by LuAnn McLane
Belinda used her straw to stir the deep red goodness. “Yep.”
He looked up at the top of the cabana and then back at her. “What do you think I’m made of?”
Belinda stopped stirring, took a leisurely sip, and then answered, “Finding that out is part of the plan.”
Oliver looked at her and then placed his own glass on a small round table. “I’ll be back with the snack tray. In the meantime, bottoms up.”
“No problem.” Belinda nodded her agreement, sucked hard on the straw, letting the cold, fruity concoction work its magic. She felt the sugar and rum start to kick in, but when Oliver returned she still couldn’t find the courage to reveal her plan. “Well, would you look at that bounty.” Picking up a long toothpick, she plucked a chunk of cheese from the tray.
“Dig in,” Oliver said, joining her on the lounge chair.
“Don’t mind if I do.” Belinda scooted up and sat cross-legged, glad to have him at arm’s length. She gazed over at his wide shoulders and ripped chest and shook her head. No, she wasn’t glad to have him at arm’s length. Relieved, maybe . . .
“Something wrong?” He picked up a grape and popped it into his mouth. Damn, the man made chewing sexy.
Belinda flipped her braid over her shoulder. “Depends upon how you look at it.”
“I know you’re still working on your drink, but have a heart and enlighten me.” He picked up a strawberry and bit into it.
Oh, she’d love to have a heart. Okay, it was now or never. She cleared her throat. “You’re right. We have this crazy chemistry goin’ on.”
He nodded, waited.
“I think it started back when we were kids and has been simmering over the years.”
“Interesting, wow, yeah, makes sense.”
“So . . .” Belinda paused and took a long sip that nearly gave her brain freeze.
“You are the captain of creating anticipation.”
Belinda gave him a slight shoulder shimmy. “I do fondly recall that I am queen for the day, so deal with it.”
Oliver laughed, but she was sort of serious.
“’Kay.” She nibbled on her bottom lip, inhaled a deep breath, and then began in a rush, “I think that if we have a torrid, flat-out, mind-bending fling, then we can keep this chemistry between us purely physical, thus refraining from getting serious.” She raised her palms upward. “You know? Or getting hurt.” Belinda looked at him for a sign that he was on board, but he just took a sip of his fruity drink and stared at her.
“Thoughts?” she asked. He sucked on his straw as if the drink contained the answers to life.
“I’m pausing while I sort through the pieces of my blown mind,” he said finally. “Torrid? Mind-bending?”
“It’s part of me selling the idea. Is it working?”
“I think . . . so. Yes, yes it is.”
“’Kay.” She shifted in her seat. “Let me go on. So then, we avoid someone getting hurt when this is all said and done and we go on our merry way.” She rested her hands on her knees in a yogalike position, hoping to appear calm when her heart was racing. With wide eyes, she waited for his reaction. It did make sense, right? When he frowned and remained silent, she added, “You get where I’m coming from, don’t ya?” She forced a light tone.
Finally, Oliver put his drink to the side. “Honestly, I really do.”
“And so?” She tilted her head, heart pounding, pulse racing, her body on high alert. “Are you in? Or is this the worst suggestion in the history of suggestions?”
“Are you kidding me? This is the best suggestion in the history of suggestions.”
Belinda felt a cool rush of relief slide over her heated skin. “Wow, that’s good, because this would have been super awkward.”
Oliver laughed. “I have a feeling this is going to be one helluva wild ride.”
“That’s the plan. Well, now that we’ve got that out of the way, what’s next?”
“That, my queen, is totally up to you.” He spread his arms wide. “I am at your disposal.”
While Belinda wanted to get the torrid fling ball rolling, she felt a sudden shyness override her desire.
Oliver narrowed his eyes. “Oh no you don’t. Second thoughts are not allowed.”
“I thought I was the queen.”
“Right.” Oliver leaned in closer. “You are, so start commanding.” He was close enough to touch, to pull in for a kiss. He sat up straight and challenged her with a sexy smile. “I’m ready.”
