Harlequin Desire February 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: The King Next DoorMarriage With BenefitsA Real Cowboy (Kings of California)

by Maureen Child

  He obliged her. One hand glided to the small of her back and pushed, jutting her breasts up and allowing him to capture a nipple with his tongue in a searing, swirling lasso.

  She gripped his shoulders, lost in a slow spiral toward brainlessness as he sucked and laved at her sensitive flesh.

  He switched sides and treated the other nipple to his magically delicious mouth. When he skated hard teeth across the peak, her legs buckled. Why hadn’t she gotten in bed?

  His hand delved inside her shorts, along her bare bottom. His fingers slipped into the crevice, lifting her and crushing her to his torso, supporting her.

  The shock of Lucas touching her there had her gasping, but a solid pang of want swallowed the shock. “Madre de Dios.”

  Lucas groaned against her breast. With it still in his mouth, he mumbled, “I love it when you talk dirty.”

  A throaty laugh burst out of her. “It means mother of God, dingbat.”

  “I don’t care. Anything you say in Spanish sounds dirty. Say something else.” He licked his way down her stomach and bit the tie on her shorts, pulling the strings loose with his mouth.

  “Quiero que ahora—”

  And then her brain shut off when he yanked down her shorts and panties. He turned her and pressed her spine to his torso, settling her rear against his hard length. His firm arm snaked between her breasts, locking her in place, and his clever fingers slid down her stomach to find her center.

  He mouthed her throat and rubbed the hard button between her folds until she squirmed against the restraining band of steel disguised as his arm.

  One finger slid inside and then two, in and out, and her head rolled against his shoulder in a mindless thrash. So good, so hot. So everything.

  His heavy arousal burned into the soft flesh of her bottom, thrilling her. His thumb worked her nub in a circle and the sensuous onslaught swirled into one bright gathering point against his fingers. She came so hard she cried out.

  The ripples tightened her inner walls around his fingers, and he plunged his fingers in again and again to draw out the climax to impossible lengths until, finally, it ended in a spectacular burst.

  Lucas had just ruined her for any other man.

  Too spent to stand on her own, she slumped in his arms and her knees gave out. The additional weight must have caught him off guard, and she pulled him down with her. In a tangle of limbs, they hit the carpet, and Lucas laughed as he rolled her back into his arms.

  “There you have it,” he said into her hair. “Now we don’t have to lie. Next time someone asks why we got married, you can truthfully say we fell for each other.”

  A giggle slipped out and cleared the fog in her head, along with any lingering tension from being with Lucas, naked and exposed. His ability to bring the fun was unparalleled.

  He picked her up and laid her gently on the bed.

  “The first one is for you,” he said, eyes crystal clear blue and dazzling. “The next one is for me.”

  “That’s fair.” She cleared her throat. He deserved more than she knew how to give him. “Lucas? I’m nowhere near as um...practiced at this as you are. However, I promise to give it my best shot.”

  She dragged an elbow under her to sit up but he knocked it away. She flopped back on the tangle of sheets and watched as he straddled her, powerful thighs preventing his gorgeous body from crushing her.

  All of him was beautiful, but in this position, the really good stuff lay at eye level. She didn’t hesitate to look her fill and reached out to run her palms along his legs. So hard and so delectable.

  “No.” He shook his head. “Your next orgasm is for me. The first one doesn’t count. It’s only to take the edge off, and, honey, you were wound tight. I barely touched you and you went off like a Roman candle.”

  She moaned. “That was a demonstration of ‘barely’?”

  With a wicked smile, he laced their fingers together and drew her arms up above her head, manacled her wrists together with one hand and slid the other hand down the length of her side from shoulder to hip. “Oh, yeah. There’s much, much more. But this time, I get to pick where you’ll be, and it’ll be right here, where I can watch you.”

  He began to touch her, watching her as he did, and his heavy-lidded stare unnerved her, even as it heightened the sensations of his hands and mouth on her bare skin. He did something sinful to every inch of her body until she couldn’t breathe with the need for him to fill her.

  Why had she resisted a man with Lucas’s skill for so long? There wasn’t a whole lot of taking pleasure necessary when he gave it so freely. How selfish was she that she stingily lapped it up?

  After what felt like hours of lovely agony, he settled between her legs and his talented mouth dipped to the place he’d pleasured with his fingers. With his lips and teeth and, oh, yes, his tongue working her flesh, he drove her into the heavens a second time.

  His eyes never left her, and her shuddering release intensified with the knowledge that he was watching her, taking his own pleasure in hers. The manifestation of the power he spoke of, the power she held, was exhilarating.

  “Enough,” she gasped. “I admit it. You were right. I could have slept in my room, but I guess part of me wanted you to force the issue. So I could keep pretending I’m not attracted to you. No more pretending. I want you. Now.”

  “That might be the sweetest confession I’ve ever heard.” He rose up over her and captured her mouth in way-too-short, musky kiss. “But we have all night. And tomorrow night. So, slow down, darlin’. Half the fun is getting there.”

  “How is it not making you insane to keep waiting your turn?”

