by M. Q. Barber
She giggled, the light trill delicate and unexpected. “It’s okay, Brian. We agreed the words won’t show me as much as actions.” Wriggling her fingers free, she stroked his wrists and tugged. “Not half as much as your face shows me. No man’s ever looked at me with so much—awe.” Her skin flushed across the tops of her breasts. “So much love.”
Thank God. Thank God she saw the truth he’d tried to shove deep down for weeks so as not to scare her away. Thank God she pulled him closer now, as he backed her toward the couch and left her standing as he dropped to his knees.
The curve of her belly called to him. He pressed his cheek against her. Rubbing her soft skin beneath his nose, his lips, he marked her for his own. He grasped her hips, fingers falling across bare skin and panties alike and stroking both, curling the fabric and teasing.
The rhythm of her breathing quickened with each kiss he laid on her freckled skin. Shivering, she rocked her thighs toward him.
The panties slipped lower. Deep auburn curls swept over the top edge, and he nuzzled those, too. Damp, they carried the intoxication of sweet-salt and the promise of heady flavor in her depths.
As he peeled the panties to the tops of her stockings, she laid her hands on his head. She held him firm, her fingers eight points of pressure against his skull and her thumbs ruffling the combed-down fringe of hair brushing his forehead.
Mouth closed, he kissed the rose-pink swell peeking from the center of her curls. “My language skills must not be up to par, or my memory’s failing, because I could’ve sworn I imagined a million ways to tell you how beautiful you are, how much you squeeze my heart, and now I can’t grab a single one from my databanks.”
That giggle. Rippling her stomach, swaying her thighs, flashing more rose and pink for his tongue to explore. She scratched his scalp in a tugging invitation. “You’re telling me.” Her voice hardly rose above a whisper, but her steadiness washed him free of doubt. “Not with words, but you’re telling me.”
She stepped out of her shoes. Flexing her toes, she woke his desire for another nibbling feast. One for a later time, because as he guided her panties down her legs, he silently promised to leave the stockings in place. She’d put on finery for him. And though she was finer still, her gesture deserved sincere appreciation.
So he kissed his way back up. Slowly. Bent over himself like her humble servant, he mouthed the tops of her feet and the knobs of her ankles. The rounded fullness of her calves twitched in his hands as she widened her stance. He laid kisses against the soft inner creases of her knees.
As he rolled his tongue in waves, mimicking the plans he held for the bare skin tantalizingly close, she let out a low moan and sank to the couch.
Perfect. Stunning. Katherine, hazy-eyed and vulnerable, trusting him. Allowing him to set the pace and claim the intimacy they needed to move forward.
Gripping behind her knees, he slid her to the front of the cushion. An unhurried push spread her thighs, left her open as he knelt before her. His Katherine, rich with pineapple and salt and a deeper musk. Her lips shining and unfolding in a sea of curling breakers. She created her own tide with her panting breaths and her pulse, the blood rushing beneath his hands where he held her thighs.
“Paradise.” With sweeping thumbs, he surfed closer to her center.
Shuddering, arching toward him, she flexed into his grip. “Please. Show me, Brian.”
Now.
He buried his face in her secret hollows. With her heat cresting over him, he breathed deep and drowned himself in her. Wet and trembling, all of her. Filling his nose and mouth with her thick scent, her slippery rush. The sweet tang of the tropics, of wishes granted.
Her panting breaths turned to a siren song luring him deeper. With her groaning chorus and her biting nails in his hair, she urged him on. She broke beneath his hands, battering him in her storm.
He feasted until her hands fell slack and her toes no longer curled and danced along his ribs. Lifting his head, he gazed once more at perfection.
She lay sprawled against the cushions, her arms outflung and her head back. Heavy-lidded eyes and upturned lips greeted him.
He couldn’t help but beg for more. One more intimacy, to hold her close before she regained her senses and hid herself away. “Come to bed, Katherine. Stay with me awhile.”
