“Good thing I’m hung like a cobra.”
She grinned.
Chapter Eight
Ally’s head whirled. She’d been so nervous waiting for Caspar to tell her why he’d been in prison, and now that he had, she seethed with fury at the way he’d been treated. Ally could imagine what an Albanian jail was like and guessed he’d had a hard time. She ached with the desire to stop his hurting yet wanted to smack him upside the head. Why live in a place where everyone hated him? Why didn’t he move? There had to be more to it than self-flagellation.
Ding. A light bulb moment. No money. He’d sold that medal because he was desperate. She only had to look around. Mismatched crockery and glasses. Only one chair. The reduced food at the supermarket. Damn. Ally didn’t dare tell him what she’d done in Militaria. She swallowed another spoonful of pudding.
“I’m not hung like a cobra,” he said with a groan. “The lie was killing me.”
Ally laughed. “Good. I’m scared of snakes.”
Caspar looked straight at her. “Will you stay the night?”
“Do you have cold feet?” Shit, shit, shit. What happened to her “no sleeping with a guy on the first date” rule?
He laughed. “Not if I keep my socks on.”
“I’ll find a way to warm them without.”
She watched his Adam’s apple rise and fall.
“Pudding’s all gone,” Ally said. “I’d lick the dish but you’d think I had no manners.”
Caspar rose to his feet. “One more view of your pink tongue and I’d have been on the floor. You’re going to think I’m crazy for asking, but will you come outside with me?”
Ally would have gone anywhere with him. Almost. He held out her coat and fastened the buttons from the bottom up. As he wrapped his scarf around her neck, Caspar brushed her throat with his thumbs and a bolt of pure lust almost took her out at the knees. His own coat on but left unbuttoned, Caspar clasped her hand and pulled her to the back door, flicking off the lights as they went.
“Wow, it’s dark and very quiet,” Ally whispered. “I’m not used to this. London is all lights and action. Why am I whispering?”
Caspar stood behind her on the decking as they faced the woods at the bottom of the garden. He wrapped an arm around her waist. “Look up.”
Ally tilted her head back onto his shoulder and sighed. The sky looked like a sheet of black velvet scattered with diamonds.
“Know anything about the constellations?” Caspar breathed in her ear.
“Not a thing,” she lied, anxious he not stop talking. His warm breath caressed her skin and sent ripples of pleasure cascading through her body.
“The trick is to start with one easily recognized signpost and work from there. Look north, see the Big Dipper—Ursa Major?”
“The ladle with the long handle?”
“Ah, so you do know something. Follow the last star at the lip of the bowl down through the sky to Polaris, the North Star.” His arm brushed her cheek as he pointed. “Polaris is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper—Ursa Minor. The Big and Little Dippers swing around Polaris once a day like a slow-motion carousel. Follow the handle to arrive at Arcturus in the Bootes constellation.”
“It’s like a pentagram.”
“Yep. Now imagine a hole in the bowl of Ursa Major. Drop through it into the constellation of Leo. The brightest star there is Regulus.”
“Oooh.”Ally’s knees shook. His fingers caressed her waist through her coat.
“Turn a little. See that line of stars?” Caspar pointed. “Orion’s belt. Follow the belt to the left and you get to Sirius. The brightest star in the night sky. Part of the constellation of Canis Major.”
“How far away is Sirius?” Ally asked.
“About eight and half light years.”
Ally sighed. “So what we see now is the light from eight and half years ago. It might have blown up or disappeared eight and quarter years ago but we can still see it.”
“Weird, isn’t it?”
“Is that the nearest star to Earth?” she asked.
“No, that would be the sun.” Ally elbowed him in the chest and Caspar oomphed and laughed. “There are five stars, not counting the sun, closer to us than Sirius. I could name them but I don’t want you to fall asleep until I’ve had my evil way with you.”