To delay her first command, Belinda concentrated on powering through the snack tray. Plus, the things going through her head were going to take a great deal of stamina. By the time she’d finished her drink, she’d nearly worked up the courage to utter her first command. She could ask for a tour of his house, giving herself time to rethink this whole thing. Perhaps they could swim in the ocean. Her ankle could probably handle a walk to the beach.
Or she could cut to the chase and tell him what she really wanted to do.
“So, have you decided?” He laced his fingers together and put them behind his head, the picture of calm.
“Um . . .” Belinda looked at his sculpted chest, his sexy six-pack, and swallowed hard. She recalled the smooth, warm skin beneath her palms. The intensity of his kisses. “Yes,” she said, deciding she might as well go for the gold. “I want you to take me inside and make wild and sexy passionate love to me.”
CHAPTER NINE
TRAGEDY
“As you wish.” Not wanting her to change her mind, Oliver immediately stood up and offered his assistance. She grasped his fingers, and when he detected a slight tremble, he scooped her up in his arms.
“Why are you carrying me again? My ankle is basically fine.”
“Because I like it,” he said next to her ear. “Put your arms around my neck, queenie.”
“This is silly,” Belinda grumbled, but held him tight while he carried her inside the pool house. He made a beeline for the bedroom and let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor.
“I think you need to get out of this wet swimsuit,” Oliver suggested, kissing her neck.
“I’ll do it in the bathroom.”
Oliver wanted the honors, but he nodded reluctantly. “Okay, toss me a towel please and don’t be too long.” She brought him a towel, then disappeared behind the door. After shedding his board shorts he dried off, pulled back the covers, and slid beneath the cool sheets. His cock reacted to her scent clinging to them. Wait . . . condoms. Oliver groaned, not wanting to put on his wet shorts or go streaking across the backyard to the main house. But then he remembered he’d given some to a buddy who had visited with his girlfriend a few months ago. Leaning over, he looked in the nightstand drawer and saw there were three. Yes! When he spotted the pile of bikinis tossed in the corner, he smiled, thinking he wanted to see her in each one of them, but he wanted to see her naked more than anything else.
Lacing his fingers behind his head, he watched the door and waited.
And waited.
What the hell was she doing? He looked down at his dick as if issuing an apology.
Oliver scrubbed a hand down his face, thinking she must be having second thoughts. But there wasn’t a window in there or anything to escape through, so she’d have to reenter the room at some point. Should he check on her? Call out her name?
Maybe she was creating anticipation again. Making him wait. He propped a couple of pillows behind his back and scooted up, trying to pose in a sexy position. He let the sheet slide to his waist and kept his gaze locked on the door. And then he heard the shower running. A shower would be fine if he was sharing it with her.
Minutes and then what seemed like hours ticked by, and just when he started to give up hope, the door opened and Belinda took one step into the room. Clad in a pink terry-cloth robe cinched at the waist, she looked
adorable. Her cheeks were flushed, and the slight rise and fall of her chest told him she was nervous. “Come on over here,” he said.
If she had walked any slower she would have been moving backward. “Sorry I took so long. I felt like I needed a quick shower.” She gave him a shy smile. “I am super squeaky clean now.”
“Then come on up here and get dirty,” Oliver said, and laughed. “That was the cheesiest thing I’ve ever said.”
Belinda laughed too, and some of the tension left the room.
“Sorry, I’m kinda nervous.”
“Me too.” She took a step closer. “Maybe we should have done this when we were all hot and bothered.”
“I’m getting that way looking at you, Belinda.”
She toyed with the ends of the belt.
“Come up here and join me and let me get you hot and bothered all over again.” Oliver held out a hand. “And, hey, I like it better this way. Slow and easy. A decision made soberly instead of in the heat of the moment.”
Belinda nodded and then took his hand. Her fingers felt cool and he brought the tips to his mouth and kissed each one. Odd, because he wasn’t usually one for gestures like that, but Belinda was bringing out a side of him he didn’t know existed.
