The Best Part of Me

by Jamie Hollins

  “Ewan, please…I don’t—”

  He looked at her, his dark blue eyes sparking with a wicked look as he smiled.

  “You don’t what?”

  “I…I don’t…” she stuttered. “I don’t like…that.”

  He nuzzled his nose just above the soft curls at the apex of her thighs, causing her to squirm more.

  “Have you tried it?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “And I didn’t like it.”

  She felt the curve of his smile against her lower abdomen.

  “Well, then whoever was indulging you didn’t do it right.”

  He shifted his body lower on the bed and slowly pressed her legs open wide. She was sure her entire body was stained crimson with embarrassment.

  “Please, I don’t—”

  Her next word came out as a gasp as she felt the hot, wet stroke of his tongue straight along her folds. It wasn’t a timid let’s-test-the-waters touch. It was a bold statement. One that took all the thoughts from her mind.

  His wicked tongue ran a wet circle around her clit, causing her to clench the comforter in her hands.

  “Oh, dear God,” she gasped at the pure, unadulterated pleasure that vibrated through her body.

  She felt him growl against her wetness as he licked and sucked his way. His fingers were kneading the insides of her thighs, and she couldn’t stop the moan that left her when she felt his tongue enter her. She felt pleasure building with every pass of his tongue. She arched her back and rolled her hips, wanted to get away from the torment of his tongue at the same time as wanting to feel more of him.

  Her breath was coming faster, and she gasped as she felt him take his mouth away from her long enough to blow a gentle stream of air against her searing flesh.

  “Ewan,” she moaned.

  After a playful lick, he lifted his head to meet her eyes. “You still want me to stop?” he teased.

  The view of his chiseled face between her widespread thighs was so sexy it rendered her speechless.

  He smirked. “I’ll take that as a no.”

  Before Quinn could agree or disagree, she felt his lips enclose her swollen clit. He gently sucked the sensitive bud against his tongue. The orgasm that had been looming in the distance was racing toward her now. She held her breath as he continued the sweet torture, and she involuntarily started moving her hips against him.

  And just when she thought it couldn’t possibly feel any better than it did at that moment, with his hot mouth on her, Ewan pushed two fingers into her drenched sex. The orgasm slammed into her. Her entire body trembled with pleasure as her climax crashed over her, wave after wave. Ewan gentled his mouth and his fingers and pulled every last ounce of bliss from her body, until she was listless.

  She could barely see through the slits of her heavy-lidded eyes, but she watched as he sat back on his heels at the end of the bed. He stared at her with an intensity that should have frightened her. But she was so completely satiated that she could do nothing but admire the simmering desire that emanated from his body.

  Her knees were bent and lay open in complete wanton abandon. And through her legs, she saw Ewan untuck the end of his towel before pulling it from his hips and tossing it to the ground.

  Holy hell.

  His swollen erection was sprung tightly against his stomach. The muscles in his abdomen flexed with each breath he took. As he rose up off his heels, he knelt like a dark beautiful Greek God. Every inch of his body was tensed in restraint. His hands were clenching at his sides, and Quinn could tell he was trying to hold still long enough so she could look her fill. The truth was, she could look forever and still not have her fill. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.

  And she was in his bed, seconds away from having him inside of her.

  He’d just delivered an amazing orgasm seconds before, but she found herself wanting him again. And as if he read her mind, he slowly leaned forward to crawl up her body. She could tell he was holding himself back, and was surprised when he placed a gentle kiss to the side of her neck.

  She felt his stiff erection against her stomach and moved her hands up around his waist to his lower back. The muscles that ran along his spine were trembling with need.

  His mouth found hers in a slow, deep kiss. His tongue stroked the inside of her mouth. She felt him growl when she rotated her hips against his, pleading for him to give her what she wanted.

  “You’re greedy tonight, aren’t you?” he said in between kisses.

  “You’re taking too damn long.”

  He smiled at her quip. She was dying to feel him inside of her again. She wanted to feel him stretch her as she took him completely inside.

  “I want to feel you tonight.” He kissed his way along her jaw to her ear. “I want to hear all the little noises you make and see the expressions that cross your face.” He nibbled on her earlobe.

  She ran her nails up the sides of his body to his shoulder blades.

  “But I think you’re right. It’s time to claim my prize.”

  He positioned himself between her legs, holding his upper body up on his arms. The tip of his cock was nestled at her entrance, and he raised his eyes to meet hers. His gaze was heavy with desire. And as slowly as humanly possible, he pushed into her, inch by inch. The muscles in his face and upper body tensed as he pressed farther. It was endless and amazing, and when he was completely inside, his chest was heaving from restraint. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back, but he still didn’t move.

  She wanted him to move. She was able to push up into him, and he said, “Jesus, Quinn, don’t move. I’m close.”

  She forced herself to remain still, even though every cell in her body was screaming at her to move. After a few moments, Ewan released a deep breath. And when he opened his eyes, Quinn could see that he’d regained some of his control.

  He lowered himself to his forearms and his skin was hot against hers.

