The Bare Facts

by Karen Anders

  She ached, actually ached, to feel his arms around her, to feel the smooth heat of his skin against hers. But more than that, she ached to wake up to his handsome face every morning, eat breakfast with him, talk to him, support him and love him.

  She had passed the point of no return. For her, it was already too late. Since the pain was going to be unavoidable, she made the decision to take what she could from the moment.

  “Hey,” he said. “How did it go?”

  “It was wonderful.”

  He walked over to her and drew her toward the bed where he had a robe laid out. “Go ahead and change into the robe, I have a few more things to do in the bathroom.”

  When he disappeared into the bathroom, she took off her clothes and put on the fine silk short robe and belted it around her waist.

  In about ten minutes Dylan came out, shut the drapes and dimmed the lights. He took her hand and led her to a chair. Pushing on her shoulders, he indicated for her to sit.

  He knelt down on the floor and Haley smiled. “Just where I always wanted you.”

  “On my knees, huh?”

  “Worshiping me.”

  He looked up at her, his green eyes serious. “I do worship you.”

  She smiled, but Dylan didn’t crack a smile. His reaction unnerved her. Was he trying to rattle her? Play games?

  When he looked up at her again, his eyes were clear and purposeful. “If anything I do hurts you, let me know right away.”

  He reached over and picked up a tube of cream. He squirted a dollop on his hand and picked up her foot. Very gently he began to massage the cream into the ball of her foot. The sharp, soothing scent of eucalyptus and spearmint permeated the air and Haley sighed.

  He worked steadily, his shoulder and arm muscles bulging. It was a pleasure to watch. She reached out and touched his head, letting the soft strands of his hair slide through her fingers. When he laid his head in her lap and closed his eyes, she kept stroking him. Concocting a little fantasy in her head. She wished he were hers to keep.

  After a short while he raised his head, and she cupped his face and stroked his cheekbone. He smiled then, but it was wistful.

  He took both her hands in his and pulled her up from the chair. He brought her over to the table and unbelted her robe. He opened the lapels of the robe with a brush all the way down the length of her body. He pushed the material off her shoulders, and grabbed her waist in his big hands and lifted her onto the table.

  “Lie down on your stomach.” Haley got into the position, feeling completely at ease with him. He laid hot steamed towels across her back and she sighed with the decadent pleasure it brought. With strong hands and warm scented oil that smelled like jasmine, Dylan began to knead the back of her thighs.

  “So your dad was a mailman.”

  “Yeah. Mmm, that feels good.”

  “In Jersey?”

  “Yeah. Not the city though. I grew up in Hillcrest, a New Jersey suburb with quiet residential streets. My sister and I played in the backyard and my brother practiced his hoops at the net over our garage. Typical family life.”

  “Sounds idyllic.”

  “It was.” She moaned softly. His thumbs were getting at an especially tight area just beneath her shoulder blades. “That really feels good.”

  “You’re very tight,” he said as he removed the towels.

  Using the same oil, he began on her back. The man had amazing hands.

  “You have beautiful skin. Smooth, soft.” He ran his hands up and down her back, kneading, massaging, until Haley was almost drunk with relaxation.

  “Time to flip over.”

  She turned with Dylan’s help. She watched his face as he poured more oil onto his hands. He started with her feet and worked his way up her body all the way to her breasts. His slick palms slid over her nipples and Haley gasped and arched. But he slipped down to her stomach and hips to knead them. Up again, he teased her breasts, cupping them in his big hands and kneading them provocatively. The third time up, she felt the heat of his mouth engulf her nipple then dance away. Again he nipped at her while Haley moved restlessly on the table. When his mouth returned, he sucked hard at her nipples while he slipped his finger inside her, his thumb pressing against the hard nub of her core.

  “You are so tight, so beautiful.” His hot mouth nipped and laved her nipples. Haley’s hands came up and delved into his hair, holding him to her as he feasted on her flesh.

