Rhythm of My Heart: Speed, Book 3 (25 page)

“And you’re deflecting. Answer the question. Do you want to have sex with me?”

His frankness was oddly thrilling. So was the way he slid closer, eliminating the distance between them. He moved the box of provisions out of the way, then scooted even closer, and Claire’s heart began to race. Their thighs were touching, his covered by sweatpants, hers bare thanks to her short-shorts, and the heat of his body sizzled her flesh, eliciting a rush of excitement that rippled through her blood.

“Yes, no, maybe?” he prompted.

It was in that moment that Claire realized how honesty might be considered a weakness rather than a strength, because the word “Yes” slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it.

But damn it, she
did
want this. Dylan had set her entire body on fire from that one measly kiss—she could only imagine what he was capable of doing to her if they were naked.

Maybe it made her a mega slut and a terrible person, but she really,
really
wanted to find out.

As his mouth curved in a satisfied smile, Dylan brought his hand to her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb.

“You’re always blushing.” He cocked his head pensively. “Is that blush limited to your cheeks, though? Or do other parts of you get nice and rosy too? Maybe here, you think?”

He glided his fingers along the curve of her neck and down to her collarbone.

As if on cue, heat suffused her chest.

“Oh, that’s nice.” His green eyes were focused intently on the flush rising just above the neckline of her tank top.

The pads of his fingers were rough, callused, creating a gentle scrape over her skin as he caressed the upper swell of her breasts.

“This is crazy,” she murmured.

“Probably.”

“Definitely.”

He withdrew his hand. “I’ll stop then.”

Disappointment spiraled through her, and God help her, but her lips formed a squeaky protest. Yes, this was crazy. Yes, sleeping with Chris’s brother would be highly inappropriate. But she wanted it to happen. She
needed
it to happen.

“Claire?” His expression was expectant.

“You know the night I caught you kissing Aidan?” she heard herself blurting out.

“How can I forget?” he said dryly.

“That night…what I saw…” She tried to articulate her jumbled thoughts. “The two of you were completely wrapped up in each other, oblivious to the world around you. It was passionate and intense and it made me kind of sad because I’d never experienced anything that even came close to that.” She swallowed. “And I was so turned on afterwards.”

He looked incredibly intrigued. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

His voice lowered to a husky pitch. “Did you make yourself come when you went back to your room?”

“Yes.”

A groan rumbled out of his chest. “Aw, fuck, Claire, that’s hot. You were fingering yourself while I was in the living room twenty feet away?”

“Yes.”

She should have been mortified confessing all this to him, yet it was impossible to feel embarrassed when Dylan was looking at her with such unadulterated lust. When her gaze lowered to his groin, she made out the unmistakable ridge of his erection, and a resulting rush of moisture soaked her panties.

“Did you come hard?” he rasped. “Was it good?”

She met his sultry gaze. “It was the best orgasm I’ve ever had.”

“Hmmm. Challenge accepted.”

“Of course you’d see that as a challenge,” she said with shaky laugh. “But yeah…watching the two of you like that…it showed me what I was lacking in my own life.”

“Where are you going with this?”

She inhaled a deep breath. “I guess what I’m saying is that I want to experience…well, passion.” A wry note entered her voice. “And since we’re trapped in here for the next couple of hours, I guess having sex wouldn’t be a
totally
preposterous idea.”

“Are you trying to convince me, or yourself? Because I was on board from the second you pulled out those condoms.”

The grin he flashed her was contagious. “That’s because you’re a man. Women need some time to rationalize before they jump into things.”

“So are you done rationalizing?”

She pondered that. “I think so.”

“Good. Now come here and kiss me.”

“Come wher—” She yelped in delight as he hauled her onto his lap.

She grabbed his shoulders and clutched the sleeves of his T-shirt, moaning when he tugged on her ponytail to yank her head down. The second their lips met, heat unraveled inside her and danced along her flesh. He kissed her like a man possessed, his tongue sliding inside her mouth with a greedy thrust, robbing her of breath.

Passion. There it was. Surrounding her. Consuming her. She’d never been kissed like this before. Except…wait, that wasn’t true, because she’d experienced this very same thrill the other night when she’d kissed him. This time, however, there was no doubt in her mind that he was attracted to women—the hard cock pressing against her ass was all the evidence she needed.

Dylan continued to drive her wild with his mouth, his tongue, his teeth as he nibbled on her bottom lip before sucking on it. His hands traveled down the bumps of her spine, callused fingers snaking beneath the hem of her shirt.

She shivered as he began sliding the material up, those strong hands caressing her stomach, moving closer and closer to the undersides of her breasts.

When his exploration came to an abrupt halt, she voiced her disapproval in the form of a groan.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a chuckle. “I have every intention of playing with these gorgeous tits, but first I want to enjoy the view. Up you go.”

In the blink of an eye, he was helping her to her feet.

“What are you doing?”

A smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Me? Well, I’m going to lie here like this—” he fell back on his elbows, looking mighty pleased with himself, “—and watch while you undress.”

Her eyebrows flew up. “You want me to do a striptease? Am I supposed to dance or something?”

“Naah, no dancing required. And you don’t even have to go slow. Rip those clothes off if you want.”

“Do it for me.” Her brazen order came out of nowhere, surprising them both.

“Nope. Like I said, I’m just gonna enjoy the view.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.” He licked his lips. “Come on, honey, show me some skin.”

Although the two of them had worked everything out, a part of her still felt slightly wary, wondering if he was playing a cruel joke on her. Like she would take off her clothes, let him see her naked, and then he’d jump up and say, “Gotcha! I still hate you!”

Dylan must have read her mind, because he let out a breath and stood. “How about this? I’ll go first.”

Rhythm of My Heart

Jess Dee

He rocks every woman’s world, but his heart beats only for her.

Speed, Book 3

Makeup artist Eve Andrews is an expert at blending into the background. Landing a job with the rock band
Speed
is the opportunity of a lifetime, and thankfully as close to the spotlight as she’ll ever get again—until the band’s sinfully sexy drummer turns his dazzling eyes on her.

After a scandal shook his world, Zachary Pace, a.k.a. “Jonah Speed”, has given up the one-night stands and easy lays. One look at Eve, and he senses his self-imposed abstinence is about to come to a screeching halt—but he’s confused. His grandmother foretold his destiny lies with a beautiful redhead, not a tiny, brown-haired pixie.
 

Under the heat of Zachary’s intense focus, Eve’s resistance melts away, but not the façade that hides her terrible secret. And when she accidentally catches a glimpse of his heart’s desire—his fated redhead—her instincts tell her to let him go…before he gets too close. Before he sees the real woman behind her mask, and her heart is left in the dust of his almost-certain retreat.

Warning: This is a
Speed
book, so you know there’s gonna be a small element of fantasy to it. And a big element of romance. Oh, yeah, and whole lot of sex. Sex hot enough to make you throb to the rhythm of a very sensual beat…
 

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

Cincinnati OH 45249

Rhythm of My Heart

Copyright © 2013 by Jess Dee

ISBN: 978-1-61921-804-8

Edited by Jennifer Miller

Cover by Kendra Egert

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: October 2013

www.samhainpublishing.com