Unsteady Rhythm (House of Archer Book 2)

by Raine Thomas

He wasn’t sure what to think when she took his hand and started pulling him after her towards the bedroom. He had expected more hesitation and a need for wooing.

  He was even more puzzled when they reached the candlelit bedroom and he saw some of her reading flashcards spread across the blanket. Had Sydney tricked him into bringing her here for another tutoring lesson?

  When he paused just inside the room, she turned and saw his expression. “Come on,” she urged, giving him a tug. “Trust me.”

  He gave her a wary look before moving closer to the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled him down until he sat beside her.

  “You noticed the flashcards,” she said, adjusting a few of them that were sloping towards her hip.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I saw no reason this shouldn’t be a learning experience for both of us.”

  This was a far cry from what he had anticipated. Did she really think making him try to read flashcards was going to get him in the mood? He had known she was inexperienced, but this was even worse than he’d imagined.

  “Sydney,” he began, wondering how to get her to back off of her idea.

  “So,” she plowed on, completely ignoring him, “I’ve gathered these flashcards and created a few of my own. I’ve even brought a few blank ones and a marker in case you want to try writing a word or two.”

  He fought a sigh as she reached for a few cards. He hated to dampen her enthusiasm, but this was doing nothing but dampening his.

  “Sydney,” he tried again.

  She lifted three cards and put them in order. “What we’re going to do is take turns putting cards together in sentences. You’ll have to read the cards to be able to do this. Then the other person has to do whatever the cards say.”

  He started to protest again, figuring he’d be firmer this time. His gaze fell on the three cards she held up.

  “Kiss my neck,” he read, sounding the words out.

  Her lips curved up into a slow smile. “Very good, Mr. Connors. Now, are you going to follow your teacher’s instructions?”

  She shifted her long blonde hair to expose the tantalizing curve of her neck. His gaze moved again to the cards on the bed. He took the time to try and read some of the words. He felt himself hardening when he was able to interpret some of them. He finally realized what she was doing.

  Foreplay, Sydney-style.

  “I have to warn you,” he drawled, moving closer to her, “I’m a terrible student.”

  Her laugh turned into an appreciative sigh as he lowered his head to the side of her neck and began nuzzling her there. She smelled even better than the candles. His jeans quickly grew uncomfortably tight.

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” she said breathlessly a couple of minutes later. “It’s your turn to make a sentence.”

  He reluctantly parted from her neck and adjusted his position so he could sit more comfortably. Remembering some of the words he’d been able to decipher during his scan, he dug out three of the cards and held them up.

  “Remove your sweater,” Sydney read.

  Rising from the bed, she stood in front of him and reached for the first button of her thin cardigan. He watched, transfixed, as she slowly undid the button and then moved on to the next one. By the time she reached the last button, he was battling not to tear it off her himself so he could get to the skin beneath it. His breathing grew less even as she slid the sweater off her shoulders at last, pulling her arms free and tossing the garment to the floor.

  “Did I do well, Mr. Connors?” she asked him in a low voice that had his libido leaping up to applaud.

  “Yeah,” he said gruffly.

  “Then it’s my turn.”

  His gaze remained on her as she leaned over the bed and sorted through the cards. Would she have him remove an article of his clothing? Maybe his jacket? Or would she ask him to do something to her?

  Just the anticipation was going to kill him.

  Finally, she stood back up and lifted the cards she had gathered. His gaze narrowed in concentration as he studied the words.

  “Lower my zipper,” he read.

  “Wonderful,” she said with another smile as she turned and presented him with her back.

  He realized his hands were as unsteady as his breathing as he reached up and grasped the small zipper at the top of her dress. He wanted to yank it down and forced himself to take his time. When he finally reached the small of her back, he noticed Sydney’s breathing was as uneven as his.

  She was getting aroused by this, too.

  She turned when the zipper was all the way down and stepped a couple of feet from the bed. She then reached up to hook her fingers in the straps of the dress. Her gaze remained on his face as she eased the dress down her body and allowed it to pool on the floor by her feet, leaving her standing in just a lacy pink bra, matching lace panties, and her high heels.

  Good. God.

  “Your turn,” she said, stepping out of the dress and returning to sit on the side of the bed.

  He couldn’t seem to stop staring at her. He’d gotten glimpses of what she kept hidden in her conservative dresses, but he still hadn’t anticipated this.

  She was the stuff of men’s deepest fantasies.

  He adjusted his position again. His lower body throbbed painfully, seeking release. He swallowed hard as he finally tore his gaze from Sydney’s perfect breasts and tried to focus on the cards. He decided not to tempt himself too much this time.

  “Remove my jacket,” Sydney read after he held up the cards. “Yes, sir.”

  She moved closer to him and grasped the zipper of his leather motorcycle jacket. Her eyes followed the zipper’s progress as she lowered it. He inhaled sharply when her hand released the zipper and grazed his erection. She glanced up at him as though wondering what had caused the reaction. Apparently deciding that he was okay, she lifted her hands and ran them over his chest on their way up to his shoulders. She kept her hands on his skin rather than the jacket as she lowered it from his arms. Her touch, gentle and deliberate, further aroused him.

