Elise realized that this was what he was offering. This sensual feasting upon each other. His mouth on her, making her ni**les ache and her pulse beat between her legs. She wanted his touch everywhere. Had she said she’d wait until tomorrow? She wanted him now, and she wanted to experience everything right at that moment. If he’d have led her to the bed, she’d have gone gladly without a second thought.
Rome pulled away and Elise felt bereft. Her eyes opened and she looked into his face. His eyes were such a gorgeous, dark blue, his lashes thick. And his expression was as if he wanted to devour her whole, a mixture of hunger and possession. It made her weak in the knees to see it.
“Not bad,” he said softly, and leaned in to kiss her mouth lightly again. “But next time, hopefully you won’t be so tense.” And he grinned at her.
Tense? She felt like his hands on her neck were the only thing holding her up. Her knees felt like jello. How on earth was she tense? But she agreed. “Okay.”
He chuckled. “So you want to meet tomorrow still?”
“God, yes,” she blurted, and then wanted to hide her face in embarrassment.
But Rome only grinned. “Tomorrow, then. At the salon.”
She nodded. “Tomorrow.”
He let her go, and she turned to the door. Her first step was wobbly, but she managed to grasp the doorknob and turn it. She glanced back to look at him, but he was already heading toward his bathroom, stripping his shirt off, and so Elise shut the door and walked calmly out to her car, swallowing hard.
She got into her car and stared at her dashboard for a long, long time.
Holy shit.
That kiss had been . . . amazing. If that was what she was in store for, dear god . . . She was terrified and beyond excited, all at once. She shifted in her seat and felt the flesh between her legs throb.
She was incredibly wet, just from that small touch. Elise moaned to herself, pressing a hand between her legs. Sure enough, the crotch of her jeans was damp. Just kissing Rome had made her that turned on?
God.
Tomorrow seemed so far away.
• • •
The next day, Elise was pretty sure she was going to have a nervous breakdown. Her palms were damp, and she changed her shirt twice because she kept anxiously sweating throughout the day. Emily gave her strange looks when she showered twice in the same afternoon, but she was too polite to ask about that sort of thing.
Elise spent all day prepping. She wasn’t exactly sure how she should prepare for sex. Shaving legs and such seemed like a given, and she lotioned up her limbs, then painted her nails and toenails. She could have gone somewhere to get a pedicure, but Beth Ann’s salon was closed while she was on her honeymoon, and it felt like a betrayal to go anywhere else. She curled the ends of her long hair, put on light makeup, and dug through her lingerie drawer for her prettiest underwear and bra. Sadly, ha**ng s*x wasn’t something she normally considered, and her “prettiest” bra was plain white. Her panties were pretty unexciting, too; a pair of cotton briefs with a cute heart pattern was about the best she could do. She hated the sight of it and wondered if there was enough time to head out to the city and go shopping for something like that. The closest mall was at least forty-five minutes away, and she pushed the thought out of her head. She’d dress sexy for the next time.
Then she swallowed a hysterical giggle at the thought of “next time” and hoped that Rome wasn’t so disappointed that there wouldn’t be a next time. She critically studied her body in the full-length mirror in her room. One shoulder was slightly higher than the other, and the same with her hips. She twisted around, looking at her back. One shoulder blade was more prominent than the other, and a long, thin scar stretched from her neck to her tailbone, along with a matching six-inch one on her hip, remnants of back surgery to correct her scoliosis. It had been done when she was a teenager, and it wasn’t completely aligned; the doctors couldn’t perfect her back, only correct the worst of the curve. As a result, she looked like a doll that had been built slightly “off.” Self-consciously, she turned and tried to stand in a way that would make her h*ps look straight. Then she sighed, uneasy. She’d ask Rome to have sex with the lights off. It’d be a little disappointing because she wanted to look at all of him, but with the lights on it would mean that he’d look at all of her, too, and she didn’t want that. Maybe they could have sex with her clothes on.
Elise would suggest that.
She dug through her closet for her favorite pair of skinny jeans and slid them on, and considered her shoes. God, why didn’t she have something sexy or cute? All she had were sneakers. It wasn’t like this was a date, though, so she wasn’t sure why she was freaking out so much. But it felt important that he thought she was pretty today. She considered . . . and then dug out the box of retro wear that they’d put together for the photo shoots. No one would see it but Rome, so she could borrow from it, right? She’d bought the stuff, after all.
There was a pair of shoes in her size that were cherry red platform heels with a peep toe. Okay, so she hadn’t been looking for something quite that bold, but nothing else seemed right. After a moment’s hesitation, she slipped them on. They were tall—really tall—but they made her legs look great. Okay, they’d stay. Now she needed some clothing to match them. She dug through the box for a bit longer and eventually came up with a red tank top and a tiny black sweater-shrug that fastened just over her br**sts. It definitely wasn’t her normal wear but she needed the extra bravado today, and a college sweatshirt wasn’t going to do it.
Finally prepared for her date, Elise stared into the mirror at her reflection. Not bad. Not bad, really. She let her hair swing over her cheek and put one hand on her hip so it would seem like the tilt was deliberate. If she could just stand like that, she’d be almost pretty.
Then she sighed at her reflection. If she stood like that the entire time, he’d think she was mental.
She grabbed her purse and keys and headed down the stairs. She could hear Emily talking on the phone in the kitchen, and the clatter of pots and pans. Perfect time to creep out. Of course, she didn’t know why she was sneaking out; Emily wasn’t her mother. But she was heading for a rendezvous with a man for sex. That didn’t feel like something you boldly strolled out the front door for.
Elise climbed into the rental car and immediately headed to the next town. She needed to bring condoms, and there was no way she was going to buy those in tiny Bluebonnet, where someone was sure to ask questions. Oh, the fun of a small town. At the pharmacy, she grabbed a box of the first condoms she saw, then raided a few other aisles so it wouldn’t look like she was trucking for dick and only dick. She grabbed tampons, blush, nail polish, and socks, and then headed to the counter, her face burning as she paid for everything.