What A Girl Wants (Harlequin Blaze)

by Jamie Sobrato

  But he continued with the butterfly kisses and touches, and she could do nothing but enjoy it. In her sexual stupor, she had one recurrent thought—Luke Nicoletti was the most amazing man on earth.

  7

  The intensity of any sexual encounter is most influenced by the emotional intimacy of the participants. In other words, if you’re screwing her but you don’t love her, you’re never going to find fulfillment.

  —Jane Langston, in the October issue of Excess magazine

  WHEN SHE SUGGESTED A BATH, Luke considered pointing out that he wouldn’t be able to walk to the bathroom without collapsing midway into a quivering heap. But something about the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes told him she’d make the excruciating walk across the room worth his effort.

  “You stay here, and I’ll get the water ready,” she said.

  It would have been pointless to argue. After all, he feared he’d come like a schoolboy as soon as he slid inside her again, if he didn’t have a few minutes to compose himself. He watched her walk across the bedroom to the adjoining bath, all the while admiring the delicious curves of her ass, the smooth length of her thighs that were strong and athletic from all those jogs in the park.

  He’d played this teasing game more times than he could count, but never with these results. Luke prided himself on his control, but with Jane, he’d had to summon reserves of it so deep he hadn’t been sure they’d existed. He’d nearly lost it several times, then somehow miraculously pulled out in time to make the pleasure last a while longer.

  Jane, with her soft, welcoming body and her wild animal enthusiasm, was far more than he’d bargained for. He had only intended to show her how great sex could be with the right man—and he’d ended up finding himself blown away by her unrestrained sexuality. She wasn’t at all what he’d expected.

  Luke rolled onto his stomach and pressed his face into the lavender pillowcase, inhaled Jane’s scent that lingered on it, willed his pulse to slow down and his body to relax. He listened to the water running in the bathroom and tried not to think too much about the combination of Jungle Jane and a hot bath.

  A few minutes later, the water stopped running and she peeked around the corner. “It’s ready,” she said as she crooked a finger at him.

  He tried to appear casual as he climbed off the bed to go to her and not as though his first instinct had been to come running.

  The windowless bathroom was illuminated by a few candles, and the air was warm already from the hot water. She motioned for him to step into the king-size tub, and when he’d eased himself down into it, she climbed in too and straddled his hips.

  His erection edged toward her, his entire body anticipating that at any second, she would lower herself onto him and ease his sweet suffering.

  But she didn’t.

  Instead, she trailed her wet hands over his chest and through his hair, freeing it from its ponytail. She gave him a look that let him know he was in for unimaginable pleasures. Perhaps at a price, though. Wild Jungle Jane seemed to have been replaced by another version of her, one intent on using all her sexual powers to tease and seduce.

  “I love a hot bath,” she whispered as she reached for a cup on the edge of the tub.

  She dipped it into the water and brought it up, then poured it over her chest. Luke watched breathless as the water glistened on her full breasts. He reached out to touch them but she skirted his touch and shook her head.

  “Ah-ah,” she chided. “No touching. It’s my turn to play.”

  Oh, yeah. He was in trouble.

  Big, big trouble.

  She brought up another full cup of water and this time tilted her head back and poured it over her hair. Luke watched entranced as the water drenched her, and his erection strained between her legs, so exquisitely close he could almost feel her around him.

  But not quite.

  She reached for a bar of soap and began to lather it on her body. Over her belly, her arms, her breasts. She lathered slowly, clearly aware of its effect on him, lingering on one breast, then the other, until the soap covered her skin. And then she slid her soapy fingers between her legs and began to massage oh-so-slowly, letting the back of her hand brush the tip of his cock, but nothing more.

  Instead, she gave herself pleasure, stroking until her breath quickened and Luke was ready to plunge himself into her without waiting another second.

  Then she found his cock with her hand and began to massage him with a feather touch—much less than he wanted, and she knew it, reveled in it with wicked pleasure.

  “I want you now,” he gasped, his head straining back against the edge of the tub.

  She stopped stroking and smiled a private little smile. “But I’m not finished washing up.”

  After she’d poured the water over herself again to rinse off, Jane began rubbing the soap over his chest, then down his belly to his cock. When she reached it, she gave him a few cursory strokes, then put the soap aside. And she dipped her head into the water.

  He watched as she found him with her mouth in the hot bath, took him in, teased him to the edge of insanity with her tongue. Luke gripped the sides of the tub, struggling not to release, holding out against the too-sweet pleasure of her mouth.

  But that’s not where he wanted to release. He grasped her shoulders and pulled her out from under the water, and tugged her up against him as she gasped for breath.

  “No more playing around,” he whispered, his voice forced.

  She reached for a new condom on the edge of the tub, and he took it from her and put it on in record time. With their bodies pressed together again, he plunged himself into her hot depths before she could protest. And then he began to move in her.

  Lightning flashed behind Luke’s eyelids. His insides quaked. His soul awoke to the rush of feeling that flooded him, and he had the vaguest notion that making love to Jane was going to change him in ways he couldn’t yet imagine.