  Finally, she tugged the jacket free. It ended up on the floor near her dress. She immediately turned back to the cards. He watched her look through them and was once again gripped in anticipation until she held up her choices.

  “Tongue-kiss me, no hands,” he read with some assistance from Sydney. The word “tongue” tripped him up.

  It also made him harder than a fucking rock.

  “Yes, ma’am, Ms. Ward,” he said, leaning forward and keeping his hands at his sides.

  She met him halfway. He went right for it, claiming her the moment her lips parted. The time for teasing was already past. He’d been craving the taste of her and now she had him painfully worked up.

  Her tongue met his with equal passion. Any fears he had that he would have to work around her shyness and inexperience soon evaporated. He knew she wanted him.

  The kiss ended much too quickly to satisfy him. Sydney pulled back and fought for breath. His gaze fell to her full, pink lips. He wanted to kiss her again.

  “Your turn,” she said.

  He grabbed the cards she had just been holding and hunted for one more. His patience strained as he failed to find the word he was looking for.

  Sydney held up a blank card and black marker. He hesitated. This would be the first time he’d tried to write something during their lessons. The hesitation vanished, though, when he looked again at Sydney’s beckoning lips.

  Taking the card and marker, he brought the word to mind: with. He wrote it down as quickly as he could and then resealed the marker, tossing it to the side.

  “Tongue-kiss me with hands,” she read with a small smile. “May I use my next turn first?”

  He wanted to kiss her now, but he nodded. She pulled a few cards and put them in order before holding them up.

  “Remove your shirt,” he read.

  It was gone in less than three seconds. Sydney didn’t do more than lift an eyebrow over his expedienc
y before he reached for her and pulled her into another kiss.

  This time, their hands got involved. His went immediately to her beautiful breasts. He felt her nipples harden beneath his touch and deliberately rubbed against them through the lacy fabric of her bra as their tongues mated, eliciting a deep moan from her.

  As though mimicking him, her hands rubbed the hard muscles of his chest, her fingers brushing against his nipples and sending pleasure shooting straight to his groin. He felt like he was going to burst right out of his jeans.

  That made his next turn easy to decide when she once again pulled away from him. He didn’t care that his hands shook as he fumbled with the cards until he found the right ones.

  “Remove my boots and pants,” she read. “All right.”

  She eased off the bed as though she had all the time in the world. It made him want to hurry her along. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this desperate.

  Seemingly oblivious to his torment, she went to her knees in front of him and began unlacing his first boot. Thank God she was quick about it, he thought, his gaze on the irresistible cleavage revealed by her bra. It only took her a minute to get his boots off.

  When she rose up slightly on her knees and reached for his belt, he realized how foolish he’d been. Why hadn’t he removed his own pants? Just the sight of her like this was enough to have him grasping the bed in a pitiful attempt to keep some kind of hold over his self-control.

  He watched her hands as she unfastened the belt and then reached for the button of his jeans. She eased the button free of the buttonhole and lowered his zipper, her eyes on the obvious bulge just beyond it. When she managed to get the zipper all the way down, he expected her to tell him to get up so she could tug the pants out from under him. Instead, she reached inside his jeans and stroked him through his underwear with a rather awed expression on her face. It was a wonder he didn’t come right then.

  He grasped her hand to stop her. “Uh-uh,” he said roughly. “That wasn’t what the cards said.”

  Her lips, slightly parted from her obvious arousal, pressed back together. She nodded and gave his pants a tug, clearly no longer in the teasing mood.

  That suited him just fine.

  He stood and allowed her to pull his jeans off completely, shoving them out of the way. He valiantly ignored how conveniently her head was placed when she returned to her former kneeling position in front of him. This wasn’t the time to go there.

  He took her hand and lifted her until they were both once again sitting on the bed. “Your turn,” he said, rather impressed with how calm he sounded considering he wanted to pound himself into her until she saw stars.

  She riffled through the cards and put three together, holding them up. He scanned them and issued a silent prayer of thanks to whatever god was watching over him.

  “Remove my bra,” he read. “Well, that would be my pleasure.”

  He reached behind her and released the clasp with a well-practiced move. Once again, her eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t speak as he reached for the straps and pulled her bra along her arms until it joined the rest of their clothes on the floor.

  He didn’t even give himself time to register more than she was just as magnificent without the bra as she’d been with it on before he grappled with the flashcards and once again strung together what he wanted to do.

  “Tongue-kiss me with hands,” Sydney read.

  She immediately leaned forward. He pulled her closer, one hand twining into the soft hair at the nape of her neck as he kissed her and the other hand moving to her naked breast.

  He didn’t know how long that kiss lasted, but it wasn’t nearly long enough. His hands couldn’t remain still. They wanted to touch every part of her gorgeous body.

  The scent of her arousal filled his senses, stoking his already feverish desire for her until he didn’t know where pleasure ended and pain began. He didn’t feel as though he could ever get enough of her.

  Sydney seemed to feel the same way. Her tongue met his again and again as she stroked his chest and his back. After a while, her hands moved lower.