* * * *
Brian. He’d asked her something, his lips shining as they moved. His cheeks, too. He still clasped her thighs, working his hands in a deep massage while she shivered. He’d performed miracles with his tongue. All of him might destroy her ability to remember her own name, not just to hear and understand his words.
Tumbling thoughts backward, she rewound the moment. Something about bed. Another new joy to discover. Shrugging her clothes back into place rarely took more than three minutes, and leaving took less than that. She laid her hands over his. “Time to move the party?”
But Brian, kneeling in front of her, bowed his head and glanced away. His hands clenched once more before he let go.
Fuck. She’d said the wrong thing, focused on the wrong words. Falling asleep in any bed but her own might prove impossible, but she could lie beside him. Already she ached for the feel of him, for his shoulders under her hands as he moved above her. Maybe she’d allow herself another kiss, the real and intimate kind, while they fucked.
She pushed herself forward. Without the cushion at her back, her head floated, too light to be real. She clamped her knees around Brian for balance. Gripped his face in her hands and forced him to meet her gaze. “Take me to bed, please? I want to lie down with you, and your tiny couch can’t handle both of us.”
Staring up at her, he let out a single laugh. “Did you hear any of what I asked you?”
“Not really, no.” An honest answer for an honest man.
He lunged forward. Hands tangled in her hair, his mouth wet with her strong, salty musk, he kissed her breathless. When he drew back, their harsh gasps punctuated the silence. He slipped his hands down her arms and stood. “I love you, Katherine. Even when you can’t hear how much I’m telling you.” He squeezed her forearms, his hold tight below her elbows. “Now let’s get you to bed.”
Her legs wobbled. As he raised her from the couch with his steady support, weak in the knees finally made sense. “So that’s what they mean.”
“Who mean?” He draped her arms over his shoulders and cradled her to his chest. His racing heartbeat passed beneath her lips on his neck. “About what?”
“The people who say love makes you weak in the knees. And all of those other silly things.” She wrapped her arms around him and clung with all the ferocity her satisfied muscles could muster. “Because your love sweeps me off my feet.”
“You think so?” The twangy amusement in his voice warned her in the second before he dipped his arm and scooped her up. “It does now.”
She nestled closer without half-trying. Lazy contentment overrode her usual controlled rush. This gentleness, fuzzy and warm, with her head on his shoulder, granted more peace and joy than successfully reviving a malfunctioning gizmo. Fucking was about shutting down her worries and taking—taking control, taking the pleasure she wanted—in those few minutes. She walked away with a heady rush and zero emotion. This, though. This might be better.
Carrying her into the next room, he clutched tight behind her back and knees. He breathed into her hair, tickling her scalp, and set her down on the bed before flicking on the bedside light.
The soft cotton sheets matched the rich plum of his tie. Tucking her legs beneath her, she beckoned him forward. “You can’t wear your tie to bed. Too much camouflage. How will I find you?”
“Can’t have that.” He whispered, low and tender, as he stepped to the edge of the bed. “I always want you to know where I stand.”
She crushed his collar in both hands to stop the tremble in her fingers. The things he meant seemed bigger than the things he said. Intimacy added another level to the words.
A reason to look deeper. Learning this complex language would take longer than a single night.
Flipping his collar up, she tossed lightness into her tone. “I was thinking more you’d be lying down.”
The tie slipped loose, and his shirt buttons fell to her fast fingerwork. As he shrugged free, she toyed with the drawstring on his shorts. When he met her gaze, she pulled in a slow tease. No rules said she had to surrender all control. Just share with him. Trade off a bit.
As the shorts dropped, his cock sprang up in a hurry. Catching her peeking, he smirked. “Some parts take lying down less well than others.”
The tip gleamed under the light. He’d been ready awhile. With both of them wanting, no sense delaying the fun. She matched his smile.
The bulk of her clothes lay on the living room floor. The bra remained to go. He’d seemed to enjoy the stockings. Kissing her through them, Jesus. Those would stay. She reached for the demi-cup’s back hooks.
“Wait.” Gathering her fingers, he stopped her and squeezed. His eyes glowed as green as a copper flame. “Let me.”
