by Fran Lee
A new life that would abruptly end in just five more months.
She put on the headphones and watched the in-flight movie that played on the back of the seat in front of hers. The movie was a comedy but she wasn’t paying it any heed. She found herself thinking about what she was going to do when this short-term “trial marriage” of hers ended.
He had said in Barbados that she could continue to write another book in the series. She could use his name. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. One last book about her dream lover. At least that would be something to fill the hours when he wasn’t there. And she was pretty sure there would be a lot of free time once the novelty wore off their lovemaking.
If she did write the final chapter in the series, how would it end? With the hero walking away from his lady love forever, or would he admit he had fallen in love with her and would they live happily ever after? She sighed. Well, at least happily ever after worked out in books.
* * * * *
David was waiting as her plane landed in Chicago. He was as nervous as hell. This was an alien feeling for him. Would she still want him as eagerly after a week’s absence as she had during their dreamlike stay in a tropical paradise? She was so hard to figure out sometimes. He had asked her to fly out to the coast to stay with him and she had brushed him off.
He swallowed hard and frowned at his own stupidity for not insisting she accompany him. He’d be damned if he’d do that again. No more nights sleeping alone in a hotel bed. No more nights reaching for a body that wasn’t there. No more having to use her fucking underwear and his own imagination.
He stood like a stone sentinel, not moving a muscle, oblivious to the avid stares of women who recognized him. Wanted him. He ignored the lustful gazes. He was only interested in one woman wanting him, how one woman would react to him, and the uncertainty was killing him.
Sam stepped from the people mover into the baggage pickup area of the terminal and looked about, her heart pumping madly. Would he be here? Or would he have simply sent a driver to pick her up? Her eyes slid over the happy faces waiting for friends and relatives. He wasn’t here.
Turning dully toward the baggage claim, she heard a woman whispering excitedly to another, just to her left. “Oh God, look at that. I would give my husband’s left nut to get myself a piece of that.”
She lifted her head, noting that nearly every female in her vicinity was craning to see something. And then she saw him, towering head and shoulders above the people moving through the waiting area to the baggage pickups and her throat tightened at the sight of him. When his eyes met hers, she felt a vibrant, breathtaking joy bounding inside her chest that she couldn’t begin to understand.
She couldn’t make her legs move. He was so damn gorgeous. Every woman in the terminal was staring. The sight of him was enough to make her melt into a puddle right where she stood. And when his face slowly broke into a wicked, predatory smile and female voices sighed and squealed and giggled all around her, she realized that she didn’t have to move. He was moving toward her.
He was walking toward her slowly. He moved across the muted gray and green carpeting as bodies gave way before his achingly sexy approach. He walked like he was stalking her, his eyes never leaving hers, holding her prisoner, and when he was less than a yard away, she looked up into those unreadable black eyes and she asked, “Hey, mister. Can I get a ride off you?” The double entendre hung wickedly in the air between them.
She ignored the blatantly envious looks on female faces as he let his eyes slip down her body and back to her face slowly. White teeth flashed as he grinned at her and his low, gravelly voice growled, “You can get one hell of a lot more than just one.”
She inhaled sharply as his arms snaked around her body, hauling her into his possessive embrace. And then she was dangling a foot from the floor, being kissed wickedly senseless in front of a few hundred passengers waiting for their luggage.
God but he tasted good. The feel of his muscular arms dragging her against a chest that had been created for female pleasure left her aching to have him inside her, throbbing to feel his talented hands on her naked flesh, teasing and tantalizing and finally, satisfying. As his tongue swept into her hungry mouth, her hands twined into the thick black hair at the back of his head and she actually whimpered aloud with the jolt of need that made her forget the prying eyes and giggles surrounding them.
It took her several minutes to regain her sanity and her sense of propriety and she whispered against his hungry lips, “Can we find a more private place before you start undressing me this time?”
David smiled wickedly down into her eyes as he lowered her to the floor and kissed the top of her copper mop. “I know just the place.”
* * * * *
The stretch Hummer limo had dark glass and a privacy window between the back and the driver. He wasted no time as the driver pulled into heavy traffic for the hour-long ride home. She was sitting astride his bulging lap on the rear seat, their mouths fused in a smoldering, needful kiss as he slowly shoved her skirt up her thighs and slid aside the thin strip of satin and lace that was all that kept him from her pussy. She gave a thick moan of pleasure as he found her cleft and his wonderful fingers worked utter magic in their gently stroking, dipping quest. Her first climax shuddered through her and he laughed softly against her lips.
She felt his fingers withdraw from her and he slid the thong crotch aside again as he released his cock from his slacks to let it rub tantalizingly against her pussy. He growled in a husky murmur, “Ride me, Sam. Ride me into oblivion. God, I need you.” He lifted her and settled her wet sheath down over his cock as he kissed her with a savage delight that would have shocked her, had she not been just as eager.
“I missed you so damn much,” she whimpered as he slid one hand up under her silk blouse to caress her breast. Her own hands were under his shirt, tantalizing his skin as she moaned and arched with delight. He filled her so completely. The heated, rocking movements of her hips drove him deeper, harder.
