat of her exquisite hips. Perhaps that would make her whimper again. He licked his lips in anticipation.
He slid a longing gaze back up, over her breasts and collarbone and throat and jaw and lips and cheeks and eyes. He resisted the desire to pull Jo against his body. She would feel so good, so fucking good, against his erection, but he wanted her mouth first. Wanted to let the sensations of her body and his together ramp up gradually. In order. Hands first, then lips, then tongues, then… everything.
“Felix, please,” Jo whispered when his eyes found hers again. Her face was still angled up at him, desperation evident in every pore.
He smiled down at her. “Do you want to touch me too?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
Jo swallowed. Moving as slowly and carefully as he had, she rested her hands on his shoulders. Her fingers tightened. Awestruck eyes darted from left to right as she beheld the muscles he’d toned over so many years. It was worth it. Every morning that he woke up sore, every wrist sprain, every time he pushed himself a little harder, every dollar he spent on coaches when he was a beginner. It was all worth it to see the way Jo’s eyes grew even rounder and needier. She looked at his body like it was a gift she got to unwrap, something she’d always wanted but never dared to ask for.
Then her gaze returned to his face, studying him, and her fingers skated up his shoulders. She skimmed the sides of his neck, and he groaned as goosebumps skittered over his skin.
“Fuck, Jo,” he whispered. “Do that again.”
She grinned and put her hands back on his shoulders. She ran her fingertips even more lightly over him, the sweetest tickle up the sides of his neck. He shivered and threw his head back and moaned.
“How?” he asked the ceiling. “How does that simple touch feel so good, Jo? How are you doing this to me?”
Her fingers touched his chin next, drawing his head forward.
“I like your stubble,” she said. “I’ve always liked it. Since the first day I saw you, sitting next to that ridiculous stack of MnM books. Especially this part.” She grazed her index finger over the patch of gray on his chin.
“You like my grays?” Felix asked. No one had ever told him that before. Not that he’d been gray for very long, but the women he’d been with usually liked his thick, night-black hair over the gray on his chin. Leave it to Jo, whose mind worked in mysterious ways, to pick that part of his body to compliment first.
“What can I say? I’m an old lady.”
“And I’m an old man who wants to kiss you before he shuffles off this mortal coil.”
“You could have kissed me at any point up to now,” she said with deliberate laziness. Her finger continued to play with his stubble while her other hand rested on his cheek. “You’re the one who told me to touch you first. So I’m touching you first.”
“Let me know when you’re done then,” he said. “I’ll be right here.”
“Will do.”
Fuck. If he’d known Jo was this much of a goddamn tease, maybe he would have moved a little faster. He gripped her back tighter, digging the pads of his fingers into her skin. She bit her lower lip, and those pale eyes with their dark flecks rolled back in pleasure. God, they hadn’t even kissed yet, hadn’t even taken any clothes off, and already they were falling apart under one another’s hands.
“Almost,” she promised. She dragged the backs of her nails over his stubble, from his chin to his temples. Prickles of electricity cascaded down his entire body.
“Oh my God,” Felix breathed. “You’re going to kill me, woman.”
“Mm-hmm,” Jo hummed in agreement. She eased her fingers into his hair above his ears and leisurely passed her eyes over his dark waves. “Soft,” she murmured. “Silky.”
Her eyes locked onto his, no longer lazy, no longer teasing and coy. He didn’t make her ask again. He closed his mouth over hers. Jo let out a shuddering, open-mouthed moan. Their lips had barely touched and already she was inviting him in. How could he refuse such an invitation? He smelled chocolate on her breath, tasted it on her tongue. She returned that sweet pressure against his tongue and whimpered into his mouth.
There it is.
Her hands tightened in his hair, tugging, drawing him closer. Felix responded by pulling her roughly against his body. A surprised little “oh!” slipped out of Jo when his cock dug into her belly. And fuck if he wasn’t right. She felt so good—shifting, friction, soft against hard. He tucked his hand into the high waistband of her leggings, lowered it to the small of her back. He could feel the edge of her panties, and he flicked it with his middle finger. Jo tensed ever so slightly in his arms, and Felix couldn’t tell if it was from desire or reticence.
He withdrew from her lips and nudged her nose with his. “Tell me,” he said, panting. “Tell me what you want tonight. Like I said before. However you want to be touched, for however long you want. All you have to do is ask, Jo.”
A heavy pause.
“I don’t—I don’t know,” she said. She bumped his nose, but only because she was shaking her head. “I’m sorry, Felix. I don’t know.”
Felix exhaled and pressed his cheek against hers, angling to avoid her glasses. He couldn’t let her see his disappointment. He wouldn’t put that on her. He squeezed his eyes shut and calmed his body down with long, even breaths. He withdrew his hand from her leggings and held onto her hips.
