by Christa Wick
"I'll open the hatch after you admit you loved being in here and I was right."
She huffed, half in jest. "It was exceptionally pleasant. Thank you for making the experience possible."
He tsk'd and drew her closer, one hand sliding beneath her while the other lightly traced lines along the bottom curve of her stomach, their arcs trending down toward her mound so that her flesh began to heat from the inside out.
"I didn't hear 'love' in there anywhere," he persisted. "Or that I was right."
Stay calm, she cautioned inside her head. Slowly say what he wants to hear and you won't twist it into what's running through your brain right now, Mel.
"Absolutely...I love...loved it. You were right."
"Me, too," he said, tracing a new line from the top split of her labia up to one nipple. "Now it's time to shower."
Before he let her go and opened the hatch, he pressed his lips to hers, his fingers continuing to tease her nipple. The kiss might have gone on forever, but she started to squirm with need from the sensuous slide of his mouth and that caused her to sink.
Opening the hatch, Declan stepped out and wrapped an oversized towel around his waist before grabbing the remaining towel and handing it to her. One hand ensuring its bottom edge didn't dip into the water, Melanie wrapped the length around her torso and joined him on the bath mat.
"Stay here a second."
Declan disappeared around the side of the tank and fetched her another towel.
"Didn't think about your hair. Just used to worrying about this," he said, rubbing a hand over his short hair.
Melanie cocked her head at him. Was he really saying she was the first woman he'd spent time with in the tank? Given its size, the thing seemed intended for two people.
"How long have you had it?"
"Three years, maybe." He crooked a finger, gesturing for her to follow after him. "I've had the house only slightly longer."
The trip from the tank to the shower was about thirty feet, with one of the white panels that made up the walls actually a disguised door to a full bathroom with a jacuzzi and separate shower.
"Are any of the other panels hidden doors?"
He answered with a frustrating wink.
The sheer wealth evidenced by just his home made Melanie a little dizzy -- and apprehensive. Shaking her head, she tried to expel any feelings of inadequacy from her mind. How lopsided, she mused, that women felt like they had to be perfect no matter who their partner was, but so many males seemed to think that merely having testicles meant they were acceptable to the world's richest, most beautiful women.
"You okay, baby girl?" he asked, his gray gaze suddenly crowded with concern.
"Yes, but I'm fighting not to be overwhelmed," she admitted and hoped he wouldn't ask what aspects of their relationship to date were stressing her.
Every damn aspect!
He lifted his brows, a small smile teasing one corner of his mouth. "So no sunset drive down the coast with the top down on my new Alfa Romeo Spider?"
Melanie blinked. She would love to take that drive with him. Even better would be if he trusted her to do a little of the driving.
"Do you want to?" she whispered as he hung his towel on the drying rack.
Turning back, Declan pulled her closer. He carefully removed the towel she had looped around her hair then tugged open the one concealing her body. Letting both towels fall to the floor, he drew her into his arms.
"I would love to," he said, mirroring her desire. "But you know what that means?"
She nodded. "No hiding."
He brushed the hair from her face then tilted her chin up. His mouth covered hers, one hand still controlling the angle of her head as the other smoothed down to cup her breast and thumb at the nipple. She felt his cock harden against her stomach, his erection bobbing forward when his tongue swept deeper into her mouth.
Declan pulled back, his eyes half shut. Releasing her, he nodded at the shower enclosure.
"Let's concentrate on one thing at a time."
With the soft smile playing all along his mouth, she wouldn't dream of arguing. He opened the glass door for her and she stepped through. Like the rest of the house, the shower was impressive, its floor space some six feet by six feet with a stone bench along one wall and a wide, deep shelf built into another.
There were three shower heads, one on each wall tiled with natural stone. Unlike the black and white of the room they had just left, the shower and rest of the bathroom was done in earthy tones.
Following after Melanie, Declan turned on each of the shower heads then drew her into the spray. She hadn't expected the shower to be platonic, even before he had grown erect. The movement of his hands proved her assumption correct as he cupped both breasts and sucked one swollen nipple into his mouth.
Releasing the nipple with a pop, he stared upward at Melanie with eyes darkened by his desire. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to behave in the tank?"
"I thought you were all zen in there."
He dispelled the idea with a solemn shake of his head. "I kept thinking about all the things I wanted to do once I had you in here."
Melanie's entire body tightened around her pussy at the delicious threat she detected in his voice.
"Such as?" she teased.
His hand dropped down to cup her mound. He squeezed once then slipped a thick finger between her labia to stroke at her already swollen clit.
"Feast on you, Mel."
Stunned by her own lust, she could only nod.
"Turn around," he rasped, eyes glazed with heat and the steam from the shower.
She obeyed and allowed him to guide her toward the built in shelf. She had only superficially noted its dimensions when entering the shower. It started about hip high for her and, while it was deep enough to actually be a second bench, someone her height would have to climb up onto it.
Now, with Declan pushing her hips against it then pressing on the back of her shoulders so that Melanie was forced to resist or drape her torso across the flat surface, she understood its purpose -- or at least one of its potential uses.
