Oh, the things they could do together.
Eli sat up, his hooded gaze brushing over her as she stood before him, a bold expression and seductive smile on her face. Nell pulled the babydoll top off and let it slip out of her fingers onto the floor, and then she unhooked her bra, her gaze never leaving his. When she shimmied the jeans and panties over her thighs, they joined the mess of clothes on the floor.
She wasn’t shy about her body. No, she wasn’t willowy, would never be a runway model, but she was proud of her curves and had fought hard to maintain her figure just as it was. If a man didn’t like it—and she certainly had her share of men who admitted openly they preferred a size two—well, that was their loss. She wasn’t going to cry or gnash teeth over it. And she damned well wasn’t going to change who she was, who she wanted to be, just to please a man.
She’d spent too many years trying to do that.
“You’re beautiful,” Eli said, his voice low and hoarse.
Without a word, Nell released her hair from her ponytail and let it fall over her shoulders, settling in thick waves down her back.
She never could’ve imagine a moment like this happening, standing in Eli’s living room, stripped completely naked and watching him do the same. She shoved ‘Teenage Wallflower Nell’ aside and told her to shut up. ‘Grownup, Confident Nell’ wanted to savor each inch of skin he revealed as he pulled off his tee shirt.
Sure, she’d already enjoyed the sight the day before. But now she was closer and had the chance to truly appreciate the corrugated leanness of his abdomen, the broad shoulders with rounded muscles and pecs that rippled under taut, tanned skin.
She nearly fell over in a faint and he hadn’t even pushed down his jeans. Heat built between her thighs, already lusting after him, and when he was free of all his clothes she surely wasn’t disappointed. His arousal was blatant, aggressive. Magnificent.
“You’re beautiful.” She returned his words, unable to speak above a whisper.
He moved fast. Before she was able to say more, he had her in his arms, his smooth skin pressed against hers. He swung her around and in a quick move laid her back on the couch, taking possession of one of her nipples with his mouth while his palm kneaded the other. She throbbed under his attention, from the way his tongue laved over the pebbled peak and his straining sex pressed against her.
“Protection,” she murmured, hoping she didn’t sound garbled because she could hardly catch her breath. She didn’t want to stop, not really, but it was the grownup thing to do. The smart thing to do.
She heard him mutter a curse, but he pressed a hard kiss against her mouth and left her for less than a minute. When he returned, he held a small foil packet. Nell grabbed it from his fingers and tore it open. “Allow me.”
Eli groaned as if he were in pain as she stroked his thick shaft, and then rolled the condom on with care, but she knew better. He was in as much need as she was, yet she teased him anyway. Nothing like prolonging the pleasure, even when she knew she’d explode if she waited much longer. By the looks of it, Eli would do much the same.
She reclaimed his mouth and pulled him down so his body covered hers. She wrapped her legs around his trim waist. He entered her with a driving thrust that caused her to cry out. Eli buried his face against her breasts, licking and sucking the hard peaks.
There was nothing gentle about their lovemaking, but Nell didn’t want sweet and tepid. She wanted to unlock the animal in this man. She grasped onto the muscled planes of his back while he surged in and out of her body, bucking and arching against her in perfect rhythm. When his fingers joined in, swirling over her swollen bud of flesh, she couldn’t hold herself any longer. Shuddering in a burst of fire, Nell gasped, sucked air in through her teeth and cried out Eli’s name in a blinding, palpitating moment of release.
If she thought he’d reach his climax soon after, she was mistaken. He slowed his pulsing rhythm, moving his kisses to her throat and then her lips, drawing on the staccato rhythm of her breath. He withdrew long enough to reposition them so she was perched on his lap, facing him. Still he surged on, thrusting up to meet her as his mouth took possession of her breasts once more and his hands slid down her back to cup her buttocks, lifting her and lowering her body onto his.
