Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 59304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
We return to the bedroom together. I change into some PJs despite the heat, not wanting to tempt fate by stripping down to my underwear. The moment I climb into bed, the sheet dividing the room falls down.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Dario says from the other side of the room. He’s on his feet, shirtless, his muscles on full display, his ripped chest and rock-hard abs. “I know what game you’re playing.”
I prop myself up on my elbows, eyebrow raised. “Game?”
“You purposefully tied the sheet wrong, knowing it’d fall. You can’t fool me, angel.”
I like when he calls me angel and beautiful and other terms of endearment, but I try not to let it show. Judging from his knowing, confident expression, I fail.
“Care to give me a hand?” he says.
I climb out of bed. “Sure, but this time, I’m double checking both knots.”
We tie the sheet into place again, and I ensure both fastenings are secure. Once we’re done, he peels back the sheet and gazes at me.
“Good enough?”
“Yes. Good night, Dario.”
“Good night, hot stuff.”
“That’s a strange thing for a friend to say,” I huff.
“Never heard of friends with benefits?”
“I told you, I’m not a hookup sort of gal.”
“Then I’ll need to make a proper lady of you, treat you like the queen you are.”
“Ew–puke. You sound like one of those nice guys.”
“Nothing wrong with being nice, is there?” he quips.
“But they’re not nice, not really. They just pretend to be.”
“Good thing I’m a downright demon then, Siena.”
“Seriously, good night.”
I climb into bed, close my eyes, and try to sleep. But I can’t seem to drift off. Minutes pass, then hours, and it’s like I’m hypnotized by the sound of Dario turning the page, the almost silent tsk, making me think of him lying there shirtless, just beyond the sheet.
“Can’t sleep?” he finally says.
“How’d you know?”
“You’ve been tossing and turning all night. You need to relax.”
“Yeah… easier said than done.”
My pulse jumps as I hear him stand, anticipating what he’s going to do next. I watch in silence as he pulls back the sheet, and steps onto my side of the room.
“I’ve got an idea since you stormed out of the massage,” he says.
“An idea?”
“To help you relax.”
Tell him no. Tell him you mean it…
Maybe I could even actually mean it if I tried hard enough.
“Are you offering to give me a massage?”
“You say that as if it’s dangerous.”
It is. It’s a risk. Fighting this desire and physical chemistry is so difficult.
“Just a massage?” I say.
“If that’s all you want,” he replies.
I shouldn’t agree to this. It goes against everything I’ve been saying.
“I do feel tense…”
“Then say no more, Siena. Let me be nice.”
That’s the thing. I think I want him to be the other thing. What did he say?
A demon in the sheets.
CHAPTER 16
DARIO
“You’d better lie on your front,” I say, gazing down at her.
Her chest rises and falls as if she’s struggling to get enough air. She can play all the games she wants, claim we’re just friends, but her eyes don’t lie. Her body doesn’t lie.
“Are you a trained massage therapist?”
“I’m confident I can make you feel good, if that’s what you’re asking.”
She rolls onto her front. The ache in my groin intensifies, hardness flooding into me, as I reach down and slip my hands under her pajama shirt.
“You’re burning up,” I groan.
“I know,” she whispers.
“You’re so fucking hot.”
“I know, Dario,” she says, trying and failing to hold back a moan.
I smooth my hands up and down her back, over the strap of her bra to her shoulders. She bites down on the pillow as I glide my hands over her voluptuous body, but she can’t repress her moans. Her form shivers as I make hungry tracks up and down, down and up…
When I unclip her bra, she gasps. “What are you doing?”
“It’s getting in the way.”
“Okay, yeah.” She shudders. “Fair point.”
“Your shirt is getting in the way, too.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” I snarl.
“I mean, if you’re sure?”
“I’m certain.”
“Okay, then turn around.”
“You don’t have to be shy around me.”
“This is just a massage, Dario.”
“You’re moaning like it’s more than it is. Here, let me help.”
Her moans become more meaningful when I grip her shirt and pull it over her head. She leans up slightly, lifting her arms, but staying on her front so I can’t see her breasts.
Precome leaks hotly from my swollen, hungry dick when I see her bare back, her bra strap lying loosely. I almost lose control when she wriggles against the sheets, the fabric twisting around her legs.
I continue to massage her, feeling the stress knots in her body, kneading them loose.
“You deserve to relax,” I say. “You work so damn hard.”
“It feels… good.”
“You say that like you’re surprised.”
“It feels too good.”
I know what she means. She thinks she should stop. She thinks if she gives in to this, it’ll derail her work ethic.