“If you’re not naked, how can I be inside you?” That’s when it occurred to him he didn’t have any condoms.

“Just leave the lights off!”

“Tate, I want to see you. Would you deny me that pleasure?” He pulled his head back to see her face, hoping she’d smile but he got confusion, anger and a bit of embarrassment too. What the f**k? “Tate? What is it?”

She pushed at him and jumped up, pacing in front of the bed. “I’m not one of the women you’re normally with!”

“I know.”

She stopped and sneered.

“I mean,” he added quickly, “yes, you’re not like them. And that’s a good thing. Tate, you’re important, special.”

“Matt,” she sighed, sounding impatient. “Are you going to make me spell it out?”

“You’d better, sweetness, because I have no f**king idea what the issue is.”

“Dolly, Melanie, Lisa, Kelly—what do these things have in common and what do I not have that they do?”

“They’re vapid and shallow and you’re not?” Standing and going to her, he kissed her lips quickly, tossing his shirt to one side blindly.

“Okay, well, you have a point there. Although what the hell were you doing with them if so?” The air left her lips in a soft whoosh when he pushed her gently back down to the bed.

“Well you have a point there too. We can talk about the ramifications of that later because it’s totally getting in the way of me putting my c**k into your body. And speaking of that, we’re not getting naked again why?”

“Because you go out with women who are drop-dead gorgeous and I am not! They’re all tall and thin and cheerleaders. I am, aside from having br**sts and a vagina, nothing like them.”

He tried not to laugh, he really did but she was hilarious.

“What are you laughing at?”

He rolled and pinned her to the bed with his body, raining kisses down her chest, over the fabric of her dress. Pulling her skirt up, he traced the soft skin of her thighs with his fingertips.

“I’m laughing at you, Tate Murphy. I’ve never heard anyone but Maggie say cheerleader like it was some sort of disease. Frankly, I find it hard to find fault with women jumping around in tight sweaters and short skirts but I don’t think it has a damned thing to do with why I’m dying here for you and not with anyone else. I’m here because you’re here. I don’t want them, I want you. I want to see your body, I think you’re beautiful.”

“I can’t concentrate with the lights on.”

There was so much panic and emotion in her voice he let it go. Reaching out, he turned out the light.

“Better?”

“Yes.”

He found her mouth again and she relaxed, melting into him, hooking one of her thighs around his ass, arching her back to bring her pu**y into contact with his cock.

Busy hands found the buttons on her bodice and made quick work of them, exposing her bra to him. He wished he could see more in the dim light that came from the open bedroom door but there’d be time for that later.

There wasn’t a catch between her br**sts so he helped her to sit up to get the back hooks undone.

Sweet mercy, her br**sts, even what he could see in the low light, were beautiful. Large, heavy, juicy, dark ni**les.

While she sat up, he helped her get the dress off and tossed his pants, socks and boxers before returning to her. She’d slid under the sheets, which agitated him, but he began to really understand some of what Liv had said a few weeks before about what some people might think about Tate. Apparently Tate herself felt some of those things too. Well, that’d be next, showing her just how damned beautiful she was—cheerleader or not.

When their bodies came together, skin to skin he thought he’d lose consciousness it was so deliriously good. Fuck! Condom.

“Tate, uh, I have a problem. Shit!” She grasped his cock, giving a few slow pumps with her fist.

“What is it?” She nibbled on his ear and he lost his train of thought for long moments until she smeared her thumb over the wet slit at the head of his cock.

“Condom. I don’t have one. Please, please tell me you do.” He caught a nipple between his lips, swirling his tongue around it.

“I, ohgod, I don’t. I don’t bring men back here for sex.”

He rested his forehead on her chest a moment, disappointed but not in her comment that she didn’t bring men back for sex. “Okay, well I’m not leaving to go get one either. We’ll just work around it. We can do other things for tonight.”

“Other things? Oh, yesss.”

His fingers found her pu**y, wet and swollen. He kicked back the sheets and kissed his way back and forth between her ni**les as his fingertips teased around her swollen clit. She was slick and ready and he needed more.

Kissing a trail south, he marveled at the soft swell of her belly as he insinuated himself between her thighs. He felt her muscles tense but before she could object, he spread her labia and took a long, deep taste of her and they both sighed.

She was sweet and savory all at once. Her clit bloomed under his tongue and he realized he was quickly becoming addicted to making Tate feel good.

Tate could not believe she was in her bed with Matt Chase’s mouth on her pu**y. Naked. Naked! She wished it weren’t so dark so she could see his body, she knew it would be gorgeous. She certainly hadn’t had a complaint when she grabbed his c**k and found him nice and thick.