Following Fabian by Holley Trent Read Free Book Online Page B

I repulse you, then?”
    “I think you know better than that.”
    She could hardly stop looking at him—that beautiful face. That gorgeous body. And he looked at her as if she were desirable, and not just a convenient vessel.
    “So give me one good reason why I shouldn’t help you take your clothes off.”
    A dry chuckle escaped her lips. “I’ll give you two. One, we’re working. Two, the last guy I had sex with, I ended up smashing the windshield of his car and keying its paint job. I may or may not have punctured his tires. That was four years ago and I was in a rage, so my memory of the event may be faulty.”
    “Why did you destroy his car?”
    “Because I’m a dragon. You said it yourself. Dragons get angry and destroy things.”
    He rolled his eyes. “I’m certain you’re oversimplifying.”
    “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I just have a temper problem.”
    “I don’t believe that.”
    “You’ve known me a day. You’re probably not the best person to make judgment calls. Maybe you haven’t gotten me angry enough yet.”
    “And perhaps I have no intention of ever pushing you to that point. I’d like to know what your buttons are so I can be sensitive to them.”
    She squinted at him. “Why?”
    “Because that’s the decent way to treat people. Why else? Road signs help people navigate, and I’m man enough to admit I need them sometimes.”
    She shouldn’t have been so surprised that there was a brain in that pretty head. Felipe had one. Why not his brother?
    “Oh,” she said quietly.
    She wasn’t sure what to think. He could have been saying what he thought she wanted to hear. That’s what men usually did when they wanted her to just shut up and take off her clothes, but no man had ever asked for help understanding her before. They’d just made whatever assumptions they saw fit and acted accordingly.
    What did Fabian want, besides sex? Revenge on Jacques, obviously, but then what? They’d bond over a nice screw, bring down the bad guy, and then he’d go away?
    She may have been an insufferable Shrew, but she had feelings. She didn’t want to risk bonding with this guy only for him to disappear, both literally and figuratively.
    At twenty-eight years old, she was running out of pieces of her heart to give away, so she couldn’t let Fabian have one of them.
    Just sex. Just touching. Maybe that’d be okay, if she didn’t think so much…if she didn’t let her cerebral meanderings get in the way of the pleasure.
    She threaded her fingers through his damp hair and nudged his head back so he looked up at her. “Okay.”
    “Okay what? Please be clear.”
    “Okay, I’d like to have sex with you. Right now.”
    Right now, and she hadn’t even called that federal agent Dana kept harping about.
    “Then kiss me,” he said.
    She gave up the small distance she’d put between them and nestled her thighs between his legs. She grazed his cheeks with her fingertips as she brought her lips down to his.
    At first, she teased his lips, barely skimming them. Then, she explored the seam with her tongue tip, tasting mint from toothpaste and honey from her lip balm.
    She flitted her tongue over his mouth as if to ask, Can I come in? and when he parted them, she let him take the lead.
    His kiss was passionate, and more importantly, skilled. He knew exactly when to use a little more thrust, and when to let up. When to tease, and when to hold back and submit to her.
    He turned her face slightly and kissed up her jaw to her ear, which he grabbed between his teeth and gave a gentle pull. His whisper of, “Let’s take off your shirt,” was breathy.
    She nodded, and all four hands went to her shirt hem. She let him have the honors, and dipped her head as he bunched her shirt up past her breasts and off her.
    “God, you’re beautiful.” He pressed his hands over her lace-covered breasts and gave them a tentative squeeze before nudging the fronts down to expose her.
    He drew one into his mouth and gave