by Nina Pierce
He trailed his knuckle from her cheek bone to her chin. “A drink at my place. What do you say?”
“That sounds nice. But I’ll take my own truck.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Twenty minutes later, Deirdre was following his black Jag into a condominium complex in Cutler, thinking she was making the mistake of a lifetime. Okay, maybe not the whole twenty-five years of her life, because God knew she’d made some doosies when she was a teenager, but certainly the biggest in the last couple of months. She’d looked for Emilio and Rachel before leaving the mansion, hoping one of them would talk some sense into her, but apparently they’d hooked up or already headed out.
What was she doing? She could count on one hand the number of partners she’d had. Now she was considering a one-night stand with a stranger she’d just met? On the short drive over, Deirdre talked herself out of anything more than some idle banter and a cup of coffee. Going further than that would be complicated and deceptive. Besides, she still had a forty-five minute drive home.
“Pull in right next to me,” Austin yelled and waved her into an empty parking spot. He jogged around to her door, holding it open. “Welcome to my humble abode. Well, not mine exactly. I’m just renting it while I do some business here in Cutler.”
He took her hand and led her to his condo, a New England style two floor affair in random clusters of four residences, each of them covered in gray cedar shingles. Mums in shades of orange and yellow lined both sides of the cement walk. The circle of light from the sconces on either side of the red door illuminated a well-manicured lawn, weeded gardens, and well-trimmed hedges. Good landscaping.
“Get your head in the game, Dee.” She didn’t know she’d said it out loud until Austin paused with the key in the lock.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. I was just admiring the grounds.”
“Yeah, it’s a nice place.” He looked back over his shoulder as he opened the door for her.
The condo they entered was utilitarian, the living room furniture leather and heavy wood and very masculine. The whole first floor was visible from the front door where she stood frozen, too flustered by her own audacity to move. Austin closed the door and stepped around her, heading to the other side of the condo and into the small kitchen area.
“Can I get you something to drink?” He ducked his head into the fridge, his jeans pulling snug across a nicely curved ass. “I don’t have much. Coffee. Water. Wine.” He stood up and looked at her. She almost giggled at the way he tilted his head to one side, sort of that lost puppy, take-me-home kind of look. His blue eyes mirrored her confusion.
“Deirdre, can I get you anything?”
Yeah, those luscious lips between my thighs. Deirdre shook her head. Coffee. She was here for a cup of coffee before she drove home. Nothing more. But her body was screaming for something else.
“Wine sounds nice.”
“A New York Riesling or an Australian Pinot Noir?” Austin held up two bottles.
No, just coffee. She couldn’t drive home with more alcohol in her system. It was rutting season and even this late at night the moose would be on the move. Her little Toyota truck was no match for one of those behemoths. “Whichever one is white,” she said, wondering why she was letting her body make all the decisions.
Deirdre walked over to the stereo system, perusing the CDs haphazardly strewn about on the receiver. It was the only thing out of place in his condo.
“I have Mozart and Def Leopard and everything in between. Choose your poison.” Austin’s voice washed over her shoulder as he stepped up behind her. She could feel the heat of his chest against her back. Not the soft, round, plump feeling of a woman, but the steel power of a man. Heat shot through her veins, hitching her breath and pressing her nipples against her lace bra.
She took the glass he offered, moving to the couch and away from the intoxicating scent of his spicy cologne.
“Something quiet.” she said. “After the loud bands at the party, it would be nice.” Actually, she needed something to soothe her pulsing nerves. “You live here long?” Deirdre sipped the wine, grateful Austin’s attention on the stereo kept him from seeing her shaking hand. What was she doing here?
“A few months. I have some business up and down the coast. When it’s over I’ll head back to Boston.” He turned and lifted his glass of ice water. “Here’s to enjoying the beautiful Maine autumn.”
“You’re not drinking?”
“Too many wild nights. I’m giving my liver a rest.”