  “Dylan,” she pleaded softly.

  “Come on, sweetheart. Do it for me.”

  Her back arched at his provocative words and her orgasm spread through her like wildfire.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said quietly, and lifted her from the table. He carried her to the bathroom and moaned as he released her body to slide over his. His erection was hard and hot against her thighs, her stomach. The bathroom was filled with roses and illuminated with candlelight. It gave the room a hushed, secretive air, one filled with magic. The scent of roses and vanilla was strong in the room.

  “It’s beautiful, Dylan.”

  The soft music cascaded over them.

  Sitting down on the marble edge of the tub, she trailed her hand in the water. They never broke eye contact, not even when Dylan picked a red rose from one of the arrangements and offered it to her.

  She took the blossom, brought the bloom to her nose and breathed deep. She shredded the petals off the stem into the slowly churning water of the bath, almost absently, until all of them floated like miniature scarlet lily pads on the softly churning surface.

  Dylan sat down next to her on the lip of the tub. “Time to get your feet wet.”

  “I’ll never forget this.”

  He rose and walked a few paces away from her. He rubbed the back of his neck, ruffling his dark hair. The black strands were so sexy, the way they lay on the back of his neck. The sight drove her crazy.

  “What are you doing?” Haley rose from the tub and walked over to him.

  He was silent, his eyes burning like chunks of jade. “Trying to get a hold of myself. Trying not to take you like an animal.”

  It was too much for her. Too much. Her sigh mingled with the quiet motion of the water. Her voice hushed out, filled with secrets. “I’m not afraid of you.”

  “You should be. If you only knew how thin my restraint is right now. I didn’t know I had this kind of passion inside me, Haley.” In his voice was the desire he felt for her. Her name on his sensuous lips seemed like the key to release the pent-up emotions she denied herself.

  She would never forget this moment. This one moment in time when she knew without a doubt that she loved him.

  Loved a man she couldn’t have.

  Her heart was full of him, and for right now that would be enough. For once, she’d stop worrying about the future. She would just take the present and be content.

  He reached out and cupped the back of her neck. His touch set her free. His touch also set off a new wave of weakness, and she closed her eyes, struggling against the throbbing thickness that made her heart pound and her lungs refuse to function.

  Overwhelmed by sensation, she turned her face into his hand, and Dylan inhaled sharply. Murmuring her name, he drew her into his arms and covered her mouth in a kiss that set off a frenzy of sensation inside her. A sudden, frantic, mutual need seemed to travel from one to the other, and she clung to him, opening her mouth beneath his.

  Gripping her by the back of the head, he widened his stance. He pulled her between his thighs and hard against his groin. A low sound erupted from deep inside her when she felt him hard and fully aroused against her.

  Want escalated into an incoherent need, a need to feel him pressed against her. She locked her arms around his neck, desperately pulling herself higher, tighter against him.

  Widening his stance even more, Dylan shifted his hold on her back and dragged her up, resealing his hot, hungry mouth against hers in a kiss that seemed to ravage her very soul.

  Dylan twisted her agains
t one thigh and shifted his hold. Tightening his arm around her torso, he slid his hand between the moist folds of her skin, absorbing her cry as he touched her where she so desperately needed to be touched.

  Haley clutched at him, her body going rigid as she involuntarily arched against the stroking pressure of his fingers. An explosion detonated inside her and a chain of convulsions ripped through her as she came apart in his arms.

  She sobbed his name against his neck and with a sudden, deft move, he picked her up in his arms.

  He supported her against the strong musculature of his chest. His big arms wrapped around her. Tenderly he rubbed his cheekbone along hers, then his head lifted and she was captured, mesmerized by the earnestness in his eyes.

  She blinked, distracted by the unexpected gentleness of his face against hers. His eyes looked molten green in the candlelight.

