Page 85 of On the Ropes
“Oh, I don’t know. Astral planes?”
He kissed the spot right below my ear. I shivered.
“Dean.”
“Mm-hmm?”
I pulled back before I got too distracted by lips and teeth. “You’re not going to take that job in Vegas, are you?”
I didn’t see how he could. Not with everything he’d just shared.
For the first time this morning he avoided my gaze, staring at a spot past my shoulder. “Rowan offered me a job at the rec center.”
My eyebrows shot up. It wasn’t a direct answer to my question, but it was certainly new information. “He did? Doing what?”
He worked his fingers through my hair, rubbed a strand between his thumb and forefinger. “He wants to start a formal food program for seniors in our neighborhood.”
“Like Eddie,” I said.
He nodded tightly. “Yeah. Like Eddie. He wants to hire a program manager to get it off the ground. Give it legs, get it funded. He wants it to be me.”
“I personally think you’d be great at that job.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“I’ve worked with a lot of nonprofits doing hunger relief work,” I said. “And conducted a lot of interviews with staff speaking frankly about the challenges of getting people to open up about their needs. Asking for help filling their pantries. Especially people Eddie’s age. There’s a lot of pressure to be self-sufficient, and people think they can’t ask for help. Or shouldn’t.” I shot him a wry look. “It’s not like we make asking for help easy. But a lot of seniors we know would relate to your personal experiences.” I touched his chin, held his focus. “You know what it’s like to have eyes on you all the time. To have people whispering things about you. You grew up with two gay moms and you were a professional athlete. If anyone can sympathize with not wanting all this unwelcome attention on your personal life, it’s you, Mr. Machine.”
For a moment, I thought I’d overstepped or said something horribly wrong. He didn’t speak, merely stared at me. Until he claimed my mouth with a kiss that sent that clumsy ballerina in my chest spinning away.
“Do you want to garden with me today?” he asked, completely out of the blue.
I tilted my chin. “Garden?”
He looked ever-so-briefly bashful. “Yeah. For the lot. I took some of the money you raised to get a few flower beds down. Natalia and my parents gave me a pretty specific list. It could be, you know, a type of spontaneous fun.”
A grin exploded across my face. “Let me check my schedule.”
I rolled across the bed and glanced at my phone. My heart sank when I saw all the email inbox alerts from the Austin marketing team. Task reminders that I had to check my flight and finally book a hotel room. Technically, this should have been a day spent working my new Texas contacts, checking out potential clients with fascinating stories to film once I finished my time with the eco-hotel.
Technicallywasn’t definitely though.
I dropped my phone facedown and crawled back to Dean. He opened his arms and I swung my legs around his waist, straddling him easily. With a groan, his palms landed on my ass, rocking me softly against his already-hardening cock.
“Looks like I’m all yours today,” I said. “Are we in a rush?”
His mouth trailed lazily down my neck, hands curving up my body. “Does it feel like I’m in a rush?”
I reached between us, sighing with pleasure as I stroked his thick length. He hissed, the pressure of his hands tightening on my rib cage.
“No,” I purred. “That’s not what this feels like at all.”
His teeth nipped at my lower lip. “Then don’t stop.”
I pressed our foreheads together so we could watch my fingers moving up and down his cock in a slow, teasing speed. Dean captured my mouth on a strangled groan. I sank into the kiss, into the sensuality of our bodies still warm from sleep, the intimacy of sharing a bed the way we had last night. I kept my hand moving at a leisurely pace, enjoying his reaction, which was to grip my face and kiss me through every grunt and sigh and curse.
His skin was slick, cock thick and heavy in my palm, and already I needed him. Dean tore his mouth from mine and slid his fingers between my legs as his tongue landed on my breast, circling my nipple. My lips parted on a moan, head tilting back as he flattened his tongue and circled my opening with shallow thrusts of his finger.
I began jerking him faster, and he penetrated me, adding a second finger and stroking my inner walls.
