Harlequin KISS August 2014 Bundle

by Amy Andrews, Aimee Carson, Avril Tremayne

  She swallowed, her throat suddenly tinder dry. His thumb at her nape was seductive and she fought against the downward flutter of her eyelids.

  ‘Most of my life,’ she admitted. It sounded so...desperate said out loud and Claudia wished she could snatch the words straight back. ‘Kinda pathetic, huh?’

  ‘No,’ Luke whispered. ‘Sweet.’

  Claudia gave a half snort, half groan. He couldn’t have chosen worse words if he’d tried.

  Luke felt the sudden tension in her neck. ‘What?’ he asked.

  Her eyes opened fully. ‘I’m so sick of being sweet old Claude.’

  Luke nodded slowly. ‘Okay. So what do you want?’

  Claudia glared at him. What the hell did he think she wanted? ‘I want you to shut up and kiss me,’ she said not quite managing to keep her exasperation to herself. ‘What do you want?’

  Luke shook his head. ‘Oh, you don’t want to know what I want.’

  Claudia bristled further. ‘I’m not a kid, Luke,’ she said, staring at him with as much pissed off in her eyes as she could muster. ‘I can handle whatever it is you want.’

  Luke had had a semi hard-on since waking to Claudia’s kiss but now it flowered to its maximum potential at her definitive assertion. He held her blazing gaze for a moment before dropping his to her mouth, her breasts, her belly.

  ‘I want to rip this damn dress off you and feast on your breasts while I bury myself inside you. I want to make you come loud enough for Jonah and Avery to hear four floors away. And when I’ve done that I want to do it all again. I want to do it with you. All. Night. Long.’

  Claudia wouldn’t have thought it possible for her throat to get any drier—she was wrong. Every cell in her body practically went into a dehydrated torpor at his frank gaze and his even more frank admission.

  ‘Well,’ she said, licking her lips as she finally found her voice. ‘How about we start with mine and graduate to yours?’

  Luke smiled at her then and she smiled back. ‘Good answer,’ he muttered before closing the distance between them and claiming her mouth.

  And claim it he did. Deep and hard, no finesse, no gentle initiation, it was full-on from the second their lips touched. Masterful and demanding, explosive and searing, sucking away her breath and her very ability to reason. It spoke of lust and longing and desires too long denied. It commanded capitulation and she submitted eagerly.

  ‘God,’ he groaned against her mouth. ‘I want you.’

  And before she even had a chance to answer he rolled her onto her back and then he was over her and then on her and he was kissing her again. Deep, wet, open-mouthed kissing, pushing her into the mattress with every thrust of his tongue, kissing her into the bed.

  Kissing her into oblivion.

  Claudia was finally able to grab a breath when he freed her mouth from his onslaught, but it was only brief before he sucked it away again as he set about kissing a wet trail down her throat and into her cleavage. He swiped his hot tongue along the exposed swells of her breasts and Claudia moaned.

  ‘Undo your top,’ he said, his breath ragged. ‘I need to look at you.’

  Claudia’s fingers shook from desire as she lifted her arms to do his bidding. She didn’t think to protest his command—because it had been a command—she just did it. She wanted him to look too. Hell, she wanted him to do a lot more than that.

  She needed him to.

  Finally her fingers managed the task and she was pulling her top down, exposing herself to his gaze. His satisfied hiss went straight to her nipples, hardening them before his eyes, and then he was feasting on them, exactly as he’d told her he wanted to, and Claudia was reduced to a mass of cries and moans and pleas not to stop as he lashed the sensitive tips with his tongue and sucked them both in turn deep into his mouth, going from one to the other until she’d lost all powers of higher thinking and just lay there in a sexual bubble where the only thing that existed was his mouth on her breasts.

  Not even his hand sliding down her body and back up under her dress registered above the sensations he was creating with his tongue. And then he slipped a hand inside her pants, slid his fingers right into all the slickness and went straight for her clitoris.

  The bubble burst.

  ‘Luke,’ she cried out, grabbing his shoulders as her body bucked and she felt as if she were falling. Her eyes flashed open.

