by M. S. Parker
And touch he did. As his tongue teased at my lips, his hands moved across my skin, making me quake, making me burn.
He boosted me up and I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist. His fingers dug into my ass and I gasped as my back encountered the wall behind me. It was cool against my flesh, a harsh contrast with the fire burning in me and the heat that was him.
His tongue twined against mine and I moaned. I didn’t always like being kissed, especially with tongue. Some guys were okay at it. Some sucked. Some were pretty decent. Most made me feel like they’d learned it from watching porn.
Glenn, however, was absolutely fantastic. He was a damn maestro when it came to kissing, and judging by the way his fingers teased patterns on my skin, he was going to be equally talented in other areas.
I rubbed my tongue against his then tore my mouth away, panting, needing the air and hating that it meant we weren’t kissing.
Then his mouth slid down my neck, closed over the skin there, and I decided this was okay too. As he began to suck on the delicate flesh just above my pulse, I curled my arms around his neck and rocked my hips forward, desperate to ease the ache inside. His jeans were rough against the insides of my thighs, rough against my most sensitive skin, but I needed.
He shuddered even as he grasped my waist, holding me tight as he walked us over to my bed.
“I won’t hurt you,” he murmured against my skin as he carefully lowered me to the mattress.
That confused me for a minute. Then I realized he probably thought I was a virgin. I hoped he wasn’t disappointed. Craning my head back, I studied him from under my lashes for a moment before saying, “I’ve had lovers before.”
For a moment, his expression was unreadable; then, slowly, a smile curled his lips. “Good.”
That wasn’t exactly the reaction I’d expected.
But from one second to the next, a change came over him, and I caught on... fast.
He’d been holding back.
Now his hands were demanding as they moved over me. Not hard or cruel, but I caught a glimpse of a frenzied need that almost matched mine. He covered my breasts with his hands, and for a moment, I wondered if he wished my figure was more like Florence’s, more like the curvy bombshells who were in demand in the sixties. Then he cursed softly under his breath and leaned down to take one pebbled nipple in his mouth, and I forgot all about comparing myself to the women he’d been with before.
I tugged at his shirt even as he used his teeth and tongue to bite and soothe. I wanted to feel his bare skin, dig my nails in and mark him physically as surely as he was marking my soul.
“Off.” I managed to get a word out. When he started to pull back, I realized he’d misunderstood me. I shook my head and grabbed the front of his shirt. “Not you,” I said. “Shirt. Off. Now.”
He gave me that killer smile of his as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
Fuck.
I’d known how amazing he looked in a suit, in a tight t-shirt, and I’d felt the hard planes of his body, but nothing had compared to seeing all that gloriously tanned skin. I reached for his belt but he caught my hands before I could do anything.
“Not yet.”
As he skated his palm down my belly, his mouth came back to mine. He thrust his tongue and fingers into me simultaneously, his mouth claiming mine while he plunged deep into my pussy and twisted, sending a wave of pleasure pulsing through me.
It was followed on the heels by another, then another.
I tried to clamp my thighs shut around his hand, but that just drove him deeper, pressed his thumb hard against my clit. I cried out, back arching as electricity raced along my nerves. I was so close, torn between needing to go over the edge and wanting this to go on forever.
He bit my lower lip, gently, but with enough force that it caught my attention. “I won’t be able to last long once I’m inside you, baby, but I’m going to make damn sure this is good for you, too.”
“I…” I might have argued, insisted it already was.
But my climax broke over me at that moment, and all I could do was scream his name.
I was still quivering when he removed his hand from between my legs. I watched with half-hazy eyes as he pulled something out of his pants pocket before stripping them off. Surprise cut through my muddled mind when I realized it was a condom. I hadn’t even thought about protection. Back home, I took the pill, but I’d been off it since I’d been here.
His eyes met mine as he rolled on the condom. “I just want to protect us both.”
It took me a moment to remember that safe sex wasn’t really a thing yet, not the way it would be after the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Contraception was still controversial at this point, and it wasn’t that strange for him to think I’d protest him using it.
“Thank you.” I smiled at him, then let my gaze slide down so I could admire the rest of his body as much as I had his torso. My pussy throbbed at the sight of his erection, thick and long and all for me, and then he was lowering himself over me.
My eyelids fluttered when the head of him brushed against me and I tipped my hips up in anticipation. His mouth came down hard on mine and then he was inside me, burying himself deep with one thrust. He stilled there, his mouth softening on mine before he raised his head, pressing his forehead to mine.
“Are you okay?”
“Ummm…” I had a hard time processing that question as every inch of my body was currently trying to adjust to the realization of just how full I was. “I think…but you aren’t moving.”
He chuckled, a low, dark sound that made me shiver.
Then he started to move and I found that I was far better than okay.
He moved with purpose, each stroke rubbing against all the right parts of me even as the hair on his chest scratched against my sensitive breasts. The sensations nearly overwhelmed me, taking away my ability to say anything but more and please. To do anything other than move with him, rake my nails down his back and then dig them into the firm muscles of his ass. Nothing outside of this room, this bed, registered. Only him inside me and above me.