Closing her eyes, she sighed as Declan massaged his way down her back, along her hips and ass until he was on his knees in the shower behind her.
With a brief touch against the inside of each leg, he communicated that he wanted them spread. She complied, her ass up high and her pussy splayed for his view.
Reaching one hand between her thighs, he stroked at the underside of where her clit dangled, teasing the pearl inside. His ass planted on the back of his calves, his spine curving, Declan brought his mouth against the opening of her pussy. His tongue pushed in and out as he continued rubbing at her clit.
Beginning to wriggle and squirm, Melanie closed her eyes. He knew just where to touch to drive her wild, knew when to be firm or gentle. She groaned, felt him adjust his position.
And gasped.
Her eyes and mouth opened wide in response and she bucked once as his fingers thrust into her pussy at the same time she felt the warm, wet tip of his tongue against her anus. A shudder of need passed through her like a tornado and she bucked again.
Could he really be doing that...licking her there as his fingers fucked in and out of her pussy?
Her thighs tensed as her ass threatened to bob up and down, joining the thrusts inside her sex and the slow licks around that other hole. Her clit danced, eager to be stroked again. Reaching down, she touched it and almost exploded as Declan groaned in appreciation.
"Fuck, yes, baby," he encouraged and took another teasing poke with his tongue. "Stroke that sweet line for me."
Closing her eyes again, her mouth stuck open with surprise and the need to be fucked in its own right, she began to rub up and down the length of her clit, pinching and squeezing at the dangle of the hood each time she reached it.
Declan picked up her rhythm, penetrating both of her holes when she was torturing the pearl of her clit, retreating when her fingers soothed back up the
spine. In, out, her hips pumping recklessly, wanting his cock in one or both of her holes, moaning and whimpering until she froze.
Her climax squirted and dripped, her pussy contracting wildly around three of his thick fingers while her anus sucked at the very tip of his tongue from the rapid pulse infecting her body.
"Please," she begged when the last of her release had been wrung from her still greedy body. "I need your cock in me."
Declan rose and kissed along the back of her shoulders but he didn't enter her.
"Please, I'm on the pill and..." she blinked, suddenly embarrassed by the admission she was about to make and afraid it would drive home for him just how differently the world viewed their bodies. "I haven't been with anyone since the middle of college."
His lips pressed and held against the curve of her neck.
When he lifted them, he made his own admission.
"It's been a long time for me, too." He laughed, the sound self-deprecating, and then he turned her until their gazes were locked. "I don't get around like the papers say I do."
She wasn't an actress, couldn't hide the skepticism his claim produced.
"Scout's honor," he said, his fingers held upward in what looked more like a Vulcan greeting than a boy scout's pledge. "I keep my cock on a short leash. Not the first few years in town. Sadly, most of those stories are true. But with all the crazies putting out, I started asking myself if I was willing to be connected to the woman for the rest of my life because of a life I might create with her. After all, precautions fail."
She thought, for a second, that he was telling her they had to wait. But then he cupped her face with both hands and drew her into a kiss, his tongue probing deep into her mouth as his cock pressed eagerly forward against the curve of her stomach.
"You're the first time," he said, ending the kiss, "that my answer is 'yes.'"
Tenderness flashed in his gaze only to be quickly burned away by desire. Turning her around, he draped her over the shelf again. He kissed along her back for a few seconds, his hands busy with different tasks. The left one reached beneath her to stoke her fires with a firm massaging of her clit. The other grabbed one of the smaller bottles on the shelf, snapped its lid open and dribbled something slick between her bottom and his cock.
He put the bottle back, its label facing her. A citrus scented lubricant guaranteed to make her tingle. He started spreading it around, first at the opening to her pussy and then along his erection. Abandoning her clit, he straightened, seized her hips and slowly breached the tight muscles guarding her sex.
Her pussy surrendered slowly, her climax of just a few minutes ago leaving her tight and throbbing. Sighing with contentment, Declan ran his fingers up and down her back, a trail of lightning marking where he had touched her.
He reached for the lube again, added more to his cock, his coated thumb working its way in around his fat crown to make her slicker. The head breached her fully and he took a few shallow pumps as the muscles deep inside her adjusted.
More lube, this time at the pucker of her anus. He rubbed the pads of both thumbs against the nervous opening as his thrusts inside her pussy began to lengthen.
"Touch yourself for me, Mel."
Sweet fucking hell, she would explode like an atomic bomb if she did that.
"It's safe to go wild with me, baby," he coaxed, the first of his two thumbs breaching her ass. "I know by the way your hips are dancing you want more stimuli right now."
He was right.
The second thumb invaded. Declan leaned across her back and whispered against her ear.
"I can't see your face, but I know the tip of that pink little tongue is centered against your top lip. I know your eyelids are fluttering just like your pussy is dancing around my cock."
She nodded, her throat constricting too much for words and her tongue frozen in the exact position he had described.
"Touch yourself, Mel. Let me feel you go wild."
He leaned back, straightening his spine, his hold on her firm but flexible. Melanie reached down with both hands and began to rub. Up, down, kneading her swollen flesh as her breasts scraped back and forth along the tiled shelf.