“I’ve saved up a whole week’s worth of rides for you, Sam. It’s gonna be one hell of a welcome home party.” His voice was a rasp of pleasure against her temple as his fingers delved into the triangle of curls between their bodies to find and tease her eager clit.
Sam gasped and clung to him as she felt her body come apart in a second exquisite orgasm that took her voice away. Her body convulsed and she swore she could see cartoon stars before her eyes as he worked his wicked magic on her body. When she was able to speak again, she whispered huskily, “I hope you ate plenty of oysters.”
She kissed him so passionately he could barely think straight as she dipped her sweet tongue into his mouth and moaned against his lips.
He came hard inside her tight body, so hard that it took him several minutes to regain his senses and his breath. And when he looked into her eyes, she was smiling at him as if she had no intention of letting him off so easily. He laughed in delight and caught her lips, taking what she offered with a deep growl of enjoyment.
If she thought he was going to simply let her walk out of his life in five months, she had another think coming. No other woman had ever made him feel what Sam Hastings made him feel and he was not willing to give that up for anything-not even a signed Memorandum of Understanding.
* * * * *
She awoke alone in his bed, having very little memory of the arrival at his palatial home in Barrington Hills except for the way he had swept her into his arms and carried her up the curving staircase to his bedroom. She had fully expected to arrive in downtown Chicago and be ensconced in the luxurious hotel apartment he kept. It had been a complete shock to find that the man owned four houses and that amazing apartment! But that particular shock had quickly evaporated under the onslaught of hot lips and hands as everything else became a frenzied blur of touching, kissing, feeling and responding to every delicious thing he did to her for the next many hours. And he had been amazing. Breathtakingly sensuous. Delightfully a
rdent and eager. He had made her feel…cherished.
She stretched and gave a little groan. She was so sore, she could barely move. She laughed softly. He had warned her. She sat up and shoved her tousled red mop out of her face and looked around the room at their wildly strewn clothing and the lamp he had upset in his haste to remove his own clothes. She slipped from the bed and snatched up her rumpled skirt, pulling it on and reaching for her blouse. The panties had not made it out of the limo.
She was buttoning her blouse when the phone beside the bed rang and she picked it up slowly. “Hello?”
“About time you were out of bed, Ms. Hastings. If you’re looking for your luggage, I had Maria hang your things up in your closet. The set of drawers on the left of the dressing room are yours. Bathroom’s the door on your left as you’re facing the hall. Did I say thanks?” His hot-buttered-rum voice made her shiver with memories of the night spent in his bed.
“Thanks for what?”
“For not falling asleep on me until I collapsed from exhaustion. I desperately needed to feel wanted after a whole week away from you.”
“Oh, you were definitely wanted.” Her blush was hot and she cooled her cheeks with her free hand.
“I’m so damn sore I can barely walk.” His laugh sounded muffled, as if he had swept his hand across his mouth.
“You too?” she chuckled.
“Great sex works muscles that don’t get used much. We’ll have to keep working out. I’d hate to let those muscles atrophy.” He actually seemed to purr. She shivered. She could almost picture a powerful jungle cat purring in satisfaction.
“I seriously doubt that will ever happen, David. In that department, I’m sure you have no problems. Now I’m going to get a shower. Where are you?”
“In the weight room. Working the other muscles.”
“You’d better not overdo.”
“Leave me some hot water.”
“No. If you aren’t fast enough to get up here before I use it all, you’ll have to settle for cold water.”
She hung up with a laugh and found the bathroom easily enough. She found fluffy black towels on a warmed towel rack and a voluminous robe hanging on a clothes horse nearby. She dropped her wrinkled clothes on the rug and turned on the shower, stepping into the smoked-glass enclosure with a sigh of pleasure. Her mind slipped treacherously back to the showers she had shared with David in Barbados. The feel of his rippling, wet body sliding over hers under the delicious hot spray. The feel of his lips moving down her trembling body as he sank to his knees and gently spread her legs and opened her soft folds with his fingers as he leaned in to lave her and then take her clit into his talented mouth.
She was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair when the shower door slid open and she felt the chill air on her skin. Big, calloused hands slid around her from behind and she felt his muscular body pressed against her back. “I have soap in my eyes,” she gasped.
“All the easier for me to take gross advantage of you, my little dove,” David whispered dramatically into her ear. She felt his hands move down her belly to seek the wet curls between her thighs.
“I’m no fun at all with soap in my eyes!” she yelped, trying to get her face under the spray.
“Oh, in that case…” He moved her forward slightly so that the hot spray rinsed her face. She inhaled deeply as he slipped his hand down her belly once more to the apex of her thighs and his fingertips began to tantalize her again.
She arched back against him and whispered, “Don’t start something you can’t finish, Mr. Chance.”
“When have I ever not finished something I started, Ms. Hastings?”
“Mmmm.” She arched as his fingers slid into her sensitive folds and moved with slow, erotic thrusts. Such talented fingers.
“You like that?” His lips caressed the side of her neck.