With a nod, she handed him the power. He’d dialed up the intensity tonight, and he didn’t seem inclined to downshift. The promise of seeing what he would do tweaked her pulse.
As he lowered her hands to her sides, he rubbed his thumbs across her wrists. He stroked all the way up her arms and smoothed her bra straps. Head bent, he pressed a single kiss to the upper curve of each breast. “I haven’t shown you near enough appreciation here yet.”
He caressed down her sloping breasts—so much more impressive in this bra than they were on a normal day—and slipped a single finger into each cup. With gentle nudging, he lifted.
Her speedy breaths raised her breasts higher, and his stare quickened her breaths, a circle promising to leave her breathless again soon. God, would he never take—
Groaning, he swept one breast into his hot mouth. His fever sank into her, achy and greedy, as he sucked as much of her breast as he could hold. In a rippling wave, he worked his tongue over her. He scraped his teeth downward, an agonizing march of anticipation. And yes, fuck, God yes, he took her nipple between his teeth and tugged.
When he let go, she cried out from the loss.
“Christ, Katherine. My new favorite color.” He placed a gentle kiss on her tingling nipple and pushed her unkissed breast higher. The hooks fell to his fingers, the bra to the bedspread. “You turn a beautiful shade of deep rose for me. I’ll have to make this one match.”
Her breast heated before he laid his mouth to her.
In his hunger, he toppled her onto her back and climbed over her.
She unfolded her legs and welcomed him between. The weight of him, fuck, a soaring joy along every nerve but especially the knotted bundle in her clit thumping merrily with her heart. Rocking and squirming, she wrapped her arms and legs around him and tried to pull him down. She could take more of his weight. She could take him all.
He pushed up hard, his hands planted in the mattress to either side of her. Gulped in oxygen while her wet nipples throbbed in the cooling air.
“What did I tell you the first time, Katherine?” His voice rough and commanding, he dragged her arms up the bed and pinned them above her head. “These hands stay where I can see ’em.” A twist transformed his smile into a wicked promise. “Don’t you move, now.”
She convulsed. Her back left the bed, her hips and shoulders taking the strain. Valves fully open, her engine ran hot and demanding. Brian would keep up. Her bad boy. Her good man.
He loosed her wrists. “Fuck, are you—you can move, Katherine, I didn’t mean—I would never—”
“I like you bossy.” Hell, she’d almost come from his take-charge attitude. But soothing him would come first, before they came for each other. “You can be a little bossy. I wore a dress for you, didn’t I?” Reassurance would help him bring his bad boy out to play more often. Then she’d have the best of both worlds, the considerate man and the insistent lover. “Just you, though. I don’t know another man I’d trust to boss me.”
Hunched over her on his arms, he seized her neck in his teeth. Nipping, biting, he claimed every inch from her ears to her collarbone. “Because I’m your man.”
He was. God, he was, entirely hers and not for a few stolen minutes. If arousal hadn’t overridden her, she might’ve cried for the joy of his love. “I wouldn’t date anyone else.”
“No one else.” His words landed with the weight of a bank vault, sealing out any other option. Once the lock tumbled, he flashed her a mischievous smile. “So you want another date fantasy, do you?”
“Worked the first time.” And then some. This time, she burned with so much need she’d set herself ablaze in a minute. “Better hurry, though.”
He turned away and dragged open the nightstand drawer. “I have—”
“Do we need them?” Condoms, obviously. If he hauled out handcuffs, she’d be shocked as hell.
He fell and caught himself on his elbow. “I thought—unbroken condoms. We both said—”
“Right, and I’ve always used them.” Without fail, an automatic get-the-fuck-out for any man who put up a fuss. Except now a stronger urge spurred her to step out of the old pattern. To show Brian tonight meant more to her than all of those nights ever would. “But I’m also on the pill. And I’m clean. No diseases, I mean.”
Wide-eyed and still, he balanced over her without breathing. Finally he sucked in a quick burst of air. “Me, too.”
