“Your skin is like ice,” he yelped, shuffling back. “And you’re naked.”

  “I usually don’t take showers with my clothes on,” I replied sarcastically, letting the hot water run over me. “And my skin is like ice because you left me out in the fucking rain.”

  Bishop’s lips twitched with amusement. “Funny, right?”

  “No.”

  “You win some, you lose some,” he said dryly, repeating my words back to me.

  I had never been what people liked to call slow to anger.

  “You ass,” I shouted. I went for him. I’m not sure what I thought I was going to do, we were both naked and slippery and he had a good seventy pounds on me, but I was determined to do it. Maybe I’d scratch his face off.

  I barely made it a step before he caught my wrists and whipped them above my head. Using his hips he maneuvered me against the wall until I was stuck.

  “You done?” he asked, breathing hard.

  “You’re naked,” I replied, staring into his eyes.

  I was the one who’d done it. I’d put us in that situation. And still, when the realization sunk in that his wet naked body was pressed against mine I was almost shocked.

  “I usually don’t take showers with my clothes on,” he whispered back.

  Bishop shuddered, then slowly and gently let go of my wrists and slid his hands down my upturned arms. He took half a step back until we weren’t plastered together anymore. Then he just stood there.

  “It was really fucking cold outside,” I said, letting my arms fall.

  “And I really thought you were fucking hurt,” he replied.

  “You thought it was funny,” I argued.

  “Until I thought you were actually hurt,” he countered. “Then I was scared as hell.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh,” he said, shaking his head. He reached up and slicked his wet hair out of his face. “Not cool.”

  I nodded.

  “This really wasn’t how I imagined seein’ you naked for the first time,” he said in frustration.

  “Ditto,” I murmured, glancing down.

  “Eyes up here, honey,” he said in amusement.

  “Well it’s right there,” I replied defensively.

  Bishop laughed.

  I glanced down again.

  “Charlotte,” he said, his voice gravelly. “Either stop lookin’ or fuckin’ touch me. I’m trying to be respectful of your stupid ass boundaries but I’m about to lose it.”

  “You’re trying to be respectful of my boundaries?”

  “Stupid ass boundaries,” he clarified.

  “Sweet as sugar,” I murmured. It was the same thing I’d told him the day he’d moved in and it still held true.

  Bishop shook his head. “Fuck it.”

  His hands went to my ass and I scrambled for purchase as he lifted me until I could wrap my legs around his waist. I held on for dear life as he leaned down to shut off the shower. Then we were on the move, he grabbed a couple towels off the rack and strode through the bathroom door and straight into his room.

  “Drop,” he ordered, letting go of me.

  I landed on my feet with a thump and stood there as he wrapped a towel around me. My stomach churned with disappointment for only a moment before he’d dropped to my feet and began to dry my legs with the other towel.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice raspy as I stared at the top of his head.

  “What’s it look like I’m doin’?” he asked brusquely.

  I jolted at his tone, suddenly wondering if I should just walk away. The entire vibe in the room had changed and I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay until he ordered me out. Giving it a minute to see what he would do, I absentmindedly wrung out my hair with the edge of the towel wrapped around my shoulders. Every cell of my body was focused on the feel of the towel as he moved his way up my legs.

  “Shit,” he breathed, pausing. Then his head fell forward, his hair brushing against my bellybutton as his hands moved higher.

  “Oh my god,” I mumbled, when without a word, he pressed my legs apart.

  Then he was drying me again. Higher and higher until the towel brushed between my legs.

  I wasn’t proud of the way my knees buckled, but hey, no one could really blame me for it. The man was chiseled to perfection and his hands were everywhere.

  “Steady,” he said quietly as he rose to his feet.

  Instead of responding I reached out and wrapped my hand around his dick, not bothering with the whole towel thing—even though I had to admit it was erotic as fuck.

  He groaned and dropped the towel he held, his hand wrapping around mine.

