“But I want to see your tattoo.” Her voice was breathy and had a catch to it that made my dick all kinds of happy.

I lifted an eyebrow and watched her carefully as I got her top off up over her head. She was breathing shallow and obviously she was anxious, but so far so good, and I still had time on the clock. I turned the doorknob behind her and the door opened easily with her weight leaned against it. As I continued to dance her backward I found the tiny little zipper on the back of her skirt and started to pull it down.

I kissed her again to distract her from the fact that I was steadily heading her toward the bed in the center of the room and told her in a husky voice, “Later. It’s not going anywhere.”

I wanted to turn the lights on so I could see all that pretty white skin I was uncovering and the way all her red-and-copper-colored hair looked all over it, and the bed, and me when we got there. I didn’t think she was there with me yet, though. She was kissing me back, had her arms wrapped around my neck, but she was still stiff and she didn’t seem like she was in any hurry to let me get down to business as I wiggled the skirt over her h*ps and down over those pirate boots.

“Nash …” There was hesitancy in her voice and I felt like I was running out of time.

I got down so that I was on my knees in front of where she was hovering on the edge of the bed. She looked like she wanted to bolt but she took a deep breath and looked down at me. Her eyes were swirling like a hurricane. In that gaze was an equal mix of desire, trepidation, and question. The way her br**sts rose and fell was captivating. She put one of her hands on either side of my head so she was holding on to the fire that marked my skin.

“You okay?” I stuck the tip of my tongue in her belly button and she whimpered a little.

“No. But I don’t want you to stop.”

I looked up at her from under my eyelashes.

“Good, because I’m not going to.”

I could see she had no idea what I was talking about and I figured surprise was in my favor. The boots were going to have to stay; it would take too long to get them off, but the cute, black underwear had to go. I sent out a silent hope that they weren’t a favorite pair and snapped the elastic on either side, leaving her very much n*ked and exposed, right in front of my face. She was obviously turned on, but the way her stomach quivered let me know she was equally nervous.

She called my name in a panicked tone, and I felt her fingernails curl into my scalp, so I knew I had to distract her. No problem. She was shaking so bad and the heels on those boots were so high it only took a little nudge to get her to topple back on the bed. She started to wiggle away across the mattress, but I was bigger, and I think more determined to prove to her we should be doing this than her fear was. I trailed my fingers up the inside of her thigh and lifted it up over my shoulder. I was listening, because if she told me no, told me to stop, I wasn’t going to push her, but all I heard was a breathy panting and my name said like a curse on repeat.

God, was she sweet in spirit and flavor. I don’t think I had ever had my lips and tongue on anything that tasted as good as her. I don’t how much trembling and spasming was happening because she was freaked out, or how much was because I put my mouth on her. I caught her cl*t between my teeth and sucked—hard—which made her jolt so much that her h*ps lifted off the bed. I used her move to slide my hands up under her and hold her to my face.

“What are you doing to me?”

It wasn’t a question, it was more a plea, so I just hummed lightly against her trapped flesh until I felt the rest of her body start to respond. Her thighs trembled, her channel got damp and oh so welcoming, and I took that as an invitation to add my hands to the mix. I let go with one hand and trailed it around so I could stroke her, pet her, lick at her until she was tossing her head from side to side and I could see her hands curling into the sheets on the bed. It was the most beautifully unrestrained thing I had ever seen in my life. She tasted wild, she tasted special and slightly illicit, and I knew it was the best ten minutes any other person had ever given to me. Even if we didn’t make it to the end this time, at least I got to see her like this, feel what I was doing to her and how much she liked it.

I felt the crest of her orgasm roll over my tongue, felt her inner walls squeeze around my stroking fingers, and felt the tense muscles in her thighs go lax as she made a high-pitched sound in her throat and just sort of vibrated all around me. I gave her little nub one last hard flick with the tip of my tongue and rose up to my feet in one fluid motion.

I put my hands on either side of her h*ps and looked down at her replete form. Her stomach was fluttering with aftershocks, her pale skin glowed with a nice, rosy flush that I could see even in the dark, and her eyes were open, dazed and staring right at me. Yes, there were glossy tears in them, but they weren’t falling and she didn’t look half as shell-shocked as the last time we had tried to do this. She looked awed and slightly dumbfounded. My ego was thrilled with the results.

“Time’s up, Saint. It’s your call what happens from here.”

She blinked slowly at me.

“It’s not you getting me off that worried me in the first place, Nash. You already proved you could with very little effort. It’s the other way around that makes me want to hyperventilate and run for the hills.”

Her voice was barely a whisper and it squeezed something in my chest. She was so honeyed, so pretty, I didn’t understand how she didn’t just know any guy would bend over backward to get the opportunity to worship her. Saint n*ked wasn’t something any decent man would ever pass on the opportunity to appreciate with his hands, his mouth—with everything he had and then some.

“I don’t know how to make you understand that isn’t a possibility. Nothing about you could ever disappoint any man, Saint.”