But it wasn’t only the physical pleasure of our bodies coming together that assaulted my senses, my mind. It was the inexplicable rightness of it, of how we fit together. It was how being with him, like this, made me feel safe in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. How, for the first time since I’d arrived in California, my center shifted, and this time, this place, became home.
As I exploded around him, white light danced behind my eyes and my body burned. Then he followed me only a few seconds later, groaning my name, and I thought maybe the pleasure just might kill me.
But what a way to go.
Twenty-Four
Glenn
I rolled over onto my side, thin morning light coming through the narrow slit in the curtains.
There was a dark, tousled head on the pillow next to mine and I reached up, stroking a finger down Maya’s cheek.
She slept on.
It had been two months since the day when Maya had all but knocked me down in her rush to get to Florence. How she’d suspected what Florence might do, and when, I had no idea.
It wasn’t something we talked about.
And we talked a lot. Just not about that.
Florence was still staying at the clinic. She was supposed to leave soon. I thought she could have left already, but I’d heard from Maya there was a man she was interested in. Florence hadn’t revealed anything more than that, but she seemed…happier. Calmer.
Settled.
Things she’d never been with me, so whoever the man was, maybe he was good for her. Or maybe the therapy was just doing what it was supposed to do. I just hoped she stayed steady when she left. I wished her nothing but the best.
I stroked my finger down Maya’s cheek again, but she didn’t respond other than to wrinkle her nose and turned her face away. After a moment, she rolled onto her side and hauled most of the blankets with her.
I’d fallen in love with a blanket thief.
I’d fallen in love.
I murmured those words to myself silently, wondering at them.
I couldn’t quite believe it had happened, but it had. When I’d first seen her, first kissed her, even, I’d thought it was infatuation. I’d hoped it was. Infatuation could pass. After the first time we’d slept together, I’d waited for things to change like they always had. For that deep need I had for her to wan.
Except it didn’t. It’d hadn’t. If anything, it had only grown.
Maya was different, always had been, and different had always caught my attention, but it wasn’t the fact that she was unique that made me love her.
I loved her because she was…Maya.
And because I loved her, I climbed out of bed without waking her.
She’d fallen asleep reading last night. She read all the time. We were constantly going shopping for books, and if I was working, like I had been the past few weeks, then I had a driver take her.
She didn’t have a license, and when I offered one of my cars to her, she’d been oddly reluctant. I’d offered to teach her how to drive, but she shook her head. I can drive. I just don’t want to.
I didn’t mind. If she wanted to be chauffeured around in a car painted gold, I’d arrange it. So far though, all she ever did was go to the library, or to one of the stores she’d decided offered the best selection of books.
Last night hadn’t been the only night she’d fallen asleep reading, either. I’d teased her about how exhausting it was to read, and she’d thrown a pillow at me. You wouldn’t know, you never read, unless it’s a movie script.
I’d never had a woman tease me in a way that wasn’t sexual, but Maya did it all the time, and I loved it, loved that we had our little language. And the more time I spent with her, the more it meant to me.
She snuggled deeper into the blankets as I crossed the room. I wanted to crawl back in next to her and wake her up with my tongue and fingers between her legs, but I needed to shower and grab some food before leaving for my meeting with Peter.
“The studio’s pleased with what they’re hearing,” Peter said as he poured himself a drink. For him, brunch wasn’t complete without at least one drink. “Two months clean and sober, without an incident. Granted, they would prefer to see you married, or at least engaged, but it’s an improvement.”
I leaned back in my chair, relieved. When Peter had asked me to meet him for brunch, I’d half-expected to finally have the confrontation we’d been dancing around from the moment I’d told him that Maya and I were together. I hadn’t expected him to seem so...cheerful.
“I’m glad they’re happy,” I said honestly. “I am too.”
He took the seat across from me and gave me a shrewd look as he sipped the amber alcohol in his glass. “With Maya.”
I nodded. “I know you liked her–”
He held up a hand, stopping me. “She’s beautiful and intelligent, but by the end of that night when we all first met, I knew there was more heat between the two of you than she and I could’ve ever hoped to have.”
I blinked, surprised. “But you kept telling me I should be with Florence. Hell, you told me to propose to her.”
He shrugged. “I thought Florence would be better for you. Her star is on the rise. Or was, anyway. She’ll probably come back from the scandal, once someone else does something stupid.”
He was probably right about that.
“She’s doing well,” he said. “And sends her best to you and Maya.”
“Is that why you wanted to see me?” I asked. “To tell me that you’re both okay with Maya and I being together?”
“No.” He tossed a sheaf of papers toward me. “But I figured it was time to say it anyway. Especially since I’ve moved on.”
I picked up the papers. “What’s this?”
“A new script,” he said with a grin. “Your reputation has improved enough for the studio to trust you with the lead of their biggest new project.”
