Blazing Midsummer Nights (Harlequin Blaze)

by Leslie Kelly

  Which made her spin out of the way and slam her hip into the back of a chaise lounge.

  Over which she stumbled, landing right on top of it.

  Well, to be more accurate, she landed right on top of the person who was reclining on it. Who, fortunately, wasn’t wielding a knife. Just a wide, white smile, which he flashed at her in the darkness.

  “Well, I was right, Mimi,” a throaty, sexy voice rumbled. “You beat the sunrise.”

  * * *

  XANDER DIDN’T QUESTION what had brought Mimi out onto the patio this late, dressed in what felt like that same silky, sexy-as-sin robe she’d been wearing the night they’d met. Like just about everything in his life, he simply went with it.

  He certainly hadn’t come out here hoping she might show up. He’d just been antsy, his internal clock off from a few overnight shifts this week. To make things worse, the cat-chasing rugrat who had moved in upstairs had apparently decided to see if he could bring down the 150-year-old house with his two stomping feet. So it seemed like a good idea to try sitting outside for a while, waiting the sleepless kid out.

  Now, though, he was beginning to think he ought to buy the kid a bike or a video game tomorrow. Because he had definitely caused Xander to be in the right place at the right time. Twice.

  “Xander? What are you doing out here?” yelped the luscious armful of silky, satiny woman who’d landed in his arms like a gift from his fairy godmother.

  “I could ask you the same question.”

  “I forgot something and was coming out to find it.”

  She was definitely on the verge of finding something. And the longer she remained sprawled on top of his nearly naked body—since he was wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts—the closer she was to getting it.

  “I couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d get some fresh air,” he admitted.

  She’d landed on her side, and was draped across the entire length of him. She fit there perfectly, the top of her head brushing his cheek, the side of her breast pressed into his chest, her lush hip curving into his stomach.

  Their bare legs were entwined, and he noted the way she moved hers up and down a little, as if by instinct, subconsciously wanting that frisson of excitement that came when soft, feminine skin rubbed firm masculine muscle.

  He also noted that she wasn’t trying to work her way off him, wasn’t launching right up, wasn’t rattling off excuses or apologies or trying to pretend he hadn’t been on his knees licking her into a shattering orgasm a few hours ago. In fact, she seemed quite content to settle in for a while.

  “Uh…comfy?” he asked.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. Pushing against his chest, she twisted, trying to straighten up. That just put her curvy bottom more firmly on his groin, making things worse.

  “You’re not going anywhere.” He slid his arms around her and rolled onto his side, tugging her with him so they lay facing one another. Their legs were still tangled, their hips and arms met, but the most dangerous zones were at least at a safer distance.

  For now.

  That didn’t mean they’d stay that way, but they had some talking to do first. No way was he letting his pal Woody show up to the party until he made damn sure she knew what she was doing and wanted it just as badly. Not to mention making sure she’d set her plastic coworker straight about where things stood.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m not as clumsy as you must think.”

  “Yeah, you are. But that’s okay,” he said.

  She wriggled again. “I should go.”

  “Calm down, I’m not Michael Myers.”

  Even in the darkness, he could see the whites of her eyes as they grew round as yo-yos. “How did you…”

  “Your TV’s pretty loud. I recognized theme from the Halloween movies.”

  “I like scary movies.”

  “Well, they obviously don’t scare you.”

  “Sure they do.”

  He rolled his eyes. “No way. If they did, you wouldn’t have come out here, in the dark, all alone, forgetting a flashlight, wearing just a robe.”

  He glanced down at her body, unable to resist devouring her with his stare. His eyes had adjusted to the low lighting in the porch and he was able to see her very well. He’d seen enough of her naked that his memory filled in now, reminding him of what was under her clothes. As for the parts he’d never seen…well, his imagination was doing a pretty good job with that.

  She was definitely wearing the same robe. But during her fall, it had come uncinched, and gaped open. Beneath it, Mimi wore the skimpiest, sexiest little excuse for a nightgown he’d ever seen. The shoulder straps were two thin strips of lace, which held up a few triangles of satin that strained to contain her breasts. A filmy bit of a skirt fell to about her hips and there it ended. He saw a bit of elastic at her hip and knew she had on another of those thongs. All he’d have to do was bend his arms and he’d be able to fill his hands with two perfect curves of her bottom, as he had earlier when he’d been exploring her so thoroughly.

  He wanted the gown off her. He might have seen her most intimate places up close and deliciously personal, but he had yet to lay eyes on what he could already tell were a pair of perfect breasts. He desperately wanted to cup them, taste them, suck her nipples and see if she cooed the way she did when he sucked her clit.