The quiet strains of piano music filled the room. She recognized the artist as one of her father’s favorites. Immediately, her brooding thoughts turned to her family.
There had been so many nights in the last few months she’d sat with her father in the quiet of their home in town. She and her two sisters rotated nights, giving their mother a short reprieve from the hopelessness of growing old. Deidre couldn’t count the number of times she’d played the CDs, hoping to give him strength and courage in the memory of who he once was. But it seemed he’d given up on life. Now, they all watched as his body withered its way to death.
“…Deirdre, yoo-hoo, you okay?” Austin was bent over, intently staring into her eyes, only inches from her nose.
“Sorry, Austin. Drifted off for a moment. What were you saying?”
“I was talking about my consulting firm, but obviously that put you to sleep.” He sat on the leather couch, lacing his fingers through hers, pulling her down next to him. “Sit. Enjoy the wine and the music.”
Though Deirdre had had only two one-night stands in her lifetime, one in college, and of course, Bobby, she could distinguish genuine interest from lust. It was concern she saw in the cobalt pools of Austin’s eyes and the gentle curve of his mouth. She leaned against him seeking solace in the solid feeling of his body.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked, rubbing his lips in her hair.
“About what?”
“Wherever you went just a minute ago.”
She didn’t know this man. She shouldn’t want to tell him about her father. It was such a private matter. But as Austin’s fingers stroked along her thigh, Deirdre longed to have someone other than her family understand the emotional burden she slogged around. Oh, Rachel and Emilio knew, but no one seemed to really understand what it meant to be losing her father to some illness his doctor could neither name nor cure.
Inhaling his warm, masculine scent, Deirdre sought comfort in the soft heat of Austin’s touch. Sex was the furthest thing from her mind. It appeared to be unimportant to Austin as well. Which was just as well since she’d convinced herself when she got here that sleeping with the man was out of the question. Spilling her guts to this random guy, whose libido would surely plunge with the depressing story, would guarantee she’d never have to see him again. Besides, at the moment it wasn’t a sex partner she needed, but a compassionate ear, and the man snuggled next to her fit the bill.
Sipping thoughtfully from her wine, she let the sadness roll over her.
“It’s nothing more than a lot of people go through with aging parents.” She shook her head, remembering her father from when she was young, heading off to work in the morning, his briefcase in his hand, a smile on his face. She wanted him back.
“My father’s getting old, and well, he’s not aging gracefully. We’re not sure what’s wrong with him. He had a heart attack several months ago, and he just seems to have lost the will to live. He’s confused a lot of the time, and the doctors think it may be the early onset of Alzheimer’s.” Deirdre lifted her shoulder and sipped from her glass. “It’s been a rough time for our family, but mostly my mum. They’re coming up on their fortieth anniversary. I don’t think he’ll remember the celebration, let alone his wedding day. I just can’t imagine how hard it is on her. I’m impressed how resilient she’s been through this whole thing. I can only hope I have half as much courage and fortitude to help someone I love…you know�
�through a rough time.”
Ayden barely remembered his father. A Boston cop, he’d been killed in the line of duty when he was only four. His mother had worked herself to death holding down three jobs while trying to bring up two rambunctious boys in the heart of the city. His little brother, Thomas, had suffered the same fate as their father. Ayden knew heartache when he saw it.
“I’m sorry, Deirdre.” His hand found its way to her cheek of its own accord. She was warm and soft and smelled like spring flowers, and his lips melted into hers before he thought about the consequences of his actions.
He set his tumbler on the coffee table and took the wineglass out of her hands, placing it next to his. His mouth tangled with Deirdre’s as her lips grew pliant against his. Their breathing came out in ragged hitches, and he laid her back on the couch. A heady mixture of wine and flowers filled his senses. His tongue danced with hers as he teased it in and out of her mouth. He dipped in to taste, then retreated to feel the silky heat of hers sampling him.
He wound his fingers in her hair, enjoying the silky strands tumbling down his arms. He wanted her. Not just any woman, not Jameson’s bimbo, but this woman. Jameson. Damn. Ayden pulled back abruptly.
