Her First Vacation

by Leigh, Jennie

  “Come to the bed and I’ll let you explore all you like.”

  He saw her blush and wondered if she’d work up the nerve to touch him again. He led her to the bed, then stretched out on it, scooting to the middle so she’d have plenty of room beside him. She sat down, and he saw her hesitating. Then she let her gaze slide down his body, and he felt himself responding to it. God help him when she made the caress physical.

  Claire lifted a hand to lightly brush the dark curls on his chest. She was embarrassed by the idea of just staring at him like this, but she couldn’t ignore the need to know him. She wanted to run her fingers over every inch of his body. She wanted to touch him and watch as he responded to her touch. She already knew he liked for her to touch his nipples. She ran a finger over one them, lightly brushing it as she dropped her gaze to his erection. It twitched in response. She wondered what would happen if she kissed him there?

  Colin found himself wishing desperately that the bed wasn’t so generic. Something made of iron with bars at the top would have been nice at the moment. He needed something to grab hold of, something to take even the slightest bit of his focus off what Claire was doing to his body. He clenched his jaw as she leaned forward and tentatively touched her tongue to one of his nipples. He couldn’t stop the low groan, and she lifted her head to study him for a second before putting her mouth on him once more. This time she didn’t just touch him with her tongue. This time she gently nipped at him with her teeth, then ran her tongue over him before nipping him again. And just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, he felt her hand slide down his stomach. A second later she had wrapped her fingers around his aching erection and was stroking him lightly while her mouth continued to work on his nipple. God, he was in trouble.

  Claire could feel the pulsing of his erection, and it finally drew her attention away from his chest. She lifted her head and turned to watch as she tightened her fingers around him and carefully slid them along his length. She was amazed by how soft and yet how hard he was. She stroked him once, then twice, then again and again. She could feel the muscles in his body tightening and her own muscles began to do the same. The heat in her belly began a slow downward spiral. She never expected to be turned on by turning him on. Not like this. She kept her fingers around him, kept sliding them up and down. She couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t enough, though. She’d been thinking earlier that she wanted him to lose control. He didn’t appear to be in any danger of that at this point. It only took her a few seconds to decide what she needed to do.

  Colin felt her shift on the bed. He’d closed his eyes a long time ago while he struggled to keep himself from flying apart in her clever little hand. She was wholly inexperienced, and he could feel it in the way she touched him. She was learning with each touch, each stroke. It drove him nuts to watch her watching him, so he closed his eyes to avoid that. It meant he didn’t realize exactly what she was doing until he felt her mouth close over his erection. His eyes flashed open as she took him into her mouth, and he damn near came then and there. He reached down and caught her, trying to push her away. She lifted her head, releasing him as she met his gaze. He gave his head a sharp shake.

  “Don’t.”

  She frowned at him. “Was I doing it wrong?”

  He almost laughed out loud. “No, you were doing it very right. But that’s not something I think you’re ready for.”

  She gave him a look that bordered somewhere between a pout and uncertainty. Her voice sounded far more confident, however. “I’ll decide what I’m ready for, Colin.”

  Before he could argue further she dropped her mouth to him once more, and this time there wasn’t any hesitation when she took him in. He felt her tongue glide over him, felt her suck gently at him. He had to get her off him. He didn’t push her away, though. He couldn’t. She’d found a rhythm and was sucking and stroking him with an intensity that had him shaking with the effort to hold himself back. He reached down and tangled his hand in her hair. It was fanned out across his hips, and he felt a flash of heat as he realized she was fulfilling more than one of the fantasies he’d had about her. She was picking up the pace with each stroke, and he knew he was going to lose it any second. She was making little noises that he instantly realized meant she was as turned on by what she was doing as he was. He couldn’t stand it any longer. She was going to come, and he wanted to be inside her when it happened. He sat up and caught her shoulders, forcing her to let him go.

  Her gray eyes were dark, her lips wet. Colin pulled her forward and took her mouth, needing to taste her. Their tongues met and clashed as she leaned into him. He covered one breast with his hand and kneaded it with far more strength than he should have, but she didn’t flinch away. Instead she groaned low in her throat, and he jerked away from her before he shot his load all over himself.

  “We need another condom.”

  She turned to look around and spotted the pile of packets lying on the floor beside the bed. She bent and grabbed them, depositing the stash on the bed. She lifted one of the packets and he snatched it, tearing it open. It took him seconds to sheathe himself, then he was reaching for her. He pulled her forward, holding her gaze as he spoke.

  “Straddle my hips.”

  She gave him a slightly surprised look ,and he smiled. “That’s right. This time you get to be on top.”

  He could see that the idea intrigued her. It embarrassed her a bit as well, but she didn’t let that stop her. She threw a leg over him and positioned herself right over his erection. He leaned back, propping himself up on one elbow while he reached for himself with the other hand. His breath was already coming too fast when he spoke.

  “Go on, honey.”

