by Vanessa Jaye
He stopped behind the sofa, hands braced along the top edge. “You two had your heads pretty close together just now,” he said, pinning his mother under a hard stare.
“I was telling Felicity about a really good book I just read. It was an espionage. The ending was quite a surprise.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s the title?”
“Details like that escape me, sweetheart.” Lise stood, adjusting her bag strap on her shoulder. “Now remember, don’t start anything with your father Saturday.”
“I won’t start anything, but I’ll finish it.”
“There’ll be nothing to finish, because there’ll be nothing started. This dinner is a celebration, not a challenge, and you will both behave yourselves.”
Turning to Felicity, she heaved a theatrical sigh. “Men! So stubborn.” But there was a hint of strain in her eyes that caused unease to curl in Felicity’s throat. She remembered Michael Mackenzie’s cold dark scrutiny at the barbeque. Oh, yeah. Saturday night was going to be a blast.
“We women have to stick together.” Lise’s conspiratorial twinkle returned.
Trapped. She couldn’t back out of the dinner now. Then she looked at Daniel’s shadowed expression and realized she didn’t want to. He’d asked her to be there and she would.
“You can count on me,” she said softly, sparking something deep in his gaze. She turned to Lise. “I won’t let you down.”
“Good. I’ve got to run again. But, Felicity, we really need to start our little book club up again. Next week, when you’re settled? I’ve really enjoyed our time together, I don’t want to lose what we’ve accomplished.” Her tone was serious and pointed, but her eyes held real warmth. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
Lise lightly stroked her cheek. “That’s my girl.” Then she stepped back. “Well, I really must be going. There’s just—”
“So many things you have to do,” Daniel finished dryly, seeing her out to the elevator.
Once Lise left with a final wave, he came back and sat down beside Felicity. “So what should we do that’ll keep you off your feet for the rest of the day?” He waggled his brows.
She punched him on the shoulder, but her stomach did a loop-de-loop at the thought of picking up where they’d left off earlier. Then her stomach flipped again, this time with a rumble.
“Well I guess that answers my question.” Daniel laughed. “Time to eat.” He went over to the stereo, asking her music preferences, while she made a head start towards the kitchen.
As they prepped the food, working together like they’d been doing it for years, they debated where to put the new accessories he’d bought and stole kisses on the fly.
At one point, Felicity glanced over and caught him doing a little hip wiggling dance while he manned the grill, and she smiled. This is the happiest I’ve been in a long time…
Something twisted in her heart. A reminder that she had to guard against being lulled into the belief they were having a real relationship. But she could enjoy it while it lasted, couldn’t she?
“Here, try this.” He shoved a spoon at her mouth.
She tasted the sauce. “A dash more pepper, maybe?”
He stole a quick kiss. “Hmmm. No. I’d say that was spicy enough.”
She laughed. Oh yeah, she’d enjoy every here-and-now minute to the full. Not waste a single one with worrying. And with that, she pushed all thoughts about the future from her mind.
This was the life. Dinner alfresco on a penthouse terrace. Felicity had the last of her grilled salmon, then pushed the plate away, rubbing her tummy with a sigh as she leaned back. Across from her, Daniel was sprawled in his chair, looking deceptively indolent, his eyes gleaming slivers between their thick gold-tipped lashes.
She took a sip of her wine, a two-year-old Chardonnay she’d just learned. Yep, there was that complex fruity stuff Daniel had been going on about. Tasted like grapes. She giggled.
“What’s so funny?” His foot nudged hers under the table.
Felicity nudged him back then wiggled her toes under the hem of his jeans, making it partway up his hard shin. Daniel’s smile froze in place and his gaze sharpened.
“You’re not ticklish on your legs.” Pouting, she removed her foot.
“Maybe you should try a little higher.”
“Maybe I will. Later,” she countered and took another sip, watching Daniel watch her.
He reached across the table, covering her hand with his own, his thumb caressing her in softly sweeping strokes. “Come on, we can lie on the loungers and enjoy the view.” He pushed his chair back and stood, before helping her from her seat.