He slipped his fingers between her coat buttons and Ally sighed as his hand cupped her breast. Her nipple hardened under his caress, and when she groaned, his breathing quickened against her ear. Caspar pulled her back tighter against him, and Ally felt the hardness of his cock through the thickness of her coat. She reached around to pull him against her, rocking into him until he moaned.
“Jesus, Ally,” he whispered in her ear. “Did no one ever tell you not to play with fire?”
She turned to face him and all her organs slumped into a puddle at the bottom of her stomach. Lust had fought a swift battle with common sense and annihilated it. Caspar had become the brightest star in her world. No point denying she’d fallen for him. No point trying to play it cool. He’d been hurt and opened up to her, now the need to defend and protect raced through her body like a hungry tiger.
Did he have any idea how sexy he was? ’Course he does, you idiot. But Ally ignored the warning voices—Tom’s, Neil’s, Mike’s, Rose’s and her own. You don’t sleep with guys on the first night.
Except technically, if she stretched the point, this was the second.
He took hold of the ends of her scarf and twisted them in his fingers. Ally licked her dry lips and Caspar’s eyes turned black in the dim light. Little by little he tugged her closer, moving his hands up the scarf until his thumbs stroked her neck and their lips were a breath apart.
“I wanted to kiss you out here under the stars,” he whispered. “I wanted this first kiss to be special.”
“Maybe we’ll kiss and hate it,” Ally said. “You might slobber or lunge like a dog or have a rubbery tongue.”
Caspar laughed. “No pressure then?”
Ally’s heart raced as if she were running. She shouldn’t have joked. She was frightened now that the kiss wouldn’t work. What if her kiss was crap? She—
“Stop worrying. Stop thinking.” Caspar moved even closer. “We can’t fail at this. I want you too much.”
Their closed lips met and stayed closed, as though by mutual consent they’d take this step by step and savor each sensation. Caspar let go of the scarf and caught her neck in his strong hands, angling her head as he pressed his lips harder against hers. Ally’s bones crumbled.
Don’t let me fall.
Her blood thickened in her veins as her head swam against the tide, struggling to think when thinking became impossible.
Don’t let me faint.
This kiss…
They pushed against each other, chest against chest, grinding their hips together as their sealed lips fused. Ally slid her hands under the open sides of his coat, over his shirt onto his back, his muscles rippling under her touch as his hands moved up and down her spine. Caspar drew back a little so they could catch their breaths, and then painted a lazy line along the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue. Muscles clenched and released in her core.
This kiss…
Ally copied Caspar and trailed the tip of her tongue from one side of his mouth to the other, but when she felt his lips move apart, she slipped inside. His mouth smiled against hers and as she tentatively explored this new world, he clutched her more tightly and Ally clung to him as if he were the only thing between life and death.
This kiss…
The sudden flick of a moist tongue darting into her mouth made her start, but Caspar kissed liked an angel, like a devil, like no one Ally had ever been kissed by before. Soft and gentle turned firm and passionate. Mouths open, their tongues fought and parried. They kissed until they were gasping into each other’s mouth, arms wrapped around each other, bodies rocking together.
Oh God, I could come from just his kiss.<
br />
They finally broke apart and gulped air. Caspar stared at her without blinking.
“Damn,” Ally panted. “That’s it then. We’re not compatible. Nice to have met you. Thanks for dinner. See you around.”
His mouth twitched. “Maybe it’s worth another shot?”
“You think?”
“Oh yeah.” Caspar’s face widened in a broad smile.
They started slow, finding their way around each other’s mouth as tentatively as if they’d stepped onto soft sand and expected to get sucked down at any second.
Slow kisses turned fast. Soft mouths turned hard. They kissed with mouths closed. They kissed with mouths open. Cold air swirled around them while they blazed in each other’s arms. Ally threaded her fingers in his hair. Caspar threaded his in hers. He kissed his way down the side of her neck. She licked her way down the column of his throat. Their lips clashed again and they moaned and groaned and sighed.
I could kiss him all night.
I could kiss him for the rest of my life.