  “We doin’ this?” he asked, leaning down until our noses nearly touched.

  It was the moment of truth. I was one week from graduation and in two days I’d sign a contract and empty my savings, betting on a business with zero experience. It wasn’t the right time. Not at all. I couldn’t afford to lose focus.

  At my hesitation, his hand fell away.

  “Do you have condoms?” I asked, tightening my grip.

  “New box in the nightstand,” he said, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he leaned toward me.

  As his lips hit mine we became a tangle of limbs, sliding and pressing, learning all the little dips and valleys. Bishop paused long enough to pull the quilt to the bottom of the bed and I let out a breathless laugh.

  “Wouldn’t want to get it dirty,” I teased as he pressed me onto the sheets.

  “Stop givin’ me shit,” he murmured as his lips met the base of my throat. “I’m busy here.”

  “Carry on,” I said, running my fingers through his hair while he moved south.

  It had been a long time since I was any kind of self-conscious about my body. I was short because my parents were short and I was muscular because I’d always liked physical activity. I had an ass because, well, I wasn’t sure about that one. I mean, I worked at it, but some of it was just a natural abundance.

  I didn’t think my appearance was any better or worse than other women or compare myself to them. But suddenly in that moment, I really really hoped that Bishop liked what he saw. That in his mind, I was the most beautiful and alluring woman he’d ever seen. That no one could compare.

  He was braced above me, his lips dragging along my skin, closer and closer to first one nipple and then the other. I shivered as his wet hair dripped on my torso, the mixture of his hot mouth and the cold water making me gasp. Then, he was finally there, wrapping his lips around my nipple, his tongue brushing lightly and then harder, making me arch off the bed.

  “Sensitive,” he said to himself as he moved to the other nipple. “This one too.”

  “Whoa,” I moaned, my fingertips digging into his shoulders. I shivered again and he stopped.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, reaching for his head as he shifted. If he didn’t put his mouth back I was going to murder him.

  “You’re cold,” he replied, moving off of me.

  I didn’t even have a chance to reply before he was off the bed and jerking the top sheet out from under me. Then, he was back, and we were cocooned inside the sheets. With our combined body heat it didn’t take long before I was warm and shivering for a completely different reason.

  “I can’t see you,” I complained as he worked his way down my stomach, pulling the sheet up over his head so I’d still be covered.

  “You can watch next time,” he promised.

  Then, without warning, his tongue was exactly where I needed it. He didn’t fuck around and while I had no problem with directing him, I never had to. He brought me to the edge once, then twice, then finally when I was clawing and cursing him, he knocked me right over. He stayed where he was, his tongue thrumming in exactly the right way until I started to press at his shoulders because it was too much.

  He moved back up my body and braced himself over me as he reached for the nightstand. While he grabbed a condom, I ran my hands over him. His shoulders were broad, and while he wasn’t built like a bodybuilder, his muscles were evident and defined. From what I’d seen, beyond the occasional run, Bishop didn’t work out. His strength came from daily hard work and it was sexy as hell. I traced the definition between his pectoral muscles with my fingertips and my fingernails lightly over his nipples, making him jerk. As he leaned back on his knees to tear open the condom, I had more room to explore and I did. His chest hair was soft against my palms and the skin of his stomach was smooth except for a narrow line of hair that started below his belly button. While he rolled the condom on, I distracted him by brushing my fingers over the pubic hair he’d trimmed short, reaching under his busy hands to cup his testicles in my hand.

  “Fuck,” he grunted, his hips jerking forward involuntarily.

  “You’re incredible,” I murmured. I’d thought that Bishop was handsome with his clothes on, but without them he was almost otherworldly. I’d never seen anyone as perfectly put together as he was.

  “I’m supposed to be sayin’ that,” he said, pulling my hands away as he leaned back down.

  “Feel free to worship me,” I joked just before his lips hit mine.

  “Plannin’ on it,” he replied against my mouth.

