On the plus side, getting naked with him again meant I was finally going to see the rest of that tattoo.

Ten minutes. No big deal, but something told me they were going to be the ten most important minutes in my life. Especially after what she had just revealed about the past and why she ran so hot and cold with me. That was some heavy stuff, made the way I needed kid gloves with her so much more understandable. She was into me, but she sort of hated me as well. That wasn’t a spot I had ever been in before.

I even remembered both those moments in question. It was all kind of hazy and foggy with time, but I recalled the main parts of it. That party had been one of many. I’m pretty sure I had already been drunk before showing up. Ashley Maxwell and I had an easy thing going where if I showed up without a chick, I usually ended the night in her bed. I can’t even remember what she looked like and I sure as hell don’t remember asking Saint if she was going to be there. Parties like that were below her and I knew it. Hearing her take on the situation made me feel like an asshole and it made why she had suddenly started treating me like a leper back then understandable.

The day she had caught me running my mouth was less clear. I didn’t remember what I had been talking about, or the words I had used, but I do remember seeing her come around the corner looking like she was going to be sick all over the place and crying big, fat tears. At the time I thought if we were actually friends, or if she wasn’t so shy, I would have asked her what was wrong. She was too pretty to look that heartbroken.

I wasn’t a saint. I was an angry teenager cast aside and trying to figure out what kind of young man I was ultimately going to become. That had been a rocky road for a while and I said dumb shit, used hurtful words when I was shooting off my mouth, but I had never been and would never be a gossip or a bully. Yes, whatever she had overheard me say was inappropriate and taken out of whatever context I was using it in, and probably made me sound and appear to be the biggest dickhead on the planet.

However, what bothered me most wasn’t that Saint had stumbled across me acting like an idiot and held it against me all this time, but that she had just automatically thought whoever I was bitching about had been her. That spoke to self-esteem issues and self-doubt that I wasn’t sure I was equipped to handle. Not to mention I didn’t really know how to show her the guy I was now versus the pissed-off kid I had been then.

I shadowed her into her apartment and followed suit as she tossed her coat on the back of her couch. I didn’t even look around the place. When she turned to face me I stepped immediately into her space. I wasn’t going to give her the option of running again. She was almost as tall as I was with those wicked boots on. I grabbed her hair in one hand and wrapped the curls around my fist and used my other to grab on to her chin. She was caught.

“We can do a lot in ten minutes, Saint. Where is the bedroom?”

She looked a little unsure and tilted her head in the direction of a doorway past the little galley kitchen. Since I was working on a clock, I didn’t have a lot of time to waste. I kissed her and simultaneously moved her backward in the direction of the door. She moved with me, which made me sigh in appreciation against her lips. She got her hands under the hem of my thermal and started to tug it up over my back and ribs.

No way was that happening again. I hit the door and pinned her against it, which made her gasp a little and had her eyes widening in surprise. I had to say I liked how well we lined up. It would be super easy to tangle her all around me and get down to business … maybe after these ten minutes were up I would show her that ten more would be a great idea … and ten more after that. I gently untangled her fingers from the fabric of my shirt and lightly put my hands on her narrow waist under the hem of her sparkly tank top.

“My turn.”

I think she was stunned, but she stuck her bottom lip out a little bit at me and I couldn’t resist the desire to catch it between my teeth.

“But I want to see your tattoo.” Her voice was breathy and had a catch to it that made my dick all kinds of happy.

I lifted an eyebrow and watched her carefully as I got her top off up over her head. She was breathing shallow and obviously she was anxious, but so far so good, and I still had time on the clock. I turned the doorknob behind her and the door opened easily with her weight leaned against it. As I continued to dance her backward I found the tiny little zipper on the back of her skirt and started to pull it down.

I kissed her again to distract her from the fact that I was steadily heading her toward the bed in the center of the room and told her in a husky voice, “Later. It’s not going anywhere.”

I wanted to turn the lights on so I could see all that pretty white skin I was uncovering and the way all her red-and-copper-colored hair looked all over it, and the bed, and me when we got there. I didn’t think she was there with me yet, though. She was kissing me back, had her arms wrapped around my neck, but she was still stiff and she didn’t seem like she was in any hurry to let me get down to business as I wiggled the skirt over her hips and down over those pirate boots.

“Nash …” There was hesitancy in her voice and I felt like I was running out of time.

I got down so that I was on my knees in front of where she was hovering on the edge of the bed. She looked like she wanted to bolt but she took a deep breath and looked down at me. Her eyes were swirling like a hurricane. In that gaze was an equal mix of desire, trepidation, and question. The way her breasts rose and fell was captivating. She put one of her hands on either side of my head so she was holding on to the fire that marked my skin.

“You okay?” I stuck the tip of my tongue in her belly button and she whimpered a little.

“No. But I don’t want you to stop.”

I looked up at her from under my eyelashes.

“Good, because I’m not going to.”

I could see she had no idea what I was talking about and I figured surprise was in my favor. The boots were going to have to stay; it would take too long to get them off, but the cute, black underwear had to go. I sent out a silent hope that they weren’t a favorite pair and snapped the elastic on either side, leaving her very much naked and exposed, right in front of my face. She was obviously turned on, but the way her stomach quivered let me know she was equally nervous.

She called my name in a panicked tone, and I felt her fingernails curl into my scalp, so I knew I had to distract her. No problem. She was shaking so bad and the heels on those boots were so high it only took a little nudge to get her to topple back on the bed. She started to wiggle away across the mattress, but I was bigger, and I think more determined to prove to her we should be doing this than her fear was. I trailed my fingers up the inside of her thigh and lifted it up over my shoulder. I was listening, because if she told me no, told me to stop, I wasn’t going to push her, but all I heard was a breathy panting and my name said like a curse on repeat.

God, was she sweet in spirit and flavor. I don’t think I had ever had my lips and tongue on anything that tasted as good as her. I don’t how much trembling and spasming was happening because she was freaked out, or how much was because I put my mouth on her. I caught her clit between my teeth and sucked—hard—which made her jolt so much that her hips lifted off the bed. I used her move to slide my hands up under her and hold her to my face.

“What are you doing to me?”

It wasn’t a question, it was more a plea, so I just hummed lightly against her trapped flesh until I felt the rest of her body start to respond. Her thighs trembled, her channel got damp and oh so welcoming, and I took that as an invitation to add my hands to the mix. I let go with one hand and trailed it around so I could stroke her, pet her, lick at her until she was tossing her head from side to side and I could see her hands curling into the sheets on the bed. It was the most beautifully unrestrained thing I had ever seen in my life. She tasted wild, she tasted special and slightly illicit, and I knew it was the best ten minutes any other person had ever given to me. Even if we didn’t make it to the end this time, at least I got to see her like this, feel what I was doing to her and how much she liked it.