He looked at her curiously. “Sweetheart, is it really so unbelievable to think someone might have wanted to spend time on you?”
“Yes. I only got one bunch of flowers from Michael in the three years we were together, and that was after an argument.”
His eyes hardened. “I seriously want to punch that dude’s teeth down his throat.”
That made her laugh. She moved away and picked up one of the toy turtles and examined it as she tried to gather her wits, something she couldn’t really do while he was touching her with no top on. “I can’t imagine you punching anyone. You’re like a very sexy teddy bear.”
He smiled wryly. “Oh, I’ve knocked a few guys out in my time. One of them being my brother.”
She giggled. “Toby?”
“No, actually this was my older brother, Matt. He beat me at cricket. I’m not a good loser.”
“Remind me not to play Monopoly with you, then.”
He smirked. “Oh, I hope we can find something more interesting to play than Monopoly.”
Their gazes met. Her fingers tingled where they’d brushed his skin as he’d hugged her. He’d been warm, his chest covered with a scattering of brown hair, his defined muscles firm when her fingers had brushed against them of their own free will. He was tall, gorgeous and kind, and he smelled divine.
And they were going to have sex.
It was quite possible she might faint from excitement before that.
He beckoned her toward the bar. “Come on, let me make you a drink. What do you like?”
She walked over and studied the miniatures he’d bought. Alcohol might be a good idea right about now. “To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. I usually drink wine or lager. I like coconut, though. And orange juice. Why don’t you invent something for me?”
“Okay.” He put some ice into a shaker and chose some bottles while he started telling her something he’d read online about Hawaii.
Coco half-listened, but knew she was perched on the edge of making a decision. She’d stayed awake until late, and then woken up early, thinking about whether she should go through with this. Right until the moment she walked through the hotel door, she was still debating whether she should turn around and go home. Because even though he’d kissed her—and the kiss had been amazing—she could still stop this. Could change her mind. But once they’d had sex, that was it—she wouldn’t be able to undo it.
Her nerves hadn’t disappeared, and she still had worries about working with him, but as she looked around the room and thought about the effort he’d gone to, and as she watched him at the bar, trying so hard to put her at ease as he talked about this and that, she took a deep breath and made up her mind.
Unbuttoning her shirt while he busied himself pouring the cocktails, she let it slip silently down her arms and threw it over a chair in the corner, and then took off her shoes and jeans and placed them on the chair too.
Then she leaned her butt on the back of the sofa where he’d pushed it up against the wall, shook back her hair, and did her best to look nonchalant in the bikini as he finally finished the cocktails and turned around with the glasses in his hands.
He saw her and stopped. His eyes widened, and he looked like a cartoon character who’d been hit in the face with a frying pan. “Holy…fucking…hell.”
She looked down at herself. “What?” True, the bikini was quite tiny and the triangles of the top barely seemed to cover her nipples. And the triangle at the bottom barely covered her pubic hair. But she’d thought she looked pretty good in it. And she thought the silver barbell in her belly button was an attractive addition.
She looked back up and met his eyes, and then they both started laughing.
He came over and passed her one of the glasses, which came complete with a tiny paper umbrella and a stirrer. “I can safely say that is the most shocked I have ever been in my entire life.” His gaze caressed her, lingering on her breasts before sliding down to her waist and hips.
“You like?” She turned slowly to give him a back view. By the time she faced him again, his answer was self-evident in the bulge that had appeared in his shorts, and she giggled. “Never mind.”
He raised an eyebrow, picked up a tray with two pairs of sunglasses and stepped onto the “sand”. “You’re surprised by my reaction? Honey, you’re just lucky I didn’t have a coronary.”
She walked onto the yellow material, realising then that he’d spread something soft underneath the gold cloth because her feet sank into it like sand. “Ooh, this is nice.”
He smiled and led her to the middle of the room. He sat, placed the tray just behind him and put his drink on it. Then he lay down and stretched out, his feet just touching the “sea”.
“Come on in,” he said, lowering the sunglasses and putting his hands behind his head. “The water’s lovely.”
She laughed and sat beside him, put the cocktail on the tray and slid her sunglasses on. Then she lay down. It was so warm in the room it really did feel as if the sun was beating down on them.
“This is so wonderful, Felix, thank you so much.”
“You’re very welcome.”
“I had no idea what you were going to do. I thought maybe you were going to show me Elvis’s Blue Hawaii or something.”
He laughed. “That would have been a lot easier.”
She rolled onto her side and propped her head on her hand. “I mean it. I really appreciate what you’ve done. And oddly, it really does feel as if we’re there.” She looked over at the projection of the sea, at the birds diving into the turquoise water. If she concentrated, she could almost feel the salty spray on her face.
He sighed. “Well, it’s the best I could do at such short notice. I’m sure if you manage to go there one day you’ll realise what a terrible job I did.”
She smiled. “Well, I’m sure this will be the closest I’ll get to the real thing so you don’t have any worries.” She reached over, retrieved her cocktail from the tray and took a sip. “Ooh, that’s lovely. What’s in it?”
“Vodka, rum, orange juice, coconut and some liqueur I can’t remember the name of.”