  ‘Shh, shh,’ he murmured against her mouth, kissing her long and deep and wet again as his fingers stroked her. ‘You taste so good,’ he whispered before returning to her breasts to feast again.

  Claudia’s eyes practically rolled back in her head as his fingers circled and rubbed and his tongue swiped and flicked, both of them setting a rhythm that complemented the other, both of them rocking her, pushing her, dragging her, driving her closer and closer and closer to nirvana.

  And she was powerless to resist. She wasn’t even in her own body any more; she was floating above it somewhere watching herself as all the pieces of her started to come apart. As sensation swelled in her belly and something tore deep, deep, deep inside her, ripping her open, shredding her apart as it swelled further, growing and growing and growing until it was unbearable, a pleasure so painful her body was begging for it to take her, consume her.

  And then it did.

  ‘Luke!’ she cried out as it claimed her, breaking over her in an almighty shock wave that arched her back, squeezed her buttocks and stiffened her limbs.

  ‘It’s too much,’ she gasped as it bucked and writhed through her like some kind of possession, like the serpent itself. ‘I can’t,’ she said, fearing she would die as it broke over her again and again, dragging her breath from her lungs, pounding her heart in her chest. But it went on and on shifting and changing, stroking her body with a thousand carnal caresses.

  And it wasn’t too much and she could.

  And as it started to ebb she reached for it again, crying out for more. She didn’t want it to stop. She never wanted it to stop. She wanted Luke, his mouth at her breasts, his fingers exactly where they were, like this for ever.

  And he didn’t falter, he didn’t lift his head or shift his hand, chasing the tail of the orgasm as she moaned and whimpered, quivering through the dying vestiges, wringing out every drop of pleasure.

  They were both breathing hard when Claudia finally stilled, Luke collapsing against her, his forehead on her chest, his lips grazing the skin that lay over her heart.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, his voice drunk on a sexual high.

  Claudia shook her head. No. She was never going to be okay ever again. She felt as if she’d been picked up and shaken and all the cells in her body had fallen out and been put back together in a completely new way. Her heart beat like a drum and her blood surged through her head in painful intensity.

  ‘Oh, my God,’ she said, ‘I think I just blew a blood vessel in my brain.’

  Luke chuckled. His head pounded pretty hard too. He kissed her chest, then all the way up her throat to her mouth where he kissed her gently, reverently, and she sighed against his mouth and he kissed her more just to hear it again.

  ‘I hope you can replicate that,’ she said when he finally pulled away.

  Luke chuckled. ‘Repeat performances are my speciality.’

  Claudia’s fingers caressed his nape, brushing against his collar. ‘God, I’m sorry, you’re still fully clothed.’ She cringed thinking about how she’d just lain there and let him do stuff to her. ‘I’m not usually a starfish, I promise. I just...I think you put me into some kind of...stupor.’

  ‘Good.’ Luke kissed her brief and hard. ‘That was the objective. Besides, you’re not exactly naked either.’

  Claudia looked down at herself. Her top hiked down, her skirt hitched up. ‘I think we should do something about that, don’t you?’


  Luke grinned. ‘Absolutely,’ he said as he kissed her nose then eased off her, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and pushing to his feet. ‘Take that dress off,’ he said as his fingers made short work of his buttons.

  Claudia didn’t have to be told twice. It wasn’t exactly an easy task lying on the bed trying to wriggle out of a dress that was already a twisted, hot mess, especially when she couldn’t drag her eyes off Luke’s mad scramble to lose his clothes. In fact she stopped altogether when he got down to his undies that were stretched to their limit by a very impressive erection.

  Captain Sexypants indeed.

  Luke glanced at Claudia as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his underwear. The dress still covered her legs.

  ‘I swear if you don’t take that thing off soon I’m going to rip it off.’

  Claudia shivered at the silky undercurrent in his voice. Her gaze dropped to the hard ridge of his erection. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, her belly twisting as she eyed if off, already knowing it was going to hurt so damn good. ‘I got distracted.’

