Page 23 of Cruel Shame

“Sorry.” I pulled my top over my head, unhooked my bra, and let the garment drop to the floor. “It’s too late, now. Let’s just go to bed.”

Kendrick turned around, his gaze lingering on my bare breasts. Pink bloomed across his cheeks. “Lilah Hancock.”

“What, now?” I stretched out my hand in a silent order for him to pull me out of my seat.

Kendrick stepped back, his jaw clenched. “You’re naked.”

“Not yet.” I hooked my thumbs under my knickers.

“Don’t do that,” he hissed.

I pulled myself to my feet, rubbed my temple, and blinked myself back into awareness. For some reason, I didn’t think it would be a problem to get undressed in front of Kendrick. If Myra hadn’t shot at me this morning, he would have gotten a front-row seat to a spit roast. He probably might have participated, too. Maybe it was the concussion, but I had no idea what he found so offensive.

Kendrick advanced on me with his nostrils flared, and his skin darkening each time his gaze dropped to my nipples. “If you think I’ll get into bed with you in that state—”

“You volunteered to take care of me.” I wrapped my arms around his middle. “Stop acting like I’m about to pin you down and climb up your pole.”

“You won’t?”

“Not unless you ask nicely.” I drew back and met his shocked eyes with a smile.

Kendrick pushed back a lock of hair and tucked it behind my ear. “What am I going to do with you?”

“How about letting me curl up around you and fall asleep?”

He sniffed. “I might be amenable to your request.”

I drew back and placed my hands on his chest. Rapid heartbeats reverberated beneath my palms, a sign of heat beneath his cold exterior.

“Did you bring pajamas or something?” I asked.

“It hardly seems appropriate, considering your level of undress.” Kendrick lowered me to the mattress and held out his palm in the universal sign for stop. It was the kind of gesture people made to ferocious dogs just before they attacked. I sat back, resting my palms on the mattress behind me and let my gaze rove up and down Kendrick’s body.

He wore a navy sweater and underneath that, a white-and-gray striped shirt, with dark pants in a subtle herringbone pattern. As he’d angled his body away from me, I couldn’t see the state of his arousal. Judging by his heavy breathing, he sounded like a man ready to fuck.

I squeezed my thighs together, fighting off the urge to help him undress. With every item of clothing he removed, Kendrick turned around to check that I was still watching. What a bloody tease. Maxwell and Orlando would have had me flat on this mattress, moaning and writhing under their hands and tongues.

Heat surged between my legs, and arousal stirred in my core. There was something to be said about a man who played hard to get. I’d seen Kendrick’s body before on Maxwell, but the way he took his time also had me breathing hot and hard and heavy.

After pulling off his sweater, Kendrick rubbed a hand over his chest before sliding his hands down the neckline of his shirt. I licked my lips and squeezed my thighs together.

He untucked the tails of his shirt, letting the fabric drape over his crotch and turned to me with glittering eyes. “Disappointed?”

“It’s nothing I haven’t already seen before,” I said with a smirk.

Annoyance flickered across his features. My smirk widened into a grin. Just because I’d seen his brother naked, it didn’t mean I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him.

Fixing his eyes on mine, he unfastened one button and then another and another and another, revealing his muscled torso inches at a time. A moan reverberated in the back of my throat as I caught glimpses of pecs, a tight six pack and the beginnings of a faint treasure trail.

“Bloody hell,” I muttered under my breath.

Kendrick narrowed his eyes and smirked. “I thought you said you’d seen it before.”

“Not like this.”

He pulled back his shirt, revealing nipples pierced by barbells.

My mouth dropped open. “What?”