“Come up here with me,” he said gently, and as soon as she was on the bed, he put his hands on her waist and guided her to straddle him. She sucked in a breath when he reached for the belt of her robe and deftly untied it. Then, slowly, he parted the soft terry cloth, revealing her breasts. His heart thudded at the sight. God, they were full and perky, with dusky pink nipples that seemed to be begging for his touch, his mouth. “Spectacular.” He looked into her eyes and she raised her eyebrows.
“Really?” she asked breathlessly, and he nodded. “That might be an overstatement.”
“Ah . . . no. An understatement. What do you want me to do?”
“Touch me.” She squared her shoulders, giving him full access.
“Gladly.” Oliver cupped the full globes, squeezing slightly. He rubbed his thumbs in slow circles over her nipples until her breath hitched. “Now what?”
“L-lick me . . . my . . . nipples.” When she leaned closer the movement caused friction between her and his dick, which was trying to poke through the sheet.
Dipping his head, Oliver took a pebbled nipple into his mouth, licked, and then nipped lightly before turning his attention to her other breast while tweaking her wet nipple with his fingers. He could feel her moist heat soaking through the soft cotton as she straddled him. When she rocked back and forth it was nearly his undoing and he groaned.
Oliver used the stubble on his chin to rub back and forth, hoping the abrasion on her sensitive nipples would drive her wild.
And it did.
“God, Oliver.” She leaned her head to the side and let go of a throaty groan that felt like velvet over his skin. He pushed the robe from her shoulders and then pulled his head back to look at her beauty. Creamy skin offset the deep rose of her nipples, wet, tight, begging for more attention. “Now I want . . .” His voice was nearly hoarse and he was so damned turned on that he could barely see straight. He reached out and rubbed the pads of his thumbs over the very tips of her nipples.
She arched her back and swallowed hard. “I—I want you buried deep inside me.”
“Right where I want to be.”
“Now.” She rolled to the side and onto her back. “Please.”
Oliver reached for the condom and had it on in record speed. Pushing back the sheet, he rolled over and came up to his knees. Easing her thighs apart, he leaned down and explored her body with his fingers, watching the play of emotion on her face. He wanted her nearly there because he wasn’t going to last long. She was slick, hot, and ready, but God, he needed just a taste. He spread her thighs wider, pausing to look at her, thinking she was simply gorgeous. Dipping his head, he parted her folds, stretching, exposing where she was most sensitive.
“Oliver?” she asked, pleaded, arching her hips, offering herself to him.
He licked her, stroked her with just the tip of his tongue and oh so lightly, keeping her from coming while driving her to the brink. She shuddered and pushed at his head. “No, I want—”
“This?” Raising his head, he slid his hands beneath her ass, tilted her upward, and thrust his dick deep into her sweet heat.
“Yes!” She gasped, fisted her hands in the sheets. Gritting his teeth, Oliver nearly exploded, but he pulled nearly out and then thrust again, and again. He watched the jiggle of her breasts and reveled in the sight of his dick entering her sweet body. She arched her back, tilted her head while he gave her everything, root to tip nearly out and then all the way in. When Oliver felt her walls tighten, tug, quiver, he thrust faster, and when she cried out his name, an orgasm that began at his toes ripped through him—a hot, intense, powerful wave of pleasure.
Blood pounded in his ears. He held her ass and stayed inside her while her body clutched, tugged, and squeezed more pleasure from him.
Wow . . .
Breathing hard, still dazed, Oliver looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, face and chest flushed. He couldn’t stop staring. She bit her bottom lip, the picture of erotic beauty. He looked at where their bodies remained intimately connected and felt an emotion he didn’t recognize. Could he love her this soon? No . . . not possible. Was it? And yet he felt a connection that went beyond mind-blowing sex.