  He laughed and threaded his hands through her hair in a long caress. “Good things come to those who wait. Besides, I’m dead center in the middle of my turn. Every nuance of desire flashing through your eyes turns me on. Every moan from your mouth is like music. I could watch you shatter for hours.”

  Hours? Dios. She should have read between the lines a little better when he blew off the pregnancy issue back by the pool. “You, um, do plan to eventually get around to a more traditional version of sex. Right?”

  “Oh, you better believe it, honey. Later.”

  Later. She loved later.

  Sacrifice and selflessness had ruled her for so long, it felt incredible to let go. To let Lucas take care of her. To be greedy for once and wallow in pure sensation and pleasure instead of shoving aside her needs for fear everything she depended on would be taken away in an instant.

  How freeing to have it all on the table and be given permission to just have fun.

  * * *

  For all his talk, Lucas almost lost it—again—during Cia’s third climax.

  She was beautiful, like Mozart at sunrise, and she was so sensitive, he set off the third one accidentally by blowing on her. She cried out his name and exploded, bowing up with that awesome arch to her back, and an answering pulse grew stronger in his gut.

  He clamped his teeth down hard to keep his own release under control. His muscles strained, aching with the effort it took not to plow into her sweet, sweet center right then and there, no condom, just her and unbelievable satisfaction.

  The battle stretched out for an eternity and, for a moment, he feared he’d do it. He rolled away and fixated on the oscillating ceiling fan above the bed, willing back the crush of lust.

  This little fireball he’d married was not going to break his self-control. Never mind that he’d invented this game of multiple orgasms to demonstrate this was nothing but sex between two people who were hot for each other. To confirm that this insane attraction wasn’t as strong as he’d imagined and that there was nothing special about this particular woman.

  Somewhere along the way, the scent of Cia’s arousal and the total surrender in her responses eliminated his intentions.<
br />
  She fell back onto the pillow with a sexy sigh, lifting her breasts and making his mouth water. “You melted my bones that time. As soon as I can walk, I’m going to make you the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had in your life.”

  That pulled a chuckle out of him, though it hurt clear to his knees to laugh. “The benefits are good enough to reverse your stance on making a man coffee, huh?”

  “I cannot believe there wasn’t a picket line of your ex-lovers at the courthouse the day we got married.”

  Yeah, he knew a trick or two about pleasuring a woman, and his genuine enjoyment of it helped, but this was a far cry from how he normally went about it. Nothing about this affair with Cia remotely resembled how he normally interacted with a woman.

  How did he explain that to her when he didn’t get it, either?

  “You’re funny. There are more women who would be happy to read my obituary notice than would be upset I married you.”

  She snorted. “I doubt that. But as your wife, I believe I have the right to claim a few privileges.”

  If he breathed through his mouth, he couldn’t smell her lotion anymore, and the lack eased the pain a tiny bit. “Yeah? Like what?”

  “Like the right to say it’s later.”

  Without another word, she flipped and crawled on top of him, sliding up the length of his body, hot as a lava flow, and whipping his crushing need into a frenetic firestorm.

  Her eyes were so dark, they were almost black. They met his with thirst in their depths. The evidence of her desire lanced through his gut.

  Her mouth fit to his, pulling on his lips and sucking his tongue forward. A guttural moan wrenched free from his throat, and she absorbed it into the heat of her kiss. He flung his arms around her and bound her to his chest, desperate to keep her in place.

  The things this woman did to him. It defied description. Thankfully, she’d agreed to exorcise this wicked draw between them by acting on it instead of pretending it didn’t exist.

  Long dark hair fell into his face, trailing along his fevered skin, sensitizing it and begging for attention. He wound it up in a fist and guided her head to the side, lips following the line of her neck with fierce suction, laving her skin with his tongue, crazy with the craving to taste her.

  Lime and coconut invaded his senses, both curse and cure, snaking through his head like a narcotic, heightening the wild lust.

  Her body covered his, scalding breasts flat against his chest, her hands shoved in his hair, fingers sparking where she touched his scalp. One leg straddled him, opening her up. Her hips gyrated and tilted her center against his throbbing tip. Damp heat flared out, enveloping him, and his eyes glazed.

  Now. The keening scream exploded in his head as she dragged her slick center up the length of his erection.

  “Wait,” he bit out, with no idea whether he was talking to her or his questing hips, which had a mind of their own.

  He stretched out a hand to fumble with the drawer knob on the bedside table, shifting her center. Should have already had a foil packet under the pillow, top torn off. Fingers closed over the box and an eternity later, he unrolled the condom.

  The second he was sheathed, Cia wiggled back into place atop him, nudged him once and impaled herself to the hilt with a feminine gasp.

  His eyelids snapped shut as he filled her. His body shrieked to start pumping, but he forced himself to give her a minute to adjust.

  Amazing. So tight. He pulsed as she stretched to accommodate him. Stretched perfectly, just enough, just right. Experimentally, she slid up and back down, rolling her pelvis, driving him home.

  Home. A place for him. Only him.

  He echoed her hip thrusts and heaviness built upon itself, spiraling higher and energizing him to move faster and faster.

