“Final rule,” I muttered under my breath. “If you’re feeling that the date’s gone well and you want it to continue, it’s up to you to invite the guy in.”

Blake chewed her lower lip and nodded. “Alright.”

Shit. I wiped my face with my hands, then gripped the steering wheel. So that was it. I guessed. There was nothing left to say.

“Ian?”

“Yeah?” I croaked, not looking at her.

“Do you want to come in?”

My heart stuttered in my chest as I slowly turned my entire body to face her. “That depends.”

“On?” Her smile was confident, sexy.

“Do you have refreshments to offer me? That’s kind of the next unspoken rule—don’t invite them in assuming something will happen. Invite them in for a drink, coffee, late-night movie.”

“All of the above,” she said with a nod. “How’s that?”

“Well, then.” I shut off the car. “I accept.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The door shut behind us, blanketing the house in silence except for some engine-revving in a car commercial playing on the TV. I tried to even my breathing, but it was damn near impossible.

Blackness filled the small hallway.

“Gabs must be sleeping,” I said, mainly to fill the awkwardness with my voice.

“Serena and Gabs are at a movie,” she whispered back.

“Oh.” I clenched my eyes shut. I needed to seriously back off.

Blake dropped the blanket to the floor and turned in one swift movement. Her eyes searched mine.

I reached for her, needing to just touch her. One last time. Just one last time before I let her go to David . . . Just once before . . .

But her eyes were so hopeful.

And she was just so damn sexy.

More than that.

I’d gone from being the coach to the damn client . . . wanting so desperately for the girl to notice me that I’d go to any lengths to get her attention.

Blake’s eyes met mine. She didn’t turn away.

Life is full of choices. Some good, some bad. I wasn’t sure, in that moment, if I was making a bad choice or the first good choice in a really long time.

Tension hung in the air while we both continued to stare at one another.

When my eyes locked in on her mouth, she moved, ever so slightly, toward me, her body giving me the tiniest hint that I wasn’t going insane, that she wanted me just as much as I wanted her.

Without thinking it through any further, I slammed my mouth against hers, coming up for air only long enough to utter, “Screw David. You’re mine.”

My hands flew at her dress, tugging the wet material down her legs. She stumbled out of it, her wet body sliding against mine. My fingers fumbled for her hips, and I lifted her into the air while my mouth was still fused with hers, tongues twisting, entwining. I wasn’t sure where she ended and where I began. She let out a loud moan that reverberated through the nearly silent hallway.

Her hands dug into my back, gripping me tighter, harder. Control long gone, I swept my tongue across her lower lip, then pulled back and glanced at her swollen mouth and attacked it again from a different angle. My dick strained against my jeans as her core rocked hard against me.

“Damn it.” I stumbled back against the wall with her in my arms, then slowly started taking the stairs one at a time. And with each step, another kiss to her mouth, then one to her neck. Her soft moans were going to be the absolute death of me as I made it to the landing and charged toward her room. The door slammed behind us.

The room was quiet.

Except for my heavy breathing.

And hers.

Slowly, I slid her down my body, growling in pleasure as the friction from her legs caught on my jeans, making me mindlessly thrust toward her.

Blake’s eyes zeroed in on my mouth. I licked my lips in anticipation, still tasting her, my body so hot I felt like I was going to explode. When had it ever been like this? When had I ever been so . . . obsessed?

She reached for me.

I leaned back and wagged my finger.

Blake’s eyebrows shot up. “Too fast?”

I burst out laughing as the warm light from the lamp illuminated her perfection. “Yeah, something like that. As in if we don’t slow down, it’s going to be over way too fast.”

I couldn’t tell if she was blushing; the room was too dark. But what I could tell? She was mind-numbingly beautiful with her wavy hair sticking to her neck, her perfect, nearly naked body beckoning me to take a little bite wherever I wanted. To mark her as mine.

“You about ready now?” she teased.

“Sweet cheeks”—I reached for her hands and tugged her roughly against me—“I’ve been ready since I saw those sexy flip-flops.”

Laughing, she pulled back, or at least tried, but I started moving my lips across her neck, sucking, licking, just freaking tasting, as if I’d never been with a woman before. And maybe I hadn’t, at least not a woman like Blake. One who drove me insane by just breathing.

Blake was in the sexiest damn lingerie I’d ever seen, and my hands ran down the red lace in appreciation as she deepened the kiss. Her chest heaved, splaying her breasts against my chest. I could feel her nipples harden.

I was mindless, an animal, consumed by the feel of her.

Knowing she wanted me as much as I wanted her.

I released her so I could fully admire the red lingerie, desperate to see what I had already felt.

Her gaze heated, but then insecurity washed over her features.