Now that he had her close to where he wanted her—willing, responsive, and compliant—he decided it was time to make his intentions known. He slid his oil-slickened hands up along the curve of her waist and met her heavy-lidded gaze. “I want to see you again,” he said, doing his best not to make the statement sound like a gruff demand, as was his normal approach.
Her head tipped curiously on the pillow. “You mean here? At The Players Club?”
“No.” His fingers massaged her stomach, and he liked that she wasn’t self-conscious about her fuller figure, which he loved. “I want to see you outside of the club.”
Surprise passed across her relaxed features. “So, you want to date me?” she asked, clearly trying to articulate what he was getting at. “Or is this all about having a booty call lined up until you have to return to active duty?”
He tried not to wince at the direct tone of her voice or the pang of guilt he felt at that last question. Dating implied something more serious in his mind, and a booty call sounded crass, and he chose his response carefully. “I want to spend time with you until I leave in three weeks, and enjoy your company. Whatever that may entail. Dinners. Hanging out. Having my way with this gorgeous body,” he said as he swept his thumbs beneath the curves of her breasts and watched her nipples furl into tight points. “I want exclusive rights to fucking you.” So much for not sounding like the caveman Rick accused him of being.
“And what happens when you leave?” she asked as he passed over the temptation of kneading her breasts and began massaging her arms instead.
“We go our separate ways.” He refused to lie or lead her on in any way.
Her brows furrowed slightly. “I won’t see or talk to you again?”
“No. Not while I’m gone.” His own disappointment over that was acute, even though they’d just met tonight. “Summer . . . I’m going to be overseas for at least a year, and with what I do in the army—the traveling to third-world countries, the special missions and assignments that cut me off from contacting family or anyone else—any correspondence or maintaining any kind of relationship just isn’t feasible. I know this from personal experience.”
He exhaled a harsh breath, hating the sadness in her eyes, which was the last thing he wanted to put there. “Trust me, we’re better off parting ways as friends when my time here is over and leaving it at that so no one gets hurt and you can find someone who can be physically present in your life on a regular basis. I can’t be that guy for you.”
“The whole situation seems so isolating and lonely for you,” she said, her tone soft and caring.
He forced a nonchalant shrug. “It’s what I’m used to. It’s how I’ve lived my life for over ten years, and I’m trying to be as candid with you as I can be so there aren’t any expectations about what I’m suggesting.” Done with her arms and hands, he sat back on her thighs, not wanting to move off her until they finished this conversation and she agreed to be his for the next twenty-one days. “I’m proposing a casual, no-strings-attached affair with a firm end date. That’s nonnegotiable. I want you. More than any other woman I’ve desired in a very long time. But I can’t and won’t make you any promises, and you need to know that up-front.”
Her expression turned thoughtful as she seemingly digested everything he’d just laid out for her. “I appreciate you being so honest. It’s a lot to process.”
The twisting sensation in his chest was an unfamiliar one—a pang of dread that she’d walk away tonight and he’d never see her again. Never touch her again. Never feel her come around his cock again. How fucking contradictory was that after the spiel he’d just given her?
“That wasn’t the yes I was hoping for,” he said, focusing all his effort on swaying her to agree.
A slow, sensual smile appeared on her lips. “It wasn’t a no, either,” she said, surprising Declan and giving him hope.
He grinned at her, feeling a shift between them, as though their connection and attraction far outweighed any other obstacles Declan had put in her way. “Maybe I need to be more convincing,” he said, and taking a more wicked approach, he braced his hands on the mattress next to her chest. He bent down and took a nipple between his lips, sucking gently since he knew they were still tender from the clamps. The flavor of peaches filled his mouth as he swirled his tongue over and around the tight bud of flesh until she arched beneath him and moaned oh so sweetly before he released the tip with a soft popping sound.
He lifted his gaze to her face, feeling a sense of satisfaction to see the flush of desire sweeping across her cheeks. “Maybe I need to show you what you’d be missing out on if you walked away now?”
The sudden daring light in her eyes stole his breath—as if maybe, possibly, sometime during the past few minutes she’d come to the decision to accept his terms and agree to their brief tryst. “Yes, I think you need to try really hard to persuade me.”
Accepting her flirty challenge, he moved down her legs, pushed them apart, and settled in between. To start with, he blew a warm gust of air across her wet, glistening sex, followed by a long, slow lap along her swollen slit that made her gasp and grip the covers next to her hips.
“If you don’t agree to be mine for the next three weeks, you won’t get to feel my tongue on your pussy again,” he said, delicately pulling her clit into his mouth and savoring the taste of ripe, juicy peaches mixed with her own delicious flavor, “licking and eating you until you come so hard you see stars.”
Her breathing escalated as he continued to tempt and tease her with his tongue while giving her more reasons to say yes. “You’d miss out on more hot, kinky sex.” Another soft, luxurious lick that had her hips rising to meet his mouth. “And me fucking you every way imaginable.” A leisurely swirl of his tongue over and around her clit made her thighs shake. “You wouldn’t get to feel me touching your nipples, biting them, and sucking them.”
He slid his hands up her torso until her breasts were in his palms, and his fingers gently rolled those hard points. “No more spankings or being restrained and at my mercy while I do filthy, depraved things to your body,” he added, giving her a hot, wet, suctioning kiss between her thighs that had her crying out with need as he brought her to the verge of climax.
He smiled against her peach-scented pussy in near victory and inhaled her essence like a drug. “Anything you want, I’ll give it to you. Anything I demand, you’ll willingly submit to.”
A frustrated, needy sound escaped her throat, and she speared her fingers in his hair in an attempt to press his mouth harder against her sex to give her the pressure and friction she needed to end the pleasurable torment he was inflicting.
“Declan, please . . .” she moaned desperately.
Please was not the word he was waiting for. “Say yes, kitten,” he murmured, and lightly bit the inside of her thigh for an added sensation that made her gasp. “Say you’ll be mine, and I’ll give you the orgasm you want so badly.”
“Yes,” she panted, begging him, willingly surrendering to him. “Yes, I’ll be yours. All yours.”
“And you’re coming home with me tonight,” he added, and the remark wasn’t a request but a statement of fact.