Jesus, she’d spooked him. Made the wrong offer, one he didn’t want to claim. “Oh, good. I’ve never dated a man on the pill before.”
Chuckling, he bent and kissed her forehead. He curled his arms tighter, until his elbows brushed her shoulders. “You’ve never dated any man before.”
“No. I haven’t.” Brian, though—he’d tasted her tonight. She lay in his bed, another first. Her vulnerability no longer bled through the cracked case of a broken machine. Something stronger took shape in its place. She’d never see what made the toast jump if she stopped now. “But this is new and different, right? For both of us. So maybe it should be”—amazing, perfect, terrifying—“new and different.”
He lowered his forehead to hers. “I’m ready for that. I want new and different with you.” He pressed his hips into the cradle of hers. As his cock branded her with heat, he rocked against her clit. “This much, in the language you can feel. But only if you’re sure, Katherine.”
“I’m sure I want to take intimacy for a test drive.” She raised her knees, sliding her feet along his soft cotton sheets. Matching his rocking, she connected them like live wires. “And I’m sure—” Her back arched. Fuck, he’d caught a gasp-worthy angle. She hauled in a deeper breath. “Sure I want to take that test drive with you. Because I’m sure of you, even when I’m not sure of me.”
He kissed her. Hard and driving, he chased her tongue with his own. “Then I’ll give you every reason to be sure of us.”
He opened her with his fingers and centered himself. Teasing, prodding, he sent her spiraling into hazy anticipation.
“So, in this fantasy.” He pushed into her, sliding until he filled her. “Christ.” As he groaned, his low rumble shivered through them both. “Fuck, I love how wet you are for me.”
“You turn me on.” She pressed kisses against his jaw. “In more ways than I know how to count.”
His breath whooshed past her ear. “I meet an amazing woman. Strong. Capable. Loyal.”
The Katherine he saw—the woman she longed to be. The true face she’d never shown to a lover.
He welded their bodies together with slow, deep thrusts. “So beautiful she knocks me flat. And somehow, somehow, she takes a chance on me.”
As their bodies gathered speed, so did he, pouring out words in a dizzying stream.
“She lets me show her everything I see in her, all the things she doesn’t see in herself.”
His fingers tightened around he
r wrists. As she arched, he pressed her flat with the weight of his chest.
“And this amazing woman comes home with me. Sees the man I am and shows me the woman she is.”
She dug her heels into the backs of his legs, adding leverage, driving him deeper. Gathering him up to give him no escape, no chance to take back the words.
“And when we make love, when nothing lies between us and I see so deep in her eyes it’s like following a ray of sunlight down to the lakebed?”
His stare, his copper-green flames, burned away the old. He illuminated his depths and her own reflected in him. Dark mysteries at the center shone brilliantly with his inner light.
“That’s my fantasy, Katherine. To know you intimately, from the storm-tossed surface layer to the swells and valleys so deep you’ve forgotten how they’ve shaped the woman you are.”
Fuck. He pried her mind loose, sent her swimming in unfamiliar waters. She lost her grip. Lost, lost—and he grabbed her hands.
“All of you, mine. All of me, yours.” He laced their fingers together as he drove her harder. “The two of us one body, one current. One.”
Gasping, they jumped together. She raged as violently as his surging sea, her shuddering body impossible to control. The fire washed through her and the sea followed. Cleansing. Unstoppable.
As the storm passed, he called her to safe harbor with his eyes. Intent on her, his gaze unwavering, he rolled sideways and wrapped her in his arms. He brushed his lips to hers.
She stole a gentle kiss in return.
His eyelids sank. Or maybe hers did. Opaque barriers blocking her beautiful view of his smile and the flush in his cheeks.
She’d wait a while, until they’d both recovered, and then she’d ask him to show her again. A cozy nap, here, together. In Brian’s bed. In his arms. In his life.
Exactly where she belonged.
* * * *
The thickness of Brian’s blackout blinds held back the morning sun to the best of their meager ability. Glimmers filtered in around the edges. Their sharpness struck the metal of the bedside lamp and pierced his eyelids.