‘Feeling pretty pleased with yourself, huh?’ she asks with a cheeky grin.
‘Uh-huh.’
Delaney closes the gap between us and kisses me again, her hand moving around to my back, the pads of her fingers digging into me.
I’m torn. Do we keep going or do I say everything I came to say?
She abruptly pulls away. ‘What? You stopped kissing me back.’
I search her eyes, catching the crease forming between her brows. Talk about killing the mood.What are you doing?I ask myself.
‘Nick, what’s wrong?’ she asks, an edge of worry tainting her voice. ‘Oh my god – are you still with Pippa? Because I figured?—’
‘No, no – we’re not together,’ I hurriedly assure her.
‘Okay,’ she says with obvious relief. ‘So, what’s up then?’
‘It’s…’
I roll onto my back, tucking one arm under my head, and puff out my cheeks, letting the air slowly escape. Delaney crawls up onto my chest, facing me, and I wrap an arm around her and hold her close.
‘Okay, dude, this is meant to be the part where you get naked and we get busy.’
I quirk my brows at her.
‘Okay, that was a cheesy line, but you’ve gone all serious on me. You’ve got me resorting to lame jokes and calling you “dude”,’ she says, jostling me.
‘I thought you liked calling people “dude”. It’s part of your charm.’
Her stare intensifies, telling me to spit it out.
‘Okay, I don’t want you thinking I came all the way herejustto seduce you.’
She gives me a side-eye, her lips twitching. ‘Well, after that performance, even if you did, I wouldn’t care. Hold on – no, I would care. But I’d probably wait until after we actually had sex.’
Eyes fixed on mine, her hand slides down to my jeans, and she flicks open the button. I lay my hand on hers.
‘Don’t you want to talk first?’ I ask.
She shakes her head. ‘Nope.’
She lands a hard kiss on my lips and climbs on top of me.Fuck it. I return the kiss, enclosing her in my arms, the softness of her skin beneath my fingers driving a bolt of electricity to my groin.
This time when she reaches for my jeans, I let her. She tugs at them impatiently, the fabric unforgiving, and I roughly shove them past my hips along with my briefs, my erection springing free.
Delaney drops her gaze, her eyes returning to mine and her mouth falling open with either surprise or delight – maybe both.
‘Nightstand,’ she says, and it takes my addled brain a moment to catch up. I look over, seeing several foil packets strung together, and pick them up.
‘Gimme,’ she says, and I tear one off and hand it to her.
She grips the packet between her teeth and rips it open. It’s not really a one-handed job, so I help her position the condom onto the tip, my breath catching as her small hand grasps me firmly and rolls it down the shaft.
‘I want you on top,’ she says with lust-filled eyes, her mouth slack.
I roll us both over, only my jeans are trapped halfway down my thighs. ‘Hang on.’ I sit up, taking off everything below my waist, including my shoes and socks.
‘And the T-shirt,’ she commands, and I glance over my shoulder at her. I like this Delaney too – bolshie and confident – sexy as hell.