Maurice backed away as if he’d been scorched, and she frowned when he dragged his hands down his face.
“Condoms are in my wallet.” If this were a cartoon, now would be the moment when question marks popped into the air. “My wallet is in my room.” That statement settled around them like a lead weight.
“Oh.” That didn’t seem like much of a response, but then—“Oh! Wait! I have some!” She shot across the room, not giving a damn what body parts jiggled as a result, and went straight to the duffel bag she’d brought with her in addition to her suitcase. Digging inside she found the box and stood holding it in the air like it was the prize of the decade. “I have some!”
He did a fist pump in the air and then paused. “You always carry a whole box of condoms when you travel?”
“No.” She frowned and tossed the box at him. “Only when I’m coming to meet the guy who talked about making me come numerous times a day.”
Maurice didn’t respond. He was too busy ripping the box open, dropping the torn pieces of cardboard onto the floor. When he plucked one packet out of the box, the box met the floor as well. A moment later so did the condom wrapper as he hurriedly sheathed himself.
He reached for her and lifted her off her feet. With a gasp she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
“This is gonna be fast again,” he growled and then walked them to the nearest wall—which was actually the bathroom door—and pushed inside her.
“Yes!” The one word was loud and echoed throughout the room. “That’s what I want, hard and fast and so good. So damn good.”
Mutual gasps echoed through the air at their joining as she took him in deep. There were no more words, no more quips from either of them as only the sound of their bodies pounding into each other resonated throughout the room. He was driving into her so hard and so fast that her back slammed into the door, her mind whirling around the delicious thrill of this heated taking.
“Sorry,” he groaned and thrust inside her once more before his body stilled. “So. Sorry.” Two more of those stiff thrust-and-stop movements and she was shattering around him again.
Her eyes closed and her head tilted back, her fingers still digging into his skin as her muscles contracted around his pulsating dick.
“Dammit.” Moaning, he dropped his forehead to rest at her neck. His body jerked with his release moments after hers, as she continued to tremble.
“Tomorrow,” he whispered after a few minutes of them both trying to catch their breath.
“Tomorrow?” That was a weird word to use after sex.
He nodded. “Yeah. We’re gonna take it slow, tomorrow.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
MAURICEGRABBEDTWOtowels from the closet by the bathroom door and dropped them on the end of the soaker tub.
She was still standing in the doorway, a sheet from the bed wrapped around her body, and her arms folded over her chest to hold it in place. When he’d suggested they take a bath, the languid after-sex sensations that had been filtering through her body switched places with a clammy feeling that now pricked her skin. This was different and yet it was the same, even her body could get that message right.
Maurice was not Gordon, and this wasn’t a real relationship—that much was clear in her mind. But taking a bath was intimate, and intimacy blurred the lines. She needed those lines, the barriers she’d carefully built around her in the years since the worst breakup she’d ever experienced.
Unfortunately, she didn’t see a way of wriggling out of this that didn’t make it seem as if she were overreacting or, worse, weak.
“I’m not gonna bite. It’s just a bath. After all the falling we did on the slopes this afternoon and the other, um, very vigorous activity we just enjoyed, I figure a nice soak will do us both good.”
“You sound like an old man,” she quipped and then figured, the hell with it, and stepped completely into the bathroom.
“Nah, not old, baby.” He stepped into the tub and lowered his body into the water. “Just a ski coach whose student couldn’t grasp the idea that the skis remain on the ground, not her pretty little ass.”
Rolling her eyes at his smug smirk and keeping a lid on how irritated she’d been earlier today on the slopes, she dropped the sheet and walked over to the tub. Definitely large enough for the two of them. It was positioned close to a window that, when open, boasted another glorious view of the mountain scenery. She’d closed the electronic blinds when she’d been in here getting dressed earlier. Going to the opposite side of the tub, she hurriedly stepped in and sat down. Not because she was modest about him seeing her body—they’d obviously been there and done that. She just didn’t want to chicken out at the last minute.
“You aren’t the best at everything,” she said once she was settled in the pleasingly hot water. Maurice was a tall guy, six feet two and a half inches, to be exact. She knew how tall each of the Gold siblings were because she’d seen their measurements on a spreadsheet during a show where the family were all wearing specially designed outfits. He sat with his legs spread open and pressed against the edge of the tub. She sat with her legs between his, her cheery yellow painted toenails almost hiding his crotch area. A bubble bath might have been a better idea.
“Never said I was. But the things I am good at I like to boast about. Just in case there’s someone who needs to know.” His juvenile grin relaxed her. It also made her look around for something to throw at him. “Besides, I can’t help it that you’re a perfectionist and it annoys the hell out of you when you can’t get something right on the first try.”
Only because in the past whenever she messed up, she paid for it dearly. “I’m not arguing with you about this.” She leaned back, letting her neck rest on the lip of the tub. If she closed her eyes and focused solely on the water, she wouldn’t have to stare at him and his naked body, a stark reminder that they’d totally changed the dynamic of their friendship.
A few moments passed in silence. Moments when she knew he was watching her, and she told herself not to feel uncomfortable about that.
“Why’d you sign up for Dear Lover?”
