How to Tell a Lie by Delphine Dryden Page A

far too much and the urge to rub the back of her neck was almost overpowering. She stepped back, leaving enough room for Seth to come through the doorway, and then closed the door behind with exaggerated precision, using two fingers to turn the deadbolt.
    “Do you want this?” Now that he was inside, he seemed reticent to press his case. Allison thought it was possible she looked a bit scary.
    “No. This is the last thing I want. I think this is crazy and stupid. Kiss me.”
    He smiled, an open grin that made Allison feel melty and warm inside. “Are you going to kill me and eat my head in the middle of this?”
    “I’d say it’s a possibility you shouldn’t rule out. But right now your best bet is to distract me from myself. Okay? Please? Do you think you can just do that for me?”
    “I can certainly give it the old college try.”
    “Just shut up and—”
    He had crossed the narrow entryway with two strides and backed her into the nearest wall, attacking her mouth with a ferocity she should have expected but somehow didn’t. If distraction was the goal, he succeeded brilliantly. For an indefinite stretch of time, Allison’s world was reduced to the elements of Seth’s lips and tongue, none too gently demanding admission, and his hands seeking and finding hers as if to keep her from escaping.
    She wasn’t trying to escape. She was too enthralled by the swirl of his tongue around hers, the way he coaxed her to reciprocate. When he finally let her hands go and wrapped his fingers around her bare waist, she arched even closer and wound her arms around his neck. It was distraction. It was bliss. It was only what it was and nothing else, just mouths and bodies and tacit mutual agreement that the outcome would be sex, and that it would happen soon. The only real question was the route they would take to get there. Consequences flew out the window.
    Allison was far gone enough that it took her a moment to realize Seth was whispering in her ear.
    “What?”
    “I said ‘which way is the bedroom?’ This wood floor doesn’t…seem like…it would be too comfortable.” He kissed her in between each phrase, as if he couldn’t bring himself to draw away long enough for a full sentence. She found herself inordinately pleased at that.
    “It’s through there. Oh…”
    He had pulled back just far enough to tug her shirt up and out of the way, and then without preamble wrapped his lips around one of her nipples, sucking firmly and flicking his tongue over the plump nub until Allison thought she might climax from that contact alone. She wrapped a leg around his hips and squeezed him closer, and was treated to the feel of the large bulge in his jeans pressing against her core. She worked her hips shamelessly against him until he drew back with a moan and stood looking down at her, eyes heavy, lips darkened from their efforts. He seemed undecided about whether to look at Allison’s face or down to where his own hand was still wrapped around her breast, thumbing her nipple in a rhythm that matched the pace of her hips.
    “Through there?” He pointed down the short hallway and Allison managed to nod. She didn’t expect him to linger in the entryway any longer, but he did. Patiently, and with something like tenderness, he pulled her shirt off and took it from her hands when she seemed inclined to hold onto it. He stood for longer than she would have liked, weighing her breasts in his hands—large hands, she noticed, and strong looking, with long and agile fingers—and occasionally bending to kiss one nipple or brush his tongue against the other. Then he suckled more deliberately at one tight pink knot until Allison whimpered and flexed against him again. Her fingers were wrapped in his hair, her head flung back, lost in the sensations his mouth was evoking.
    “So responsive,” he whispered against her flesh. “Could you come just from this?” He licked a lazy circle around her areola with just the tip of his tongue