  Then again, maybe it was just as well he couldn’t. Seeing the rest of her would be like not only inviting Woody to the party, but asking him to burst out and surprise them both. If she so much as flashed a nipple, his cock would be standing up and doing the Macarena. He’d already decided they needed to clear the air before they went back for another round, and the air couldn’t be cleared if his southern brain was in charge of the entire conversation.

  Still, he couldn’t bring himself to stop looking at her, not when he’d been asking himself for hours if she could possibly have been as incredibly sexy as he remembered her being. Answer: no. She was even more so.

  Her eyes obviously hadn’t adjusted as well as his yet, because she didn’t appear to notice the fact that the guy holding her so easily in his arms was in danger of drowning her with his own drool.

  “Women in those movies always end up wearing something teeny-tiny at some point,” she pointed out.

  “Mmm. True. But if you were the heroine, and you’d fallen onto a strange guy you barely knew, you’d have leaped right up, slapped his face and declared you were staying a virgin until at least the fourth sequel.”

  “Silly—the heroine never makes it to the fourth sequel. By that point, she’s too big a star and the movie’s being made for the straight-to-DVD set with B actors.”

  Ahh, a horror-movie aficionado. “Also true.”

  “But you are right, the ones who sleep around do usually get sliced and diced, don’t they?”

  “Yep. So do the man-whores.”

  She chuckled softly. “Is that what you are?”

  He didn’t laugh, taking the moment to move the conversation where it needed to go. “No. I’m not. I am actually pretty picky when it comes to stuff like…this.”

  Her lips parted and she moistened them with her pink tongue. “Like this?”

  “Yeah, Mimi. Like this. You and me.”

  “Oh.” She was silent for a moment, then whispered, “I’ve been telling myself I can’t have you.”

  He stiffened.

  “It’s like there are two halves of me, waging this internal battle about whether or not I can let this happen.”

  “Which side’s winning?” he asked, lazily stroking her hip, letting his fingertips glide across the high curve of her butt.

  “Well, we certainly know which side won this afternoon.”

  “That wasn’t one side of your brain or the other,” he assured her. “Something else made that call.”

  Her libido.

  “Yeah, tell me about it.” She edged closer, until he could feel her warm breath falling against his bare chest. “I can’t seem to be reasonable w
here you’re concerned.”

  “Reason’s overrated,” he told her, brushing his mouth gently against her temple. He dropped a hand across her waist, pulling her a little closer, noting how easy, how soft and slow and right this was. They were melting together, totally in sync, and had barely even touched yet. Because this was just what was supposed to happen, he knew it.

  “Your brain doesn’t have to call the shots entirely,” he told her, needing to get this said, “but there is one thing you have to decide.”

  “What’s that?”

  He stared into her face, hoping she would hear his seriousness. “Whether or not you have a boyfriend. Is it over?”

  She tilted her head back to look up at him, her startling eyes almost a midnight-blue in this shadowy lighting. She heard. She understood. She silently acknowledged the wall between them that was going to stay there until she blew it down with a simple decision that was, after this afternoon, definitely overdue.

  Finally, slowly and deliberately, she declared, “I don’t, and it’s definitely over.”

  Relief flooded through him. That was all she needed to say. Whatever she’d said to Dimitri, whatever she’d explained to her father, however she’d justified it, she’d made her choice.

  “But I have to admit,” she added, her voice a little thick, “I am on the lookout for a lover.”

  The wicked way she lifted one brow told him exactly who she had in mind.

  “Does that mean you were inside checking out your own ass in that thong before you came out here to try seducing me?”

  Gasping, she tried to sit up. “I swear I had no idea you were here!”

  He grabbed her even as he rolled onto his back, and tugged her back down. “I’m kidding.”

  She landed right on top of him…and stayed there. Her laughter faded, and so did the last bit of her resistance. Something had shifted. The mood, certainly, had gone from playful to serious to sultry. But there was something in her eyes and in her smile, a wildness, a sense of determination.

  He suddenly realized what it was.

  Mimi had been holding back on her own desires for quite a while—since before they’d met, he would imagine. Now she was going to give them free rein.

  She knew what she wanted. She wanted him.

  And she was about to show him just how much.

  8

  IF SOMEONE HAD TOLD her eight days ago that she would be lying here, outside, preparing to make love with the kind of man she’d only ever fantasized about, Mimi would have laughed in his face. Because, eight days ago, she had been quite sure of what her immediate future looked like.

  No, she hadn’t resigned herself to the inevitability of ending up with Dimitri, no matter how much her father had wanted it. But she had certainly been considering the possibility. And if she had never met Xander, she almost certainly would have at least gone to bed with Dimitri, just to know, absolutely, one hundred percent for sure, whether they could have been right for one another.

  Now she knew. The answer was no, they weren’t. It hadn’t taken going to bed with him; it had just taken someone else showing her he could make her forget any other man existed.

