by Regina Kyle
“A question.”
“My vote’s yes.” He lowered his head for a kiss, his lips grazing hers just long enough to tease. “But it has to be unanimous.”
He kissed her again, longer this time, deeper. When he came up for air, she wasn’t the only one who was all hot and bothered, as evidenced by the giant tent in his pants. If she voted no, he was staring down the barrel at another long night alone, just him, his hand and the shower.
Unless she wanted to watch again...
He touched a finger to the hollow of her throat, where her pulse was going crazy. “What’s it gonna be, sweetness?”
“This is a bad idea.” She abandoned his chest hair for the hair at the nape of his neck, her actions warring with her words.
“Maybe.” He gave her his most seductive smile, one that promised a world of wicked wonders. “But sometimes bad ideas are the best ones.”
She waited so long to respond he lowered his hands to his sides and started to back away. She stopped him with a hand on his forearm.
“Wait.” She rubbed her lips together, and the tent in his pants went from teepee to circus. “I don’t want you to go.”
He stared down at the hand on his arm. Pale, delicate, her pink-tipped fingers trembling with nervous excitement. Or maybe it was fear. She was out of her comfort zone, that was for sure. Hell, so was he. Not that he cared.
“Don’t worry,” he reassured her, covering her hand with his own. “I’m not going far.”
“You’re not?”
She blinked, her long lashes sweeping her cheeks. Damn, her eyes were hypnotizing.
“Hell, no.” He chuckled. “This is my room.”
“Oh. Right.” Her cheeks flushed with red but those hypnotic eyes never left his. “Well, I don’t want to go, either.”
“Then what do you want, Duchess?”
“You.” She stepped closer to him, moving between his thighs. “I want you.”
Reluctantly, he released her, but only to cross the room and lock the door. “Last chance to back out.”
She lifted her chin. “I’m not backing out.”
“You sure?” He crossed back to her, letting his hands rest on her shoulders, barely covered by the thin straps of her tank top. Was her skin that soft everywhere? “I’m not a one-and-done kind of guy. We’re talking a whole night of debauchery here. You on top of me. Me on top of you. And any other position I can interest you in.”
She glanced at his injured arm, not in the brace now since he’d been sleeping but still tender, his tattoos—and the scars from his surgery—clearly visible. “What about your arm? And my leg?”
“We’ll just have to get creative. I’m well versed in the Kama Sutra.” Thanks to Reid and Cooper, who’d included a copy in his care package. It beat the heck out of anything on the shelves in Spaulding’s pathetic excuse for a library. “Any other objections?”
He watched, transfixed, as she took a step back and reached for the hem of her shirt. This time, instead of balling it in her fists, she lifted it so slowly and deliberately he thought his cock was going to explode. Inch by creamy inch, she revealed her flat stomach and toned abs until the shirt was over her head and on the floor, leaving her in yoga pants that hugged her hips and a lacy lavender bra that didn’t leave a whole hell of a lot to the imagination.
“Does that answer your question?”
7
TOM PETTY WAS RIGHT.
Waiting was the hardest part.
Like right now, as Noelle stood half naked in Jace’s room, most of her breasts and all of her intentions bared to him, waiting for him to goddamn do—or say—something. Anything. Hell, at this point she’d take him picking up her shirt and throwing it at her. At least then she’d know what was going on in that all-too-handsome head of his.
She started to reach for it herself, convinced he’d changed his mind about the whole thing, when his deep, rough whisper stopped her.
“Don’t. I was enjoying the view.”
She straightened. “I thought...”
“Don’t do that, either.” He folded his arms across his impressive chest.
“Then what should I do?”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “First time at the rodeo?”
“Hardly.” She blew a hair off her face. “Let’s just say I’m not used to being the aggressor.”
“Oh, so that’s how you want to play it. Fine by me.” In two strides, he was at the bed. Without warning, he flopped onto it and stretched out, crossing his arms behind his head. “Here I am, sweetness. All yours. Just do what comes naturally and promise you’ll still respect me in the morning.”
“Still?” She matched his half smile with one of her own. “Wouldn’t that imply I already respect you?”
“Good point. Forget about the respect and have your wicked way with me.”
He crossed his ankles and wiggled his toes at her. Damn, even the man’s bare feet were sexy. A far cry from hers, toes constantly bruised, bleeding and bandaged from dancing on pointe.
She shook her head to jar her rambling thoughts loose. Idiot. He’d just offered her free rein over his entire body, and there she was mooning over his feet. What a waste, when there were so many more interesting parts to explore.
And like her mother always said, Waste not, want not.
Of course, she also said act in haste, repent at leisure.
Shaking that thought away, too, Noelle toed off her ballet flats and slipped out of her yoga pants.
Jace’s whiskey eyes darkened from a warm, medium brown to the color of dark, rich chocolate as they raked her nearly naked body from head to toe. “That’s a look.”
Noelle followed his gaze to her lacy, lilac bra, past the matching panties and down, down...to her bulky, black knee brace.
Talk about a buzz kill.
“Take it off,” he ordered in the same deep, gravelly whisper he’d used to stop her from putting her shirt back on.