  Gripping the soft flesh of her hips and rear, letting his fingertips brush the sensitive cleft of her bottom, Luke went deeper and deeper until she took in all of him, until her body, tight around him, stretched to accommodate his, and she felt like the most perfect spot on earth.

  Jane lifted her breast to his mouth, offering it to him, and he took in her tight brown nipple. The friction of his teeth and tongue must have been just what she needed, because she threw her head back, gasping, and he knew she was close to climaxing again. This time, he would go with her.

  Water splashed out of the tub as he began to thrust harder and faster. And just as his body began to tense for release, he slid his thumb between her legs, rubbing her most sensitive spot.

  Luke couldn’t hold back another second. He heard his own breath coming out fast and ragged, and he knew he could no more control his body than he could stop a tornado. Instead, he let himself go. As Jane’s soft moans turned into lusty cries of passion, as her muscles contracted around the length of him, Luke exploded.

  His release came hard and strong, jolt after jolt of white-hot pleasure, drawn out by Jane’s own aftershocks, until he wondered if he would just let himself drown there in the tub if they could remain locked in that embrace forever.

  What must have been minutes later, he became aware of a few tendrils of her wet hair clinging to his face as she lay draped over him. The water, still hot, had grown calm again after the storm of their lovemaking. His cock, still inside Jane, stirred, but he only wanted to stay like this, perfectly still, holding the most amazing woman he’d ever had the privilege of pleasuring.

  After they’d each regained their senses, they got out of the tub, toweled off, and climbed into bed, where they lay for what felt like half the afternoon, dozing off, then waking up and exploring each other all over again, making love one more time, slowly and easily, like old lovers.

  By the time Luke noticed his hunger, it was two in the afternoon, and he remembered that he hadn’t even gotten halfway through installing the new security system. That thought bro
ught reality crashing back in on his little foray into fantasy. He hoped they could still maintain a professional relationship after what had just happened, but he realized their lovemaking was far more explosive than he’d anticipated.

  Instead of convincing Jane that sex in itself could be a good thing, he was afraid he might have just convinced himself that Jane was a woman he wanted for his own. In spite of her crazy ideas. In spite of everything. He wanted her.

  JANE STRETCHED, feeling absolutely sinful lying in bed naked on a weekend afternoon, having just had wild, lusty sex with her glorified bodyguard. That was something Jane Langston, author of The Sex Factor, would never have done. But Jane, the woman, couldn’t muster an ounce of regret for abandoning her principles just this once.

  If that’s what it took to give her this one incredible afternoon of mind-blowing sex, then so be it. She deserved a little pleasure in her otherwise dull and proper life.

  Luke had only minutes ago given her a sweet, lingering kiss before explaining that he needed to finish installing the security system. He’d refused her second offer of help and tugged his jeans on, then disappeared into the living room. She’d realized as he left that they hadn’t even eaten lunch that day, and she decided that as soon as she’d had a few more minutes to savor the moment, she’d get up and make something for them. Jane rolled over onto her belly and stared out the window, smiling at nothing, when the phone rang.

  She reached for the receiver on the nightstand, annoyed to have her perfect afternoon interrupted.

  “Hello?”

  “Spill it, Jane. What’s the story on you and Luke Nicoletti?”

  It was Jennifer or Lacey—their voices were nearly identical…. Definitely Jennifer. Lacey had already cornered Jane at the party with that very same question.

  “What makes you think there is a scoop?”

  “You disappear into the bathroom with him, then Heather walks in on you about to get it on?”

  Oh right, Jane had somehow managed to forget about that. She briefly imagined what her sisters’ reactions might be if they knew what she’d just spent the day doing with Luke, and a smile spread across her lips.

  “It’s just a little fling, that’s all. Nothing serious.”

  “But isn’t he, like, your bodyguard?”

  “Personal security specialist.”

  “Oh. Well, I guess that’s okay. I mean, um, I just didn’t think a guy like him and a girl like you would be interested in each other.”

  “You mean, you didn’t think he’d be interested in me.”

  “No! I mean, you did write that Sex Factor book, telling everyone to stop having sex. I just thought you didn’t like sex.”

  Jane grimaced as she sank back into her pillows and tugged the sheet up against her chest. She’d always thought of herself as a voice of reason in a sex-obsessed culture, but did people really think of her as someone who didn’t like sex?

  “Of course I like sex! I know I’m not exactly behaving like a model of self-control, but… Let’s just say that Luke has a strange effect on me.”

  She heard a loud, dramatic sigh over the phone. “I know exactly what you mean. That, actually, is why I’m calling.”

  “Because you’re hot and bothered?”

  “Because I need advice.”

  Jane rolled her eyes. Of course. Why would any of her sisters call her if not to get advice from the “expert?” Not that Jane was much of an expert on fawning men and too many dates for one weekend, but the triplets all deferred to her on relationship issues. Having a career based on giving advice could get tedious, to say the least.

  “What this time?”

  “Remember Eli Caldwell, one of Michael’s groomsmen?”

  “Yes. What about him?” Jane asked, though she already knew. She was about to get Jennifer’s version of the love-triangle drama Lacey had told her about at the wedding shower.

