“Sounds good.” Kneeling, Charlie piled the firewood on top of the paper and reached for the matches.
Within minutes, the fire crackled with warmth and light and I applauded Charlie’s efforts, sitting back on my heels. “Yay, fire!”
He closed the screen and turned to me, an amused expression on his face. “You are easily impressed.”
“Listen, don’t ruin this for me. Ever since I bought this place, I’ve been dreaming of a real fire in my fireplace on a cold night. And now I have one, so shut up and let me enjoy it, you big bully.”
He cocked his head, looked at me sideways. “You better be nice or I’ll put it out.”
I gasped. “You wouldn’t. Not after I so obligingly went ice skating with you on our non-date and fell flat on my ass.”
He grinned. “How’s your tailbone?”
I put my hands on it. “Hurts.”
“Want me to kiss it better?”
I giggled. “No.”
“I think you do.” He lunged toward me, and I squealed, trying to crawl away, but he moved much faster than I did. In seconds, he had his arm hooked around my waist, dragging me to the middle of the blanket, where he flipped me easily onto my back and pinned my wrists over my head.
His knees rested on either side of my hips, and when he looked down at me, the fire played with the color of his eyes, making them glow a fiery copper.
My heart was pounding. “What’s this?” I asked playfully. “I thought we were just friends.” Victory, that’s what this is.
“Exactly. I’m being friendly.” He lowered his mouth to my neck, making the room spin. “Very, very friendly.” His breath was warm against my skin.
“Why?”
“Because I like you. Because I’ve been thinking about this all day.” He picked up his head. “All week, really.”
“Oh, God. That feels so good,” I whispered, arching my neck as his lips traveled from one side of my throat to the other. “But I thought—I thought—” I struggled for words as he traced my collarbone with his tongue, wondering exactly how much I should protest, if at all. I wanted to play this exactly right. “I thought we weren’t going to do this again.”
He stretched out his legs, covering my body with his. I felt the solid length of his erection on my thigh, and heat rushed to my core. “I’ve decided we can amend the terms of our friendship a little,” he said.
“You decided? I don’t get a say?”
He slid up on my body, his cock centered between my legs. “You can stop this at any time.”
I narrowed my eyes. “He says while pinning my arms over my head.”
He smiled. “You love it.”
“No, I don’t. Because I’m a good girl, remember?” I slipped my legs to the outside of his and tucked my heels around the backs of his thighs just below his ass, pulling him into me. “So I don’t want you to undress me. I don’t want your hands on me. I don’t want you to know how wet I am.” Charlie’s breath came heavier, faster. His eyes lost some of their brightness. “I don’t want to feel you moving inside me. I don’t want to feel your cock so deep I can’t breathe. I don’t want you to make me come.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Because I don’t love you. Are you listening, Charlie Dwyer? I don’t love you.”
And then something snapped between us and we went at each other like rival boxers at the starting bell. Sweaters and jeans and t-shirts and underwear were torn off and discarded. Lips and tongues and teeth collided. Hands skimmed frantically over skin warmed and burnished gold by the firelight. Fingers sought and stroked and sheathed and circled until we both trembled with want.
I let go of him only for the fifteen seconds it took for him to get a condom from his pants pocket. My heart knocked hard against my ribs, and my veins bubbled with pure desire and adrenaline. I propped myself up on my elbows, watching him sit back on his heels and roll the condom over his erection. My eyes fell on places on his body I hadn’t yet touched or licked or bit or kissed, but vowed that I would.
Impatient to feel his skin, I got to my hands and knees and crawled onto his lap, taking his cock in my hand and placing it between my legs. Charlie’s fingers dug into my hips as I lowered myself until my ass rested on his upper thighs. Oh, my God, the way he filled me. I clutched his shoulders and twined my legs around his back, needing a moment to adjust. “Just wait,” I breathed, when he started to move. “Give me a second.”
I closed my eyes, willing my body to relax, to form to his, to take him deeper. Slowly I began to rock my hips, guided by his hands.
“Christ, you’re beautiful,” he whispered.
I opened my eyes and found him looking at me, but rather than become self-conscious, it spiked my desire. I wanted him to see me, watch me. I held his gaze and circled my hips in a slow, sinuous motion. Once, twice, three times, and each time Charlie’s fingers clutched my flesh a little harder. He lowered his mouth to my breast, and I arched my back, threading my hands through his hair when he sucked one hard nipple long and deep, gasping when he took it between his teeth. But when he started to tip me backward, I put my hands back on his shoulders.
“Lie back,” I whispered, my skin prickling with heat. “Let me fuck you this time.”
I don’t know who was more surprised that I actually said it, me or Charlie, because normally I think he would have just pushed me down and taken me the way he wanted to. But he lowered himself onto his back, lifting me onto his hips. Astride, I braced my hands above his shoulders and let my hair fall forward, grazing his chest.