Daniel swung her up in his arms, then whispered in her ear, “And maybe enjoy other things too.”
With easy strides he carried her across the L-shaped terrace to a more intimately scaled space, a private niche that was formed by the wall of the main room, the hallway and a third room. Squinting through the glass, Felicity made out a large heavily carved bed. His.
He settled her onto the nearest recliner and she pressed her palms down on the seat, lifting her body a fraction to scoot back in the chair, but pain bloomed in sore muscles and she dropped back onto the cushion with a grimace.
“Your shoulder?”
She nodded.
“Here, lean forward a bit,” he instructed and swung a leg over the chair, straddling it.
Daniel’s hands encircled her waist as he shifted so she was settled between his legs and her hips firmly wedged into the vee of his thighs. His fingers trailed against her skin, brushing her hair out of the way.
“Tell me if it hurts.” His touch was gentle but firm as he began to work at her shoulder.
Heart thumping, Felicity nodded again, not trusting her voice.
Eventually his light kneading turned into gossamer strokes, at the nape of her neck, across her back and down to her waist—dissolving each knot of tension along her spine.
She tilted her face up to the sun’s rays, her lids drifting closed in sensual pleasure as she swayed with the rhythm of his strokes. Felicity practically purred in contentment. “Mmmm.”
“Feel good?” His mouth was at her ear, warm breath causing a cascade of goose bumps to sweep over her.
“Mmmm-hmmm.” It felt more than good.
“I can make it feel better.” Soft lips brushed against her skin, his voice filling her head with fantasy as he skimmed her waist in a smooth slide that swept up to cup her breasts. Felicity caught her breath as he shaped his hands to her flesh, thumbs flicking the erect tips.
“Absolutely perfect.” Daniel kissed her shoulder softly, capturing each nipple with a deliberate pinch, roll and tug.
No, not perfect. Love would make this perfect.
She whimpered and turned her head, seeking his kiss. He obliged, his tongue tangling with hers as he fed hungrily. When she would have turned around further, Daniel tightened his embrace. “Wait.”
His hands moved to the fly of her jeans, quickly undoing them, before he helped her wiggle out of them. Leaning back against him, she kicked off the pants, while he rubbed his calloused palms over her tender breasts.
She shuddered. His touch made her feel complete, as if she were made for him. As if she’d found a part of herself she didn’t even know was missing. He lightly twisted her nipples again and she moaned, rotating back on his hard cock. In response the thick length of flesh pulsed against her spine.
“Open for me, baby,” Daniel urged, delving between her legs in broad sweeping caresses. Each stroke moved further up her thighs, pushing them apart until he was cupping her with a single finger pressed against her seam. Moist spasms of need came at his touch and she cried out at the same time he exhaled in a hiss.
Felicity looked out over the water. The whole world was hers at this moment, held in a heartbeat, captured in Daniel’s fingertips. She felt alive, strong, free. But above the thudding blood rush in her veins, she heard another sound. In the distance a helicopter appeared over the lak
e and she tensed.
“They can’t see us. There’s just you and me…and this.” His fingers repeatedly pressed against her and sensation flashed through her body in waves of escalating need.
“No one can hear those little sounds you’re making…driving me crazy. No one can see the way I’m touching you.” He pulled her panties aside, a finger dipping lightly into her swollen entrance.
He buried his face in her neck, pressing fevered kisses there. “You’re beautiful, Felicity. I want to make you happy. Like this.” He touched her softly, skirting where she was open and seeping. “And like this.” His fingers moved again, playing with her inner lips.
“Look.” He slid back the hood of skin. Air swirled across the exposed bead of her clit and she shivered, mesmerized as he ran a feathery finger over her. “You…are…beautiful.”
Ecstasy threaded from nerve ending to nerve ending in one long pulling stitch as he continued tease her. “Please, oh, please,” she begged.
