Page 29 of The Business of Love Box Set 1: Books 1 - 4

VANESSA

T o be or not to be? That was the question.

Should I let him inside?

My lips still burned from our kiss. The heat was just as intense in my gut. A hot, desperate, licking flame raged inside me and dared me to say that one little word that would change everything.

Yes.

But change was scary. And sex was scarier.

I’d never gone that far with someone before. Boob fondling and heavy making out aside, I was a novice. And Rhys was the furthest thing from inexperienced. If I let him inside, what can of worms would I be opening?

At least you’d know what your callers are talking about when they call in about sex problems destroying their relationship.

I wanted to have sex. I’d wanted to lose my V-card for ages. But nothing ever felt right. No guy made me feel like he was worthy of my defloration. Defloration. What a stupid fucking word.

Was Rhys worthy?

Hell yes.

But was I worthy of him?

Definitely not.

I was the girl he’d fuck and then regret sleeping with in the morning.

Definitely. But then it would be over. And he and I could go back to what we were doing and prep for my reunion, which I would arrive at as a grown-ass woman who had definitely, for sure, absolutely, and with certainty had sex before.

Rhys was still staring at me. His brows were drawing closer and closer together on his forehead as he realized there was a very high probability I might tell him no.

I almost giggled. I bet this was the first time he’d ever felt the possibility of rejection.

No girl in her right mind would say no when someone like him invited himself into her apartment after saying those words that struck the match of desire inside.

I need you.

Did he need me? Or did he just need the hole between my thighs for a quick one-stop fuck?

What would Nessa Night do?

That was the question of the hour. What would my sexy, inner vixen alter ego do?

I turned to the door and slid the key in the lock with as much grace as I could muster. I didn’t want him to see that my hands were shaking. I didn’t want him to know how big of a step this was for me. What if he changed his mind? What if this was too much?

What if?

What if?

What if ?

I pushed the door open and exposed the belly of my apartment.

All the lights were out except for the one over the stove, which provided enough light to see the outlines of things and the internals of my kitchen but not enough to light up the corners of the living room.

I stepped inside and left the door open.

Rhys remained in the hall, half-lit by the fluorescent lights in the ceiling.

Even in shit lighting that did no person any favors, he looked better than ever.

I draped myself against the door like I’d seen women do in the movies. “Are you coming in or not?”

Rhys responded to the invitation like a horse to a gunshot at a race.

He lurched forward, gathered me up in his arms, and kicked the door closed behind us as he walked me backward into my kitchen.

He picked me up with surprisingly effortless ease and set me down on the kitchen counter.

For the first time in my life, I felt small. I felt dainty. I felt feminine.

Then he began worshipping me with kisses.

He started with my mouth and broke away, trailing his lips across my jaw and down the side of my neck. He brushed my hair out of the way to kiss across my collarbone and then along my cleavage, and I plunged my fingers into his hair like I knew what I was doing.

I did not.

Still, I could pretend a little while longer.

His fingers worked at the button of my jeans. They popped open. I sucked in a sharp breath of surprise and he paused, his dark eyes sweeping up to meet my gaze. There was something in that stare and I had the sense he was asking for permission.

For consent.

And he had it.

“Yes,” I whispered.

Rhys pulled down my fly. I thanked my past self for choosing a cute pair of panties this morning to pair with my black lace bra that cost upward of a hundred and twenty-five dollars because having huge tits and a band smaller than thirty-four inches was hard to come across in a store that wasn’t a specialty boutique.

Rhys shimmied my jeans down my hips, thighs, and knees and then tore them off my calves.

Then he stepped between my legs and his mouth crashed against mine once more.

I wrapped my legs around his waist without thinking.

Then I began undoing the buttons of his shirt from collar to hem until it was all the way open.

I slipped my hands inside, cursing the undershirt he wore and wishing there was nothing but bare skin beneath my fingers.

He shrugged out of his shirt. It fell to the linoleum.

Then I pulled his undershirt off over his head and traced every ridge of muscle on his torso with shaking hands as our kiss deepened and my breathing quickened.

Rhys stilled my hands against his chest. He held them there under one of his massive hands and let his other hand wander to my knee.

He traced a slow pattern there before dragging his fingers up my thigh.

Goosebumps rose in the wake of his touch as he grazed my hip and then slid his touch across my panties, pausing right where I was sure he could feel my wetness seeping through the thin fabric.

He made a sound in the back of his throat that made my skin burn.

Then with just the right amount of pressure, he rubbed my pussy with his fingers.

This is so much better than your vibrator.

