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She waited a second and then slapped my chest with an impatient, annoyed huff. "Is to what? Good lord, man, you can't start a sentence like that and then just stop."

"I'm not trying to talk you into anything or pressure you, Tea."

She swallowed hard. "Jax, I'm not a woman you can force into anything. I'm voluntarily straddling you. Not sure if that's escaped your notice."

I slid my hands up her thighs from knee to hip, paused, and then cupped the outside of her ass where it spread onto my thighs. "It has not.”

I saw her grapple with conflicting physiological and emotional reactions to my touch. "What you don't know about me is that I am not, historically, an affectionate person. Publicly or privately. I've never been a sit-on-your-lap kinda gal. So this is…it's new. It's weird. I…" She covered her face with both hands, then left them on her face but spread her fingers apart to peek at me through them. "I don't dislike it. But it's a big step for me."

"I recognize that," I said. "And I do not take it for granted."

She dropped her hands, rested them on her thighs for a moment, and then on my chest, and then fiddled with the hem of my shirt. "Say what you were going to say, Jax. No filter. Total transparency." She slipped her fingers against the bare skin of my stomach. "What you want first and foremost is…"

I pinched the pull-tab of her flight suit's zipper and tugged it down a few inches. "You, wearing…less." I tugged a bit more; her eyebrows scrunched, her eyes widened, and her breath caught. "You, making all sorts of sexy little sounds while I…"

She ran her hands up my chest, under my shirt, and dug her nails gently into the muscle of my pecs. "While you what, damn you?"

"Sure you want to know?" I whispered. "Saying it opens the door to doing it."

“So open the door, Jax."

"Kiss you all over." I leaned forward and pressed my lips to her skin just below the hollow at the base of her throat.

"Where?" she whispered. "All over where?" Her fingers dove into my hair, nails raking my scalp and then cupping me closer.

I hooked a finger in the neck of her shirt and pulled it down enough to bare the uppermost hint of cleavage. "Your breasts." I kissed the warm, soft skin there, and her breath caught again in a soft shudder. "To start with."

"Jax?" It came out a quiet, breathy whimper.

She cupped my cheeks and gently eased my face away, tilted me upward. Tugged her zipper lower, down to the base of her stomach. Rolled a shoulder so the jumpsuit sagged partly down one shoulder. "Door's wide open."

I carved my hand over her shoulder, brushing the sleeve further off. She tugged her arm free of the sleeve, tangled her fingers in my hair. I held her eyes, looking for any hint of panic. I saw nerves and anxiety, maybe even a little fear, but I also saw determination and desire, maybe even a little desperation. So I pushed the other sleeve off, and now the upper half of the jumpsuit hung around her waist.

I snaked my fingertips under her white T-shirt, and she hissed, a sharp intake of breath as I encountered the delicate silk of her belly. Her tongue swept along her lower lip, pausing in the corner.

I held her gold-flecked green eyes as I pressed my palms over her stomach and felt it tighten into an iron-hard washboard. "Red light, green light?"

"You still have all your teeth," she muttered. "Light can't get any greener than that, with me."

"I dunno," I said, smirking. "I can think of some other indicators that might work just as well to tell me I can keep going."

"Such as?"

"You could always use your words."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Are you making fun of me?"

"A little light teasing is all," I said. "It's a major love language in my family."

"Talk is cheap," Tea said. "Actions speak louder than words, you know."

“I agree wholeheartedly,” I said. “So, then. Red light, green light?"

"Can't you just assume green light unless I indicate otherwise?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"