I stared at it, not quite daring to believe it. “What do they want in return?”
“Just that you do not return to your previous behavior.” Peter poured a small bit of whiskey into a clean glass and put it in front of me. “So make sure you don’t lose that girl of yours.”
I smiled. “I don’t intend to.”
It was almost evening by the time I got back, and I found Maya in the backyard with Mrs. Blanchard. They were on their knees in the dirt, and I scowled as I approached.
“Did you run out of books to read?”
She slid me a narrow look, and Mrs. Blanchard made a disappointed noise in her throat.
“I was bored.” Maya rolled her eyes. “I wanted to get outside, and Mrs. B. told me I could give her a hand if I wanted. I think I’m going to have her teach me how to cook.”
I thought about telling her that I had Mrs. Blanchard there to do the cooking, but I figured out, just in time, that wasn’t the point.
She’d already told me the point.
She was bored.
“Well, when you get done becoming a master chef, let me know.” I leaned in and kissed her, though not as deeply as I would have if we’d been alone. “We’ll figure something out that won’t keep you so…bored.”
“Like what?” She rolled her eyes at me, a smile on her lips.
Mrs. Blanchard’s snort kept me from saying something I probably shouldn’t say around her, but I grinned at Maya, all the same. As she laughed at me, I pushed myself to my feet.
“I’m going to go take a shower.” I lingered another moment, though. “Peter said Florence is doing well.”
“She is.” Maya reached up to wipe at her face and left a streak of dirt on her cheek. “She called me today. A few more weeks, and she’ll be ready to leave the clinic. Did Peter know the name of the guy she likes?”
“No, he said she’s still keeping that a secret.” I considered telling her about the movie offer but decided to wait. There were other things more important tonight.
She sighed and stretched her arms over head, the sunlight dancing off the gold necklace she wore. She hardly ever took it off, except the other day when she’d lost it.
“You found your locket.”
Her hand went to it, as if she had to reassure herself. “Yeah. It fell into the laundry. Mrs. B actually found it.” She gave the older woman a grateful look.
“She’s good at that.” I slid Mrs. Blanchard a casual glance. “You’ll have dinner ready in a few hours, Mrs. B?”
For once, she didn’t give me that famous snort.
“Of course.” She even smiled a little.
That had Maya’s eyebrows rising. I turned away before she could think to ask anything.
I didn’t want my surprise to be ruined.
We ate outside.
Mrs. Blanchard had set everything up and then left, taking the night off as I’d asked her to.
Not only had she arranged a table, covered with a tablecloth of soft white and set with dishes I hadn’t ever seen before, she’d put candles out, and even placed a bucket of champagne chilling nearby.
When Maya had first come outside, her eyes had gotten big, gleaming with unshed tears. I didn’t want her crying, so I kissed her and told her she looked so beautiful, though I was tempted to put her on the table and fuck her senseless right there in the open.
That had made her laugh and blush.
I loved seeing both. I wanted to see both for a long time to come.
Now as she sat across from me, sipping champagne, I touched the box I had tucked into the pocket of my sport coat.
I detested dressing up, but there were some occasions that just called for it.
When she put the glass down, I moved from the table. If anybody had told me a couple of months ago that I would be getting down on bended knee, I would have laughed. Or asked them if they were drunk.
But there I was, on one knee in front of Maya.
She was s
taring at me with wide, startled eyes, and I was almost positive that she hadn’t seen this coming. I could see her pulse slamming in her throat, and my own felt like it was beating to match. When I pulled the jewelry box from my coat pocket, she pressed a hand to her lips to stifle her gasp.
“Oh, no,” she whispered. “No way.”
“I hope you’re not saying no,” I said, not entirely joking. “I haven’t even asked you yet.”
That startled a laugh out of her, and some of my tension eased.
“Maya…” I kissed back of her hand. “I love you. I love you more than I would thought was possible. I didn’t know I could love somebody like this.”
She bit her lower lip for a second, then said softly, “I love you too.”
“Will you marry me?”
She launched herself at me and wrapped her arms around my neck.
Kneeling, the impact of her body knocked me off balance, but I wasn’t going to complain. Not when the end result had me on my back, holding her against me as she kissed me. No, I didn’t mind at all that her slender body moved against mine.
It was a moment before I realized that I still had the ring.
“Is that a yes?”
She sat up, one knee on either side of my hips, her core pressed against my quickly swelling erection. There were too many clothes separating us, but I needed her answer before I took care of that problem.
“Yes.”
She held out her hand, holding my gaze steadily.
And as I slid the ring onto her finger, I watched her face, trying to etch every fine detail into my memory. Then, reaching up, I caught her by the front of her shirt and tugged her down to meet my kiss.
“So…where do you think we should have our honeymoon?”
Twenty-Five
Maya
I gave my reflection a critical study. I was pretty, and vain enough to appreciate that fact.
I was also not so vain that I was going to stand in the bathroom and primp while my fiancé waited in the bedroom for me.