She rubbed both hands over her face before the comment registered, and she swung around on a gasp. “Wes, wait—”
She ran into the kitchen, took one look at Wes, and put her hand over her mouth. He had his back against the closed subzero stainless steel, a carton in one hand, a spoon in the other. He glanced up as she came in, licking the spoon, then dipping into the carton and pulling another pink mound from the container.
Rubi burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she doubled over, using the counter to hold herself up. She laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe when he wanted to know what the hell was so f**king funny. She laughed so hard tears streamed down her face.
Wes chuckled at her with a perplexed look as he brought the spoon to his mouth again.
Rubi lunged, her hand reaching for him, laughing, “No!” She couldn’t reach him across the wide island, but his hand froze on the way to his mouth. “Stop,” she said breathless. “Don’t eat…any more…”
And she collapsed on the counter in hysterics. And because she still couldn’t speak, made her way around the island to turn the carton in his hand so he could read the label.
“Doggie…what?” Wes slammed the carton on the counter with a, “You’ve got to be f**king kidding me,” and turned to the sink.
With the tap running, he shoveled handfuls of water into his mouth and spit it out. He was grinning, a disgusted, ironic grin that was impossibly adorable and stretched Rubi’s heart so wide it hurt. By the time he hit the water controls to turn them off, Rubi was panting, leaning against the refrigerator, arms crossed over her belly. She couldn’t speak past burning abdomen muscles.
“Dog ice cream?” Wes braced a forearm on the counter, one on the handle of the faucet. “I didn’t even know such a thing existed.”
“Lactose makes…dogs sick, and Rodie…loves…ice cream.” Her answer made him shoot her a you’re-going-to-pay-for-that look. She held up a hand and started laughing again. “You’re the one…who didn’t read…”
He spun toward her with hot eyes that burned through her body. With a hand planted against the fridge near her shoulder, he pulled the freezer door open and grabbed the other carton of ice cream. He read the front, closed the door, and wrapped an arm around Rubi’s waist, sliding her body free of the refrigerator door and trapping her against him. He yanked the other door open with the same hand holding the chocolate carton.
“I knew it.” He pulled something from the door, then slammed it closed. “You were seriously holding out on me.”
“What?”
He lifted his hand, holding both the uncapped ice cream carton and a can of whipped cream.
She grabbed for the can. “Hey, that’s for my coffee.”
“It’s for my ice cream now. You owe me.”
“I don’t owe you. You’re the one that ate the dog—”
He leaned in and kissed her. She made a surprised sound in her throat. His mouth was hard, his lips plush. He pushed his tongue deep, and as soon as it touched hers, Rubi went limp. This wasn’t the sweet, slow kiss in the living room. This was forceful, breathless, toe-tingling.
He lifted her by the waist and set her ass on the cool granite countertop. Rubi gasped and grabbed his shoulders as the force of the kiss pushed her backward.
The pop of a top sounded, and he broke the kiss. Keeping a tight hold on her waist, he leaned away, tipped his head back, and sprayed whipped cream into his open mouth until it overflowed.
“Don’t. That’s mine.” She grabbed for the can, but he pulled it away. “I can’t drink my coffee—”
He grinned. The whipped cream expanded in his mouth, drifting through his teeth, covering his lips and dripping down his chin.
Rubi burst out laughing again. Her stomach muscles burned, and she sagged against him. “You look…like you’re…foaming at the mouth.”
She closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath. The aerosol squirt sounded again. Cold streaked down her neck, and Rubi jumped. Wes pulled her thighs apart and hauled her to the edge of the counter to meet his hips, then followed the trail of whipped cream with his mouth.
“Oh…” That was just… “God…”
Wes growled and released her waist. Rubi caught herself with her hands on the counter behind her. Her heart beat fast and stole her breath. Wes jerked her shirt up, exposing her stomach and painted another line up the middle of her belly, navel to sternum. He pressed his mouth to her skin, warming the cold strip.