“Ooh yeah.” She widened her stance and placed her hands over his as he pleasured her. He obliged her unspoken urging and buried three long fingers deep into her silken sheath. At the sound of her whimpered encouragement, he nibbled the edge of her neck and licked her skin as if he wanted to devour her. His other hand toyed with her throbbing clit and she felt his stiffened cock nudging her ass as he growled and shuddered with need at her back. He slid his fingers from her pussy and took her hand in his, using his fingers to press her own deep inside her body, whispering, “Feel what I feel inside you, Sam.”
Sweet Jesus. The stretching of both their fingers pressing inside her made her wild to have him.
“David, I want you inside me,” she moaned as he lifted her other hand to cup it around her breast.
“Happily.” He eased her slightly forward, bending her so that his cock could access her dripping core. He pressed one hand against her belly as he nudged his cock into her from the rear, his breathing ragged. Her fingers were still inside her and she felt his thick cock against her skin as she drew them out to give him full access to her. He groaned as her fingers caressed him.
She reached beneath her to feel where they were joined and she bit her lip at the sheer, heady pleasure his body could give her. Her fingers slid to the taut sac under his cock as he pressed deeper into her and he groaned, “God, yes!” She gently squeezed his balls and then reached forward to place a hand against the shower tiles for balance, because he had almost lost his with her gentle teasing.
He widened his own stance and bent his knees to be able to drive his cock deeper into her as she placed her other palm on the shower tiles and pressed back hard into each forward thrust of his hips.
“Oh. My. God,” she whimpered as one large hand cupped and squeezed her right breast, while the other slid firmly over her stiff clit in time with every marvelous thrust of his cock.
“You are utterly adorable!” David’s hiss of pleasure was deep and shaky against the back of her shoulder. His teeth gently nipped as he released with a shudder of enjoyment. He shoved deep and hard and held there as he emptied in hard spurts inside her clenching channel.
“Oh Lord!” Her own climax tore through her and she nearly collapsed. If he had not held her upright, she would have slithered to the tile of the shower floor in sheer orgasmic pleasure. And as he flooded her with an incredibly erotic, tingling explosion, they could do little more than remain locked together, panting and shuddering as their joined bodies floated back to earth.
Chapter Eleven
Snowball jumped down from the top of the sofa and stretched luxuriantly, eyeing David coolly as he sauntered out of the living room to check out his bowl of food.
“I don’t think your cat likes me much.”
“He’s warming up to you.” Sam lifted her eyes from the computer monitor and glanced at him. “In another year or so, you’ll be his best pal.” She frowned at the last sentence she had written and deleted it with a sigh.
“How’s the novel coming?” His dark eyes slid over her frustrated expression and he hid a grin as she ran one hand distractedly through her already mussed hair.
“You know, it was a lot easier to write about you when I didn’t know you at all. Now every word I write makes me completely horny. I don’t think I want every woman in the world to know how damn sexy you are, or how good you are in bed.”
Her frown was utterly adorable and he wanted to snatch her off that desk chair and spread her wide on the floor to enjoy like a succulent buffet. He let his gaze slip down her body in anticipation of the moment she would shut that fucking machine off and go to bed with him.
“Well, if they don’t already know from the other books, you aren’t gonna be telling them anything new.” His voice was low and barely audible.
She glanced up and glared at him from across the room. “Writing about a fantasy lover who isn’t real is one thing. But it gets sort of dicey when your fantasy lover is walking around half naked and distracting you all to hell.”
“You want me to leave?”
“No.” Her eyes slid over his ripped chest, trailing down the lean, hard muscles
of his six-pack to the dark line of crisp hair that led from his navel into the PJ bottoms. He kept most of the dark hair off his body above his waist because he didn’t like giving his opponents anything to get hold of when he was wrestling. He even kept his hair shorter than the other men in the circuit. No leverage.
“You want me to put some clothes on?” He lifted one dark brow seductively.
“No!” Her eyes snapped back to his shadowed face.
“Then what exactly do you want?” His teeth flashed as he smiled.
She shut off the computer with a little groan of frustration. “I want a long, hot bath and a new brain.”
He rose from the sofa and stretched in a way that made her throat grow tight. “I think I can help you with the first part but I’m afraid you’re on your own for the second part. Come here.” His voice dropped to a sexy purr.
She crossed the room slowly, feeling oddly like a moth moving to its death in a seductive flame. He had showered earlier and was wearing nothing but that pair of black silk pajama bottoms knotted loosely around his lean hips. He reached out as she came within arm’s reach and drew her against his body with a murmur of satisfaction, resting his chin on her head.
She wrapped her arms about all that ohmygod prime hardness and sighed. “I feel so stupid. I can’t seem to get back into the groove. I guess I’ve been living the dream and that makes it hard to try to convert it to something imaginary again.”
“You may just be trying too hard. Give it a rest for a few days. Just leave your work here when you fly to New York with me. You can come to the match and then we can catch a Broadway show, go out dancing. It’ll be a nice change to get you away from that damn keyboard.”