He loved her thoroughly, until she couldn’t take it anymore. With a final, deep thrust, he pulled her to him and bucked inside her with his release. Nell pressed her lips against his to absorb his groan of pleasure, smoothing her hands along his cheeks, his shoulders and chest. His entire body shuddered beneath hers, but he never let go, not until his breathing returned to normal.
“My God,” he murmured and kissed her neck. His fingers slid through her hair and across her sweat slicked back. “I don’t think I can move.”
Nell chuckled. She didn’t want to move. He was still inside her and it felt good. Teasingly, she swirled her hips and was pleasantly surprised when she felt him grow hard again.
“What’s this?” she whispered as she wriggled. “You have more?”
With a gentle glide, she stroked her body against his, curious to see how much more they could stand. If he could go again without a break, how many times could they make love in one night? Hell, she wasn’t busy tomorrow. She wanted to find out.
“You make me crazy,” he murmured and slid his fingers between her legs once more, circling around her engorged clit, sending her back into a frenzy. Impatiently she pressed against him, hot, wet, and abandoned. As he worked her, she matched his fluid movements, grinding her body into his, rising and falling until they both shuddered and convulsed, coming together in a pulsating flood.
She fell against him and closed her eyes. “Oh, my God. I’ve never known a man who could do that twice in a row.”
Eli chuckled against her shoulder. “I’ve never known a woman who could make me do that twice in a row.”
Chapter 7
Eli watched as Nell moved around his kitchen, wearing nothing but her panties and his tee shirt and looking thoroughly ravaged. And thoroughly content. Now that’s what I want a woman to look like after I’ve made love to her.
She pulled two bowls out of the cabinet, stretching up so he caught a view of her gorgeous, rounded rear. Insisting she serve their dessert, she had ordered Eli to stay put while she figured out his kitchen.
If only she’d left the tee shirt off. Maybe he’d ask her to remove it. At the moment he preferred to see her naked, at least in the privacy of his own home. Especially when he hadn’t had his fill of her yet.
She came back with the two bowls of Ben and Jerry’s, liberally covered with broken Oreos, handed him a bowl and sat down, facing him.
“Spend the night with me,” he said impulsively.
“Okay.”
No discussion, no pros and cons or doubts. If anything, Nell seemed absolutely sure of herself, her own woman doing things on her own terms. Including taking a lover.
What to think about that? He wasn’t used to such a frank woman, certainly not one so comfortable in her own skin.
“Gwen isn’t going to be appalled?”
Nell grinned against her spoon and slid it into her mouth. He watched with fascination as she pulled it back out. Wicked thoughts flooded his brain and he reined them in. Talking was enough right now.
“Of course she will be. But she won’t be surprised. Gwen knows me for who I am. She believes you’d be good for me. I’ve assured her I wouldn’t be good for you.”
“I’m not worried.”
She paused to study him. “No, you don’t look worried. Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“You don’t seem the type to have an affair, especially with someone you just met. Why am I here?”
“No, I haven’t had an affair or a one night stand, or sex with a stranger before. In the days when it would’ve been acceptable, I was married. Believe it or not, I loved my wife. Shelly kept me on my toes for a very long time.”
“What happened?”
<
br /> “She figured out this was all our life was bound to be, and stopped feeling content.”
“As soon as she realized she wasn’t going to live the glamorous life of a major league pitcher’s wife.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you still love her?”
That was easy enough to answer. “No. There’s a big difference between being content and being in love. She changed too much, or maybe I just started seeing the real Shelly when she stopped trying.”
“Are you even friends now?”
Eli shrugged. “Not sure what we are. Sometimes she can be outrageously flirty with me, like nothing ever changed from the old days, and other times it’s like she barely registers I’m in the room. Hot and cold. For the kids’ sake we keep things as friendly as possible. Got to give her credit for that.”
“I’m glad. Having to deal with hostility, even my own, with my ex, well, it makes moving on hard sometimes. Not that I’ll ever go back to what I was before, or to him. But whether I like it or not, he’s a part of my life. We didn’t have children, but the fashion industry will link us for a very long time.”