Oh, the irony.
She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to study him. “I thought I was in charge.”
“You are.” His eyes latched onto hers and wouldn’t let go. “As soon as you take it off.”
“All of it?”
“Just the brace. Leave the rest for me.”
She bent to loosen the Velcro straps.
Yep. Jace Monroe was a certified sexual Svengali. Why else would she be obeying his every command?
“Now you,” she said once she had the brace off.
“Me what?” he asked innocently.
“Strip to your skivvies, superstar.”
He plucked at the drawstring of his sweats. “These are my pajamas. I’m not wearing anything underneath.”
“Even better.”
“How about you give me a hand.” He crooked a finger, beckoning her nearer. “After all, I am injured.”
She walked toward him in almost a trance, drawn to him like metal to a magnet. “Sure, play that card.”
“Whatever it takes to get your hands on me.”
He patted the bed next to him and she sat, one hand instinctively drifting to the waistband of his sweat pants. He lifted his hips and she peeled them off, like she was unwrapping the best Christmas present ever.
A hard, hugely erect present she couldn’t wait to touch and taste.
So she didn’t.
“Damn, girl.” Jace hissed as she bent to touch her tongue to his crown, circling it. “When you get down to it, you don’t mess around. I like a woman who skips the appetizer and goes right for dessert.”
She would have responded but by then she had him in her mouth, his musky smell and sweet, salty taste filling her senses.
“Oh, God.” He groaned and twisted beneath her, and she stretched out beside him and sank down further, her tongue teasing the underside of his shaft as she closed her lips around him. With one hand, she gripped the base while the other traced the vee that ran from his hip to his groin.
His moans encouraged her to go fas
ter, deeper, until he was almost at the back of her throat. No small feat given the size of his erection. And not something she was normally into. But it was like a dam inside her had burst, and now that she’d broken her six-month, self-imposed sexual drought there was no turning back.
She wanted it all. She wanted it now. Fierce and fast, slow and sweet, decadent and dangerous. Jace was hers for the night, and she intended to make the most of it.
Of him.
He groaned again and thrust into her mouth. His hands fisted in the sheets, and she looked up to find his eyes closed, his jaw tight. She smiled around him, struck by the realization that he was holding onto his self-control by a gossamer thread—and the feeling of power that came from knowing she’d brought him to that point.
She hummed against his skin, wanting to push him over the edge, and he pulsed against her tongue. Tension spiraled through her belly, winding its way down to her sex and making her clit tingle. If she so much as touched herself, she’d go off like a bottle rocket. But as much as she wanted to come, she wanted to make him come more.
She eased off, giving him teasing licks instead of the deep-throated suction she knew he wanted. She tortured him until his hands left the blanket and curled around her shoulders, drawing her almost imperceptibly closer. Then she went down on him with renewed gusto, sucking hard and fast, savoring the sensation of his cock sliding in and out of her mouth.
“Stop,” he growled, trying to pull away. “I’m going to come.”
She released him with a pop but the hand at the base of his shaft kept him from going anywhere. “That’s the plan.”
“What about you?” He gazed down at her through heavy-lidded eyes, and she imagined how she might look to him, her hair splayed across his thigh, her lips swollen and wet with his juices.
“I thought you said we had all night.”
“We do.”
“Then lie back and let me take care of you.” She angled his cock toward her mouth, her tongue stealing out to lick the tip. “And don’t worry. I’ll get my turn.”
* * *
DAMN STRAIGHT SHE WOULD.
Jace might be a bed-hopping bastard, but he wasn’t a complete cad, certainly not one who put his own gratification over his partner’s. Sex was supposed to be a mutual thing, not a one-way street. If he was going to come, Noelle was going to come right along with him.
Then they could start all over again.
“Slide on up here.”
“Kind of busy at the moment.” She licked him from stem to stern like he was an ice cream cone on a hot summer day and she was afraid he was going to melt away before she could finish. He let out a sort of strangled gasp and lifted his hips, arching into her.
“The busy end’s not the end I’m interested in.” He eyed the perfect globes of her perfect ass, lovingly cupped by her purple panties. “I was thinking we could make this a banquet for two.”
“A what?” Her blue-green eyes, wide with confusion, shot up to meet his.
“I want to taste you.” Needed to, desperately. Like he’d never needed anything before. Not a feeling he was used to, and not one he had the time—or the inclination—to examine with Noelle’s mouth hovering mere inches from his dick, her hot breath washing over the head. “Straddle me.”
“Now?”
“No time like the present.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she flipped around so her pussy was level with his face.
“Bon appétit.” Jace pushed her panties aside with one finger and lifted his head to trail the tip of his tongue over her clit.
Christ, she was sweet. Wet and ready for him and so responsive, arching into him, demanding more even as she gave, taking him into her mouth and drawing him in until she engulfed him from root to tip.
He returned the favor, diving in and sucking her clit between his lips. She moaned, the hum traveling down his cock to his balls, making them pull up tight to his groin. She pressed her elbows into the bed on either side of him and released him long enough to beg.
“Please, Jace.”
He wanted to take his time. Explore every inch of her body, find erogenous zones she didn’t even know she had. But her needy noises—and his wrought-iron cock—were telling him a different story.