Finally, when his arms protested, he slid his hands from her ass and rolled to the side, taking her with him. Holding her close, he kissed her and then kissed her some more, deeply, intimately, saying with his mouth what he couldn’t verbalize. Reluctantly, he pulled his lips from hers but remained silent because he had no words. He eased his dick from heaven, drawing a long sigh from her. “Babe, I’ll be right back,” he said, and headed to the bathroom to clean up.
Inhaling a quick breath, Oliver peered at his reflection in the mirror, trying to make sense of where his head was. “A mind-bending torrid fling, she said,” he uttered softly. “So we don’t get hurt.”
Well, too fucking late for that.
He shoved his fingers through his hair, splashed water on his face, and tried to get his shit together. After a couple of deep-breathing moments, he headed back into the bedroom.
“Come here, you sexy beast,” Belinda said in a sleepy tone.
Oliver joined her in bed and shifted until they were spooning. He didn’t want to say something cliché or stupid. Something lame like “That was amazing” couldn’t begin to describe what he’d just felt.
“I can’t even,” Belinda said in a near whisper.
“Me neither.” He pushed her braid to the side and kissed her shoulder.
“I mean, honestly.”
“I know.” He cupped her breast, and when he barely grazed her nipple with his thumb she whimpered.
“It’s like I’ve discovered new nerve endings. Everything is all tingly.”
Oliver chuckled low in his throat and then moved his fingers down her torso, leaving a shiver everywhere he touched. And when he just barely dipped his finger into her folds, she bucked her hips. “No . . . you can’t . . . I’m too . . .” she pleaded, but he touched her lightly again, spreading her wider. She sucked in a short breath, but he gave her no mercy, rubbing over her swollen clit. She twitched, pressed her back into his chest when he slid one finger inside for some sweet, slick honey. He rubbed a little bit harder until she panted. “God, I’m . . .” she began, but then she came with a husky cry, shuddering. Belinda’s entire body went limp in his arms.
“Babe, what was that like?” he said near her ear.
“Like . . . like, so intense that it was just a notch below painful, but, like, in a good way. I’m still tingling, throbbing.”
“Mmm,” he said, and wanted to ask if it had ever been that good for her, but couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
And yet he longed to know.
“I could not begin to move even if you had a hot fudge sundae within arm’s reach,” she said slowly.
“You talk about hot fudge sundaes a lot.”
“My fave.”
“I’ll take you into town for one.”
“You’re the best—”
“Pretend boyfriend ever?” he finished for her.
“Yeee-ah. Ev-er.”
“What do you want now, queenie?”
“A nap. A long, delicious nap so we can do this again. And again.”
“So I wore you out?”
“Mmm, no. You shattered me into a gazillion pieces.” She yawned. “Sweep them up and dump them on the bed. I’ll need them later. But if you find any cellulite, leave it there.”
With a silent chuckle, Oliver kissed her shoulder. He held her close until he felt her breathing even out. His heart finally calmed to a slow thud and he yawned, but holding her naked body next to his was worth staying awake for. Closing his eyes, he thought about her plan, which contained one giant flaw. He knew damned well he was going to continue to fall for her. There was no getting her out of his system. She was in there for good, that much he knew for sure. How this would all play out? He had no fucking clue.
And yeah, this might have been mind-blowing sex, but their connection already ran deeper than a purely physical relationship. Oliver felt a cold stab of fear. Losing his parents had left a gaping hole in his life. Loving with all your heart meant risking the horrific pain of loss. Grady had been the first of the Heart brothers to power through that fear when Arabella came back into his life. But Oliver didn’t know if he had that kind of courage. Was the risk worth it?
Belinda stirred, mumbled something, and then sighed. He smiled, thinking she must be dreaming. What would it feel like to wake up every morning with her in his arms? Of course, that brought up the next problem. They were trying to jump-start their careers, which meant constant travel. So beginning something only to have it ripped apart by distance wasn’t smart either. Maybe he was way ahead of himself. Overthinking, as usual. He wished he could learn to live in the moment.