“Does it have a name?”
He rolled onto his side and propped himself up so he could retrieve his own drink. “I was thinking I’d call it ‘Coco’s Delight’.”
She chuckled. “I love it.”
He took a few swallows of his own drink and then lay the same way as her, head propped on a hand. “You really think you’ll never get to the real Hawaii?”
“I doubt I’ll ever travel.” She stirred the cocktail. “Mum’s condition may worsen, but it’s not fatal. She’s only fifty-five. I expect—and hope—for her to live for a good many years yet. And by the time I’m alone, I’ll be too old to go travelling.”
He frowned. “But surely you can get someone to look after her for a week while you take a break?”
She shrugged. “It’d be no fun going away on my own.”
“You may meet someone, Coco. Fall in love?”
She met his gaze and smiled. “Seriously, Felix, I doubt there’ll be a man willing to take on me and my mother. Why would they? I wouldn’t, if it were the other way around. No, I fully expect to stay single for the rest of my life now. And that’s okay, I’ve come to terms with that.”
“Don’t you want children?”
She met his brown eyes, surprised at the hitch inside her at his words. Emotion almost overwhelmed her for a moment, but she dropped her gaze and concentrated on sipping her drink before she answered. “Motherhood’s not for me, not this lifetime.” He frowned and she got the impression he was going to press the matter, and she knew she had to turn the conversation away from herself. “What about you? Do you want to be a daddy?”
One side of his mouth curved up. “Lindsey and I used to talk about it. But after she died, like you, I decided that life wasn’t for me. I spent six years determined to stay single for the rest of my life. But then Toby met Esther, and she’d had Charlie…” H
e hesitated.
She smiled. “That’s your nephew, I’m guessing. Is he lovely?”
“Matt has two kids and they’re pretty cool. But Charlie…he’s adorable, actually. He’s so like Toby, falls over his own feet, but watching Toby and him together…” He smiled ruefully. “I don’t know. I guess I’m envious.”
They fell silent for a moment. Coco sipped her drink, thinking that in some ways they were so different, and yet in many ways very similar, lost souls, thinking they were doing just fine but knowing deep down they were just papering over the cracks.
But it wasn’t a night for these sorts of emotions. She wanted to wipe away the sadness in his eyes. They were supposed to be having fun.
She finished off her cocktail. “Okay, my turn to fix one. Drink up.”
He swallowed the last mouthful and handed her the glass.
“How do I do it?” she asked as she walked to the bar.
“Add stuff. Shake it. Pour it in a glass.” He lay down.
“Technical, then?” She laughed and made it up as she went along, poured the drinks out and brought them back, and then started talking about a book she’d read recently on archaeology. He listened and then joined in, and before long their mood had lifted and they were talking about all sorts of things, from history to movie stars to politics and everything else under the sun.
They had two more cocktails and time passed, and gradually Coco relaxed, enjoying Felix’s company—from his deep, melodic voice that soothed all her ragged corners, to his intelligent conversation, to the way his gaze frequently caressed her, running slowly up her body, as tender and sensuous as if it were his fingers.
And eventually they reached the natural end of a topic, and she finished the last mouthful of her cocktail and placed the glass on the tray with a sigh.
“Another?” he said, preparing to get up.
“Not yet.” She lay back, warm and at ease. She’d never felt so comfortable with a man—not even with Michael, whom she’d dated for so long.
Why was that? What was it about Felix she liked so much? Yes, he was gorgeous, but it was so much more than that. He was funny, sexy and yet tender too. He teased her out of her shell as if coaxing a tiny animal toward him, gentle and kind. She’d only known him a few days, but she had to admit to herself she was already crazy about him.
He was watching her now, smiling, but his eyes were alight with more than just affection. He wanted her, but she could see he was trying to keep a tight hold on his desire, wanting to proceed at a pace that was best for her.
But what he didn’t realise was that she wanted him too. More than she could say.
So she didn’t say anything. She reached up a hand, slipped it behind his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.
Chapter Twenty-One
Coco threaded her fingers through the short hair on the back of Felix’s head as their lips touched, and then ran her hand down the side of his neck, across his shoulders to his chest. The feel of his bare skin sent a thrill shooting through her, and his answering deep sigh that was almost a groan only intensified that thrill.
They were really going to do this. They were going to kiss and touch each other, and then he would move inside her. What position would they do it in? At that moment she didn’t care if it was missionary, because she knew instinctively it wasn’t going to be anything like missionary with Michael. Things were already a thousand times hotter than they had been with her ex—like comparing a comet that had been hurtling through the atmosphere with a plain rock, and just the thought of taking this magnificent kiss any further got her heart racing.
He moved his mouth over hers with agonising slowness, as if he was determined to make it last and savour every single piece of her, as if he was at a restaurant with a mouth-watering meal he didn’t want to end. He kissed across her lips, touching his tongue there occasionally, and Coco gave in and let him proceed at his own pace, happily opening her mouth and welcoming his tongue inside.
