“As long as it was good.”

She kissed him on the mouth. Slow, wet, deep. “I want you,” she whispered in his ear.

“You’ll have me,” he assured her. “In Rio.”

She shook her head. “I can’t wait that long.”

Blake laughed quietly. “You’ll disturb the old lady in row seventeen.”

Julia paused, taking the temperature of the night once again. The woman in row seventeen wasn’t stirring anytime soon.

Julia slid her hand under the blanket. He was hard as a rock, straining against the front of his shorts.

“Wait,” he hissed, grabbing her wrist. But Julia shook her head adamantly. If this were Danny, she would have listened. Sat back demurely in her seat. Held his hand. Done the things good girls were supposed to do instead of taking charge and taking what she wanted.

But this wasn’t Danny. And she wasn’t the same Julia anymore.

She strained her arm against him, and he had to work to keep her from touching him. “You can’t stop me,” she whispered. “I want to.”

The bid for power over whether her arm was snaking down his shorts or sliding back to her side was turning her on, reminding her of how strong he was when he let go and drove his weight into her, and yet how gentle he remained afterwards.

“I just meant wait a second,” Blake whispered, letting her hand drop onto his rock-hard cock. “Switch places so I’m on the inside, away from the aisle.”

“Oh. I was afraid you were trying to deny me.”

“I know better than to stand in your way.” He grinned, and in the cover of darkness they shifted places in the back of the bus. Nothing untoward, should anyone happen to see. Just a woman who wanted the aisle seat, or a man eager for the window instead.

Would the people who saw them think they were dating? A long-term couple traveling, like Jamie and Chris? The thought was sort of exciting. Yet another way she was fooling the world into thinking she was someone she wasn’t—or at least had never been before.

Blake settled into the window seat and she sat down where he’d been. Now if anyone looked back, they’d see only her leg visible from the aisle, not anything having to do with his lap.

Julia wondered how much experience Blake had with these sorts of public encounters. She’d certainly multiplied her own several times over. But she pushed the thought from her mind. It didn’t matter what either of them had or hadn’t done in the past. What mattered was that they were both here, now, and that she was about to give him a surprise.

Julia slid her hand back down his shorts, and this time he didn’t stop her. Instead he spread his legs slightly and leaned back as she had done, preparing to enjoy what was to come. She worked him out of his shorts, marveling at how bringing her to orgasm had made him so incredibly hard. She stroked his shaft, running her thumb across the sensitive tip, and then worked her hand down to cup his balls, bringing a sigh to his lips.

“Shhh,” she whispered, teasing, flicking her tongue over his ear while she stroked him. A broad smile spread over his face, his eyes still closed.

And then she bent over and lowered her mouth to the head of his cock standing straight up in his lap. She kept her eyes glued on his face so she could fully appreciate the look of surprise as his eyes flew open at the unexpected pressure of her tongue.

He tried to pull her shoulder up, whispering, “What are you doing?” as he strained to see whether anyone in the bus knew what was going on.

But if the old lady in row seventeen had stirred, it was only to sink lower into her seat as her breathing deepened in sleep.

“You don’t have to do that, you know,” he said as he caressed her cheek.

“I don’t have to do anything,” she said, mocking him for what he’d said to her the first time they met, when she’d tried to stop him from carrying her bags. He rolled his eyes at his own words thrown back at him. “I want to,” she whispered, just as he’d said to her.

“Is this where I learn about your desires?” he asked, stroking her hair, reminding her how she’d called him strange that afternoon.

“Mmm, this has been a desire of mine for quite some time,” she whispered, ignoring the fact that “quite some time” meant the two days they’d known each other—and half that time she’d been convinced she was never going to lay eyes on him again.

But in a way, it could also include all the years she’d longed to find someone she wanted to do this to, to lick and suck and nibble and stroke with the full enthusiasm of her hands and mouth, so eager to taste there was no way she could be stopped. She’d never, ever wanted it like this. Wanted it like it was for her own pleasure, not only his. Wanted it like she couldn’t wait another second more.

“You and me both,” he murmured, and a thrill coursed through her at the thought that he’d been wanting this, too. She lowered her mouth back to his cock, and he arranged the blanket over her. She lay down like she was his girlfriend sleeping with her head in his lap. A perfectly appropriate thing for a couple to do.

But they weren’t a couple, and she wasn’t asleep.

She tried to move slowly so as not to rustle their clothes or make any sucking noises from her saliva. The constraint made it all the more intoxicating as she had to hold them both back from full-on abandon, building him up as slowly as she could until she could feel his balls straining, pushing up in her palm, begging for the warm, enveloping touch of her tongue that would make all the pressure release.

But she wouldn’t let him, not yet. She’d never enjoyed this so much and she wanted to savor her triumph. Up and down she worked her mouth, slippery and wet. He rested his hand on her head, playing with her hair, as she got into a slow, sensuous rhythm with her mouth. Danny would never have done that, thinking it degrading even if he wasn’t pushing her head down. But the feel of Blake reaching to touch her made her want him even more, taking him as deep as she could while the wetness built again between her legs.

As his fingers dug in her hair, she knew he didn’t have much time before he was done for. She wrapped her fist around the base of his shaft while her mouth moved over every inch of him, her tongue swirling over his swollen head each time she went up and back down. He held her tighter, pulling hard as she felt his thighs clench. He was close, he was so close, and she wanted to give it to him…

Outwardly he hardly moved, but his cock pressed against the back of her throat and under the blanket his hips bucked—once, twice, pushing in as she sucked him deep. When he pressed gently onto the back of her head, she knew he was telling her that he was about to come, so she could decide what she wanted to do. And yes, she swallowed. And no, she didn’t care if that meant anything.

Finally he lifted her, still careful not to make any noise. The smell, the taste, the heat of him had filled her, thrilled her, and the sight of his satisfied face as he lay back in the seat smiling and totally spent was the icing on the cake. He squeezed her hand and she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Damn,” he whispered, brushing the hair from her face and flexing his hand from where he’d been clutching the edge of the seat to keep himself from moving.

“This is when I ask if that was okay for you,” she whispered.

His smile was a delight.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” he admitted.

“It doesn’t have to be the last time,” she reminded him as she zipped up her shorts—even as she’d already learned that there could be no planning with Blake, not even for a few days.

Now would be the time when, in some perfect dream she might have once had, he would turn and announce that he needed her, he loved her, and he was never letting her go.

But her dreams had never included blowjobs on buses, or Brazil, or men she barely knew. And she was actually comforted that he didn’t say a word. It was a relief not to have to worry about the baggage and expectations that came when two people wondered how long they were going to last. If Blake was sex and Danny was love, there was no question she’d take Blake any day she could have him.