Excitement burned a path through the center of her body. She pried her eyes open to the sight of his blond head at her belly, licking and sucking the white foam from her skin, his eyes closed with a look of utter bliss. Heat pumped between her legs.
“Wes…” She groaned his name. “Jesus Christ…”
He jerked her shirt all the way over her head and pulled it down behind her, trapping her arms.
Shocked, she struggled against the shirt caught between laughter and frustration. “Wes, what the f**k?”
“Oh, God.” His gaze scoured her bare br**sts. “So beautiful.”
He sprayed a circle of whipped cream around one breast. Her nipple tightened and the skin of her breast tugged toward the center, creating a delicious sensation. A moan rose from her throat. Her brain choked on the raw thrill.
“Wes, we shouldn’t—”
He licked off a section of cream, and his tongue swept across her nipple. Her pu**y surged with heat.
“Shouldn’t what?” he said. “Shouldn’t be friends?” He licked again, and Rubi fisted her hands against the granite. “Shouldn’t enjoy the benefits of liking each other?” And again. Her whimper echoed in the room. “Shouldn’t have fun?”
“Fuck… Wes…”
“Not quite yet, baby. But we’ll get to that.” He licked a circle around her breast, then closed his mouth over her nipple and sucked.
“Shit…” Her legs clamped around his hips and lifted into his erection. He groaned against her nipple and bit down gently. Lust stroked her pu**y, and she suddenly, unequivocally needed him inside her. She didn’t give a damn about consequences.
When she reached for him, her T-shirt restricted her arms. She wiggled, trying to free herself, but one of Wes’s hands held the shirt at her shoulder blades, keeping her trapped.
He chuckled and doused Rubi’s other breast with another ring of whipped cream. “You’re as delicious as I imagined.”
He dove in like a starving man, let his teeth graze her skin. Sensation burned through her, every millimeter of her skin on fire. She tried to find leverage to rub her hips against him, but had none. God, she couldn’t take this anymore.
“You win. You win, Lawson. I want you.”
He lifted his head from her breast, a film of stickiness all around his mouth, his chin, his cheeks, and licked his lips. The whipped cream can hit the counter with a clink, but he didn’t release her shirt.
He picked up the carton of ice cream and held it in her line of sight. “Did you eat all this tonight?”
“What—?”
“Did you?” he demanded.
“Yes.”
“Because you want me and keep saying no?”
Her shoulders were beginning to ache. She repositioned her hands on the counter. “Yes.”
“How long have you wanted me?”
“Since the airport.”
“Still want this?” he waved the container.
“No. I want you. I just want you.” She tried to lean forward to kiss him, but he held her in place. “Fuck me, Wes.”
His body went loose. The cardboard ice-cream container hit the sink. Wes lowered his head and closed his eyes. “You have no f**king idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say that.”
He lifted his head and met her gaze. His eyes were the color of storm clouds, deep charcoal gray. This skin over his cheekbones had gone tight, his lids heavy. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever known. And nothing had ever felt so right as saying yes to him.
His hand lifted, his fingers sliding over her lips. They were cold, and she startled. Then tasted chocolate. She opened her eyes and found his fingers covered in ice cream. She closed her eyes again and pulled his index finger between her lips, savoring the taste of the melting dessert on his skin.
“God, what a mouth,” he said, his voice raspy. “Look at me when you do that.”
She opened her eyes and met his gaze as she pulled one finger from her mouth and sucked another in. His gaze was dazed, his nostrils flared as he watched. When she’d licked them clean, she whispered, “Put it on your cock.”
His hand moved back to the carton but returned to her body, not his own. He pressed a handful of chocolate ice cream to the center of her chest and she gasped—in both cold and shock. “Wes!”
His mouth turned in an utterly wicked grin, and he slid his cold, slippery hand down her body. She half laughed, half moaned. When his hand pushed beneath her panties and between her legs, she screeched and wiggled away. “Wes, shit.”
