“Seventeen,” he answered, looking slightly more interested in the game. “And you?”

“Twenty-one,” she said. Seventeen, huh? She’d have to ask for those details at another time. She didn’t want another woman in this moment. “How many partners have you had?”

He shrugged his jacket off.

“How about you?” he asked.

“One,” she said then quickly corrected herself, “Well, two if I count you.”

He didn’t like that comment very much, nor did he like that no clothing had been lost in the exchange. “Count me,” he growled.

Lil smiled. Ouch, was his ego that sensitive? “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” she asked.

“No,” he answered. “Do you pleasure yourself?”

“Of course,” she answered easily. “Do you?”

He removed his tie and was looking less pleased as the game continued. “This game isn’t fair. You’ll say anything.”

Let him stew a bit. Lil challenged, “That’s where you’re wrong. To know what I won’t say, you’ll have to get to know me better, won’t you?”

An odd expression flitted across his face, as if he’d realized that the game was so much more than a stalling tactic. Tonight he was going to have to earn the pleasure. She figured a man like him would love a good puzzle and she was right. He considered the situation for a moment and then inspiration curled his lips into a smile. “Were you thinking of me when you did it the last time?”

She slipped her shirt up over her head and dropped it on the floor behind her.

His smile widened.

“Are you dating anyone?” she asked.

“No,” he said simply and she believed him. “Are you?”

“No,” she said. Now onto something she’d been asking herself for weeks. “Why did you go bowling with me that first night?”

He looked like he was debating sharing or stripping, then he said, “You were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”

She cocked a skeptical eyebrow. “You know this is a truth game, right?”

He stepped closer and caressed her cheek with one gentle hand. “I have no reason to lie.” He traced the edge of her cheek with his thumb, softly explored the curve of her lips and asked huskily, “Did I really misunderstand your intention on the island? Were you offering to yourself to me?”

Lil slid her shorts down so she could step out of them, tossing both behind her. He explored her newly exposed hips. “Where do your parents live?” she asked.

His hand stilled. “I don’t discuss my parents.” His reaction was so strong that it broke the mood for a moment.

Another question best discussed some other time. Lil decided to lighten the mood. “Your shirt then.”

His smile returned. He slowly unbuttoned it and tossed it behind him. “What are you most afraid of?”

Lil unsnapped her bra and let it drop to the floor. She heard the hiss of his quickly indrawn breath and reveled in being able to drive him to the edge.

“Have you ever been in love?” she asked, taking advantage of their intimacy.

“No,” he said, settling his hand on one of her breasts, rubbing his thumb across one of her already erect nipples. “Have you?”

His rhythmic circling made it suddenly difficult for her to focus on what he was asking. Her other breast tightened and yearned. She fought for control. “I thought I was once, but I was wrong.”

His hand stilled. “Colby’s father?”

She smiled sadly. “It’s my turn to ask a question.”

He leaned down and took her other eager breast into his mouth, circling it with his tongue in much the same way this thumb had teased her other. She gasped at his gentle nip and threw her head back with pleasure when the circling continued, in union, pausing periodically to rub or lick the tip. His mouth found its way to her collar bone and back up to her ear where he whispered, “He was a fool.”

She closed her eyes. “I was the fool.”

He pulled her full against him, wrapping both of his arms around her waist, settling bare chest against bare chest and waited until she dared to peer up at him again before he spoke. “No, you charge full ahead and you hold nothing back-but that doesn’t make you a fool.”

How had tenderness wormed its way into their exchange? Lil didn’t want this to matter because she didn’t want to care when he walked away. Still, she couldn’t help but ask, “Have you ever done that? Just jumped in…even when you knew you shouldn’t…because you couldn’t help yourself?”

“Yes,” he said, his eyes burned down into hers. “With you.” He kissed her lips lightly. “You drive me crazy, but I can’t stay away from you.”

“Take off your pants,” Lil commanded.

“That’s not a question.”

“It’s not an option either.”

He chuckled and bent to kiss her again, but she turned her head away. When he lifted his head in confusion she ran a hand over the stubble that was just beginning to show through on his otherwise perfectly smooth face.