“Please,” she moaned again, the word vibrating around his dick. She dragged a nail across his balls and they twitched in her palm. One finger inched dangerously close to his asshole.
Goddamn. He was going to blow any second if she kept that up.
“Are you ready, Duchess?” he lowered his head to ask. “I go, you go.”
Her answer was another needy whimper. He licked her hard and fast, lapping up her release as she came, writhing and twisting, against his tongue. When she’d finished, he let himself go, pulling back to spill all over her breasts and belly.
“Ohmigod.” She rolled off him, reversed position so her head was next to his and flopped onto her back, eyes closed, one arm flung across her forehead. “That was...”
“Epic?” He collapsed beside her. “Monumental? Earth–shattering? All of the above?”
“I’d say all of the above if I didn’t think it would give you a swelled head.”
“You liked my swelled head a minute ago.”
“Wrong head.” She turned to face him, a seductive smile playing on her lips. “Think a little farther north.”
“No can do.” He fingered his already recovering cock. “Little Jace is gearing up for round two.”
“Little Jace might be ready, but I’m a mess.” She glanced at her chest then down further to her stomach, both still wet and sticky from his orgasm, and rolled away from him.
“I’ve got a plan that will satisfy both of you.” He reached across the bed, scooped her up and stood.
She squealed and clutched at his shoulders. God, he loved how she felt against him, lean and lithe but soft and warm. “Your arm...”
“...is fine,” he finished for her as he crossed the room in two long strides. “You’re not exactly a heavyweight. And we’re not going far.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“The bathroom, so you can get clean. Then we can get dirty again.”
He kicked open the door, set her down and turned on the bathtub faucet. When the water was an appropriate temperature, he flipped the lever for the shower.
“One of us has too many clothes on.” He plucked a condom from the medicine cabinet, set it on the edge of the tub and stepped under the spray.
Wordlessly, she reached behind her back and unfastened her bra. The lavender straps fell agonizingly slowly off her shoulders and down her arms.
“You might want to pick up the pace. I wouldn’t want to run out of hot water before we’re...”
“Finished?” she offered.
“Satisfied,” he corrected.
She lowered her hands, and the scrap of lace fluttered to the floor. A second later, her panties followed.
His eyes flicked from the soft swell of her breasts to her taut stomach to the shadow at the junction of her legs. She was a feast, and he felt like he’d been starving for years.
“Damn near perfect.” He held a hand out to her.
“Just near?” she joked, taking it and joining him in the shower. “I’m insulted.”
He drew her under the spray and pulled the shower curtain shut. She closed her eyes, tipped her head back and let the water pour over her, darkening her ashen curls to almost brown.
“Feel good?”
“Mmm.” She smoothed her hair back, the simple gesture thrusting her nipples skyward.
Whoa, big fella. Clean first, then dirty.
“Turn around, and I’ll make it feel even better.”
She complied eagerly. He grabbed the body wash off the edge of the tub behind him, squirted some into his palm and worked it into a lather. Wrapping his arms around her, he soaped up her breasts and belly until she leaned limply against him, her head resting on his shoulder, his rigid cock jutting between her
ass cheeks.
Steam engulfed them as he bent his head to kiss her. She met his lips, sighing into him, the sound audible even above the running water. His mouth moved over hers and he smoothed a hand down her front, rinsing her off.
“There,” he said when he was finally able to pry his lips from hers. “All clean.”
“What now?” she asked on a thin puff of air, like the kiss had stolen her breath away.
She tried to turn around to face him but his hands moved to her shoulders, stopping her. “Now I slide into you and pound that sweet pussy until you come.”
“Yes, please.” She braced herself against the wall, palms flat on the tile above her head, and spread her legs. “I need you inside me.”
Her words tightened his balls and made his dick twitch. He loved how she told him exactly what she wanted, with her lips and her body. And as light and lean as she was, there was an underlying strength to her as she pushed back against him, demanding more.
He reached for the condom packet, tore it open and unrolled it over himself. The water beat down on them as he entered her in one swift stroke.
Damn, she felt good. Warm and wet and more than willing. And so fucking tight he almost lost it after a few thrusts like some inexperienced schoolboy. He gritted his teeth and tried to concentrate on something mundane, like batting averages and on-base percentages, but her desperate gasps and groans made it a losing battle.
He leaned in to her, covering her hands with one of his and bringing the other around to massage her clit. She tilted her head back, letting him see how her eyes widened every time he pushed deep, burying himself to the balls.
“That’s it, right there.” Her muscles clenched around his cock, squeezing him, spurring him to thrust harder, faster.
He turned his head to plant a kiss on the sensitive spot where her collarbone met her neck as she came. With a shudder, he went with her, the arm around her waist banding her tightly to him.
“Holy shit,” he said, resting his forehead against her damp hair.
“You can say that again.”
He did, and she laughed. “The water’s getting cold.”
He reached behind him to turn it off then opened the shower curtain and grabbed two towels, wrapping one around her and scrubbing his hair with the other. “Problem solved. Now what do you say we get dry and try this the way God and nature intended?”