Page 100 of Where the Wattles Bloom

‘I’m sorry,’ she panted.

He smiled before pressing a kiss to her mouth then whispering, ‘Let me try something.’

Then he was gone, nuzzling down her neck, down her chest, detouring around her nipples with his tongue until they’d peaked into tight, achy points, before heading south again. He lingered at her belly button, his hot breath fanning goosebumps all the way up to her neck before going lower, sliding off the bed and positioning himself between her knees.

It was the tug at the waistband of her underwear that yanked Rowena out of her bliss. Eyes flashing open, she remembered how … unmanicured it was down there and grabbed his hand.

‘Lachlan.’

He released the fabric, his fingers moving down to trace swirls on her upper thighs instead. ‘Tongue only,’ he murmured, a smile touching his lips. ‘I promise.’

And what a promise. But … ‘You don’t have to do that.’

Light brown eyebrows speared into a deep V. ‘I want to do it.’ Then a light dawned across his features. ‘Oh. You … don’t like it when a guy goes down?’

Oh, lordy. He couldn’t be more wrong. ‘No. I like it.’ She gave a shaky half laugh. ‘I like it a lot.’

His smile was back. ‘Well, okay then.’ His left hand tugged at her underwear again but Rowena held on tight.

‘It’s just that … I find it difficult to orgasm like that.’ Which was absolutely true. Even if she was giving him further evidence of just how much of a sexual dud she was. ‘I mean … even before the medication saga.’

And, if his end goal in performing oral sex was orgasm, then she might as well stop him now. If she’d never really come during cunnilingus, she was hardly likely to tonight.

The last thing she wanted was for him to sprain his tongue.

‘How about,’ he suggested, clearly unfazed by her admission as his spare fingers drifted across the flesh of her inner thigh, ‘we give it a try?’

Rowena swallowed and almost moaned as his thumb brushed lightly across the gusset of her underwear.

‘I mean, so what if you don’t come? You like it. A lot.’

How he could simultaneously waggle his eyebrows so comically and touch her so intimately, Rowena had no idea. She could barely remember why she was hanging on to her underwear as he deftly stroked between her legs.

‘Why not just lie back and enjoy it?’

His voice oozed logic and sense. He made it sound perfectly reasonable as he leaned in and dropped a kiss on her sternum, then one directly below that and another directly below that. Before her lust-addled brain could catch up, he was at her belly button, having left a trail of hot, damp breath imprinted on her skin.

‘Now,’ he muttered, hand at her underwear one more time, ‘let’s get you out of these.’

Oh, crap.

‘The thing is,’ Rowena said, stilling his hand yet again as she levered herself up onto her elbows.

Rowena tried really hard not to swoon at the sight but it was difficult. He was kneeling between her legs, peering up her near-naked body, his chin propped on her belly, about as lust drunk as she felt. It was like a flaming cupid arrow straight to her damn fool heart.

‘What is the thing?’ he whispered dramatically.

The fact he wasn’t annoyed or impatient, and willing to give her insecurities space, only made her swoon even harder.

‘I haven’t … I wasn’t expecting …’

She clutched at her underwear as she shut her eyes, stupidly embarrassed to even mention the issue. For god’s sake, she was a nurse—nothing embarrassed her! Taking a breath, Rowena opened her eyes to find him watching her intently, and felt wobbly all over again.

Damn it, she could do this.

‘There’s been none of that kind of action, down there—’ She pointed in case he needed a translation. ‘For some time.’

Hell, the last time a man had seen her naked had been him. But she’d been fresh from the city and a salon visit back then. Also, he hadn’t gone there.