I let my arms fall to my sides, taking the plain purple fabric with them.

He sucked in a sharp breath and brought his hands up. They shook before cupping my heated flesh.

We both let out a sound somewhere between satisfaction and torture. His callused fingers toyed with my nipples, rolling them, teasing them, pinching them.

I locked my arms around his neck, and his head dipped to take each one into his mouth. Rolling my hips, I brought a sliver of relief to the throbbing ache between my legs that would refuse to take anything less than the complete package—his complete package. Flickers of pleasure raced across my body.

My happy sigh was cut off when his hands shot to my waist.

One second I was on his lap, the next my ass was on the bed and I was staring at his back.

He stood, raking his hands through his hair.

The strained muscles of his bare back were facing me.

“Dare—”

“I wasn’t doing any of this to sleep with you.”

I got up onto my knees, moving to the edge of the bed. “I didn’t think you were. The way I threw myself at you wasn’t the first clue. But I’m probably not the first one to do that.” Suddenly, all the insecurities and doubts came flooding in. Was he only into the chase? The hormonal, irrational eighteen-year-old in me was coming out.

“Fucking this up for you…” His biceps flexed and he dropped his hands from his head.

“You’re not going to fuck anything up.”

He turned to me with hunger flaring in his gaze, alongside restraint I didn’t have. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

“Are you sure, Bay?”

I pulled him closer by the buttons of his jeans.

His knees butted against the edge of the bed. With a gentle nudge to my shoulder, I lay down, my back against the cool blankets.

He crawled up my body, his bare chest broad and tanned above mine.

Catching my breath was nearly impossible. Would my tombstone read ‘here lies Bay, dead from sexual anticipation’? I was on the road there, and every second the waves swelled higher.

The belt from his jeans jangled and skimmed across my bare stomach.

“Then we’re doing things my way.”

I reached up. My hands hesitantly cupping his cheek. “I want it to be you.”

He shuddered under my touch and nuzzled my hand. And there was a cold vacuum left behind when he shifted his weight and left the bed.

Wasn’t that what I was supposed to say?

He grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out the reflective piece of foil.

My stomach was in chaos. My heart threatened to leap from my body, and my brain fixated on the devastating way he looked at me.

“First, I’ll need to get you ready.”

I tilted my head to the side, probably looking like a confused puppy. “What do you mean by—”

My answer came when he dropped to the ground at the foot of my bed and dragged me closer to him.