“You two had words today.”
He watched the transformation on her face from that tranquil beauty to one bundled with energy. Her brow furrowed, her jaw tightened. “Yeah. We go through this every few weeks, generally when he knows I’m not around. He comes into my studio just to take a peek at what I’m up to. Javier believes that since he ‘made’ me, he has every right to keep tabs on me. But I have a show coming up. I don’t want anyone to see my designs ahead of time. If anything were to get out—”
“He wouldn’t.”
“Oh, yes he would.”
“Wow.”
“Thing is, someone must be clueing him into what’s going on with me, but I have a small staff and I trust them all explicitly.”
Eli just shook his head. Big city intrigue. Fashion espionage. Still, he could see how much she worried about it. Everything was on the line for her and this guy had already robbed her of so much. He admired her strength and perseverance to rise above it all and move forward.
Now he kept it easy. “Gwen’s daughter may be onto something with this ice cream and cookies thing,” he commented with a last bite of the dessert.
“She’s brilliant,” Nell confirmed with a satisfied smile.
He collected their bowls and took them to the kitchen. It was already nine o’ clock and he had her all night. He glanced into the living room and watched her recline on the sofa, making herself comfortable. Good. He wanted her relaxed.
She’d asked why he’d invited her to stay, and the reasons, besides the obvious, surprised him a little. Sex with a stranger was never his style. But she couldn’t be considered a stranger, per se. They’d known each other for two days now, but more importantly, Gwen Demers obviously adored her and if anything, Eli trusted Gwen’s judgment of character.
And she fascinated him. A tough, big city woman, who, he firmly believed, hid a girl who’d grown up with some pain. She had no problems admitting that she was heavy as a child, and he knew damned well how hard that could be to deal with. For a moment shame washed over him, a chilling feeling he didn’t like. In high school he’d been the kind of guy who teased the awkward kids. Back then he believed it helped him with his own popularity. He hated to look back on how twisted his youthful logic used to be.
Maybe he’d still be that kind of guy if he hadn’t volunteered to assist the coach of the local Special Olympics softball team after getting out of high school. It opened his eyes and altered his life. He still coached, and in the winter he worked with the younger kids who participated in snowshoe racing. Besides firefighting and being a dad, it was the most important work he did.
Another thing Shelly never understood. She’d never moved on from that ‘high school superiority’ frame of mind.
Again he glanced at Nell, the gorgeous, sensual woman who’d captured his attention, and realized she probably would’ve been a target of his idiocy back in the day. But he wasn’t that kid anymore. And Nell never had to know what he’d been like in high school.
He wanted her again. Meant to have her again, the same way she had him.
He didn’t have to wait long, once he joined her. Nell cuddled up against him, her fingers tracing his chest. Her warm breath, tinged with the sweetness of the ice cream, turned him on and he could barely believe his body’s quick reaction. He remained quiet as her hand slipped under the waistband of his boxers and caressed his already hardening penis.
“Nell,” he murmured, his voice low. He pressed against her fingers, unwilling to break the contact.
“Hmm?”
He chuckled in spite of himself, and felt her ease the boxers down, raising his hips so she could pull them off completely. Her touch became bolder, stroking him from the base of his erection right up to the head before smoothing back down. The friction sparked a fire in him that he wanted to quench within her body, but instead of lifting herself up to him, she slid off the couch and knelt before him.
“Oh God,” he choked when she gave him one wicked wink then lowered her mouth over his stiff shaft. Time seemed to stop as she took him all in, then pulled up, slowly. When she reached his tip, she swirled her tongue around the head, and went back down on him.
One of his hands fisted loosely in her hair, the other, more tightly on the couch pillow. The things she could do with her tongue would’ve made him blush if all the blood hadn’t left his head and gone south. While she pumped him with her mouth, her hand stroked underneath, rolling his balls around lightly. This was exquisite torture and he never wanted it to stop, yet he didn’t want to have an orgasm this way.