He tasted divine, of coconut and whisky and the taste that was just Felix, and she immersed herself in him, letting him overwhelm her senses until it seemed as if her whole world consisted of this room, this man, and the touch, taste and smell of him. She ran her hand up his arm, admiring the contours of his muscles, so hard and defined compared to hers. His skin was warm and very slightly damp from the heat of the room, and she trailed her fingers down his chest, loving the curls of hair, his tight pecs, his flat nipples. She brushed them, and he raised his head to smile wryly at her, bringing his hand up to circle the tiny triangles of material on her breasts.
“Just so you know,” he said, “the rule is that if you tease me, it gets returned threefold.”
Excitement surged through her. “Ooh. Promises, promises.”
He laughed and rolled away from her, stood and went over to the light switch. He dimmed the lights and said with a grin, “The sun’s setting,” then pulled a chair from the dining table in the corner toward her. Leaving it a few feet away, he knelt and pulled her up, so they were kneeling and facing each other.
She held her breath, awestruck by his wide shoulders, the expanse of bare skin and the way he just seemed to be so much bigger than her. She wanted to cover every inch of him with kisses, to taste him and feel the pulse of his heart beneath her lips, but she held back for the moment, too shy to take the initiative.
Instead, she enjoyed the sensations he was arousing in her as he skated his hands down her back and over her hips, then brought them back up to cup her breasts, brushing his thumbs across her nipples. He began to kiss her again, and she subsided into a spiral of hazy desire, raising her arms around his neck and pressing herself against him as the kiss gradually deepened and her pulse started to pound.
He slid his hands up her back and tugged at the ties at her neck. They unravelled and tumbled down her front, although the material clung to her breasts, refusing to reveal what lay beneath. Felix lifted his head, fixed his eyes on hers and slowly pulled the ties down before dropping his gaze to caress her.
“Christ, you’re beautiful.” He cupped her breasts again, brushing her nipples with his thumbs, and the sensitive skin tightened and puckered. She inhaled and tipped back her head, closing her eyes, and that seemed to do something to him.
He pulled her toward him, falling backward onto the floor so she fell on top of him, and he slipped a hand behind her head and held her tightly while he captured her lips with his, delving his tongue into her mouth in a passionate kiss that left her breathless and aching.
“Felix,” she gasped, not really sure why she exclaimed, but he didn’t stop to let her speak. He pushed her upright so she sat astride him and then, capturing her hands in his, he pulled them above his head until her breasts were on a level with his lips. His hot mouth fastened on a nipple, and she swore out loud as he brushed it with his tongue before sucking hard enough to make everything inside her tighten.
He murmured his approval, switching to her other nipple, and she could only sit there in blissful ecstasy as he did the same to that one, teasing the softening skin to a tight peak again before grazing it with his teeth and flicking the end with his tongue.
Coco began to think she could come just by him doing that, tantalising and taunting her, swapping from one nipple to the other until they were both firm, wet buttons. She rocked her hips, not surprised to find him hard underneath her, and she felt a thrill deep inside when he grunted at the feel of her stroking up and down his length to arouse herself.
Then he lifted her and turned her onto her back, and she squealed in surprise, looking up at him with wide eyes. With deft hands he peeled away her bikini bottoms, and then he stroked up her thighs to between her legs and brushed her pubic hair.
“Can I touch you?” he murmured, and she nodded hesitantly, suddenly shy, and opened her legs. Keeping his hot brown gaze on hers, he brushed up her thigh again, then touched his fingers between her legs and sank them into her. They slipped so easily through her flesh that she knew s
he must be swollen and moist, and she bit her lip as he slid his fingers deep inside her, eyes glowing with desire. She closed her eyes, her face burning at the obvious pleasure he was experiencing at exploring her. He kissed her eyelids, then her mouth again, and when he brought his fingers up to caress her and she gasped, he wasted no time in deepening the kiss again.
He stroked her for a while and then finally raised his head to look at her. Still stroking her lightly, he said, his voice husky, “It’s no good, I’ve got to taste you. Will you let me?”
She caught her breath. “You mean…”
“Yes, Coco, I want to go down on you and give you oral pleasure.” He chuckled as her face burned again. Damn it. Must she blush all the time? “You’re so adorable,” he said and kissed her cheek.
He rolled onto his back, his head a foot in front of the chair he’d moved forward, and beckoned her. “Come here.”
She pushed herself up and then hesitated. What did he want her to do? Oh my God. “I can’t.”
“Of course you can. Come here.” He caught her hand and pulled her toward him. Hazy with drink and desire, she did as he bid, stopping as her knees reached his head.
“Put one knee here.” He tapped the floor above his other shoulder.
She shook her head.
He held her gaze and raised his eyebrows. “Will you do as you’re told?”
Her heart pounded. “Felix, I just can’t.”
He stroked her leg. “Honey, I’m not going to make you do anything you’re uncomfortable doing. But I thought this was what you wanted—to try things you haven’t been able to do before.”
“I do…” And he was right of course. She was just so nervous about doing something wrong—of embarrassing herself, of looking stupid.
“You can lie down and I’ll kiss you there,” he said, “but from what I understand, this position is more pleasurable. You can control the pressure and guide me. I just want to give you pleasure, sweetheart.”
Five Exotic Fantasies: Love in Reverse, Book 3 Page 13