  A longing full of twisting intensity gripped her when he cupped her face. It was imperative that he touch her, ease the ache. His thumbs glided over her skin. He breathed deep, taking the needed air into his lungs as if he were starving for it.

  His head dipped and his mouth met hers with a sigh. His tongue came out and traced the softness of her lips, paying homage to her with a moan of sheer pleasure.

  His fingers delved into her hair, crushing the curls when his hands clenched into fists.

  Gently he pulled her head back and deepened the kiss.

  “You have an amazing mouth,” he rasped against her lips.

  She sank against him, shivering delicately. She did what her hands had itched to do all night. Trembling fingers sought hard sleekness. Haley savored the feel of such hot, needful male beneath her fingertips. Her skin was alive with awareness, her fingertips tingling with each sweep against his burning flesh. Her hands roamed down his chest, brushing over one erect soft nipple. She smiled when he gasped softly against her mouth. She felt him smile in return. She trailed her hand down his ribs and the thick, hard muscles of his abdomen. She cupped him and squeezed gently, running the heel of her hand over his erection.

  His breath was hot against her lips as he moaned softly.

  She went to remove his shorts, but he stayed her hand. “No.” He picked her up and stepped into the whirling bathwater. “Why not?” she asked, entranced by the masculine beauty of his face.

  “You want a good column, right?” His eyes never left hers. Those eyes spoke volumes while offering her solace that no one in her life had ever offered. She sighed at the richness of it, ached at the poignancy.

  Forget the column. She wanted him to make love to her and it had nothing to do with a fantasy or her job. She wanted this night to matter. “I want you to make love to me.”

  His grin lit up the room. “It’s what I want, too.”

  “Okay then. Give me what I want, Malone.”

  He chuckled, pressing his cheek to her hair. Holding her harder, his hands stroked her as he dropped her legs to pull her closer to the hard, soothing length of his body.

  Her hands once more moved to explore him, taste him with her fingers, absorb him through her pores and marvel in the realization that he was the perfect image of what a man was meant to be. She pushed away from him to run her hands over his broad-muscled shoulders, a wide, hard chest, curving with more taut muscle. She reached for his shorts again.

  He laughed and captured her wrists. “You are determined.”

  “Dylan, let me go.”

  “Only if you promise to behave yourself. Let me do it my way, Haley,” he pleaded.

  “All right.”

  He bent over and picked up a loofah and poured body wash onto the slightly abrasive surface.

  “Gather your hair and hold it out of the way for me.”

  She gathered her unruly mass of curls and held them as he washed her back, her buttocks and down her legs.

  “Now the front.”

  Haley leaned into him, letting her hair go as it cascaded down over his back. His breath hissed out. With her back against his hot smooth skin, he moved the loofah over her skin, gently abrading her hard, aching nipples, over her stomach, and sliding into her sensitive core. His mouth found the soft skin behind her ear. He kissed and licked her there until her skin vibrated with unfulfilled need.

  “My turn,” he said hoarsely.

  Haley turned in his arms and took the loofah from him, set it on the side of the tub and reached for his shorts.

  She removed them to reveal lean hips and the enticing sight of him gloriously and fully aroused.

  She cupped him in her slick hands and caressed his rigid shaft. His eyes closed in pleasurable abandon. A deep groan issued from his throat.

  His eyes seemed to glow. With a growl, he pushed her backward.

  Every perception was sharpened to a honed edge. Every perception was swamped with heightened feeling. The sleekness of his skin. The taste of hot desire, unselfish tenderness. The gift of giving, of each other, of caring. The warmth of slick silky skin.

  He smiled slowly, widely, the dimples making a hot coil of need tighten in her stomach and radiate to all parts of her body. “That smile should be registered as a deadly weapon.”

  He only smiled wider.

  She moved the loofah over his powerful neck and shoulders. Thick rivulets cascaded down his wet gleaming skin, over the thick muscles of his powerful thighs, tangling in the dark whorls of hair covering his legs. He groaned in pleasure. The sound brought her gaze to his eyes, flaming brightly with green heat. His luxurious sable hair was slicked back off his face, locks lay thick along his neck dripping water over his broad shoulders.