  She braced her hands on his chest and slowly lowered herself down. The moment she felt him nudging her opening she felt a wild surge of heat and dampness. She sank lower, taking him inside a bit. Colin fell back flush against the mattress and brought his hands to her hips. Suddenly she couldn’t bear the thought of going slow. She sank down onto him, taking him inside her with a swiftness that made her gasp. His hands on her hips tightened until his grip was almost painful. She dropped her gaze to his face and saw the sweat that had popped out on his forehead.

  “Don’t move.”

  It was spoken through clenched teeth and she knew that he was finally at that point of lost control she’d so wanted to bring him to. She felt a smile touch her lips as a purely female sense of power surged through her. She was the one in control at this moment. She had all the power. And she chose to use it. She ignored his command to remain still as she rocked her hips against him. The motion put pressure on her clit, and she felt a hot shiver work through her body. Then she lifted herself as far as his iron grip would allow and sank down again. She rose and fell and rose and fell until her legs began to tremble with the strain, and all the while Colin kept telling her to slow down, to give him time to get back in control. She didn’t have the breath to tell him that she didn’t want him in control. She could only move and feel and reach for the stars.

  Colin finally gave up trying to make her understand that she was driving him insane. She was riding him with a wild abandon that was straight out of a thousand porno flicks. She had her head thrown back, which thrust her pert little breasts straight at him. He let go of her hips as his gaze focused on those twin orbs. He had to touch her, to drive her as hard and fast toward the edge as she was driving him. He closed his fingers over her nipples, rolling them, then flicking them and she groaned in response. She rocked against him, pulling him so deep inside her that he couldn’t believe it didn’t hurt her. He brought his hands to her hips again, desperately trying to stop the tidal wave of release he could feel building inside him. It was a lost battle, though. With one final flex of her hips he felt himself explode inside her. She cried out at the same time and her muscles tightened around him, milking him for all he was worth. Finally she collapsed across his chest, their bodies still joined, their hearts beating wildly agains
t each other. Colin desperately prayed that the emotion making his heart ache was nothing more than a byproduct of the best sex he’d ever had. It couldn’t be anything else. He wouldn’t allow it to be.

  Claire wasn’t certain what woke her. The room was just beginning to be bathed with the first lightening of the coming dawn. Colin was standing by the bed, shrugging into his jacket. He was fully dressed and clearly in the process of sneaking out of her room. She felt something inside her threaten to shatter and staunchly refused to allow it. He’d never made her any promises. In fact, he’d been very clear about what he wanted. She felt herself blush. He’d certainly gotten what he’d wanted from her. Her entire body was aching this morning as a result. They’d gone through every one of his condoms. On the bed, on the floor, in the bathroom with her sitting on the counter and him standing in front of her. They’d even done it in the shower beneath the hot water. He’d warned her that she would be sore but she hadn’t cared. She supposed she’d known that it was the only chance the two of them were going to have. She’d known he wasn’t interested in anything permanent or even temporary. So why was it that she knew she was going to burst into tears the moment he was out the door?

  Colin was reaching for the door when she said his name. He closed his eyes for a moment. Damn, but he’d hoped to get out before she woke up. He should have left last night after she fell asleep. It would have been so much more profound a slap to her face if she’d woken up, and he’d simply been gone. Now he was going to have to watch her as he broke her heart. He turned around and watched as she sat up on the bed. She was still naked, and it took too damned much effort not to respond to the sight of her bare breasts. He jerked his eyes off them and met her gaze. Her teary, sad gaze. He opened his mouth, but she shook her head.

  “It’s okay, Colin. I knew what you were when I let you in my bed.”

  Her words stunned him into silence. It wasn’t just the words, though. It was the expression in her eyes. The defeated, world-weary look that shot straight into him and gripped his heart so hard that it hurt. He had to clench his hands to keep from reaching for her as she gripped the sheet and covered herself. She stood, taking the sheet with her. He damn near choked when she came to him and lifted her hand to touch his face.

  “Thank you.”

  He blinked. “What the hell for?”

  “For showing me the truth about myself. For forcing me to face up to it. And for being the first man to teach me how good it can be between a man and a woman.”

  Her utter honesty was going to be the death of him. He reached up and caught her hand, pulling it away from him.

  “Don’t make me out to be some kind of saint, Claire. Everything I’ve done has been for purely selfish reasons.”

  She smiled then, and it tightened the band around his heart another notch.

  “I know. But I benefited from it, too, so I suppose it all evens out in the end.”

  Just like that, she accepted that he’d used her for sex and nothing else. For some reason he couldn’t begin to fathom, he was ticked that she so readily believed the worst about him. Damn it, couldn’t she see that she’d touched him as no other woman ever had? Didn’t she understand that it was killing him to walk away from her? The answer to all the questions was simple. Of course she didn’t see or understand. He was too damned good at his job, at lying. She’d believe whatever he wanted her to believe. She pulled her hand out of his grasp.

  “I won’t keep you here any longer. I know you’re eager to go.”

  God, how he wanted to deny it. He wanted to push her back to the bed and sink into her body until nothing in the world could touch the two of them. He couldn’t do that, though. He didn’t dare. So he forced himself to nod as he reached back to grasp the doorknob. He was just starting to turn away from her when he stopped himself and forced the words he knew he had to say out of his mouth.