  Luke grinned as he pulled the waistband out slightly and looked down at what was causing Claudia’s distraction. He let it snap back into place. ‘None of this until I see more of that.’

  He nodded his head in the direction of her semi-nudity. Her dress was skew-whiff, her hair was a blonde mess and there were faint red marks on her breasts where he had sucked with a little too much enthusiasm, but she’d never looked more beautiful.

  Claudia kicked free of the dress and reclined against the mattress, her arms above her head, arching her back slightly—he wasn’t the only one who could tease. She smiled when he growled at her and said, ‘Those too,’ pointing to the scrap of red lace, the only thing between her and complete nudity.

  A strange moment of modesty besieged her and she hesitated. This was the final frontier.

  Oh, for goodness’ sake, the Devil hissed, he had his hands all up inside them less than two minutes ago.

  Claudia had to admit, the devil made a good point.

  She held his gaze as she lifted her hips and stripped them down off her legs. When she was completely bared to his view he dropped his gaze and looked his fill. A flush of heat swamped Claudia’s body, head to toe, and took up residence between her legs in the exact spot he had found with his fingers to devastating effect.

  ‘Your turn now,’ Claudia said, her voice husky, loaded with anticipation.

  Luke was out of his underwear in two seconds flat and it was Claudia’s turn to look her fill. And she did. Oh, how she did. He jutted out so thick and proud, she understood why women in times gone by would swoon at the sight of a naked man.

  If she weren’t a strong modern woman she’d just about swoon right off the bed.

  Instead her pulse fluttered, her mouth watered, her belly lurched.

  Captain Sexy-no-pants!

  Luke watched as Claudia licked her lips and his erection grew harder, tighter and he thanked the hotel gods for mini-bar condoms. He snagged the three-pack off the nearby bench and strode the two paces to the bed. Claudia opened her arms and her legs and he went to her, settling between them, his hardness nudging all her slick heat.

  He looked at her for long moments, his hands either side of her face, wanting to tuck this memory away for ever. His eyes roved over her features, mapping every one. Blue eyes, cute snub nose, pointy little chin.

  ‘Hi,’ he said after a while.

  ‘Hey.’

  And then he kissed her and it was deep and slow and sweet, not urgent and hurried like last time. The kind of kiss that melted from the inside, delivering a long, slow burn. Lethal and sexy all at once. And when she moaned against his mouth and twined her arms around his neck to drag him closer the flame burned brighter.

  Luke pulled away slightly, moved his mouth to her cheek, her neck, kissing his way down, aiming to go much further south than he had last time with his mouth.

  But then Claudia was pulling on his shoulders and when he looked up at her she said, ‘No. I need you in me. Now.’

  Luke grinned. He liked her impatience. ‘Soon,’ he said, returning to his ministrations.

  ‘No,’ Claudia said and Luke glanced up again. ‘Now.’

  He smiled as he dropped a kiss to her sternum. ‘Claude...I don’t think I’m going to last too long.’

  That was the whole point of dragging out her pleasure, making it good, making it memorable because he doubted his performance was going to be robust after several years of abstinence and sperm tubules that were about to rupture under the pressure.

  Claudia cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘And you think I’m going to?’

  He grinned at her as he reached for the condoms. ‘Hurry,’ she whispered and he did, quickly donning one over his still-rampant erection.

  And then he was back between her thighs, their hips aligned, and she was wrapping her legs around his waist and saying, ‘Now, now,’ and it was so easy to slide into all her heat, so easy and good and right, easy to pull out and go in again, easy to make her gasp and moan and beg him to not stop, never stop, easy to drive them towards the pleasure just a handful of strokes away.

  Then they were coming together, gasping and calling out each other’s names, rising and rising, holding on tight then letting go and falling, falling, falling.

  FIFTEEN

  They lay in silence long after they’d both bumped back to earth. Luke had bundled her close, Claudia’s head on his shoulder, her breasts squashed against his ribs, her leg draped across his thighs. And for the longest time they didn’t say anything, just drifted along in a delicious post-coital haze.

