It took a super-human amount of effort not to just lift her up and lower her right down onto my cock. I was a shivering, shaking, schoolboy mess, barely holding it together and if we didn't stop now I was going to blow my top far too fucking early for my liking. Hell, I almost came when she'd wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back. She had me that charged up.

Putting the brakes on things wasn't an easy choice, but it was the right one.

She didn't let go of my hand. Not when I helped her into the cab I'd hailed out of a desire for privacy. Not when I helped her to the private elevators that led to the penthouse of the hotel we were staying in. Not even when was walked through the main suite and I stopped at my room door.

I paused for a moment, and then lifted her hand to my lips. "You're a fucking angel," I told her.

"Why, because I'm going to sleep with you?" she teased.

I fucking loved that spark in her. "That's not the main reason," I joked, waving my card in front of the door lock. It sprang open with a happy little chirp and I pulled Reese close to me and kissed the top of her head. "But it's up there," I finished.

She laughed and socked me in the arm. I caught her wrist and used the leverage to pin her back up against the wall inside the bedroom. "Now," I said, pressing my lips to her neck. "Where were we?"

"I can't believe this is happening," she breathed, half to herself.

I pulled back. "Why not? You have to know I fancy you."

For a second she looked shy. I wondered if anyone had ever seen her look shy before. "I didn't let myself believe it."

"Why not?"

"'Cause I'm a chick-roadie," she sighed, sounding slightly exasperated. "I'm used to not taking guys and their hard-ons seriously." She looked at me meaningfully. "Ever."

I pressed my forehead against hers. I liked the way her eyes widened when I did that and even more I liked that she had no choice but to look me in the eye. There was no way she could keep anything from me when she looked me in the eye like this. "This is serious," I told her. "I seriously want you." I grabbed her hand and brushed her fingers across the front of my trousers. "And I have a serious hard-on, too."

She exhaled a small half-gasp and then kissed me again. I wrapped my arms around her, delighting in how well she fit into my embrace and whirled her around, backing her up until her knees caught against the back of the bed and she fell into it with a laugh.

I paused for a moment. "What?" she asked, looking up at me, clearly wondering why I'd stopped.

"I wish I had a camera with me," I said.

"No fucking way am I letting you film this," she teased.

I nodded. "Fair enough, and I'm not into that anyway. No, I was just thinking what a pretty picture you make right now." I leaned over her and hooked my fingers in her jeans. She raised her hips, letting me slide them down. "This black hair of yours spread out on the white blanket. And look." I gestured to the black and white photo, a small, framed, artistic shot of a crumbling cathedral - all dramatic whites and shadows - hanging above the headboard. "You match."

She glanced up at the picture. "Another one for the list," she muttered.

I was lifting her black t-shirt over her head, too entranced by the sight of her in that black lacy bra of hers to register what she said the first time. "What was that?" I asked as I flung her shirt away and kissed her exposed shoulder.

She looked at me and shook her head a moment and then sighed. "I've been making a list in my head," she finally confessed.

"What of?" I pressed, kissing down between her breasts.

She raised her hips again as I flicked my tongue around her sweet little navel. "All the ways you surprise me."

I pulled back because I felt something tug gently in my chest when she said that. The idea that she'd been noticing things about me, cataloging them in her brain...I had been doing the exact same thing with her.

This felt...right.

I grinned. "Would it surprise you to know that I'm incredible at cunnilingus?" I teased, brushing my thumb across her panties. I could feel a trace of wetness starting to soak the cotton and I swore I could smell how much she wanted me.

But instead she burst out laughing. "Actually? That wouldn't surprise me at all."

"Why's that?"

She arched an eyebrow. "You use big words. I figure you must be good with your tongue."

"You're right."

"I usually am."

"You're still cheeky as hell, though, aren't you darling?"

She looked down at me as I knelt between her legs, hissing a little as I pressed them open. "Yeah, but you like that about me," she breathed. "That's how we became friends in the first place."

Just friends. How had I thought that would work? "I do like that about you, darling. Now let me show you something you're gonna like about me."