She sat up on the bed and quaked a little. She was looking me dead in the eye when she reached behind her and unclipped the bra she still had on. She was perfect. I mean really perfect, all full br**sts, smooth skin, and perky pink ni**les. She was just about my favorite thing I think I had ever managed to lay eyes on, and I didn’t have a clue what to goddamn do with her.

She scooted to the edge of the bed so her legs were on either side of mine and she was face level with my stomach. She put her hands on my abs and started pushing my shirt up. I grabbed it by the collar and ripped it off one-handed over my head. While I did that she tangled with my belt buckle. She glanced up at me and I could see her fingers were shaking again.

“Do you have anything? I don’t keep protection on hand, because … well, you can probably figure out why.”

I wanted to laugh, but she was really close to my dick and I was having a hard time keeping my thoughts in order.

I pulled out my wallet and tossed it on the bed next to her.

“In there.” I felt like if I let her take the lead, this had less of a chance in ending with me having blue balls and a lonely shower again.

She muttered something I didn’t catch and trailed the tips of her fingers along the tips of the wings tattooed all along my sides and down across my front. The very tip of each wing ended right next to my crotch and had probably been the most miserable tattooing experience of my life. I thought she was going to stop when she reached the top of my boxers, but she didn’t. She pulled them down, setting my c**k free, and traced the wings all the way down to where they stopped.

“Had to hurt.” I didn’t really want to talk, but if it set her at ease, I was going to force myself to do it.

“Like a bitch.”

She put a finger on the PA where it decorated the tip of my erection and looked up at me.

“This, too?”

I snorted out a laugh. “The tattoo was worse.”

“Ohhhhh …” She trailed off and tentatively reached for the wallet so she could find the condom. I was waiting for her to call the whole thing off, anticipating it, when she surprised me yet again.

“You’re gorgeous, and really fun to look at. I think it gets even better when you start to lose your clothes.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that and then I couldn’t say anything because she wrapped her fist around the base of my straining dick and gave it a firm squeeze. I swore and she looked up at me. I just shrugged and she did it again, which made a drop of pr**cum pearl up at the tip. I didn’t know how long my self-control was going to hold out while she was exploring everything I was working with. I wanted to tell her to just let go, that if she let me I could use it all to make her feel really good, but it was her show for now, so I just clicked my teeth shut on the inside of my cheek and let her brush the metal with her fingers and roll the barbell around. It was the most torturous show-and-tell I had ever endured.

I muttered her name, threaded my fingers in her endless miles of hair, and gripped her head hard enough that I could tilt her face up so she was looking at me and not at my straining cock.

“Happy New Year, Saint.”

Both her fiery eyebrows shot up and she looked at the digital clock that did indeed read midnight. She gave a little sigh and picked the condom up.

“Happy New Year, Nash.”

She got the latex on just as efficiently as she had the last time and scooted back on the bed so that I could crawl up and over her. She wrapped her legs, still clad in those boots, up around my waist and I lifted up her h*ps so I could slide inside her in one long, smooth stroke. I wasn’t wasting any more time. I felt like I had been waiting for this girl, this moment, forever.

I kept my eyes on her face and she did the same on mine. Her eyelids fluttered and her chest started to rise and fall where it was pressed tightly against mine, but she curled her hands around my biceps and lifted herself up a little higher, which made me groan. I bracketed my arms around her head when we finally got into a rhythm that worked for both of us and dropped down so I could kiss her slightly open mouth.

I was rocking into her fast and hard, partly because I didn’t want to give her the opportunity to change her mind, but mostly because I had been dreaming about this for a week since she left me on Christmas and I couldn’t stop. She was hot, she was tight, she pulsated and burned along me in a way that made pleasure coil and snap along my spine. I was desperate for her and I could feel the pleasure and want building back up inside of her. I was using my tongue in her mouth to mimic what I was doing to her with my body and her hands were getting tighter, the noises she was making in the back of her throat were getting more frantic, and I could feel her inner walls drag and pull against my dick with greedy and needy movements.

I wanted to pry loose so I could get my mouth on those perfectly shaped br**sts, but there wasn’t time. She gasped, moved her long legs up even higher along my sides, and I felt her break apart, felt something that defined this moment as something greater than anything else I had ever felt move across both of us, and I grunted, pulled her closer, and released everything that was consuming about her back into her. Maybe that would be the only way I could ever really show her that she was so much better than any self-doubt she might have. I’d never had an orgasm that hollowed me out before, never come and right on the heels of the warm fuzzies that followed felt like it somehow mattered more than anything that had ever existed before.

I chanced a look at her face and her eyes were closed, but she had a soft smile on her lips. Even though there were indeed twin tracks of moisture trailing over her cheeks, she didn’t look devastated or horrified like last time. Honestly, there was enough emotion pushing at my chest I wasn’t sure that my eyes weren’t glassy and glazed over as well.

I felt compelled to ask, “All good?”

I levered up off of her, and when I pulled out, the drag of sensitized flesh against swollen folds made both of us groan a little.

She pried her eyes open and sat up. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and pulled one leg up to start working on those boots. Good Lord, she was going to kill me. All n*ked white skin, fire-colored hair, and sexy-as-hell black boots. I could die a happy man if that was the last image I got to take with me to the grave.