  Finally, he started to move. The rhythm his hips kept was slow and steady. She felt every inch of him as he pushed in and out of her. The burn was slowly building, but his tempo stayed the same.

  Higher and higher he took them both. And finally, when Quinn could take no more, she stepped off the edge into oblivion. And Ewan followed a half step behind.

  ###

  “Can I please have a glass of water?” she murmured from the bedroom.

  He smiled smugly at her faint voice as he opened the refrigerator. Quinn sounded exhausted. And with good reason.

  Ewan had collected on his bet. Three times over, to be exact. Had he ever gone three in one night before? Surely he had. But not three in the span of two and a half hours. That was an orgasm every fifty minutes. After a full shift at the pub, a morning playing rugby, and two previous nights of sex, three times in two and a half hours had to be a new record.

  All of a sudden, he was extremely tired. Just thinking about what he’d gladly put his body through in the last three days with very little sleep made him want to crawl in bed and take a two-day nap. The sex with Quinn was amazing, but it might be time to slow things down. He’d never spent three nights in a row with one woman.

  Oddly enough, he didn’t feel like he’d worked her out of his system yet either. Every time he came, it was better than the last. It boggled his mind that such an inexperienced woman as Quinn could surprise him in ways that no other woman had.

  She knew how to raise her hips at the right moment. Her hands knew the map of his body and touched him in all the right places. The way her tiny little nails dug into his skin when she climaxed sent all the remaining blood in his body straight to his cock. She was uninhibited and passionate. Far more so than any woman should be who’d only had one lover. She took the pleasure he gave her, and he could tell she craved more.

  And it was the more that he was afraid of.

  It’d be best if he made himself scarce for a few days. She probably expected them to be together every night, which was something that he definitely didn’t w
ant to encourage.

  After draining a glass of water himself and then filling another, he returned to the bedroom to find Quinn snuggled under the bedsheet with the quilt pulled up to her chin. The faint glow of the streetlamps coming in from the front window bathed her in light.

  Ewan stood next to the bed and watched her chest rise steadily under the covers. Her long lashes lay against her cheekbones. Her pink lips were slightly open where they rested on the inside of her palm. Her light brown hair was spread out over his pillows. She looked so small and soft. And he felt like a glutton for wanting her again.

  Quinn’s eyes opened when he sat down on the bed beside her. She smiled up at him sleepily as she took the glass of water. She propped herself up on her elbow, clutching the quilt to her chest. Ewan watched as she drained the water before handing the empty glass to him.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Welcome.”

  He returned the glass to the sink in the kitchen, wondering how to approach the topic of a few days off between the two of them.

  He heard her moan from the bedroom. “I have to get up in less than an hour.” Another tortured moan.

  When he returned to the room, she was lying back down with her forearm crossed over her eyes.

  “It’s only five o’clock in the morning,” he said after checking the clock.

  “I have to be home before seven o’clock. Darcy is picking me up at eight.”

  He lay down beside her on top of the covers, almost as if touching her would set off a whole new round of sex. Four orgasms in three hours would surely kill him.

  “She asked me to help her with her final exam for the design course she’s taking. We have to redesign an outdoor area.”

  “On a Sunday?”

  “I guess we can start on it today and we’ll be done on Thursday. It’s in Providence.” She snuggled closer into his side. “So you’ll be rid of me for the week.”

  A week! And she was just telling him this now?

  “It’s probably for the best,” she continued. “You and I don’t sleep very much when we’re together.”

  Was she telling him that they needed to slow down?

  She was going to be off in Providence doing God knew what with Darcy while he would be in Ballagh. He shifted slightly on the mattress, shoving his hands behind his head.

  Jesus, Ewan, keep it together. This is what you wanted, remember?

  Pulling his shit together before Quinn saw the disappointment on his face, he closed his eyes and feigned indifference. He felt Quinn move beside him and knew that she was looking at him.

  “Did you hear what I said?” she asked softly.

  “Yeah.”

  A pause.

  “Oh,” she replied, sounding disappointed. He felt a little bit more at ease knowing that she was expecting him to confess he would be miserable without her for an entire week.

  “I’m sure the week will go fast,” she said as if to reassure herself. “We’ll be back in time for Darcy’s birthday on Friday. I’ll see you there, right?”

  “I wasn’t invited.”

  “Yes, you were. You’d know that if you opened your mail. The invitation is sitting on your dining table.”

  He opened his eyes and looked over at her. “How do you know?”

  “Because I saw it earlier. Before you came upstairs.”

  He recalled the bright purple envelope that was posted locally. He’d received it earlier that day, along with other stuff. Including a stack of letters from his mother that his uncle had dropped off.

  “You were going through my mail?”

  She sat up quickly. “No. I just saw it on the table,” she said. “I wasn’t snooping around. It was in plain sight.”

  Even though he knew the letters were just lying on his table, her earlier announcement of the week-long trip to Rhode Island mixed with the possibility that she’d noticed the unopened letters from his mother pissed him off.

  “Jesus, Quinn, did you go through my medicine cabinet too?” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and braced his arms on the mattress.