  There was no hesitation or awkward positioning as he wrapped his hand around the back of my knee and thrust inside.

  I’d had a lot of sex. I liked it and I didn’t really see the need to hide that fact. I’d never felt any sense of shame about my sex life. I was always careful, but there wasn’t much that I wouldn’t try at least once, just to see if I was into it. But in all the crazy, raunchy, athletic ways I’d gotten down, nothing had ever felt as good as Bishop’s first thrust inside me.

  I moaned so loud that Bishop let out a breathless laugh.

  “Remember when I told you,” he said, nipping my earlobe as he pulled out and thrust back inside. “You’d scream first?”

  I laughed and groaned again, my nails scoring down his back making him hiss in surprise.

  “We’ll see,” I whispered back.

  I flattened one leg against the bed, changing the angle and making us both gasp, then braced the opposite foot on the bed and shoved, rolling us over before he knew what I was up to.

  “You wanna be on top?” he asked, grinning up at me. He crossed his arms behind his head and I took him in, his upper body stretched out before me like a feast.

  I rolled my hips, grinding against him with each pass and I swear his eyes rolled back in his head, but I could see his jaw flexing as he held back any sound. It was only a matter of time. I reached up and slowly licked the fingertips of both hands, then brought them to my nipples and pinched.

  His sharp inhale was music to my ears until one of his arms unfolded and his hand went between us, the tips of his fingers pressed against my thigh as his thumb found my clit.

  I shuddered, and slammed down, taking him deep.

  “Fuck,” he muttered as I did it again.

  The competition between us completely lost my focus as my head fell back and my hands dropped to his chest.

  “You’re too quiet,” he said, his voice gravelly.

  I grunted a complaint as he lifted me off of him, but it only took a moment before my face was pressed into his damp pillow, my hips high in the air.

  “Brace yourself,” he ordered quietly, gripping my hips.

  I barely had time to reach for the headboard before he was slamming inside me again, using his hands to jerk me back as his hips thrust forward.

  I tried to push myself up onto my arms but a gentle hand held me down flat, my back arched to an angle just short of uncomfortable.

  “Feel free to make as much noise as you want,” he said, his other hand sliding and squeezing my ass cheeks as I got closer and closer to climax.

  “You too,” I huffed, clenching around him as tight as I could.

  Bishop gasped, his hand on my ass tightening.

  The hand on my back disappeared and I shot upward, my hands scrabbling on the headboard as I pulled my body up.

  I could feel his fingers between us as he continued to thrust and I gripped the headboard tighter. Then, without any warning or hesitation, a gentle finger slid into my ass and I went off like a fucking bomb.

  I had no idea if I screamed or moaned or made any noise at all. What little attention I could muster was focused completely on the climax that hit with the force of a grenade, every muscle in my body tightening as it throbbed and roared through me.

  By the time I had come back into some kind of coherency, Bishop was no longer inside me. He was gently unpeeling my fingers from the headboard and carefully helping me straighten my body until I was prone on the bed, his hands sweeping gently over my skin as he kissed me, first the cheeks of my ass, then the backs of my thighs, the base of my spine and further up my back, until he finished, sweeping my hair to the side so he could press a lingering kiss to the back of my neck.

  “Gonna go take care of this,” he said softly, pulling the sheet and then the quilt over me before leaving the room.

  If I’d had any doubts about how Bishop would completely upend my life, they were gone now. As he crawled back into bed beside me, laughing at the fact that I hadn’t moved a single inch, I knew nothing would ever be the same.

  Because I could not imagine wanting to ever have sex again with anyone but Beauregard Augustus Bishop. He’d ruined me.

  Chapter 8

  Bishop

  Long after Charlie had fallen asleep, I laid next to her, running my fingers through her long blonde hair. I’d known that we’d be good together—our chemistry was off the fucking charts and it had only been a matter of time before we ended up in bed—but I hadn’t realized how phenomenal it would be. I’d had fantastic sex before, plenty of times. If you got the right two people together, who were into the same things and had that spark, it usually turned out pretty fucking well—but sex with Charlie had been different. Fun. Intense. Goddamn mind-blowing.