  Claudia supposed she should be feeling some kind of guilt or remorse or mortification but she didn’t—not tonight anyway. There would be time enough for recriminations in the days and weeks ahead but for now she was just too damned chilled out. Instead she absently circled a finger around his nearest nipple, enjoying the tickle of the hair.

  ‘You should stop shaving,’ she said.

  Luke’s eyes drifted open. ‘No.’

  Claudia smiled. ‘I like stubble.’

  ‘Then you grow some,’ he murmured.

  Claudia turned to face him, propping her chin on his chest. ‘I remember when you used to look very unshaven and shaggy.’

  She lifted her hand and stroked his smooth jawline. God, as a teenager she’d drooled watching him come home from uni all shaggy-haired and scruffy as he headed straight for the beach.

  Luke let his eyes drift shut again, enjoying her light caress. ‘I lived at the beach, I had to look the part. But I’m a professional working man now and I need to look that part. Shaving is London. Stubble is Crescent Cove.’

  Claudia sighed, not too far gone to get the message. But mellow enough to accept it. Accept that, for him, the length of his whiskers defined the type of man he was. ‘Whatever,’ she murmured. ‘You’d still look sexy with stubble.’

  Luke smiled. ‘I’m sexy enough.’

  Claudia smiled too. Arrogant but true. Not that she was going to let him get away with such a cocky statement. ‘There’s always room for improvement,’ she murmured.

  Luke opened his eyes and looked directly into hers. ‘I know it’s trendy these days to look a little ungroomed but a lot of my clients are old school. They respect men who take the time to present well.’

  Claudia screwed up her nose. ‘Sound like a bunch of old fuddy-duddies to me,’ she said, snuggling her head back into his shoulder again.

  Luke chuckled at her disdain. Yeah, some of them were but they were also wealthy fuddy-duddies who could afford multimillion-dollar ad campaigns.

  They were his fuddy-duddies.

  He stroked her hair as his eyelids grew heavy again, enjoying the low-level buzz still undulating through his pleasure receptors and vi
brating against his skin.

  He was almost asleep when Claudia’s quiet, ‘So, what did happen between you and Philippa?’ drifted his eyelids open. Maybe it was a measure of how relaxed, how ironed out he was that the question didn’t particularly alarm him. Earlier he’d told her it wasn’t any of her business but now, he wanted her to know.

  Maybe it would help her to understand him a little better. Why he was so driven to succeed. Why he’d not had time for the Tropicana. Why he had to go back.

  But where to begin?

  Claudia waited. He didn’t tense as she’d expected him to but it was a long time before he answered and she wondered if he’d gone to sleep.

  ‘She’d gone to Paris for a work conference,’ Luke said into the stillness of the night. The pale red light from the clock glowed in Claudia’s hair, highlighting the blonde strands, and he played with them absently, sifting through them as he sifted through the memories. ‘I was joining her for the weekend. But an opportunity came up and I was able to join her a day early. I thought I’d surprise her. She’d left my key at the desk so I grabbed it and let myself into the room. She was in bed with another man.’

  Claudia, who had been distracted by the low sexy rumble of his voice as it vibrated through his ribcage, took a few seconds to process what he’d said. She turned quickly when the implications filtered in, flipping onto her stomach and using her elbow to drag herself closer to him, raising her head and chest above him, looking down into hooded eyes.

  ‘Oh, Luke,’ she whispered, stroking her free hand down the side of his impossibly smooth face. ‘That’s awful...I’m so, so sorry.’ She kissed him then, a light press to his lips, to his cheek, to each eyelid in turn. ‘I can’t even begin to imagine how awful that must have been.’

  Luke grimaced as he short-circuited the ugly scene before it played in slow-mo through his head yet again. ‘I was...gutted.’

  ‘You had no idea?’

  Luke shook his head. ‘He was an old lover of hers. Her first boss in advertising at a very prestigious, old-school firm. It had apparently been a long-standing arrangement,’ he said and even after three years he could still taste the bitterness in his mouth. ‘She said it never occurred to her to give him up.’