  “There’s just one thing, Claire.”

  She met his gaze ,and he saw the flash of hope in her eyes. He ruthlessly refused to let it sway him in the least. “Stay away from Garret.”

  She blinked, clearly shocked by the command.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Stay away from him. He’s…not what he appears to be.”

  Before she could ask what he meant, he pulled open the door and slipped through it. She watched it close quietly behind him. For a few seconds she just stood there, puzzling over his last words and praying that he’d come back through the door and tell her that he couldn’t leave her. Not like this. But the door didn’t open, and she felt the tears beginning to slide down her cheeks. Finally she gave in to the need to sob, turning to crawl back onto the bed as the dam burst inside her. She curled into a ball, and let it all go.

  Colin leaned against her door, clenching his hands into fists as he heard the muffled sound of her sobs. They weren’t just gasps for air between silent tears. They were deep, gut wrenching cries full of so much sorrow and pain that he cursed himself with every foul word he knew. He listened to her cries for as long as he dared. Until he knew it was getting late enough that he was risking being discovered lurking outside her door. Finally he forced himself to turn and walk away, the echoes of her sobs ringing in his ears long after he’d outdistanced the range of the actual sounds.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Colin wasn’t particularly surprised that Claire didn’t appear in the dining room for breakfast. Nor was he expecting to see Garret. Not yet. The toxin he’d been subjected to would have faded from his system by now, but after the kind of gut busting vomiting Colin knew he’d been doing over the past hours, it was unlikely he’d be in any mood to eat. Garret wasn’t the sort to stay down for long, however. He’d be back before the day was over, no doubt wanting to pick right up where he and Claire had left off. Colin didn’t doubt that Garret would go straight for Claire once he was certain he was over his sudden illness. He’d been all primed and ready to take her on the blanket yesterday, and he’d want to finish what he’d started. It remained to be seen whether or not Claire would be willing to accommodate him. Colin desperately wanted to believe she wouldn’t. That she couldn’t after everything they’d shared in her bed last night. He knew she wasn’t the kind of woman to give her body lightly. She’d all but told him he was only the second man she’d ever allowed to touch her. And after the way she’d been sobbing that morning, he couldn’t imagine her deciding that another meaningless fling was something she wanted.

  He heard a mocking voice in his head calling him a liar as the word meaningless flitted through his mind. What he and Claire had shared was anything but trivial or insincere. He’d known more than a few women in his life. There’d even been a time when he’d been more than willing to take one to bed just to shore up whatever cover he’d been cultivating at the time. Back when he was too young and stupid to see the truth of what those illicit liaisons really meant for him. He’d told himself that he wanted it, that it was necessary. And then one of the women he was taking to his bed wound up getting caught in the crossfire when things went wrong. She didn’t die, though. In many ways, he thought it might have been easier if she had. She’d just had a bullet rip through her body, severing her spinal cord so that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. He couldn’t even say he’d really cared for her. She was just one more piece of the disguise he’d donned. Like a beard or fake ID, she’d seemed to suit the character he was portraying, so he’d bedded her and kept her around for show. And she wound up paying for his callousness for the rest of her life. After that, he never could bring himself to use a woman like that again. Not just because he finally realized how wrong it was to toy with anyone’s emotions that way, but because he’d also finally figured out that he was damn near prostituting himself for his job. The similarities seemed glaringly obvious when viewed in hindsight. Which was why he’d been going through a hell of a lot of trouble making it look like he was screwing half the women on the ship when he hadn’t done more than put on a good show for his au
dience.

  He couldn’t quite manage to fully ignore the way his stomach rolled at the thought. He’d been playing a part for Garret, trying to make the bastard think he’d met someone who shared his total lack of moral fiber. And what had it gotten him? Not one damn thing. He’d been Garret Palmer’s shadow for more than two weeks now and the only thing he’d witnessed Garret doing was a bad impersonation of Casanova. Even his pursuit of Claire hadn’t slowed him down. He wined and dined her during the days and evenings, then picked up any willing woman he could find and took her to his bed at night. Not once during the entire trip had he done or said anything that might be construed as even a hint of evidence of the crimes Colin knew he was guilty of. Colin had an intense awareness of the fact that time was running out. Five days before the ship docked back in the USA. Realistically, he knew that whatever Garret had planned would have to take place in the next three days. They were making their final stop before returning to the States tonight. They would be staying for two days before leaving evening after next to make the final leg of their journey. That gave Garret roughly forty-eight hours to make his meeting with his contact. Somehow, Colin had to make sure he was present at that meeting. Oh, he didn’t hold out any real hope that Garret would just up and invite him. The man would have to be an idiot to take that kind of risk, even with someone he was certain was as amoral as he was. But Colin did expect his relationship with Garret to at least give him some forewarning about the meeting. He and Garret had been spending a lot of time together. Hopefully Garret would offer some excuse for why he was leaving the ship without his new best friend at his side. That little bit of warning would be all Colin would need to make sure things were in place to tag Garret’s contact and use him to flush out the rest of the organization.