His mouth settled on the curve of her neck, suckling softly, moving upward until his tongue swirled around her ear. He blew gently, racing shudders through her. “I like it when you beg. Makes me hot.”
He started rubbing, faster, faster, faster, but never with enough pressure! Felicity moaned. Her hips moving forward and back, seeking the rhythm that he held just out of reach. Then he pushed two thick fingers deep inside her and there was no holding back her cry of pleasure.
“Yeah, you like that don’t you, baby?”
She moaned insensibly as he continued to stroke in and out and play with her clit. Trembling, pushed to the edge of delirium, she spread her legs wider, giving over completely to him.
Daniel pulled his fingers out of her body; his other hand cupping her protectively. “Christ, you’re so wet. Do you know what you taste like?” He brought the fingers up to his mouth. “Like heat and cream and musk.” Felicity watched his tongue snake out, licking off her essence. “Like this.”
He wiped her mouth; the salty taste of herself was brief, before he was sucking on her lips, his tongue probing until she opened up.
Then his hand was back between her thighs, pushing in deep, while the heavy bar of his cock pressed against her ass and lower back. Daniel rocked with her, his breathing just as labored, his fingers buried to the knuckles, fluttering and stroking.
“You’re so tight inside… Now, baby! Let go. I can feel you want to.” He groaned and pushed another finger deep inside her. The feeling of being stretched was so exquisite…until he started rubbing firm, wet, frantic caresses on the swollen knot of nerves beneath his thumb. All her senses went crazy.
I love you. She bit down on her lip, but moan after moan dredged up from her soul as if to pry her secret out.
To the litany of Daniel’s dark whispered urgings, she was cresting, flooded with pleasure, her body arching up from the recliner. And when the next breath came, it was almost too late.
Deliverance poured from her in a heaving mass of emotion and sensation until she had no more to give…
Not the least of which, was her heart.
Felicity collapsed back into Daniel’s arms.
Daniel gathered Felicity closer, cradling her as the last shudder shook her body. He rubbed his jaw against her silky hair as he looked out to the sun-dappled lake, and darkness crept inside him. She was leaving.
Getting on with her life. What role would he play then—her lover and mentor? He wanted more.
He wanted her eyes to light up when she saw him, the way they did whenever she mentioned her plans for her new apartment. Or hear the same unabashed happiness in her voice when she talked about the things they’d done together, just like when she talked about shared experiences with her friend Cheryl, or, Daniel’s jaw clenched, her ex.
He sensed she held an essential part of herself from him, a part his gut told him he needed to reach. But how?
He could seduce her body, make her laugh, but how to touch her heart? How to make her stay?
Felicity sighed, snuggling against him. Daniel groaned. Her movements pulled him from his somber thoughts, and he was glad to let them go. He had a beautiful woman in his arms. His woman. And he wasn’t through making love to her.
His hard-on nestled against the cleft of her luscious ass, and he flexed his hips forward, stroking her belly as he did so.
She rubbed her cheek against his chest and murmured something he didn’t catch. Daniel bent his head forward. “Say it again?”
Felicity curled an arm around his neck and tilted her face up towards his. “I want you,” she whispered in a much stronger voice.
If he was hard before, he was granite now. Tempered steel. The bedroom. It may not be worth the effort to try and make it that far; in the state he was in he probably wouldn’t last long.
But he wanted Felicity in his bed.
“Let me up.” He pushed her forward gently and rose in agony. His cock was painfully hard.
When she stood, he lifted her into his arms again, then carried her though the master bedroom’s open French doors and headed straight for the king-size bed.
He’d ordered it several years ago from a master craftsman who’d told Daniel that his beds were made strong for the loving between a man and a woman, and with the generous size to hold the children that came afterwards.
Daniel wanted Felicity to be that woman.
He now regretted every other female who’d ever shared this bed with him. But none of them had ever slept here. She would be the first. And if it were in his power, this would be the first of many nights, and days, of loving, sleeping, and just being together.