She clamped her thighs, but they were locked around his hips. His hand moved freely in the most bizarre, erotic sensation. The freezing ice cream, his warm hand, the slide, the way his fingers stroked her. “Oh my God. I don’t believe you.”
He watched his hand disappear beneath her white panties with that sloppy, sticky mess. “I’ll never look at Triple Chocolate the same way again.”
“Come on, Wes. Let go of the shirt.”
“I kinda like you helpless.”
One side at a time, he dragged her panties off her hips and breathed a heavy moan when her pu**y came into view. “God damn.”
He yanked her panties off her legs and, with his gaze locked on her pu**y, went for another handful of ice cream.
“Wes—” she said in warning, struggling to scoot back on the counter. “Don’t—”
His hand pressed between her legs with a handful of cold chocolate. Rubi squealed, whimpered, pleaded. He ignored her. The touch of his hand was so deliberate, so confident, so perfect, the ice cream didn’t even seem cold anymore. She was hot. Burning to have his c**k sliding between her legs. She fell back on her elbows, and lifted her hips.
His fingers stroked, confident, sure, then he pushed deep inside. An electrifying cold streak mixed with the blissful pressure, and she gasped. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before. And so strangely exciting.
He added another finger, and cold raced along her walls. His thumb caressed circles around her clit, freezing and stimulating at the same time.
“Wes, I can’t…” She rocked her hips, trying for more friction, and growled, “Goddammit, Wes. Please.”
A deep, hungry sound rolled from his chest. He released her shirt and gripped her hips with both hands, pushing her back on the counter. Her arm hit something near the cooktop, and it crashed to the floor. Nearby, Rodie barked, then whined. Wes spread her thighs with chocolate-smeared hands and bent, pressing his open, hot mouth to her pu**y.
Heat pierced the cold tissues, shooting a thrill through her lower body. Tightening her ni**les. The heat burned through her, sliding over her skin with a sizzling sensation. Her back arched in pleasure, and she slipped from her elbows, falling back on the granite.
Wes sucked all the chocolate he’d smeared on her skin as if he were starved. His hums and growls and moans of pleasure filled the room, mixing with her own. His mouth was as amazing as his hands. He stroked her with his tongue, a slow, strong swirl around and a around her clit, just enough pressure and play to push her higher and higher, but not enough to give her release.
She lifted her head, and the sight of those strong shoulders holding her thighs apart speared a current of lust straight between her legs.
“Wes…” She lifted her hips, begging for more. Wanting, needing to come.
His eyes opened, dark and hot, and watched her as he opened his whole mouth over her with pressure and heat and the frantic, strong stroke of his tongue.
“Ah…” Her eyes fell closed. Her back arched against the counter. “Yes. Yes.”
Almost there, she was so close, just another few seconds of that tongue flicking and rolling her clit—
His mouth disappeared from between her legs. Rubi was so high, she took a moment to come down and open her eyes. Wes’s chocolate-slicked hands stroked her inner thighs, his thumbs rubbing the outer lips of her pu**y. His dark eyes watching every move.
His handsome face was a chocolaty mess, but that didn’t take any heat away from his fierce expression.
“God, you’re beautiful.” His voice was rough, quiet, as if he were talking to himself.
“Wes, don’t stop.” She pulled an arm from her shirt and grabbed his wrist, the only part of him she could reach, and held it firm as she lifted her hips. “Please…”
He exhaled and his lids lowered in an expression of combined ecstasy and need. “God, I love hearing you say that.”
His fingers stroked the chocolate over her pu**y, then further, his fingers skimming her tight rear pucker. A joint jolt of cold and pleasure zinged across her nerves and made her gasp. Her muscles tightened.
“Man, what a mess I made.” His voice lowered to a greedy whisper. “I’d better clean this up.”
And he lowered his head again. The sight alone lit off sparks in Rubi’s belly, but then he slipped his arm under her thighs and hauled her to the edge of the counter. He levered her thighs over his shoulders, raising her ass off the granite.
Rubi flattened her hands on the counter for balance. “Wes—”