She said, “Your pants.”

An excited flush spread up his neck and across his face. He removed the rest of his clothing with remarkable speed and returned to his initial position, this time his freed erection and pressing against her. He bent to remove her panties, trailing kisses down her stomach as he did.

Once she was completely unclothed, he knelt before her and held her still with a strong hand on either hip. His hands sought and worshipped every inch of her.

With a strong move, he lifted one of her legs and hooked it over his shoulder, opening her wide before him, an opportunity he took full advantage of with his mouth. Lil clutched at the back of his head when his tongue tasted and invaded. Each flick was strategic and sent her head sagging backward in ecstasy.

He stood and their kiss tasted of her own excitement, something that drove her over the edge and she gladly sank to her knees before him, returning the favor. Feeling him swell and jut against her suckling increased her already mind blowing fervor. She cupped him from below and rubbed the area at his base with her thumb, reveling at the moan that escaped him. The muscles of his thighs tensed beneath one of her hands. When she thought he could take no more, she stopped and moved her kisses to his stomach.

“You’re killing me,” he groaned.

“What do you want, Jake?” she asked, knowing the answer but needing to hear him say it.

He hauled her up to her feet and said, “I want to take you now, make you mine.”

She looked into his golden brown eyes and said, “Do it. Let go and just do it.”

He lifted her, repositioned her so that her legs wrapped around his waist, and entered her with one powerful thrust . She threw her head back with a cry of pleasure. He took two steps toward the wall and held her there, off the floor, as he pounded again and again, deeper and deeper.

A wave of warmth spread from deep inside of Lil and tingled outward through her, increasing and pulsing through her with each thrust. This was a taking that surpassed any she’d dreamt possible. There was no him, no her… only them and a wild feeling of freedom.

He came with a shudder as her own release had begun to ebb.

“Did you?” he asked and she bit her lip. Was silence a lie if it brought them both further pleasure?

He kissed her deeply and stayed within her.

Without hearing his request, she knew what he wanted. She tightened and released her inner muscles on him, finding a comfortable rhythm that not only brought him back to life within her, but also stimulated her in a new and wondrous way.

He slid himself out of her, picked her up and carried her to one side of the couch. He turned her and bent her over the large, cushioned arm of it. Lil looked over her shoulder at him and shuddered as his hands closed over her hips, holding her still while his ever hardening shaft teased her outer folds. He kissed the back of her neck, trailed kisses down her spine, his hot breath tickling as it excited. When he reached the curve of her buttocks with his lips, he straightened and placed a foot between hers and moved them apart impatiently.

He slipped a finger inside her and continued to kiss the back of her legs, the curve of her cheeks. In and out he pumped until she was clutching onto the couch with both hands and was oh so ready for him. He straightened and she felt him, fully erect again, graze her leg.

Then he was inside her again, one hand on either hip, moving her to meet him, building a rhythm between them that she could not and had no desire to fight. Their first coupling had been amazing, but he lasted even longer this time and her final orgasm was even more intense and devastating as it shook her. She came with a profane exclamation she could not contain and he joined her with one last deep thrust.

Withdrawing, he turned her to him, lifted her again, and sank onto the couch with her sideways on his lap.

“I’ll never look at this couch the same way again,” she joked into his bare chest.

“Ssssh,” he said, but he smiled.

In union, their breathing slowly returned to normal.

A thought came to him that tensed him slightly beneath her in an entirely different way than earlier. “I didn’t use a condom.” He groaned.

“Shit,” Lil said, sitting straight up in his lap. “You’re right.”

He rubbed a hand across his eyes as if trying to wipe away his confusion. “I’ve never forgotten before.”

She had, but that was why she’d gone an additional step. “Don’t worry, I’m on the pill.”

“It’s about more than that.” He absently played with the hair that spilled down her back.

“Do you have a disease I should know about?” she joked.

He shook his head and pulled her against his chest. “No, but not using one was completely irresponsible and I…”

This time she was the one who tensed. He was probably more worried about what he could catch from her than the reverse. “And you’re always responsible. Unlike me. I know. I get it.”