He laid her on the bed, but she didn’t loosen her arms around his neck, instead she pulled him down with her. Daniel gave in without a struggle, bracing his hands on either side of her to bear his weight before settling full-length on her body.
He grasped her hips and ground against her as he ravished her mouth. How could he ever get enough of her? Was a lifetime going to be enough? He didn’t think so. Every touch woke a hunger deep in his soul for more; every kiss left him parched for another. He wanted to crawl right up under her skin, wanted to be so deep inside her, he’d find completeness.
Daniel left her only long enough to remove his clothing and hers, then they were pressed together again, bared flesh sliding and slipping, sweating and flushed. They grew drunk on kisses, and trembled with need.
She drew one leg up, her heel digging into his haunches, her silky wet heat open and rotating against his raging hard-on. Aww hell. He lifted his hips, positioned the head of his cock at her entry, ready to stab into paradise. And stopped. Teeth gritted and body taut, he willed himself not to move.
Daniel stared down into her eyes, running a litany over and over in his mind: Getoffgetoffgetoff. But for the life of him he couldn’t go forward, couldn’t go back. Her slick sucking heat held him in place.
Then she wiggled beneath him and he sank infinitesimally closer to nirvana.
“Don’t. Move.” Pressing his forehead to hers, he bit out each word before taking several controlling breaths. He rolled away and reached into the bedside table. Must have broken some kind of record as he turned back, condom on, and pulled her onto her side. Sliding one slim leg over his hip, he grabbed her ass.
“Now move.”
Daniel stroked into her hard, capturing her gasp in a rough kiss as he kept thrusting, fast and deep. He kept pounding until the sharp edge of his need dulled and his desperation melted away. Then he slowed, savoring the sensation of being in her body again.
“Look at us, at how your body accepts mine,” he whispered hoarsely, gazing down to where they were joined, where the ruddy flesh of his erection slid back and forth, disappearing within the sweet confines of her tight heat.
Each time his shaft appeared, it glistened with her juices and he felt her clenching grip, sucking him back in.
And with each return stroke he was rewarded with another of her intoxicating moans.
Daniel moved
his hand between them and touched the exposed pink nub of nerves where she was most sensitive.
“Noooo.” It tore from her guttural and fierce, even as her body moved in contradiction.
“Yes.” His finger was slick with her cream and he felt her clit swell and firm beneath his touch. Daniel pulled out, leaving just the tip of his cock inside her. He made the barest motions with his hips, building the heat that would consume them both as she dug her nails into his upper arms.
When they were together like this, it was as if nothing existed beside what they could taste and kiss and hold. Nothing except her heart beating against his.
He caught Felicity’s mouth in another kiss as he started pumping again, and felt the rhythmic grip deep inside her squeeze his cock. He joined the race, hammering faster and harder, till she cried out his name, coming in sweet convulsions that milked coiling steams of ecstasy from his own body.
He rolled her onto her back, his mouth still sealed to hers, drinking from her passion, feeding her his love.
Daniel felt his heart grow with each desperate pounding stroke he made; then it threatened to burst with the words he held back as he came.
I love you.
Chapter Nineteen
Daniel was busy for most of the next day, but he cleared the hours around lunchtime to spend with Felicity and they headed up to Queen Street. Not the trendy part, but further west, where local galleries, secondhand shops and tiny exotic eateries still dominated. They hit the stores there, then doubled back to King Street East and visited several high-end showrooms. Three hours later he dropped her back at his place with an impressive amount of booty.
Before Daniel left, he warned her he’d be home late, then planted a very long, very deep kiss on her, just to tide them both over.
At first Felicity amused herself arranging and rearranging the new accessories, but eventually grew bored as she wandered from room to room. Disquiet nagged at her until she realized what she was doing. Memorizing.
The way the sunlight streamed through the windows and how those same rays would warm Daniel’s hair to a brilliant gold. And the exact spot where he’d propped his feet up on the coffee table when he sat on the couch. Then she stared at the sheets still rumpled from their tickle fight this morning—