  “No!” She scrambled out of bed. She stomped around the room until she stood right in front of him, naked as the day she was born. “But just so you know, I did go through your refrigerator. So don’t get all bent out of shape if I happened to come across some very private bologna or something.”

  He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. She was right. She hadn’t done anything.

  “Is this about those letters?”

  His eyes shot up to hers and he returned her stare. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to respond. He remained silent while they stared at each other.

  “You worried that I found some letters from an old girlfriend or something?”

  He could see the wheels turning in her head.

  “Or maybe it’s a current girlfriend?”

  He saw that moment when his silence made her believe what she was saying. Maybe he should let her think what she’d like. What did he care? But when he saw the hurt creep into her eyes and remembered her distrust for men in general after her first boyfriend had dicked her over, the fight left him.

  “No.” He shook his head. “That’s not what they are. Just leave it alone, okay?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you in some sort of trouble?”

  He had to laugh. She was really something else. Standing in front of him stark naked and ready to take on the world if he needed her to.

  “No, I’m not in trouble.”

  She continued to study him, and he could tell there were a million questions running through her mind. He stood and linked his arms around her hips. Her skin felt warm and smooth.

  “It’s nothing for you to be concerned with.” He nuzzled the side of her neck.

  “The handwriting was feminine.”

  “So is this ear right here that tastes so good,” he murmured as he nipped at her earlobe.

  She released her arms to her sides and relaxed slightly against him.

  “And this long, beautiful neck,” he said against her skin, “is decidedly feminine.” He felt her melt against him as he ran his tongue down the taut cord along her neck.

  “I was jealous when I saw the letters.” She sighed into his hair.

  “Hmmmm?” He was too busy to respond because he’d reached her smooth, delicate collarbone, which was surely becoming one of his favorite body parts of hers.

  “I have to leave in forty-five minutes.” Her voice was growing fainter the farther south he traveled.

  “Well, then we shouldn’t waste any more time,” he said, scooping her up and placing her back on the bed.

  She whimpered, but it wasn’t out of protest. “I’m not sure my body can handle any more of you right now.” The desire in her eyes told him otherwise.

  He slid his sweat pants off his hips and gingerly crawled into bed with her. He wasn’t sure his body could handle it either, but he was damn well gonna try.

  After all, it was going to be a long week.

  Chapter 16

  Quinn fell into her chair just as Darcy slid into hers. The restaurant where they sat was crowded, but they were able to snag a small, round table in a corner of the outdoor patio.

  Closing her eyes for a brief moment, Quinn felt every ache and pain that pulsed along her spine. She felt tiny twinges in the muscles of her arms, and from the way her feet felt, she could have sworn she’d just run a 5k in a pair of high heels. Opening her eyes, she saw Darcy staring at her through fatigue-heavy lids, and they smiled wryly at one another.

  “Dinner is on me tonight,” Darcy said. “Don’t even try to argue with me about it.”

  Quinn laughed softly. “I’m glad to hear you say that. I forgot my purse in your car.”

  They were as lively as a pile of rocks after four long, grueling days working on Darcy’s final exam. They’d just finished the project, and it was a masterpiece.

  The week had been long and arduous. Althoug
h the project had been Darcy’s to manage, she’d given Quinn free reign of the landscaping element. Darcy had been less than enthusiastic about being assigned the outdoor room site, but it was the luck of the draw, and they had brainstormed on the hour drive to Providence from Ballagh on Sunday morning. Upon their arrival, they’d quickly stopped by Darcy’s college to pick up information on their project site, and then proceeded straight there to meet with the client.

  The client, Mrs. Daily, had turned out to be the new owner of The White Rose Bed and Breakfast in the picturesque Blackstone Valley, which was a half hour from downtown Providence. It was one of the quaintest, loveliest towns Quinn had ever seen. And as soon as Mrs. Daily had showed them to their project site, Quinn had known they had a gold mine to work with. It wasn’t so much of an outdoor room but a small, beautiful courtyard that was snugly tucked between two stone buildings. Mrs. Daily owned both properties, so she said they would be able to make permanent alterations to either wall.

  Quinn had been immediately impressed with Darcy’s ability to pull details from Mrs. Daily that she hadn’t thought to ask for. At the end of their site visit, Darcy had formulated a plan and was eager to get to a sketch pad. The theme, as Darcy called it, was Secret Garden Romance. They’d checked into a double room at the B and B and started work the next day.

  Their days started at half past seven every morning after Mrs. Daily stuffed them full of scrambled eggs, sausage, and buttered toast. The third member of their team, Paul—the college-assigned undergraduate student who had an interest in carpentry—would meet them every morning at eight o’clock. He was staying with some of his friends just outside of town.

  Paul was tall and lanky, and Quinn wondered how in the world he’d be able to lift a two-by-four, let alone handle all the woodwork for their project.

  His dark brown hair was long, and he wore an elastic band around his head to keep it out of his eyes. He had thick dark-framed glasses that constantly slid down his nose. But much to Quinn’s surprise, his carpentry skills were excellent. He had sure and steady hands and worked efficiently.