“I still think you cheated at the water-balloon game. No one shoots a water gun that well.”

“Sugar, I’ve been shooting all types of guns since I was eight years old, so give it a rest. You lost.” He lightly swatted her. “We’re getting off track. Sit tight.”

He filled a Styrofoam cup with icy water and returned with candles and matches.

“Did I hear you rattling around in the freezer?”

“Maybe.” Kyle set his supplies inside the small dresser drawer next to the bottle of lube and the condoms. Then he straddled Lainie’s hips and palmed her br**sts.

She stilled.

“I ain’t gonna f**k your tits. I figured out that ain’t your favorite position.”

“Is it yours?” she asked hesitantly.

“Not even close. I’d rather be buried balls-deep in your wet pu**y. Or your hot mouth.” He lazily stroked the edge of her areola, but avoided direct contact with her nipple. “Or your tight ass.”

Lainie bit her lip and turned her head away.

But Kyle wouldn’t let her. He slid his hand up her throat and he curled his fingers around her jaw, forcing her to face forward, even when she couldn’t see him. “That thought excites you. My c**k stretching your ass as I plunge my fingers into your cunt so all you feel is me f**king you everywhere.”

Her chest lifted with each stuttered breath.

“Answer me.”

“Yes. I want that.”

“You’ll get it, but on my time frame tonight, understand?”

She nodded.

“Good girl.” He reached for the cream-colored taper candle. With shaking hands, he struck a match, releasing a whiff of sulfur.

“What’s that?”

“Your cue to hold still.” Kyle scooted back and trapped her hips between his knees. He grabbed the cup of ice and rattled it. When the candle built up a pool of wax, he tipped it sideways at the same time he tilted the cup of ice. A bead of hot wax and a drop of cold water landed on her belly simultaneously.

Lainie gasped and her stomach rippled.

He did it again. She gasped again.

Fourteen water and wax droplets landed on her trembling flesh. Each time her belly muscles constricted, so did his balls. He gritted his teeth against giving in to his urge to f**k her hard and fast this first time.

She held her muscles taut, her mouth parted slightly to allow harsh pants to escape. She cried out when water fell on her right nipple at the same time as wax splatted on her left nipple. “Oh, my God. Kyle.”

“Does it hurt, sugar?”

“The anticipation is killing me.”

“It’s good for you. Anticipation is its own reward.”

Kyle brushed his mouth over hers to quell her protest, tasting the seam of her lips with his tongue. She opened her mouth for a tongue-thrusting kiss, but he denied her. Not to be cruel, but to ratchet her need to the highest level.

“Let’s try an experiment. You tell me if what I’m dripping on you is hot or cold.”

Her answering smirk was the response he’d hoped for. Little Miz Lainie thought this’d be easy-peasy.

Wrong.

Kyle watched the wax splat on the creamy section of her flesh above her left hip bone.

Her breath caught.

“Tell me,” he demanded.

A beat passed. “Um. Hot?”

“Yeah, but next time I’ll penalize you for takin’ so long to answer.” Kyle pinched her nipple at the same time wax landed above her right hip bone.

“Hey! Not fair.”

“Tough. All’s fair. Tell me.”

Kyle saw her nose wrinkling as she tried to reason her way through a response. He grinned. She had no clue.

Finally she guessed, “Cold?”

“Wrong.” He placed the candle in the candleholder lodged inside the dresser drawer. He shuffled back on his knees and let his mouth linger above the missed hot spot. First he used his teeth to scrape away the hardened wax. Then he sucked on the pink dot with enough force to leave a love bruise.

Lainie shrieked and tried to twist free, but Kyle held her hips down until he was finished.

She slumped back on the bed, not relaxed in the slightest. Her body vibrated with tension.

He kissed the hickey. “How many people did you see in sports med tonight?”

“Ten.” She frowned. “Why?”

“ ’Cause that’s how many times we’re gonna test your sensitivity to cold and hot.” His c**k slapped his belly as he reached for the cup and candle again.

His gaze took her in, spread out before him like the ultimate feast. The thrust of her pearled ni**les atop the soft swells of her br**sts. The arch of her neck that begged for the heated touch of his mouth. The sex-kittenish habit of biting her lower lip. Her made-for-sex body was dotted with dried white wax like he’d marked her as his with his come.

A primitive roar gathered in his chest and he had to clench his teeth to keep from letting it loose.

“Kyle?”

Then he was right in her face. But he couldn’t tell her he wished to steal her away for himself. Screw his friendship with Hank. Screw being the civilized man waiting for his turn. Screw the whole stupid f**king sharing idea.

In his fit of jealousy or neediness or whatever f**ked-up thoughts crowded reason from his brain, he accidentally splashed water on the center of Lainie’s chest.

She smiled brassily. “Cold.”

“Guess I’d better pay attention to what I’m doin’.”