Heart Song Anthology, Carolyn Faulkner [simple ebook reader .TXT] 📗

All Tess could do in response was groan – loudly. He reached under her skirt and cupped the place that was driving her crazy. Not trying to finger her, not doing anything more than holding the heart of her possessively in the palm of his hand. “Say, ‘Yes, Sir.’”

She didn’t want to say, “Yes, Sir,” like a good girl. Tess wanted to stick her tongue out at him instead, but she couldn’t think with his hand where it was. No cogent thought entered her mind, so she surrendered – much too easily, she would realize, when she played the scene back in her mind later. She did as she was told.

“Yes, Sir.”

Sean nodded approvingly, withdrawing his hand and triggering another long, low groan of complaint from her. “Good girl. Now I’m going to go before I get in over my head. But I want to see you again tomorrow night.” He paused. “Remember,” he said, giving her a very stern look, “what you’ve been told not to do.”

Still floating on a cloud of hazy, hot lust, Tess couldn’t even begin to think clearly before she agreed eagerly. Anything to have him near her soon, with his authoritative voice and words, and his teasing fingers.

Of course, his restriction only made it just that much harder to crawl into bed and not do what she had been prohibited from doing. Previously, she hadn’t been able to get herself to do it, and now – since he’d said she couldn’t – it was all she wanted.

“Did you touch yourself last night after I left?” It was the first thing he said to her once they were sequestered in the cab of his pickup the next night. Tess had gotten close to pouting because he was being a stubborn pain in the ass, and he wanted to draw her out, knowing that it was the kind of outrageous question that would do all the work for him.

She had invited him in while she balanced out the cash drawer and did all the nighttime chores involved in shutting her place down. He’d declined, chiding her that she shouldn’t be allowing any strange man into her store after hours, even him, since she didn’t know him that well. Tess had barely managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes at him, but did as he asked, locking him out of the store and herself in so she could return to her duties and get them done efficiently.

Sean leaned up against the brick wall to wait; it was the first time in a very long while that he craved a cigarette. He’d picked up that awful habit when he was in high school, but had kicked it in his early twenties. Waiting for her like this, however, his body already halfway to satisfaction just at the sight of her, had him wishing for something to do with his hands.

Besides, what he wanted to do – which, considering that they were only on their second date, as well as their second day of knowing each other – was much too intimate to be contemplated. Getting to know her much better – and much, much more intimately – was just about the only thing he had been able to think about since he’d heard her give her order to Helen in the coffee shop.

He didn’t look up until she came out, regarding her hungrily. The look on his face telegraphed his intentions so clearly that Tess halted in mid-stride, sucking in a quick breath, wondering to herself whether they were even going to make it to dinner.

As he strode towards her, she took several tentative steps towards him, ending up engulfed in those muscular arms, held tight against him; there was absolutely no mistaking what was poking insistently into her lower belly as he lowered his head to hers.

Damn he was a good kisser! Just the right pressure, not too wet, and with just the right amount of tongue, which she did her best to emulate. By the time he lifted his head, she didn’t give a damn whether they ever made it to dinner.

Whether he remained unaffected through it all – which she doubted, considering the fact that the bulge against her tummy had grown several sizes while they kissed – he was obviously much stronger than she. With no effort, he lifted her into the cab of his massive truck and closed the door beside her.

As he joined her in the cab, she was amazed to hear herself say breathlessly, “You know I don’t mind at all if we just skip dinner and head home to my place...” She’d never even contemplated saying anything like that to any man she’d known, let alone say it out loud.

Sean appeared to seriously consider her offer; for a moment she had her hopes up. He leaned back into the corner at the end of the wide bench seat, giving her an assessing gaze that she wasn’t at all sure she liked. He sure knew how to make her squirm!

But then he leaned forward and turned the key to start the truck, saying, “No, that wouldn’t be right. I don’t want to rush things between us. I want to get to know you a lot more before we take that step, so we’re going to take this at the pace I set, which is slow.”

“Kind of like you drive?” She couldn’t resist getting that jab in there, because the man did drive like the famous little old lady from Pasadena. One sharp look from him and she knew she’d better not push it. She certainly didn’t want a repeat of what had happened last night... or did she?

Annoyed with herself and her conflicting reactions she was having to him, as well as with the man himself, Tess sighed in frustration, buckled her seat belt and resigned herself to Lord-knew-how-long without the thundering sexual release that her body instinctively knew he could provide.

And then had come that