Ally’s heart was going to explode. His hand slid back inside her coat, over her ribs and down her back, over her butt and he pulled up her dress. Ally trembled as his finger slipped under the lace at her hip and drifted down the damp crease of her groin. His touch, his heavy breathing, his soapy scent drove her wild. Her panties were wet through, and the catch in his breath when he realized was echoed by a hitch in hers. Caspar pulled his mouth back while his finger kept moving. He stared at her, panting into her face as his fingertip circled her swollen clit.
“Oh God,” he sighed, and blinked.
His eyes turned soft and heavy as he rubbed and pressed the little nub of nerve-rich tissue at the entrance to her folds, and Ally rocked into him, never taking her gaze from his. Already brought to the brink of eruption by Caspar’s kisses, she unraveled under his touch, flooded in heat and moisture as she released a keening cry of pleasure into the night sky.
Then snapped it off when she realized what she was doing.
“Oh fuck,” Caspar whispered.
He was trying not to laugh and Ally groaned. “Do you think I sounded like a lesser spotted owl?”
His body shuddered against hers as he laughed. They stood pressed together, his hand still between her legs as her muscles softened and slowed their clenching spasms and finally relaxed. Then he started teasing her again, and Ally’s body responded at once, captivated by lust, captured in a master’s thrall. Still they stared at each other in the darkness and neither dared to stop looking in case this wasn’t real, in case something pulled them apart.
Caspar’s heart pounded all over his body but loudest and hardest in his head. Ally was so responsive. Was it her? Was it him? He had no problem making women come but this was different. Ally was different. He could feel something taking hold inside him, wrapping fingers around his heart. Fear? Panic at the thought that once he had her, he might not be able to let her go?
Something else?
He could stop it now before it went any further. Walk her home and never kiss her again.
Yeah, right.
Then he felt her come for the second time on his hand. The wet heat of her drove his cock into a frenzy of need. If he didn’t fuck her, the need for her would always burn in his gut. She wanted him. He could have her. It was the way he operated.
Let her go.
What is my fucking problem?
He brought his hand from between her legs to his mouth, licked his fingers and growled in delight. Fuck it.
“Owls and grizzlies in the woods?” Ally whispered.
Caspar felt another feral sound roar up his throat and tried to suck it back down. Fearing he’d fail, he held her tight and buried his face in her hair. This was sex. He’d fucked women before who he really liked and walked away. He could do it again. If he fucked Ally, he’d get her out of his system and they could both get on with their lives.
No, no, no.
That wasn’t what he wanted.
Was it?
Her hand crept down between their bodies and his heart went berserk. When she laid her palm over his cock, Caspar tried to gulp air into frozen lungs. If she did more than— Oh fuck it. The button of his pants flipped open, she dropped to her knees on the decking and pulled his zipper down. One look up into his face and he trembled. No lipstick left on her lips. It was probably all over his mouth, but who cared?
Caspar issued a threat to his desperate cock. Not yet or else. His balls ached. They’d wrestled themselves into a knot the moment she’d walked into the house and taken off her coat. Caspar was amazed he hadn’t already gushed like a fountain.
When Ally’s fingers pushed down his boxers and his cock sprang out to scent the night air, Caspar fought to lock his knees. She wrapped her fingers around him, breathed on him, and his heart thundered against his ribs. His cock quivered with arousal, the head swollen with blood and furiously leaking pre-cum. Ally licked his scrotum and Caspar clamped his lips together, willing his body to stay calm. He had the fingers of one hand in her hair, and with the other hand he reached for the base of his cock to add physical persuasion to his mental plea for restraint. He accidentally nudged her jaw and she opened her mouth and enveloped his balls, sucking them into wet heaven.
Oh sweet Jesus Christ. Her tongue pressed and teased with the utmost care, but it was like stirring liquid explosive with a sputtering sparkler. Caspar threatened, screamed, pleaded with his body to wait, hang on just a couple of minutes. Don’t let him look like some green schoolboy. She let him out of her mouth and licked up his length, her tongue fluttering over his taut skin. Her warm mouth and the cold night air worked together to weaken his knees. Caspar wanted to watch but didn’t dare. His eyes were screwed shut.
