Page 59 of Secret Paths

Nothing designed for an audience. Nothing trying too hard.

Just Mandy.

“You’re staring.”

“I’m looking.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Absolutely.”

“You’re doing it very slowly.”

I run my palms up her thighs.

“I’m in no hurry.”

Something changes in her expression.

Tiny.

Enough that I notice.

She reaches for the back of my neck and pulls me down.

I kiss her mouth, then her jaw, then the place beneath her ear that always seems to make her breathing change.

No rushing this time.

That is the point.

Earlier, against the wall downstairs, I wanted to lose myself in her.

Now I want to stay right here.

I pull her top over her head and she lifts her arms to help me. There is no bra underneath, and a second later she is lying beneath me in only her knickers, her skin warm in the lamplight.

She does not cover herself.

She never does.

Mandy simply looks back at me, chin slightly raised, completely at ease with her own body.

Fuck, that confidence is sexy.

“What?” she asks.

“You.”

“That is not an answer.”

“It’s the only one you’re getting.”

Her mouth twitches.

I lower my head and kiss her collarbone.

Then lower.