“I don’t want to be chicken, though.”
“You don’t have to be chicken forever,” he said with a grin that made her knees weak. “We’ll work through that.”
“Okay,” she breathed, entranced by his smile.
“So.” He studied her palm, holding it in one hand and tracing a finger down it with the other. It kept her neatly trapped close to him, and stopped her from drinking. Not that she was objecting to any of that. She was fascinated by his small touches. No one ever touched her because they just wanted to touch her.
She almost wept with the sheer delight of it.
“If you want life experience, Elise, I’m here to help you in whatever you need.”
“Thank you,” she told him, unable to take her eyes off his finger on her hand as it traced the lines of her palm.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I honestly have no clue,” she admitted.
“You can’t think of anything you’d like to do?” He seemed surprised by that.
She thought for a minute, her mind circling. What could she do in Bluebonnet? She was here to take photos . . . Her mind suddenly flashed on Beth Ann’s salon, still set up like a photo studio. “Would you let me take more pictures of you?”
“Of course,” he said, and kissed her fingertip. It made her ni**les harden in response.
“Nude?”
He paused. “What?”
“Too much?” She was disappointed. “Maybe just topless?”
He looked surprised. “You want to take nude pictures of me?”
She slid her chair closer, pulling her hand from his, and then she was practically squeezing next to him on his side of the table. Her hand slid over his arm, pushing up the short sleeve of his black shirt, and she stared at his tattoos and the lines of his muscles. “This is beautiful, you know. You’re beautiful to me. I’d love to photograph this. All ink and muscle and skin and light and shadow.” Her fingers slid under the shirt and she kept touching all that skin, so warm and delicious. “Mmm.”
“God damn, Elise,” he murmured hoarsely, leaning in to press a kiss on her jaw as she cuddled closer. “You sure you’re a virgin? Because you’re making my dick hard as f**k.”
She nodded and slid her hands out of his shirt, tilting her mouth toward his for a kiss. “All virgin.” And his mouth was so close to hers that she wanted to lick that little ring on his lip, just a bit of a tease with her mouth. So she did.
And he gave a small groan low in his throat that was gorgeous to hear.
“So can I do more photos of you?” she whispered against his mouth, barely audible through the music blaring in the background. “Sexy, gorgeous photos of all this skin?”
“I don’t know if I’ll do nude,” he told her softly, and his tongue snaked out to graze against her lips in a way that made her whimper. “But we’ll start with shirtless and take it from there. Sound good?”
“I can’t wait,” she breathed. And she really couldn’t. “I want to see what you look like under all this. I want to see every one of your tattoos. I want to touch them.”
His mouth slid over hers again in the barest approximation of a kiss. “For a virgin, you sure do talk sexy.”
“Do I?” She seemed pleased at that. “It’s too bad we can’t do the photo shoot tonight, but all my equipment is back at the Peppermint House.”
“We’re not doing anything tonight,” he told her in a firm voice, and pulled away from her. “You’re a little more tipsy than I’d prefer.”
Well, poop. He was abandoning her? She draped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her chest against him, enjoying his low groan of frustration. “But what if I want to do all kinds of things tonight? All kinds of naughty things?”
“Elise,” he murmured. “Damn it. I didn’t know you’d be a cuddly drunk if I got a few shots in you.”
She trailed her fingers along the collar of his shirt and then dipped one in to touch the dip at the base of his collarbone. “I can do more than cuddle if you want. I’m feeling pretty good right now—”
“No—” He pried her hand out of his shirt.
“—but we’d have to have the lights off.”
“I . . . Huh?” He gave her an odd look. “You want the lights off? For the photo shoot?”
“No, for sex.”
He rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with your body, Elise. And I intend to show you that. As for tonight, we’re not doing anything more intimate than, say . . . playing darts.” He gestured at the nearby dartboard.
“We’re not?” She stuck her lower lip out at him.
“We’re not,” he said, and got up from the table. He returned a moment later with darts in hand and gave her the blue ones. “Come on. I need a distraction and I’m betting you’ve never played darts in a biker bar.”
He needed a distraction, did he? Just when she was feeling cuddly and a bit, dare she say it, horny? “But what if I want to make out?”
“Not tonight,” he told her firmly. “You’re too drunk and it’s my fault. Now, darts.”
She picked up one of the darts and then gave him another pouting look. “But I wanted to kiss you again.”
“Darts.”
“But—”
“Darts,” he repeated.
She gave the darts in her hand a long look, and then lifted one to her mouth and licked the length of it suggestively.
He groaned and took it away from her. “You know what? No darts after all. I don’t think I’m going to be able to stand for much longer.”
Elise giggled.
SIX
An hour later, they’d paid the bar tab and driven back to Bluebonnet. Elise was surprised to find the bike pulling up to the Peppermint House. She frowned as Rome helped her off the bike. “I left my car behind the salon.”
“Give me your phone.”
Her eyes widened and she handed it to him. “Are you going to text me dirty pictures?”
“No, I’m going to give you my number. Call me tomorrow and I’ll drive you to get your car.”
“You’re no fun,” she told him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he put his number into her phone. He put an arm around her waist to balance her, since she was a little tipsy, and she liked that. He was so warm and so big. Her mouth was also rather close to his ear, and one of those fascinating gauges was inches away from her lips. She wondered if she could stick the tip of her tongue through the hole, and licked his ear experimentally.