Beg Me by Shiloh Walker

the
past few years. He’s the one you want to see on a bad day… Just a
friend?
    But those thoughts were too complicated for
an early morning, especially one without coffee.
    She continued to trace the tattoo on his
arm, pushing up onto one elbow to study it closer.
    “ Witch,” Drake muttered.
    She glanced at him and then grinned,
realizing her shift in position had put one breast square on level
with his mouth. There was naked, burning need in his
eyes— intense need, she
realized…
    Very intense.
    Abruptly, she asked, “Why did you agree to
this?”
    A mask fell over his face. He pulled away,
giving her his back as he sat up. “Because you asked me to,” he
said flatly.
    “ There’s more to it than that,” she
said slowly. She wasn’t certain how she knew, but she
did.
    He tossed her a scowl over his shoulder and
shot up over the bed. “Hell. I get to have fantasy sex with a
beautiful woman. Why shouldn’t I agree?”
    Tania blushed at the compliment, but she
wasn’t thrown off track. “You and I both know there’s a good
possibility I’m going to freak out at any given moment. Hell, the
few times I’ve gone out on dates, tried to even kiss another
guy—I’ve freaked. No reason to expect it not to happen now and
we’re planning on a lot more than kissing. If I do freak out…well,
I know you—that’s not going to settle easily on you. You’re going
to blame yourself—hate yourself for scaring me. So why did you
agree?”
    “ Tania…”
    He stood by the window, his head bowed, the
sun shining in around him, glinting over the blue-black highlights
there. Shifting his gaze to her, he blew out a sigh. “Maybe I’ll
give you an answer, if you answer me first.”
    “ I asked first,” she said, scowling.
She scooted around in the bed, sitting on the edge with her legs
crossed and the sheet wrapped around her like a toga. Then she
shrugged. “Okay. Shoot.”
    He came back to her, watching her with
that weird, hungry look. “Why did you ask me ?”
    He stopped in front of her and sank to his
knees, still staring, still watching.
    She jumped as he reached up and laid his
hands on her thighs, rubbing them with small, slow circles. Her
heart skipped a beat, her breathing constricted in her lungs and
for about ten seconds, she couldn’t even remember the question.
    “ Why you?” Then she glanced away,
licking her lips. Taking a deep, slow breath, she looked back at
him and said, “Because I had a feeling you’d get it. You didn’t
look freaked out by what you saw five years ago.”
    She squirmed a little because this next part
was embarrassing. “And…well. Hell, you’re gorgeous, Drake. I know I
can trust you. I like being around you…and…um, well, there are
times when I see you looking at me and I see something—kind of like
the way you’re looking at me now.”
    His hands flexed on her thighs. “And how am
I looking at you?” he asked roughly. Slowly, he used his hands to
lightly tug her thighs apart.
    It never occurred to her not to let him.
    “ Like you want to eat me alive. Like
you want me—so much.” Her voice shuddered out of her and she jerked
her gaze from his face. “Sometimes it scares me, when I’m out and I
noticed a man who notices me,
you know? But not with you. You’ve never scared me. And…well, like
I said—you’re gorgeous.”
    She licked her lips and shrugged, going for
casual but failing. “I figured if you already found me attractive,
and I know I find you attractive. So if you weren’t opposed to the
kind of games I like, maybe you’d be okay with this.” She met his
gaze and held it. “Was I wrong?”
    “ No.”
     
     
    I t was his
turn to look away. His turn to search for words.
    She’d been honest, and he felt laid
bare—she’d noticed.
    As much as he’d tried to hide how he wanted
her, she’d seen it.
    “ Finding you attractive barely touches
it,” he said gruffly. As he spoke, he eased his hands higher,
higher, watching her face.