He's So Fine Read online

  He lifted his head, his hair all sexy bedhead, his eyes hot by flickering candlelight. “If you don’t know, then I’ve forgotten how to do this.”

  “You’re being careful,” she accused.

  He blinked once, slow as an owl. “Careful,” he repeated. “And here I thought I was being the sexiest guy you’ve ever had.”

  If he only knew. He was the sexiest guy she’d ever had and he’d barely touched her yet. “I told you I’m not that scared. I don’t want you to be careful.”

  “So you’d like me to what,” he said, sounding a bit like she was amusing him, “just jump you?”

  Yes, actually.

  He took in her expression, laughed in disbelief, and rolled to his back on the mattress, covering his eyes with a forearm.

  She turned her head and stared at him. Was it wrong that the first thing she noticed was how the muscles in his shoulder and biceps were flexed? Probably.

  In any case, he didn’t move.

  She came up on an elbow and poked him in the chest. “Hey.”

  “Yeah.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to figure you out,” he said.

  “Is that going to take a while?”

  “I’m quite certain yes.”

  Biting her lip, she chose her words as carefully as she could. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” she said. “Never have, never will.”

  Lowering his arm, he met her gaze, his eyes glittering in the dark, his skin looking golden by the candle’s glow. “I get that about you,” he said. “I admire that about you. But sometimes a guy wants to take care of the woman he’s about to make scream his name. It doesn’t make you weak, Olivia. It makes you mine to take care of, at least until one of us walks away.”

  She had a hard time catching enough air in her lungs. “Yours?” she repeated, trying to decide if she was pissed at the possessive display, or—damn it—even more turned on.

  “Until one of us walks away,” he said again, not apologizing, not looking away, just meeting her gaze and waiting for her to decide.

  She went with humor; she had nothing else. “We going steady, Cole?”

  He didn’t play. Instead, he raised his head and nipped her jaw. Not gently.

  She sucked in a breath and felt herself go wet. Damn.

  Lifting his head, he looked at her. “I haven’t slept with a woman in two years,” he said, “so steady has little to do with what I’m feeling right now.”

  Two years…Since Susan then. “Good to know,” she finally said.

  “Something else you should know. Once I get inside you, I won’t share you. No one else for either of us, not until—”

  “One of us walks away?” she asked softly.

  His blue, blue eyes hadn’t wavered from hers. “Yeah.”

  So they were going to do this, and if they kept doing it, there would be no one else until they were done.

  “Olivia.”

  He was waiting for an answer. “I can live with that,” she said.

  Heat and something else flared in his eyes, and he kissed her until everything left her brain but this, the feel of him, here and now. She didn’t breathe as his hands familiarized themselves with her body. Nothing slid past his intense exploration; he touched and kissed everything—her shoulders, her breasts, her stomach, her hips, her thighs, and then he pushed them apart and held them there, bracing his weight up on an elbow, his gaze never shifting from hers. “You’re beautiful,” he said.

  “You’re not even looking.”

  He shook his head very slowly from side to side, his expression starting a slow burn deep in her belly. “I’m looking right at you,” he said, and then before she knew what he was about, he slid back up her body, wrapped his fingers around her wrists and tugged her arms up so they slid around his neck.

  “Better,” he said, and rolled so that she was on top of him, pressing all his sinewy, hard perfection into the mattress.

  The truth was that he was the beautiful one, all long, lean planes and hard muscle. She had no idea how long this thing between them could possibly last, but she didn’t fool herself. It wasn’t forever. It wasn’t even long term. She’d ensured that already by not being honest. Because she knew that it was only a matter of time now before that came back and bit her on the ass.

  But when this was over, she’d miss him. She’d miss his laugh, his wit, his inner strength…She’d miss everything, including just looking at him. She wanted to memorize him, every single inch: his square jaw and the perpetual scruff, his sexy chest, the cut of the muscles at his hips, his thighs, and what he had between them—which, for the record, was just about the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen. And that was saying a lot, because in general, guy parts weren’t all that gorgeous.

  It was then, halfway through her inspection of his body, that his warm breath tickled her ear as his teeth sank gently into her earlobe. His tongue flickered over the spot before his lips slid down her neck to the hollow at the base of her throat, and that slow burn in her belly spread south.

  His scent was already familiar to her and still so erotic, making her dizzy with longing. “Cole…”

  “Kiss me,” he said, as if he was feeling all the same things. And then, without waiting for her, he yanked her down and kissed her, a soft, openmouthed connection that made her gasp as the tip of his tongue outlined her lips. She opened for him, but he pulled back.

  Watching her, eyes hot, he smiled. She stared at his mouth, wanting it back on hers so badly she could taste him.

  He gave in with a soft, fleeting kiss. And then another. One more…

  He was teasing her.

  “Cole.”

  “Come here, Warrior Woman,” he murmured, and gathering her in, he finally gave her what she wanted. It was a really great kiss too, hot and sexy, with just the right amount of tongue to make her breathing quicken and her entire body quiver for more.

  He knew what he was doing.

  And she didn’t. Not when it came to him. Oh, she knew the mechanics, but he’d taken it so far beyond simple mechanics that she felt a little lost, and more than a little panicky.

  “You feel good,” he said, tucking her beneath him. “You feel right.”

  His words infused her with confidence, and not done with being on top, she rolled them back.

  And right off the bed.

  She gasped and he laughed as he planted his fists on either side of her shoulders to lift his weigh off her. But she liked it, and wrapped her legs around his hips to show him how much—

  A knock sounded on the wall right above them. The wall that she shared with the next apartment over. Callie’s.

  Both Cole and Olivia went still.

  “Hello?” came Callie’s voice through the wall. “Olivia? Is that you? Are you okay?”

  Olivia stared wide-eyed at Cole. “Yes,” she said, but had to clear her throat of the sexual rasp and try again. “Yes, it’s me. I’m—”

  Cole slid down her body and put his mouth to a breast, sucking her into his mouth hard, and her entire body quivered. “Oh, my God.”

  “What?” Callie asked. “You got a spider? Did you fall? It sounded like you fell.”

  “Thin walls,” Olivia whispered to Cole.

  Lifting his head, he flashed a grin and switched to her other breast, which he licked and nuzzled, and then gently closed his teeth over her nipple.

  “Oh, my God,” she gasped again.

  “What?” Callie asked. “You keep saying that! Listen, I’m coming over—”

  “No!” Olivia sucked in a desperately needed gulp of air as Cole shifted down her body. “No,” she said. “I’m—” God, his tongue was shockingly talented. For a guy who professed to not having done this for two years, he hadn’t forgotten a damn thing about a woman’s body. “I’m fine,” she managed, squirming as Cole kissed her hip and worked his way inward from there. All she could see of him now was the top of his head and the broad width of his shoulders, gleaming