“Deirdre, I’m sorry.” He sat up and swiped the taste of her away with the back of his hand. “I don’t know what came over me.” Actually, he knew exactly what had taken over. The pressure building behind his fly was evidence of exactly where he’d expected to go.
His intentions hadn’t been honorable when he’d driven her here. Before she’d gotten out of her little Toyota, she’d been an informant, albeit an unknowing one, but an informant nonetheless. The woman panting next to him, with lips swollen from his kisses, had suddenly become a person. She had a family and sorrow, and who cared if she could give him a complete dossier on Jameson. He couldn’t use her that way. She seemed so emotionally raw at the moment. It would be insensitive of him to take advantage of her.
Sometimes he hated how the moral high ground left you nothing but empty and alone.
“Austin?”
“Deirdre, I want you to know…”
Her soft lips found his and he nearly fell backward from the force of the impact of her body against his.
“I don’t care what your motivation is.” Deirdre pulled his bottom lip between her teeth. “You know, right now, I don’t care about much.” She nibbled her way to his ear, her breath heating his blood. “I won’t ask you to call me tomorrow or the next day. I don’t want anything but now, and what we can do for each other.”
He had her dress partially unzipped before she finished the last sentence. Ayden pushed her back as he slid the tiny straps of material off her shoulders and slipped the black fabric to her waist. Her breasts stood high and firm. The nipples were tight little points straining against the strapless bra. He unclasped the front hooks, releasing the fleshy mounds. His mouth watered and he couldn’t stop himself from curling his tongue around the tight pearls of her nipples, tasting and sampling the satin flesh. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she arched her back, filling his mouth with the flushed skin of her tits.
He held one in each hand, molding and pressing them together, his tongue laving first one beaded tip and then the other.
Ayden inhaled deeply. She’d dotted her cleavage with perfume, and his nostrils flared as the floral scent mixed with her arousal. The moans of her pleasure assaulted his ears, driving him into a frenzy. He wanted to slow his need, but she bucked and pressed her thigh between his legs, her pulsing hips driving her pubic bone into his belly.
The rumble of desire vibrated through his chest. Ayden reached around her back, searching desperately for the zipper that would allow him unfettered access to her beautiful body. He could feel her well-muscled torso beneath him. Her other leg wrapped tightly around his, rubbing restlessly up and down his thigh. Damn, it had been too long since he’d had a writhing woman beneath him. All he wanted was to drive himself into her and relieve the ache in his balls. But Ayden was too much of a gentleman not to satisfy the lady first.
Hands sought naked flesh. Teeth grazed skin, leaving sexual trails of heat and lust. Gasps of pleasure were shared and swallowed as hungry libidos craved satisfaction.
And all Deirdre kept thinking as her body arched against Austin was, this is a man. At least there was no guilt about her ex, only the need to satisfy her own frantic cravings. She didn’t want to feel this desperate for the touch of another human being. But here it was, making her hot and wet and her breaths pull in hiccups of hunger.
The damp heat of Austin’s silky tongue was such a wonderful contrast to the stubble of his beard grazing her breasts. She dug her fingers into his hair, pulling him impossibly closer. All she wanted was his fingers to bring her to the climax her body had refused to surrender for months. The way his mouth and hands were teasing her nipples was driving her crazy. Men in her past had been more a curiosity and had never failed to disappointment. But this man, the one with the talented hands working magic on her flesh was heating her blood to a fevered pitch of need. Deirdre was sure one touch to her clitoris and he would tip her over the edge into the release she so desperately sought.
“I can’t get the…your dress.” Austin’s hand struggled behind her back. “Oh, baby, frig the zipper!”
He laughed into her mouth just before his tongue plundered in and swallowed her gasp. In one swift motion, he pushed the dress up to her waist and cupped her mound, his fingers pushing the black thong aside and dipping into her moisture. He dragged her slippery heat to the throbbing bundle of nerves begging for attention.
