Free Four Nights to Forever by Jennifer Lohmann Page B

he’d gotten in the shower with her, selfishness had started feeling less like taking and more like giving. She wanted to give pleasure as much as she wanted to take it.
    His certain smile was back, softened by the understanding in his eyes. “But you’re cooking me dinner.”
    “Oh, I’m doing that for me, too.” She laughed, and after a moment, he laughed with her. She turned off the heat on the sauce. By unspoken agreement, they ate dinner without their conversation touching on anything more personal than what she’d just confessed.
    *
    Cassie may only be taking care of herself, Doug thought as he sank into the cushions on the couch, but she was excellent at taking care of other people along the way.
    “Dinner was delicious.” He wasn’t flattering her because he was in her condo and hoping to be here for the action when the comforter on the bed got folded down. The sauce had coated his tongue with a rich, spicy tang, and the pasta had been cooked to perfection. An experience to linger over, much like Cassie herself. She’d even provided dessert, a tart lemon ice that had made him suck in his cheeks, much to her amusement.
    “Thank you,” she said. She settled on the couch next to him, and he shifted his glass to his other hand so he could put his arm around her. She responded by tucking herself closer to him, smelling of dinner with a hint of her soap underneath. To him, the combination would always bring sex and conversation to mind. He wouldn’t be able to hear the sound of the dishwasher running and the hiss of a gas fireplace without thinking of Cassie. “I like cooking for people.”
    “People being yourself.”
    “Yes.” Her smile brightened her voice. “People being myself.”
    He released her long enough to lean forward and put his wineglass on the coffee table. When she had finished taking another sip, he put hers on the table, as well. She pursed her lips at him but didn’t say anything, seeming content to settle herself back in his embrace. She rested her head against the crook of his arm, like she belonged there and had always belonged there.
    “Tell me what else you do to please yourself.”
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning if I’m going to be used in your quest to become a more selfish person—and I’m much more eager to be used than I would have expected—I want to know how you intend to use me. What do you have in store for me tonight?” To emphasize his point, Doug stuck his hand down the front of her shirt, stretching the neckline of her T-shirt, and popping her nipple free of her bra. He rolled the peak of her nipple between his fingers, his attention riveted on the way her hips rose up in anticipation.
    “Let’s start with me making this easier,” she said, pulling his hand out from her shirt. Before he could miss the softness of her breast, she had her shirt off and was straddling him. Her basic white bra couldn’t contain her mounds of flesh. Her nipples were hard, poking through the cotton. He could press his face between her breasts, lose himself in the warmth and smell of this woman.
    Instead, he repeated what he’d done in the shower, taking her face between his hands and leaning in for a kiss. Cassie was a soft woman, made for loving and for long, slow kisses. She shifted a little farther forward, the distance between them like the distance between snowflakes as they settled on the ponderosa pines. Her movement created friction in his jeans, a rubbing that felt good for right now, but much more of it and his pants would need to come off. He put his hands on her hips to stall her . . . and himself. He had all night. If he was lucky, he also had the rest of the week.
    Cassie either didn’t get the hint or didn’t care because she continued to buck her hips on his lap. Given the soft moans easing out of her lips when she hit the perfect spot, Doug was betting on the latter.
    He pulled back to drop light powdery kisses along her jawbone and up to her ear. “I’ll keep