  “It’s not so much him as it is Lacey. She knows I want Eli, and she’s going after him anyway. How do I tell her to bug off without looking like a jerk?”

  “I thought you all had a strict policy about not dating guys who were interested in more than one of you?”

  Yet another reason Jane was happy not to be one of the triplets—men and their weird identical sibling fantasies.

  “We did, until this. Eli’s been sort of flirting with both of us, but I think he’s just getting us confused. I told Lacey a few months ago that I thought he was hot and that he’d asked me out.”

  “So you’ve gone out with him?”

  “A couple of times, and things were moving along just fine, but then he started flirting with Lacey, and she flirted back!”

  “Then he’s a jerk, and you should run the other way. Lacey deserves what she gets for behaving this way.” Assuming Jennifer was even telling the correct version of the story—likely neither of them were being honest. Jane had learned long ago that her sisters had a way of making themselves out to be the heroine of every story.

  “But I swear, I think he’s just getting us confused. I thought there might be something special between us.”

  “If he were having trouble telling you apart, wouldn’t he be flirting with Heather, too?”

  “I guess, but she’s always hanging on Michael’s arm, so it’s easier to pick her out.”

  “Okay, but still, if a guy was really interested in you alone, don’t you think he’d take the trouble to memorize your slight physical differences every time he saw you with your sister?”

  There was silence on the line for a moment. And then, “I guess so.”

  “You should lose this guy. He obviously doesn’t care which of you he scores with—and probably he’s hoping for a two-for-one deal.”

  Another dramatic sigh. “You’re right, as always.”

  Luke appeared in the doorway. “Hey babe, there’s a guy at the front door, claims he’s your landscaper.” He quirked an eyebrow, probably remembering her earlier comment about ogling the guy who mowed her lawn.

  “Who was that?” Jennifer asked. “Do you have Luke there right now?”

  “Um, I’ve gotta go. Talk to you soon.” And she hung up the phone.

  She mentally vowed to herself that she was going to stop playing the role of All-Knowing Big Sister immediately. She had a feeling the advice she’d given to Lacey and now Jennifer wasn’t going to help either of them much.

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were still on the phone.”

  “My sisters and their complicated love lives,” Jane offered for an explanation as she climbed out of bed, dragging the sheet with her and using it as an impromptu robe.

  “An hour ago I saw you totally naked, up close and personal, and now you’re feeling modest?”

  Jane shrugged and let the sheet fall to the ground as she bent over to grab her jeans and top. “What can I say—I’m a modest girl.”

  She felt Luke’s gaze on her as she tugged on her clothes without bothering to find her panties and bra. “I like that in a woman,” he said with a hint of teasing.

  “I’ll bet.”

  She grabbed her purse and followed him to the front door, where he stood ominously at her side as she paid the lawn guy for last month’s service.

  When she’d closed the door, Luke said, “So you think that guy’s hot?”

  Jane turned to face him and found him wearing a little smirk.

  “I think he wears his jeans well, and he walks around topless a lot. It’s hard not to notice.”

  “Hard not to notice when you’re a sex-starved relationship guru.”

  “I’m not sex-starved. And I never set out to be a guru of anything.” She tried to look annoyed, but her annoyance dissolved as soon as she looked at Luke and remembered the pleasures he’d given her.

  “But you are. Women take your word as gospel.” He closed the distance between them and pinned her against the wall with his body. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, his breath tickling her ear. “And what just happened between us? I’
m willing to bet that was all about your trying too hard, for too long, to follow your own bad advice.”

  Jane ignored the traitorous stirring in her lower belly. She opened her mouth and told the biggest lie she’d produced in a long, long time. “What just happened between us was nothing special. Just plain old garden-variety meaningless sex.”

  He slid his hand up her shirt and found her bare breast, her erect nipple. His fingers lingered there to coax and tease. “I never would have pegged you for such a wild one.”

  Jane felt her cheeks burn. “Yeah, well…”

  She was speechless, unwilling to lie any further, unable to think of any witty reply.

  “And it wasn’t meaningless. Trust me on that.”

  “We’ve known each other for all of what—forty-eight hours? Do you always spend meaningful, sex-filled afternoons with your new female clients?”

  Luke withdrew his hand from her breast and took a step back. Jane suddenly felt cold and braless. His expression went from playful to dark in an instant. “I’ve never even flirted with a client, let alone slept with one. I took a big risk with you today.”

  “The biggest risks are the ones we take with our pants off,” she said, repeating a line from The Sex Factor.

  “Don’t start quoting to me from your book unless you want me to do the same.”

  Jane was impressed that he recognized the line, even more impressed that he might be able to remember anything else she’d written. In spite of herself, she felt flattered. “I know better than anyone all the ways I’ve contradicted my own advice today.”

  “Do you regret it?”

  Did she? She supposed she should, but memories of a few hours ago made regret impossible at the moment. “Do I have to answer that?”

  “You’re afraid to admit it was something special.”

  “Why would I be afraid to admit if it were?”

  “Because it would mean admitting your whole book premise is flawed.”