“Wet. You are so fucking wet.” Austin breathed the words into her ear before sliding down her torso.
“No…I…” Deirdre knew what he intended to do and wasn’t at all sure she wanted his mouth on her. “Austin…I…” She couldn’t seem to string a coherent thought together as his teeth grazed her nipple. “Oh, God, I…”
“Tell me what you want, baby.”
It had been so long since someone had cared about her pleasure. In all the months with Brianna, their lovemaking was monosyllabic moans, at best. But here, with Austin, just for this night, she wanted to tell him—no, plead with him to satisfy her, but the words wouldn’t come.
The air gushed out of her lungs on a moan as the rough pad of his middle finger circled her clitoris, the motion sending jolts of scorching pleasure over her nerves. “Yes, there, like… oh, God…yes, Austin…I…” The shocks of bliss shimmied through her, igniting little sparks that flashed up her core straight to her fingers gripping the leather armrest behind her head, anchoring her against his lascivious assault.
His body slid down her torso, Austin’s fingers never losing contact with her body. His tongue worshiped her belly then her hip bone. He rubbed his stubbled face against the tender skin at the apex of her thighs, the prickly burn adding another dimension to the sensations ricocheting over her nerves.
All the while, his fingers stroked her, bringing her closer and closer to the brink of ecstasy before widening the circle and pushing deep inside her. Each time he stopped and moved back, he drove her to a higher plateau of pleasure.
“Deirdre, you’re beautiful, so beautiful. Open yourself for me.” Austin lifted her leg over his shoulder, spreading her wide. He teased the sensitive folds with her thong before pushing it aside. “Gorgeous. Sweet nectar, no man could resist.”
He brought his mouth to her, laying his tongue flat he trailed it slowly up and down before pressing it deep. Austin mumbled an oath as her internal muscles clenched around his pulsing fingers. Deirdre shut her eyes, focusing on the myriad sensations his lips, tongue and fingers were creating. Feeling the incredible ecstasy building to a crescendo, she dug her nails into the taut muscles of his shoulders, her body lifting to meet the wonderful heat of his mouth.
“Look at me, Deirdre. Don’t close your eyes.”
She forced herself to obey, staring over her clenched torso at Austin’s eyes, dark with pleasure. The
re was something unnerving about how easily he had her trembling on the edge of delirium.
Because damn, did he know how to please a woman or what?
She gasped with each flick of his talented tongue. Two thick fingers were buried deep in her slick heat keeping time with the pulse of her hips. Her breasts heaved as she tried desperately to fill lungs that couldn’t seem to expand enough to sate her need for air.
With his gaze locked on hers, Austin sucked her clit into the heat of his mouth. His tongue flicked the tight knot of nerves, sending her over the edge of reason as lightning bolts of ecstasy shot to her fingers and toes. Her moans of pleasure were answering claps of thunder as wave after wave of bliss rolled through her body.
She rocked her hips as the storm of her climax washed over her. Austin stayed with her, his tongue matching the pulsing motions of her body. Her hands flailed restlessly from his shoulders, to his hair, to the cushions of the couch. All the while her internal muscles clenched, the sparks of release exploding through her core.
Deirdre was still recovering, her breath and heart slowing from the earth-shattering climax as Austin stood, efficiently stripped off his jeans and rolled a condom onto his sizeable erection. She didn’t have time to second-guess her decision when his weight came down on hers, cocooning her in the warmth and strength of him.
He settled himself between her legs, her hips lifting of their own accord to ease his entry. Austin dropped kisses on her eyes, her nose, her chin, finally settling on her mouth. She opened for him, his tongue gliding across hers, her salty taste adding to the sensual flavor of Austin.
Sliding in slowly, he gave her body time to accommodate his girth. He stretched and filled her until Deirdre’s body was strung tight with pleasure. With a salacious slip and slide, he rocked his hips, her internal muscles clenching to pull him deeper.