  I wasn’t sure if it was because of the fact that I genuinely liked her, or that we were both hell bent on making it good for each other, or the fact that I hadn’t been with anyone in a while—hell, maybe it was a mixture of all three. Whatever the magic potion had been, it had worked in a big way.

  Luckily for our housemates, neither of us had screamed, but it had been a close thing. When she’d come and her pussy had clamped down on my dick, there was a moment when I thought I was having a goddamn heart attack. I’d immediately followed her down the rabbit hole, stopping it had been impossible at that point.

  “I feel like I’ve been ridden hard and put away wet,” Charlie grumbled, rolling onto her back. “Oh, wait.”

  “That’s pretty accurate,” I said, leaning up on my elbow to look at her.

  The temptation to touch her was too strong to ignore. Sliding my hand under the bedding I found her hip and lightly brushed my fingers over the skin there as she arched slightly.

  “More?” I asked quietly, pressing my hand between her thighs as she turned her head to look at me.

  “I’m wrung out,” she replied hoarsely, even as she spread her legs.

  “Poor thing,” I murmured, kissing her shoulder as I slid my fingers over her, brushing against her clit as I moved downward. I slid first one, and then a second finger inside her easily, enjoying the way her eyes seemed to glaze over.

  I brought her to orgasm lazily, enjoying the way her skin slickened and her body tightened ever so slightly every time I thrust my fingers inside her. When she finally came, it was with a small whimper, her eyes on mine.

  Her nostrils flared as I cleaned off my fingers with my mouth.

  “I don’t think I could take another orgasm,” she said ruefully. “But I’d be willing to try.”

  I laughed and kissed her, nipping her bottom lip as I pulled away.

  “You warmed up now?” I asked jokingly.

  “Understatement of the year,” she replied with a snort. “I hate being cold.”

  “Yeah?” I said innocently. “Wouldn’t have guessed it.”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t maim you earlier,” she said, lifting her hand out of the bedding to point at me. “I was this close.”

  “Honey,” I said, smiling. “You could’ve tried.”

  “Pfft,” she replied. “You wouldn’t have even seen it coming.”

  “At the time, I had a hard time seein’ anythin’ else,” I muttered dryly. “The image of you stompin’ into the shower bare assed naked is burned into my memory.”

  “Well,” she said, pulling her arm back. “You’re welcome.”

  “Where are my manners?” I asked, rolling so that I was half on top of her. “Thank you, Charlotte, for that magnificent display of skin.”

  “And thank you, Mr. Bishop,” she said, grinning. “For the two orgasms.”

  “Three,” I corrected.

  “Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. She leaned up and gave me a quick peck on the lips. “Three, then.”

  I fought the urge to stop her as she rolled away and climbed out of bed, wrapping a towel around herself.

  “Where you goin’?”

  “I’m sticky,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to clean up and then I’m going to crash.”

  “Goin’ to your room?” I asked. I tried to be nonchalant but must have missed the mark because she looked at me for a long moment without speaking.

  “Yeah,” she said quietly. “See you in the morning?”

  “I’ll be gone before you wake up,” I reminded her.

  “After work, then,” she said with a small smile. “Night, Bishop.”

  “Night, honey.”

  I didn’t expect to fall asleep, but sometime after I heard her leave the bathroom and go into her room, I passed out. I slept so hard that I nearly missed my alarm going off. As it was, I didn’t have time to shower and had to just throw some clothes on and rush out of the house to get to work on time.

  When I got to the house we were working on, I nearly groaned.

  Charlie’s mom was doing her daily walk through a little early, and there was no way I could slip by her without notice.

  “Hey Bishop,” she said cheerfully. “I got coffee for the crew!”