  “Lucas,” she breathed. “I... Will you, um, look at me? I like it when you watch me.”

  He worked his lids open and greedily soaked in the visual perfection of the female form astride him. Why had his eyes been closed this whole time? The empowerment, the sheer magnificence, plastered across her face forced all the air from his lungs in a hard whoosh.

  He’d done that for her. Unleashed her desire from its boundaries and allowed her free rein to take pleasure from his body, exactly as he’d insisted.

  And she was taking it. Acknowledging it. Returning it tenfold. It was unbelievably hot.

  Her torso undulated in a primal dance, nipples peaked and firm atop alabaster breasts. She threw her head back, plunging him deeper, and long hair brushed his thighs.

  Sparkling pressure radiated from his groin. Willing it back, he clamped a hand on her thigh, trying to slow her wanton thrusts, but she bucked against him and the tightness shoved him to the very edge.

  He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t wait for her.

  But then she came apart and the shock waves blasted down his length, triggering his release. Their simultaneous climaxes fed each other, like oxygen to a flame, dragging out the sensations and flooding his whole body with warmth.

  Flooding his body with something else, something nameless and heavy and powerful.

  With a sated moan, she collapsed against him, nestling into the hollow of his shoulder, and he gripped her close, absorbing every last bit of warmth, too lost in the lush, thick haze of Cia to move. They were still joined, and he basked in a thrilling sense of triumph.

  Only with him could Cia be like this.

  Now would be an excellent time to put distance between them. But he couldn’t find the energy. Couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t all that interested in distance when he knew he should be. Never had sex been like that, a frantic and mindless rush toward completion.

  Completion, not release. Even this—especially this—was bigger, stronger and more meaningful with Cia.

  He’d proven something to himself, all right. Something earthshaking. Something fearsome. This wasn’t casual sex between two people. He’d been making love to his wife.

  Nine

  In the morning, Cia woke half-buried under Lucas, and it made her smile. One heavy arm pinned her to his chest and his legs tangled with hers, trapping her bottom against his abdomen. His heat at predawn was delicious, warming her sore and stretched body.

  It had been a while. Since college, back when she’d still been convinced the right man’s love would heal her. All she’d done was prove sex didn’t equal love, and both were ingredients in the recipe to misery.

  If her high school days had resembled most red-blooded Americans’, she might have figured out how to handle relationships then, instead of lumbering into her mid-twenties without a clue. Now she finally got it.

  As long as she divorced sex from emotion and commitment, no problem. Divorce rocked.

  She unscrambled their limbs without waking him and slipped out of bed to head for a much-needed hot shower. It probably wouldn’t have taken any effort at all to nudge Lucas into semiawareness and then take shameless advantage of him, but she was anxious to get to the shelter. A part of her hoped Pamela would still be there, but in her heart, she knew better. Regardless, the other women would need someone to talk to.

  In no time, she dressed and tiptoed out of the bedroom she now shared with the sexy, slumbering man sprawled out across the bed. Later, she promised. No-strings-attached sex was the most awesome thing ever invented.

  Pamela was indeed gone for good when Cia arrived at the shelter. The other women seemed dejected and upset. How self-centered was she for being in such a good mood, for shutting her eyes and savoring memories of the previous night? But she couldn’t help it and had to force herself to stop humming three times while handling the most unexciting tasks.

  Since she’d stayed so late the night before and arrived at seven that morning, Cia elected to leave at three.

  She should be wiped out
, but as she drove home, her mind got busy with one topic only—seeing Lucas again as soon as possible. She couldn’t stop fantasizing about him. About the beyond-sexy trio of tattoos down the length of his torso and how she’d like to experiment on him a little to see how many times she could make him explode in a night.

  Was it cool to call him and ask about his schedule? She’d almost sent him a text at least once every ten minutes, just to check in. Or say thanks for an awesome time last night. Or something else not so lame, but she had no idea about the rules when the person she was sleeping with was also her fake husband.

  They’d done a lot of talking last night. But not once had Lucas mentioned what their relationship would look like going forward.

  So frustrating. And ridiculous. It wasn’t as if she could casually ask Courtney the requisite number of days to wait before calling when the guy involved was Cia’s husband. As far as her friend knew, the marriage was still business only, and Cia wanted to get used to the change before admitting anything to anyone.

  Besides, she and Lucas still weren’t dating. Maybe it was okay to let her spouse know she was into him. In a strictly hot for his body kind of way.

  Once at home, she stopped in the kitchen to get a glass of water and drank it while standing at the sink. Before she could swallow the second mouthful, said spouse blew through the door, startling her into dropping the glass into the sink.

  “What are you doing home?” she asked.

  Lucas strode toward her in a dark suit, which encased his shoulders with perfection, and a dark, impossible-to-misread expression on his face. Raw masculinity whipped through the kitchen to engulf her a moment before the man did.

  He caught her in his arms and kissed her, openmouthed, hungrily, working her backward until her butt hit the countertop’s edge.

  She was trapped between hard granite and hard Lucas, and he was devouring her whole with his mouth. A whirlwind of desire kicked up in her center.