  Looking down at Xander, stunned, as always, by his sexy masculinity, she paused to acknowledge that she’d reached one of those pivotal moments in her life. A before-and-after moment. There was the Mimi who had existed before becoming this man’s lover, and the one she would be after tonight. No matter whatever else happened in the future, she had no doubt—none, zero—that this decision would live on in her memories forever.

  “Come here,” he ordered, reaching up and sinking his hands in her hair.

  She let him pull her down, needing to taste him. Their mouths met, softly, more tenderly than they ever had before, as if they were kissing for the first time.

  Mimi parted her lips, gently flicking her tongue against his, savoring his taste. Still cupping her head, Xander tilted his to the side, fitting their mouths together more perfectly. They fell into sync, their tongues mating slowly, swirling, thrusting and receding, giving and taking. It was the kind of kiss that could go on for hours and be almost enough in and of itself.

  But she knew there would be more. Tonight, they’d have everything.

  Slowly ending the kiss, Mimi pushed against his chest and sat up. She lowered both her legs to the sides of the chaise until her toes brushed the cement floor and she was straddling his thighs. Xander didn’t attempt to stop her, letting her take control, set the pace. He seemed perfectly happy to lie below her, looking up at her, waiting to see what, exactly, she wanted to do to him.

  “I’ve been thinking about this for days,” she admitted through a tight throat.

  “Me, too. I wanted to break the wall down last Friday night when I thought you’d gone through with it and brought Mr. Perfect home with you.”

  “I couldn’t…in fact, to be totally honest, I forgot.”

  A deep laugh erupted from his mouth. “You forgot you had planned to have sex with him? Wow. Talk about an ego killer. I think I’d have to slit my wrists if I ever heard you say that about me.”

  She shook her head. “That could never happen.” Looking down at him and seeing the rock-hard erection bursting against the front seam of his shorts, she struggled to breathe, to stay coherent and said, “Never.”

  She reaffirmed that to herself when he shifted restlessly beneath her, and she realized he was so huge the thick head of his cock had pushed up and out of the top of his shorts. She’d known he was big, broad and hard everywhere else. But this…well, the sight left her gasping.

  “Wow,” she whispered, glad she was sitting down as the image of taking all that male strength inside her invaded her mind. Her legs would never have held her.

  “Let me see you,” he ordered.

  “You’ve seen most of me,” she reminded him.

  “Not nearly enough. I don’t know that I’ll ever get enough.” He lifted a hand, tracing a path up her side, to the bottom curve of her breast. Swirling the tip of one finger over her nipple, he added, “I really want to see this. I’ve been fantasizing about your breasts—how they look, how they taste.”

  Filled with self-confidence fueled by his obvious desire for her, Mimi let the loose robe fall completely off her shoulders. It puddled around her hips on his legs.

  Xander watched her in silence, his dark eyes gleaming, narrowing with appreciation. Her breasts were heavy, aching. Against the lace, her nipples were twin pebbles of sensation. She could tell by the way he looked there and drew in an audible, ragged breath, that he was dying to explore all the curves of her body that had been denied to him thus far.

  She liked the need he couldn’t disguise. Liked how desperately he wanted her. It seemed only fair considering how incredibly hungry she was for him.

  “Oh, yes,” he groaned when she reached up and slid the strap of her gown off her shoulder.

  Mimi held her arm against her body, preventing the fabric from falling away. His brow furrowed, but she intentionally tormented him, knowing how good anticipation could be.

  She reached for the other strap, pushing it off, as well. Then she lifted her hand to her breast, pulling at the nightie, peeling it away to reveal herself. An inch of skin, a plump curve…finally, a puckered, upturned nipple, pink and pouty, a bundle of nerve endings just waiting for his intimate attention.

  “Beautiful,” he said, sounding reverent. He reached up to cup her, and the sensation of his cool, strong hand against her heated skin made her quiver and arch toward his touch.

  He didn’t wait for her to reveal her other breast, merely reaching up and tearing the silky fabric away himself. She sensed patience wasn’t his strongest suit, and she liked that, too.

  “Stumbling in on you bottomless was amazing,” he said. “If you’d been topless, too, I would have thought I’d landed in heaven.”

  He caught her other breast in his hand, tweaking the nipple, rolling it between his fingers. Mimi cried out, feeling the touch on he
r breasts, but also feeling it everywhere else.

  When he moved to replace one hand with his mouth, she grabbed his shoulders, digging her nails into the thick, rippling muscle, holding on tight. He breathed over her sensitive skin for a moment, preparing her, then flicked out his tongue.

  “Xander,” she cried, instinctively arching toward his waiting mouth.

  He gave her what she needed, covering her nipple, kissing it, then sucking. Deep. Fast. Hard.

  She jerked against him, clutching tight, loving the intensity of it. He was claiming her, every pull of his mouth a demand that she give herself over to him completely.