Shaking with effort, Declan forced himself to remain still, his thumbs and cock buried deep inside her. Her hips began to rock, her body locked in a rhythm of pushing then tugging around his invasion of her two holes.
He groaned, his fingers denting her fleshy bottom and hips as he held himself in place no matter how wild or frenetic her bouncing became. He said her name, called her baby, told her she was beautiful, sexy, and everything he wanted.
An unshakable tremor gripped her. Uncoordinated jerks infected her limbs as her climax built to the point she felt it would have to escape out her pores to be fully released.
Declan wrapped a hand around her throat, forcing her to straighten so that she wouldn't hurt herself against the shelf or wall. He braced his other arm diagonally against her stomach and breasts as he took control, his cock slamming hard into her as she flailed with her orgasm, crying out his name, water flooding her mouth just as his cock flooded her pussy, his shaft jerking hard inside her with the thick jets of his seed.
Wrung out, she started to sag. Kissing along her shoulders, one hand still around her throat and the other still braced against her torso, he gently removed himself from inside her and guided Melanie over to the bench.
Sitting down with her, he had Melanie rest her back against his chest, his hands massaging her thighs and breasts as he whispered delicious, wicked promises.
"I'm not letting you out of my bed today," he threatened sweetly and planted a kiss at the corner of her jaw. "I'm going to devour that pink pussy of yours, licking and nibbling at it while I put the toy inside you again, my fingers buried in your ass. I'm going to fuck you with your ass up in the air, your fingers on your clit. Then I'm going to fuck that sweet, round mouth."
Melanie responded with a moan of consent, her mind untethered as he carefully led her out of the shower and dried her off, another towel wrapped around her as they ascended the stairs to his bedroom and he made good on every dirty promise and more.
They never made it to the garage for the drive along the coast at sunset. When morning came, she lamented the lost opportunity for that quiet moment in the outside world together as she woke to her phone ringing from down the hall and her name plastered on every celebrity gossip site the internet had to offer.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"Mel, don't pick that up."
Holding her robe shut with one hand as she reached for her phone with the other, Melanie turned to find that Declan had followed her down the hall, his own phone disappearing into the pocket of the running pants he had slid on after leaving his bed at the sound of someone calling her cell.
Her phone had stopped ringing before she could grab it. It started up again, the default ringtone playing. Everyone she considered friend, family or a good colleague had his or her own ringtone. The default tone playing meant it was a stranger calling.
"Why?" she whispered even though she was pretty certain of his reason for issuing the warning.
His mouth flattened, his head cocking to one side.
"Has it started?"
"Yes," he acknowledged, his fingertips brushing absently against the pocket into which his phone had disappeared.
Stepping forward, Declan wrapped his hands around her shoulders, pulling her closer as he kissed her forehead. Lost in his comforting presence, she barely felt him slip the phone out of her hand and stuff it in his other pocket.
The kiss was duplicated on her lips, its nature chaste and nurturing, like she needed him to handle her gently.
Maybe she did.
"I'll make us breakfast," he suggested. "It'll take about thirty minutes unless you want me to build in more time."
She shook her head. "That's plenty of time for me to shower and dress."
A final kiss, this one holding her against him, one hand cradling the back of her head
as he coaxed her lips apart, and then he disappeared down the stairs.
Alone in the bedroom she had yet to sleep in, she could feel her tablet and computer sitting out of sight in the backpack on the dresser behind her. Eyes cast toward the floor, she moved to the dresser and pulled out clean undergarments. Keeping her gaze averted from the temptation of her electronics, she dipped into the closet, grabbed the first top and bottom she saw then escaped to the shower in Declan's bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, Melanie made her way downstairs. Declan was talking, the conversation one-sided and his voice low and tight. Rounding the corner to the kitchen, she saw him with his back to the island. The ingredients and cookware for breakfast were laid out, but otherwise untouched.
"I don't care what's being said," he ground out, his shoulder muscles visibly rippling with irritation and his grip on the cell phone tightening.
Melanie pulled back to where she could still hear him but would not be in his line of sight if he suddenly turned around.
"If you care, then I need another agent."
She backed further away, his voice trailing off as she tiptoed to the staircase and made her way upstairs to her bedroom. Out came the tablet. She thumbed it on then pulled up the browser and entered Declan's name. She read the first "top news" article from Celebrity Zone, her name included in the first paragraph and the byline that of Corbin Dash, the awful "journalist" who had reportedly been fired by the gossip site for trying to bribe her.
She blinked rapidly as Dash described her appearance based on his prior run in with her, suggesting but never directly stating that she had offered him inside information about Declan.
Ready to puke, she typed her name in the search filled. Nausea filled her as she looked at the Twitter feed. There were photos being posted from sets she'd worked on where people had taken unauthorized behind the scene shots. Not only were the comments and retweets horrible, but many of the details were wrong. One image had her staring at something, her focus intent, a smile on her face. That one was listed as being from the alien film she'd just finished and purportedly her ogling Declan, but the picture was from two films before that. She recognized the shirt and had only owned it for a short time before it was ruined on set.