When Ally slid her tongue across the little slit at the top of his cock, his hips jerked as if his butt had been hit by a cattle prod. He had both hands on her head now, one trying to pull her back, the other urging her forward. He hoped she could make sense of what he wanted. She used his cock to paint her lips, sucked him against the inside of her cheek, rolled her tongue over the flat of his crest, nibbled her way up and down, pumped, squeezed and teased while Caspar’s flimsy control rolled inexorably down the slippery slope to surrender.
One long, hard suck deep into her mouth so that his cock touched her throat and he was gone. Orgasm rushed from his brain and rippled down his spine to ignite his balls in a bath of fire. Cum shot down his cock into her hot, little mouth. Spurt after spurt until he wondered if he could stop and dimly thought he should have asked if she minded.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he gasped over and over.
As the last spasm faded away, he managed to open his eyes. When Caspar looked down at her sweet face looking up at him, his hips bucked again.
“Steady, star boy,” Ally whispered.
She licked him clean, tucked him away and zipped him up with such care that Caspar sighed. He pulled her to her feet and slid his arms around her. He wanted to say something sweet, not blurt some clever-dick remark, but words failed him. Fuck it, say something.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” he mumbled. Oh God, that’s pathetic.
“I have to go,” Ally whispered.
He was so shocked, he froze. What did I do? What didn’t I do? What should I do?
She’d almost run back into the house before he moved.
“I don’t know your number,” Caspar said as he pursued her.
In the kitchen, she picked up her purse and handed him her phone. Caspar gave her his crappy pay-as-you-go mobile. She looked desperate to get away. What should he say?
Stay, don’t go. But those words didn’t come out of his mouth.
“I’ll walk you home,” he said.
The tension flooded from her body and she smiled.
He held her hand as they headed down the road. She didn’t speak, but he felt reassured by the tight squeeze of her fingers. Caspar searched for something to say. That was great. When can we do it again? D
o you like me as much as I like you? He couldn’t ask her out on a date. Where could he take her that would cost him nothing?
I have two hundred pounds.
And when that was gone, what then? He couldn’t sell the medal. Shit, he needed to call Bouard and tell him.
They’d reached her door without him realizing. He still held her hand in his.
“Thank you for a lovely evening,” Ally said.
Why wouldn’t she look at him? Caspar slid his thumb under her chin and tilted her head up while he tightened his hold on her hand.
“Thank you,” he whispered then swallowed hard. “That sounds so meaningless. Oh God, do you want to see me again? Have I blown it? Fuck.”
“I’d be devastated if I didn’t see you again.” She smiled.
The rush of relief made him shake. “Invite me in or come back to my place. I washed the sheets.” He really hadn’t needed to tell her that.
Ally reached up to run her finger over his lips and then took a deep breath. “I don’t sleep with guys on the first date. I don’t give blowjobs on the first date either but I couldn’t help myself. In the face of such huge temptation, I have no willpower.” She quirked an eyebrow and he laughed. “Come for breakfast at The Rumblin’ Tum.Rose didn’t call to tell me not to come in so I’ll be there until ten.”
“I’m not sure I can wait that long,” Caspar said. “For you or breakfast.”
“Yes you can. It’s…better like this. We’re too desperate.”
Did she honestly think he’d be less desperate tomorrow? They stared at each other for a long time before their fingers trickled apart.
“’Night, star boy,” she whispered then slipped inside and closed the door.
He pressed his face to the wood. “Sleep tight, star girl.”
Caspar walked away wondering how much of his last government check he’d have to blow buying a star to name after her. He’d never forget this night. Caspar had just reached the road when his phone bleeped with a text from Ally. He smiled when he read it.
I can still taste you.
Chapter Nine
Kiss a Falling Star Page 9