Page 59 of Nothing to Win

“Followed your lead,” he said.“I’d have sent Elton home when we arrived if I’d known we were staying.”

She cringed, pushing away from the door.“I’m sorry.I didn’t think we were, but we’re here and…” Raising her hands, she let them find his body as she got up close.“We’ve had sex at your home, at your work… We don’t need to have sex tonight, but I’d like to see you in my bed… Unless it makes you uncomfortable.We can leave if—”

“We’d have to come back for the party tomorrow.”With the back of his hands, he swept her hair from her shoulders.“You locked the door?”

“Because I don’t want us to be interrupted, not because I’m ashamed of…” Though anyone walking in on them in flagrante… “Do you want me to unlock it?Leave it open?”

His mouth slanted in a semi-smile.“We could always just do it in the foyer.”

She laughed.“I think we can leave that to Roxie and Zairn.”

“Are they coming tomorrow?”

“I’ve talked to Roxie about the party all week.I didn’t specifically ask her to come because with Zairn coming home tomorrow…” She slipped his jacket off, catching it as it dropped from his arms.“I didn’t want to pressure or obligate her.”

“You could always invite Tripp.”

Now that would be funny.“Just to tip my mom into a nervous breakdown?”Carrying his jacket to the closet, she peeked back.“You’re all the man I need, Mister.”

Hanging his jacket up in the closet, it was weird the thrill she got just seeing it there among her everyday things.

“I’m all the man you’re allowed to have.”

She hadn’t heard him coming, but there he was behind her.Maybe she’d been too caught up in her mooning.

He unzipped her dress, ridding her of the fabric.“Men usually need my father’s permission to sleep in my bed.”

“Only permission I need is yours.”

As he stroked her back, she tilted her chin toward her shoulder.“I gave you that already.Didn’t you say I couldn’t take it back?”

He brushed her hair away from her spine to rest his lips there.“Do you want to take it back?”

Her eyes closed, submerging her senses in that sweet spot pampered by his mouth.“Not in the slightest.”

The delicious slide of his hands up her hips, her waist, to enclose her breasts in their security.Exactly where they belonged.She couldn’t imagine ever retracting permission.One day they’d end, but it wouldn’t be at her behest.

“Let’s go to bed.”

His fingers twined between hers to guide her to the threshold of the closet.

“I have to hang up my dress,” she said, trying to withdraw.

The hold on her hand tightened.“No, Irish,” he said.“I don’t care who holds the deed, our bedroom is sovereign territory.Clean up after I’m done with you.”

A question almost escaped her lips.Would he ever be done with her?Of course he would.It felt special to her; sharing her body with men didn’t come easy.Whereas sex was second nature to a guy like Brogan.Glamorous women from all over the world had graced his sheets.Bringing him to her bed could be considered selfish because she wasn’t giving him close to what he’d get from them.

On the way to bed, she faced him, walking backward, undoing the buttons on his shirt with one hand.

“I won’t forget this,” she murmured, eyes locked on his even as he shed the shirt.

“Women don’t forget having sex with me.”

No one would expect him to be funny, she hadn’t expected it, yet that was what he aimed for.His sense of humor might be dry, but it was definitely there.

“You stood up for me.”

“You’re capable of standing up for yourself.”