I came up for air when our kiss broke. Rhys looked down and smiled. “Have you been this wet since dinner?” His voice was deeper than usual and a little strained.

“Maybe.”

“There are only yes or no questions here, baby.”

I shivered. “Yes.”

“That’s better.” He patted my pussy. Hard. I flinched. He chuckled. Then before I realized what was happening, he took hold of the hem of my shirt and rolled it up, exposing my belly and bra and everything as he pulled it off over my head and tossed it over his shoulder.

My cheeks burned and my pulse fluttered wildly in my throat. If he was going to run, this would be the time.

“Damn,” he breathed.

“I know it’s a lot—”

“You’re so fucking sexy.”

I hated how the next words left me in a surprised squeak. “I am?”

Rhys let out a primal growl. Then he jerked the cups of my bra down. My breasts spilled out and he cupped them, pushed them together, and squeezed before deftly unclasping my bra.

I almost came undone in his hands right then and there.

I’d been right. I wasn’t too much to hold for him. For him, I was the perfect handful.

Rhys took my nipples in his mouth one at a time. He pinched gently with his teeth and rolled his tongue across the sensitive tips, teasing and tickling and flicking mercilessly. I flinched and danced in his hands but he could not be sated.

The muscles in his shoulders rolled as he braced himself with a hand on either side of my hips on the counter, and he sucked at my nipples, pulling until it was almost painful but not unbearably so.

My body thrummed with an energy I’d never felt before and I found myself cradling his head to me, holding him to my breasts, desperate for more.

I didn’t realize how out of my depth I was until he undid his belt with a flick of his fingers and then his fly, and he dropped his pants.

The outline of his cock was obvious despite his black skin-tight boxers and the poor lighting in my kitchen. He was huge. And not just huge as in, I was a virgin and had never seen a dick in person before huge, but like, really huge.

I felt my insides tighten with panic.

There was no fucking way in hell that thing was getting inside me.

Rhys moved to pull my panties down. He’d managed to pull them down two inches before I stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Wait.”

He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just—”

At the word nothing , he continued pulling them down. He got them down around my hips and I lifted a leg, pretzel-ing myself to plant one foot on his stomach. I pushed him away. He cocked his head to the side, confused.

“Did I do something wrong?” he asked.

“No, I just… I need to tell you something before we go further with this.”

He stood there looking sexy as hell, his head tilted to one side, his arms slack at his sides, and nodded for me to continue. “Okay.”

I licked my lips. They tasted like his kiss. “I’ve… I’ve never done this before.”

“Done what?” he asked innocently.

The poor stupid idiot had no idea what he was getting into.

Honesty time. Go Vanny. You can do this.

“Sex. I’ve never had sex before.”

He couldn’t hide his surprise. It showed in the brief widening of his eyes, the tightening of his jaw, the straightening of his posture. “Oh.”

“I understand if you don’t want to keep going.”

“What makes you think I want to stop?”

“I don’t know. It’s a lot. I get it if you think it’s weird and you don’t want to be the guy to deflower me.”

Oh good God. Why did you say deflower? There are so many other words you could have used, you bumbling bimbo.

He looked me up and down. “I definitely want to be the guy.”

“You do?”

“Yes. So long as you want me to be the guy.”

“I do.”

“You’re sure?”

I nodded. I was pretty sure. As sure as I could be, at least. If I regretted it in the morning, that was on me. Not him. “I’m sure.”

He moved closer with caution, like he was afraid I might try to push him away with my foot again. I didn’t. Then he picked me up and set me down on the floor.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Taking you to your bedroom. A kitchen counter is a good place to fuck. It’s not a good place to lose your virginity.”

“Are you speaking from experience?”

Rhys laughed. It was such a wonderful sound.

Deep and powerful and unabashed. He bent his knees and scooped me up in his arms. I interlaced my fingers behind his neck as he carried me through the kitchen and down the hall to my bedroom, where he laid me down on the bed with ease.

He brushed my hair off my face and made his way down the length of my body, leaving a trail of kisses as he went, pausing when he reached my panties once more.

“Let’s try this again, shall we?” he asked.

I nodded.

Then slowly, he pulled my panties down my legs.

He left them dangling from my right ankle and pushed my knees apart.

I fought the urge to close them as he settled between my thighs, his naked torso resting upon me, crushing my breasts.

He kissed me softly at first and then more urgently, until neither of us could stand it and we were writhing upon the sheets all tangled up in each other.

Then he moved back down. All the way down. Until his face was between my thighs.

Goodbye vibrator. Hello wildest fantasy.