Then again, maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing. But he wanted her to feel the same unbelievable, mind-altering sensations she sent through him with the stroke of her lips and tongue on his length.
He gently pushed her away, momentarily regretting the loss of her mouth against him. He urged her up onto the sofa, slid her panties off and took her place on the floor.
“Not fair,” Nell murmured, but she didn’t complain when he parted her legs and slid his finger across her wet center. Her breath caught 0n a ragged sigh and he glanced up long enough to see her eyelids flutter shut. One of her hands caressed a tight nipple. As he let his fingers dip and swirl against her clit, he watched in fascination as she pinched and teased each rosy peak.
Oh, God. If he continued watching her, he’d come right there, so he took his eyes off the pleasure she gave herself and centered his attention back on her sweet, succulent juncture. Kissing her inner thigh, he let his fingers pluck at her hardened bud, then slide further into her body. Juices flowed from her, and eagerly, he dipped his head to taste them. From above she keened his name, raising her hips against him in a pumping motion.
Nothing else mattered, not the pent-up desire that centered in his engorged cock. All he wanted was to drive this woman crazy. Gently, he nipped at her clit, dragging his teeth over the hot, delicious bit of flesh, then laved it with his tongue before sucking it. In the meantime, his fingers continued their exploration of her wet depths.
“God, oh God, Eli,” she cried brokenly. Her hands had abandoned her breasts and gripped the edge of the couch like a vise. “I’m coming.” And with a long, ragged sigh, her muscles tightened around his fingers as he continued to pump them in and out of her, and he tasted the fresh flow of cream from her core.
He barely had time to pull away when she urged him up, then turned so she leaned over the couch, her lovely, full bottom facing him. After sheathing his erection in the extra condom he’d left on the table, he slipped into her slick heat, basking in the way her body moved against him. With each measured, fluid stroke, he delved deeper into her body. It didn’t take long for him to push her over the edge again and he followed close behind in one shuddering wave.
From somewhere downstairs Eli heard a phone ring, then felt movement next to him. He didn’t open his eyes, but knew that N
ell had left the bed to answer her phone.
When he did crack an eyelid he saw gray light bleed through the curtains. Still not sunrise; who the heck was calling her this early? He didn’t want to move, had planned on staying in bed for at least another hour. Who knew when he’d get the chance to have her for the whole night again? And what a night. He wasn’t sure when they finally dropped off to sleep. It couldn’t have been that long ago.
The woman was a powerhouse. When was the last time he’d been able, or even wanted to make love four times in one night? And that didn’t include the sex they’d had downstairs, before dessert. Man. He hadn’t been like this during his first marriage and supposedly in his sexual prime.
He lay there for a long moment and then tossed the covers off and sat up. Might as well get some coffee started. Maybe they could drink it out on the deck, watch the sunrise, a romantic thought.
Eli shoved it aside. Romance was not supposed to play a role in this relationship. They’d discussed that already. A good time, good conversation, good sex when they could sneak it in. No ties, no promises.
A cynical arrangement, one that fit him, but what choice was there? Well, they could stop seeing each other, but she’d be leaving New Hampshire soon enough.
Quickly he shoved his legs into his sweatpants and headed downstairs. He found Nell pacing furiously, a phone up to her ear. She wore a stormy expression similar to yesterday, when she’d been on the phone with her office.
“I don’t know what’s open at this hour. I’m sure I’ll find it. Maybe the grocery store. Then I’ll call you, as soon as I figure out how much damage control is going to have to be done. Thanks. And stay by the phone.”
She didn’t say goodbye when she closed her cell.
“Trouble?” Eli asked, trying to ignore the fact that she was standing there with no clothes on. She seemed completely oblivious to her state of undress.
“Yes, but I should’ve seen it coming. What time does the grocery store open? I’m guessing they have magazines.”
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