  She watched in fascination as the droplets slid tantalizingly over the molded contours of his pectoral muscles, wending their way through the maze of black curly hair that dusted his chest, down over the rippling strength of his stomach and disappeared into the dark hair at his groin. Her eyes remained there, her pulse jumping in rapid succession, her breathing increasing into little puffs, desire curling inside of her, tightening.

  She shifted her eyes from him and followed the path of the cascading water with the loofah. She reached across him and pulled the removable showerhead from the wall and turned the hot water on him.

  She knelt and began to soap his legs, running her hands over the hard muscle of his calves, and then upward. She let the loofah fall and brushed the inside of his thighs with satin-slick fingers. Slipping her hands around his hips, she took him into her mouth. He began to move, his back arched; he clenched his teeth and panted through them as she stroked the most unbearably sensitive part of him with the tip of her tongue.

  Together they sank into the water. He caged her hips between his thighs, the heat of his body searing, warmer than the water that surrounded her.

  His hands caught her waist and roamed up the slim expanse of her ribs to her breasts. He molded them, his palms like hot erotic brands.

  His head lowered and her body arched to meet his seeking mouth. She gasped softly as he took one of her hard nipples, sucking the tight bud deep into his mouth.

  Her hair dipped into the water and the curls unfurled like the unfolding of delicate coral.

  Her skin jumped between hot and cold, shivering then burning with fever. Needs rose like a frothing wave of chaotic sensation that cleansed everything away. Everything but him.

  She lifted her hands to his shoulders. An ardent sound came from low in his throat, a thrilling masculine moan that sent response shivering through her.

  He stood and reached blindly for protection, slipped it on with fumbling hands. Anticipation made her shiver all over again.

  “Are you cold?” his voice rasped out near her ear. She shivered again at the sensation of his breath fanning over the delicate shell of her ear.

  She shook her head, feeling detached, as if she was floating.

  With a gentle nudge, he slid her along the floor of the tub until her back came up against the tub’s base. He surged forward, pressing against the length of her.

  He sank to his knee
s as if paying homage to a water goddess as the water rose around his hips and encircled his waist like liquid silver. His hands traveled up her legs slowly to savor the feel of them. He settled them around his waist and leaned forward once again. Grabbing her buttocks, he slid into her heated sheath.

  His hold on her tightened, capturing the free-floating rose petals. The pressure released the scent of crushed roses to waft on the air, perfuming it with the very flower of love.

  Haley gasped with each slow movement of his body. With her hands over her head, her breasts were uplifted and exposed, way too tantalizing for him to resist. His head lowered and he took her hard nipple in his mouth. She reared up, moaning his name and pleading, “Dylan, yes. Please.”

  Dylan closed his eyes against the exquisite pleasure. His body responded almost at once as he felt her surrender. Her body molded to his, going soft and pliant as she curved to reduce the distance between them. He was tantalized by the movement of her sleek teasing body as it gave and withdrew against him. The water was like hot caresses against his skin as he watched the checkerboard pattern of dark and light that played across her warm dusky skin.

  His hands could not get enough of feeling the power of her female flesh. Each caress sharpened his passion to a keen, almost unbearable, cutting edge. He moaned her name. “Haley.” His whispered words touched her cheek, warm and seductive as a wave of pleasure overpowered him, dragging him into a timelessness that stretched beyond infinity.

  “Dylan,” she gasped as she exploded without sound in the darkness. She offered herself to him without any barriers because she could not do otherwise, offering her soul and her heart and all that she was.

  She welcomed his deep, penetrating thrusts, taking him so sweetly into her body.

  He was fiercely gentle, the sleek hardness a solid physical part of him that could show her how he felt. Her reaction drew his pleasure to an incredible point.