Page 52 of Ruff and Tumble

He thought she had the soul of a warrior, and for the first time in her life, she absolutely agreed.

“Jesus.” She hesitated at the sight of Cole’s bare torso, which was so freakishly perfect it felt almost surreal. His shoulders were impossibly broad, his chest a massive swell of strength and superiority. It was as if someone had taken the marbled ideal of a man sculpted hundreds of years ago and breathed life into him.

Fully aware of the effect he was having on her, Cole placed his arms behind his head and grinned. The pose was designed to make the most of his powerful biceps, but flexing only drew attention to the round scars on his right shoulder from the surgery he’d had two years ago. Seeing them—this visible proof that he, too, was human—gave her the resolve she needed to strip her panties away.

“Jesus,” he echoed, dropping his arms.

It was all the invitation she needed. She lowered herself to his lap, sitting astride, her entirely naked body pressed against his half-clothed one. Even this inequality didn’t disconcert her. She liked the way his jeans felt against her, the hard ridge of his groin pressing and pushing against her body with a need that neither one of them could deny.

Taking his face between her hands, she lowered her lips to his and kissed him. He was expecting it, his mouth ready and willing to accept hers the moment their lips touched. She was too hungry and too eager, small moans escaping every time his tongue slid along hers, but it didn’t seem to matter. He matched her sense of urgency beat for beat and bite for bite.

“What the hell else are you hiding from me?” he asked when she pulled away to adjust her position. Her legs, already spread much farther than decorum allowed, widened until she could feel every part of his erection. He seemed to like this, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her down so that she couldn’t move in any direction but against him. “Secret tattoos? Sexy piercings? Deep, dirty kinks I’ll have no choice but to play along with?”

Hailey felt a pang of regret starting to take over the hot, liquid yearning between her legs. If that was the kind of excitement Cole craved in the bedroom, he was going to be disappointed with anything she had to offer.

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t have any tattoos or piercings,” she said, more serious than the moment required but unable to prevent the words from escaping. “I’m scared of needles. And infection.”

“Noted.”

He still seemed inclined to be amused, so she added, “And to be perfectly honest, I don’t have any kinks. None that I know of, anyway. I’m not experienced enough for that. There are a few that seem like they might be fun, but I’ve never met anyone I’d want to try them out with.”

This foray into the truth was having its inevitable effect on her—which was to say, the fire that burned in her blood was starting to rise to the surface. Of course.Thiswas the thing to make her blush.Thiswas the thing to make her feel as though she was, well, squirming and naked on a man’s lap.

It was also the thing that kept her mouth moving long after a wise woman would have glued it shut.

“I wouldn’t mind trying some of them out with you.”

Naturally, Cole didn’t have a response to this. How could he? In one breath, she’d admitted her lack of sexual experience, revealed her risk-averse tendencies, and thrown herself at him in ways she would regret for the rest of her life. It was one thing to offer sex to a man who clearly wanted it; it was quite another to open the door to boundary-pushing deeds enacted in the name of lust.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Cole said after a pause that felt interminable.

She was almost afraid to ask. “What?”

“I should have known.” He lifted a hand and trailed the back of his fingers down her cheek, his touch cool against the flame of her mortification. He skimmed over her jaw and along the pulse in her neck, danced over her clavicle and down the naked peaks of her breasts. She thought he might keep going until he reached the softest, wettest parts of her, but he stopped when he reached her sternum.

There, he placed his palm flat against the thrum-thrumming of her chest. “It doesn’t stop until it reaches your heart.”

At that, something inside Hailey cried out—not verbally but in a burst of energy and emotion that tingled in all of her fingers and each of her toes. She swung a leg off Cole’s lap and made a move to dash away, but he caught her by encircling her wrist.

“Don’t,” he said—begged, almost, his voice low and hoarse. “Stay with me.”

She shook her head, the loose strands of her hair tumbling around her face. Although she could feel some of her blush abating, she still felt hot and exposed.

Then again, she’d felt hot and exposed since the moment this man first walked into her office. It would be a far stranger thing to change the state of affairs now.

“I’ll be right back,” she said. “I’m just going to grab protection. Stay exactly where you are.”

She didn’t wait to hear his reaction this time around. There were so many things about this moment that felt fantastic, but that was pretty much her life in a nutshell. Every day was a new adventure in stepping outside her comfort zone, in revealing all her soft, squishy inner parts to virtual strangers. For whatever reason, Cole Bennett had taken one look at her soft, squishy inner parts and decided he wanted to stick around long enough to enjoy her soft, squishyouterones.

And she, Lord help her, was going to let him.

It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. She paused on her way back to peek at the puppies. Bess and her babies were all contentedly napping in their usual positions in the kitchen, but Rufus’s box had shifted and the heated blanket was askew. Not, as might be supposed, because Rufus was once again trying to escape, but because Philip had somehow managed to sneak past the gate and make his way into the kitchen. He’d found Rufus’s box and pushed the blanket aside. Their heads rested together, eyes shut and dreamy expressions on their sweet little faces.

“Good boy,” Hailey whispered as she tiptoed away, fearful lest she disturb their rest. It was nice for Rufus to finally have a friend. Philip, too. Life was far too difficult when you had to go it alone.

“Sorry,” she apologized as she returned to the living room. In accordance with her command, Cole hadn’t moved—he was still on the couch, still gloriously shirtless, still a vision to behold. And if her quick peek at his groin was any indication, still fully committed to this act. “I had to check on the puppies.”

“Of course you did.”