  That was when he put a stop to the kiss. “Your turn,” he said choppily, edging away from her.

  It took her longer to respond this time, he noted. She seemed to be having trouble focusing. He would have felt proud of that except he was pretty sure she was the one driving both of them crazy. If he’d been controlling things, they would probably have been done by now.

  She took one of the blank cards and wrote a word on it. She then set the marker aside and picked up two other cards. He waited with the eagerness of a teenager experiencing sex for the first time as she arranged the cards and held them up for him to read.

  “Make me come,” he read.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Sydney supposed she should feel embarrassed hearing Keith say the words she wrote.

  She didn’t.

  She wanted him to bring an end to the incredible agony he had provoked in her. Her every thought centered on the excruciating pressure he had built to a critical point. She felt as though someone else had taken over her body and her mind.

  That person wanted Keith Connors more than she could have ever believed.

  She saw the same intense heat in his eyes as he looked at her. He took the cards from her hand and they disappeared among the others on the bed. Without a word, he pushed her until she was lying on her back, her knees still over the edge of the mattress. She didn’t issue a word of protest when he grabbed her panties and yanked them down to her ankles, his movements having none of the finesse of romance and all of the heedlessness of a male in the grip of lust.

  It was with quite a bit of surprise that she realized she liked the lust just as much. Maybe more.

  He didn’t bother unhooking her panties from around her ankles where they had caught on her high heels. He just grabbed her behind the knees and pulled her forward until she reached the edge of the mattress. He then parted her knees, knelt in front of her, and used his tongue on her.

  She gasped. Pleasure speared through her. Liquid heat pooled in her lower belly as the tension continued to build. Her hands fisted in the blankets beneath her body as his tongue moved rhythmically against her, bringing her closer and closer to bliss. She heard moans and whimpers and vaguely realized they were coming from her.

  The erotic strain he was imposing on her body soon overwhelmed her. She didn’t think she could bear it. As though sensing this, Keith used a few more deft movements of his tongue to send her careening over the edge. She cried out as her body convulsed in powerful spasms.

  He somehow drew out her orgasm using that wicked tongue. Just when her body had eased back a bit from that unbelievable precipice, he started building her back up again. His hands moved up along her body to her breasts. His fingers teased her sensitive nipples, heightening her pleasure. It seemed impossibly fast that he had her rocketing over the edge a second time, this orgasm even more intense than the last.

  She thought he would rise then, but he didn’t. He simply slowed the movement of his tongue as though to give her body time to recover again. She thought maybe she should insist that he stop, though for the life of her she couldn’t imagine why. Except he couldn’t possibly be enjoying this as much as she was.

  Could he?

  She started to push up on the mattress. When his touch moved down to between her legs, she settled back down.

  She drew in a sharp breath over the pressure she felt this time and realized he was adding a finger to the mix. It took a minute for her body to adjust to the new experience. Soon, though, the pleasure returned, rekindled by his busy tongue. He found a spot inside her that had her thigh muscles quivering. Using gentle thrusting motions, he propelled her into a third orgasm.

  “God, Sydney,” he said as he eased his touch from her. “I can’t wait anymore.”

  She watched wordlessly as he rose and went into the bathroom, soon returning with a condom. Despite everything they had already done
, nerves nearly got the better of her when he removed his underwear and tore open the condom to put it on. She had to swallow back the flicker of fear over the sheer size of him.

  Knowing Keith would likely stop if he sensed her doubts, she occupied herself with removing her shoes and panties and pushing herself back onto the bed. Her hand brushed flashcards off as she went until she had cleared the space near the middle of the bed.

  The mattress dipped as Keith climbed onto it. Sydney’s heart started racing. She couldn’t decide if it was in anticipation of having real sex for the first time or in fear over the same thing.

  “Try to relax,” he said as he moved closer. “Tongue-kiss me with hands.”

  The reference to the flashcards made her smile. He urged her back until she was lying against the pillows. His hips moved between hers, bringing on one last jangle of nerves before he captured her mouth. She soon forgot about how they were positioned. His hands explored her, caressing her breasts, her stomach, her thighs. Everywhere he touched sent sparks of pleasure bursting through her. She didn’t know how it was possible, but he was working her back up to peak again.

  When she felt him at her entrance this time, she knew it wasn’t going to be a finger penetrating her. Her thighs instinctively tensed to hold him at bay. He broke away from her mouth, looking at her as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Do you want me to stop?” he asked.

  That he would ask—more, that he would stop if she said yes—made her heart ache with the love she held for him. “No,” she whispered. “Just...can you go slow?”

  His jaw muscle flexed once. “I’ll try.”

  It was all she could ask. The strain was already showing in his expression and the sweat beading on his brow.

  She parted her legs in invitation. He immediately moved forward. His lips again captured hers as he finally began entering her. It seemed more difficult than she expected, taking him a couple of attempts. She did her best to focus on his kiss, trying to hold onto the pleasure it brought her. But it was impossible to ignore the pain of his invasion, even as slow and careful as it was. She broke away from his mouth, afraid she would accidentally flinch and bite him.